The cloaked figures surrounded me, their amber eyes glowing in the dark. They didn’t chant. They didn’t smile. They only watched as the whisper coiled through the air again, rising from the gate.“Set me free.”
The black stone door pulsed faintly, as though something vast shifted behind it. The bone-and-iron chains rattled, quivering in rhythm with the whisper.
One of the figures moved closer, lowering their hood. The face beneath was gaunt, skin stretched thin over high cheekbones. Yet the eyes were alive—haunted, but not empty.
“We are the Strays,” the figure said. “Those who escaped the Heart’s grasp. We have lived down here, between the walls, feeding on scraps, hiding in silence. We wait for the one who might break the town’s hold.”
Their voice lowered. “But the gate… it is not salvation. It is worse.”
The whisper grew sharper, needling into my mind. “Lies. I am not your enemy. I am the cure.”
My skull throbbed. I staggered back, clutching my head, as images surged into me: Ashbrook burning, the Heart shrivelling to ash, the smiling townsfolk collapsing into dust. Freedom. An end to the endless hunger.
Another of the Strays hissed, their voice trembling with urgency. “Do not believe it. What sleeps behind that stone is what the Heart was made to contain. If it wakes, it won’t free Ashbrook—it will consume far more.”
The door shuddered. The chains stretched. Dust rained from the cavern ceiling. The whisper rose into a near scream.
“You are the seed. You are mine. Open, and I will make you whole.”
I fell to my knees, torn between the two voices—the warnings of the Strays, and the promise behind the gate. My hands shook as they hovered near the chains. I could feel heat radiating from them, pulsing in time with my own racing heart.
One of the Strays grabbed my shoulder, eyes blazing. “If you break the seal, there will be no return. Not for you. Not for anyone.”
But the whisper cut through their words, a single phrase driving into my mind like a nail:
“They lied to you. Your family is already mine. Only I can give them back.”
My hands clenched the chain.
And for the first time since I’d returned, I wanted to believe.
Source: Some or all of the content was generated using an AI language model
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