Return to Ashbrook - Chapter Six: The Heart of It

The chamber trembled as if the earth itself were breathing. Dust fell from above, though I knew it wasn’t stone—this place wasn’t made of rock. It was alive.

The children stepped aside as the walls bulged outward, splitting to reveal another tunnel. The hum grew louder, impossibly deep now, shaking my ribs. I didn’t want to follow. Every nerve in me screamed to turn back. But the hands came again—small, cold, grasping—pushing me forward.

The tunnel sloped downward until it opened into a cavern so vast I couldn’t see its ceiling. At the centre, suspended by thick cords of flesh, was… a heart.

It was the size of a house, slick and glistening, every beat sending shockwaves through the ground. Veins as wide as tree trunks spread from it in every direction, threading into the walls and ceiling like roots. The glow I’d seen in the veins before pulsed here with every beat, filling the chamber with a sickly rhythm.

I fell to my knees. Not out of worship, not willingly—but because my body wouldn’t obey me anymore. The hum was inside me now, in my skull, my chest, syncing my pulse to the monster’s rhythm.

A voice rose from the heart—not a sound but a vibration that shaped itself into words inside my head.

“ASHBROOK LIVES.”

Images flooded my mind: the town when it was whole, when people thrived. The smiling faces, the laughter, the sense of belonging. But beneath it all, always beneath, was the Heart—feeding, watching, waiting. The town wasn’t built over this thing. The town was an extension of it. Every house, every street, every family… cells of a greater organism.

“YOU ARE BLOOD. YOU ARE MEMORY. YOU ARE MINE.”

I fought against it, clawing at my skin as if I could tear the sound out. But then I saw them—my parents.

They stepped from the shadows, their smiles unchanged, eyes glowing white. They reached for me, and though I wanted to recoil, some hidden part of me ached to feel their touch again.

My father spoke, though the words weren’t his:

“The town never lets go. You left your body behind, but your roots were always here.”

My mother leaned close, her breath hot against my ear.

“One day, all will return. Ashbrook is forever.”

Behind them, the children’s voices rose again, chanting, their pitch climbing until it was no longer human.

The Heart beat faster. The ground split. And something began to crawl out.

Source: Some or all of the content was generated using an AI language model