Kael's fingertips brushed the cold stone as he stepped into the corridor. The air was damp, but worse—it moved. Like the hallway itself was exhaling, slowly. In. Out. The very walls around him pulsed with a rhythm too steady, too alive.
Behind him, the hallway had vanished—replaced by a mirror reflecting nothing. Not even him.
His shoes made no sound on the ground now. Not because he was light-footed, but because sound itself seemed swallowed by this place. Even his breathing didn't echo. Time stretched and warped, minutes felt like seconds, or hours, or both.
On the left wall, he noticed something. Not a door. Not a crack. A face.
No, faces. Pressed beneath the surface like trapped souls, screaming silently, mouths open in agony, eyes bulging from beneath the stone. One of them looked just like him.
Kael backed away. The wall inhaled again, then exhaled with a low groan.
"Kael…"
The voice came from the floor this time, followed by red liquid seeping up through the cracks. Blood?
His body trembled as he looked down. His own shadow writhed independently—pulling away from his body, forming arms, fingers, a jaw.
He ran.
But with each step, he was not getting farther. The hallway turned in on itself, shifting, folding, as if the space obeyed a different rule. There was no escape. Only inward.
Suddenly—a door. Metallic, rusted, covered in handprints that glowed faintly blue. The breathing stopped.
He grabbed the handle. Ice cold. Turned it.
The door opened, revealing—
A hospital room. Bright. Sterile. A figure sat on the bed.
The girl.
Bandaged. Eyes hollow. Hooked to a monitor that beeped steadily.
Kael approached. She didn't move.
"I came back," he whispered.
She turned her head slightly. "But you left me in the Pulse."
The monitor spiked. Screeched. Her body convulsed—then melted into black sludge.
Kael screamed.
The walls began to bleed. The floor disappeared. Gravity twisted.
And once again, the Pulse returned—not as a sound, not as light—but as pressure on the soul, twisting his thoughts, folding his memories like paper.
Everything collapsed.
And Kael was falling—again.
Into a heartbeat-shaped void.
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