Nimra jolted awake, choking on air that wasn't air. The darkness around her pulsed faintly, alive with an oily shimmer. The ground beneath her wasn't solid — it writhed like a nest of worms.
She scrambled up, gagging, wiping sludge from her face. The stench was unbearable, rotting flesh mixed with burning wires.
A faint light flickered in the distance, sickly green, drawing her forward.
Her mind reeled. Layer Two. He said this was Layer Two.
The sludge pulled at her shoes as she staggered toward the light. Each step felt heavier, as though invisible weights clung to her ankles. Whispers hissed in her ears, low and hungry.
"Trade with usss…""Give usss your soul, and we'll give you his…""Faizan… Faizan is waiting…"
Her heart squeezed. The voices dangled his name like bait. She shook her head hard.
"No. You're lying. You're all lying."
The tunnel opened suddenly into a cavernous space. Nimra's breath caught.
She stood in what looked like a marketplace — but instead of stalls of fruit or cloth, the vendors displayed souls. Transparent globes floated in cages, glowing with inner fire. Some cried. Some screamed. Some begged.
Creatures manned the stalls — things with twisted faces, melted bodies, eyes that blinked sideways. They bartered in guttural tones, their clawed fingers exchanging not coins but teeth, nails, and bones.
Nimra's stomach turned violently. She clutched her mouth to stop herself from vomiting.
One creature noticed her. Its head jerked unnaturally as it leaned across its stall. Its voice was oily, sliding directly into her brain.
"Fresh. Alive. Unclaimed. Human."
Other creatures turned, their heads snapping toward her with bone-cracking sounds. Their eyes glowed in hunger.
Nimra stumbled back, panic rising. The crowd surged toward her, claws scraping, jaws gnashing. She screamed and bolted down a narrow alley between stalls.
The ground squelched beneath her, the walls pulsating like diseased flesh. Behind her, the creatures howled.
"Catch herrrr!""Skin her! Sell her!"
Her lungs burned as she sprinted, turning blindly through the maze of stalls. Soul-globes floated overhead, their screams filling the air. Her vision blurred from the noise, the stench, the sheer horror pressing in.
Finally, she burst into an open square at the heart of the market.
A massive cage towered in the center — and inside, dozens of humans huddled together, their faces pale, their eyes wide with terror. Chains wrapped around their limbs, forcing them to kneel.
Nimra froze. One of the prisoners lifted his head. His face was bruised, his lips cracked.
"Faizan…"
Her voice cracked. She stumbled forward, gripping the bars. "Faizan! It's me!"
Faizan blinked, dazed, but then recognition lit his eyes.
"Nimra…? You— you shouldn't be here!"
Tears streamed down her face. "I had to find you! I couldn't leave you!"
The prisoners stirred, whispering, staring at her like she was either salvation or another victim.
But before she could speak again, a booming laugh shook the square.
The crowd of creatures parted as a monstrous figure approached. Its body was stitched together from countless torsos, arms, and legs, fused grotesquely into one hulking mass. Dozens of faces pushed against its skin, screaming silently.
It carried a staff tipped with a burning skull.
"Welcome, little trespasser," the beast growled. "You've entered my market. And nothing here is free."
Nimra's chest tightened as the beast loomed closer. Each step it took shook the square, rattling the cages, making the imprisoned souls wail louder. The vendors and twisted creatures bowed low, their spines snapping in sickening cracks of devotion.
The staff's burning skull flared brighter as the beast pointed it at Nimra. The hollow eye sockets locked on her like they could pierce her soul.
"A living human… so rare. So valuable. I should sell you whole. Or… I could tear you apart, piece by piece."
Nimra's voice trembled, but she forced herself to speak.
"Let Faizan go. Please. He doesn't belong here."
The beast's many mouths twisted into something like a smile.
"Belong? This is the Black Market. Every soul belongs. Every soul has a price. What will you offer, girl?"
Her stomach knotted. "I… I don't have anything."
The beast chuckled, a chorus of hideous voices.
"You have plenty. Your fear. Your pain. Your memories. Even your hope can be carved and sold."
It slammed the staff against the ground. The skull shrieked, and the cages rattled violently. Faizan flinched, pressing his head against the bars, chains digging into his wrists.
"Don't do it, Nimra! Don't bargain with it!"
But the beast leaned closer, foul breath spilling over her.
"One trade. One piece of yourself. And I'll let you touch him."
Nimra's heart raced. Every instinct screamed no. Yet Faizan's eyes — desperate, broken — kept her from turning away. She gripped the bars tighter.
"What… what kind of trade?"
The beast's fingers — long, stitched, dripping with black fluid — tapped her forehead gently. The touch burned cold.
"Give me your happiest memory. The moment you felt pure joy. I'll take it. You'll never recall it again. In exchange… one chain on him will break."
Her breath caught. Her happiest memory? She thought of her brother's laughter. Her mother's smile when Nimra got her first medal. Her late-night rooftop talks with Faizan before everything went wrong.
Her eyes welled with tears. "If I give that away… what will be left of me?"
The beast's many mouths grinned.
"Less light. More shadow. Easier for us to feed."
Faizan shook his head violently.
"No, Nimra! Don't listen! I can handle this— just go! Save yourself!"
But she couldn't. Not when he looked so broken. Not when she was the reason she'd even fallen into this cursed nightmare.
Nimra swallowed hard.
"Fine. Take it."
The staff flared. The skull's mouth unhinged unnaturally wide, and a string of golden light ripped from Nimra's chest. She screamed as the memory tore free — she was eight years old again, spinning in her father's arms, laughing without fear. The memory was sucked into the skull, devoured.
The pain left her gasping, hollow, colder than before. Something was missing now. She couldn't even remember what.
A chain around Faizan's wrist snapped with a deafening crack. He gasped, clutching the freed arm, staring at her in horror.
"Why would you— Nimra, no!"
The beast clapped its grotesque hands, delighted.
"Beautiful. Do you want more chains broken? More trades?"
Nimra's tears fell hot down her cheeks. She wiped them furiously, shaking her head.
"No. I'll find another way."
The beast's eyes narrowed. It loomed closer, pressing its stitched face against the bars.
"Then you'll find only death."
Before Nimra could move, the ground split open beneath her. She stumbled back, nearly falling into a pit writhing with arms. The arms reached for her ankles, clawing, desperate.
The beast raised its staff again, ready to strike.
Faizan slammed his fists against the cage bars, shouting.
"Run, Nimra! Don't let it take you!"
But there was no exit. Only the pit. Only the beast. Only despair.
Nimra clenched her fists, forcing herself to stand tall even as terror swallowed her.
"If you think I'm just going to let you win… you don't know me at all."
She seized a loose chain from the cage wall, yanking hard until it broke free. The jagged end gleamed faintly in the green light. Her whole body trembled, but she lifted it like a weapon.
The beast's laughter shook the entire market.
"Fight, then. Let's see how long you last before you're sold."
The crowd of warped vendors and caged souls pressed closer, drawn by the promise of blood. Their whispers slithered through the air like snakes:
"Fresh meat…""She'll fetch a high price…""Break her, break her…"
Nimra's grip tightened on the jagged chain, her knuckles white. She could hear her pulse hammering in her ears, louder than the screaming cages.
The beast raised its burning staff, the skull shrieking like a siren.
"Little human, do you think iron can harm me? I am stitched from centuries of damned flesh. I am hunger incarnate!"
Nimra's throat was dry, but she forced out a growl.
"Then choke on me."
With a sharp cry, she lunged forward, swinging the chain. The metal clanged against the beast's stitched arm, ripping through one of its seams. Black liquid splattered across the floor, sizzling like acid where it landed. The beast roared in fury, a hundred mouths screaming at once.
The ground trembled as it swung its massive staff down. Nimra barely rolled aside before it crashed, shattering stone, sending a shockwave rippling through the market. The cages rattled violently, souls shrieking in agony.
Faizan's voice cut through the chaos.
"Nimra, don't fight it head-on! Aim for the seams! Tear it apart!"
Her eyes flicked to the creature's grotesque body — stitched like a patchwork quilt of corpses, each seam pulsing faintly. Weak points.
The beast lunged, claws swiping. Nimra ducked, swung the chain again, and struck a seam across its torso. The stitches burst, and a swarm of black worms spilled out, writhing across the floor.
She gagged at the stench, but didn't stop. She swung again, again — every strike unraveling more seams. The beast howled, swatting at her with claws the size of blades. One clipped her side, and pain shot through her ribs. She stumbled, clutching her side, breath ragged.
The beast loomed, stitched jaws unhinging.
"Pathetic girl. You'll bleed out long before you break me."
It raised its claw for the killing blow.
Nimra's vision blurred, but she saw Faizan — chained, beaten, desperate — and something inside her ignited. She screamed, swinging the chain upward with every ounce of strength she had left.
The jagged metal tore through a seam across the beast's neck. The stitches snapped, and its head lurched sideways, hanging loosely by a few threads.
The beast's many mouths wailed in unison, its body convulsing. The staff clattered to the ground, flames sputtering.
Nimra didn't hesitate. She grabbed the staff, its burning skull searing her palms, but she held on. A surge of raw, unnatural energy shot through her veins. The skull's hollow eyes lit with green fire, and the worms writhing across the floor shriveled into ash.
The beast staggered back, clutching at its unraveling seams. Its voice was weaker now, panicked.
"No! That power… it isn't yours!"
Nimra's voice came out low, trembling but steady.
"Maybe not. But I'll use it anyway."
She slammed the staff against the ground. A shockwave of fire and shadow blasted outward, knocking the beast back. Its stitches burst one by one, its body collapsing into heaps of rotten flesh. The market shook, stalls shattering, cages cracking open.
The souls trapped inside screamed — not in pain, but in release. Wisps of light rose from the broken cages, swirling upward into the darkness above, vanishing into freedom.
The beast's final head rolled across the floor, its stitched mouth gasping.
"You… cannot… win. VoxSoul… always… collects."
Its voice faded, and the head dissolved into ash.
Nimra collapsed to her knees, panting, her hands blistered from the staff's heat. She could barely lift her arms. Her whole body throbbed, ribs aching from the strike.
The square was eerily quiet now. The twisted vendors had fled into the shadows, whispering curses. Only Faizan remained, chained inside the half-broken cage.
His eyes were wide, stunned.
"Nimra… you actually— you killed it."
She staggered to her feet, clutching the staff for support.
"Not killed. Just… delayed."
Her gaze shifted to the chains still binding him. With trembling hands, she lifted the staff. The skull's fire flared, and one by one, the chains snapped.
Faizan collapsed into her arms, weak but alive. He buried his face in her shoulder, voice shaking.
"You shouldn't have done it. You gave it a memory. You risked everything—"
She cut him off, holding him tight despite her own pain.
"I'd give more if it meant getting you back."
For a moment, there was only silence between them, heavy but unbroken.
Then, a low hum began to vibrate through the ground. The ashes of the beast started to stir, drawn into the cracks of the market floor. The staff in her hands pulsed with heat.
Faizan's eyes widened in horror.
"It's not over. Nimra… it's calling something worse."
The floor beneath them split open. From the abyss, a new sound rose — not the beast's roar, but a chorus of whispers, countless voices merging into one.
"Welcome, children… deeper you fall."
The Soul Market was collapsing, dragging them into another layer of VoxSoul's cursed labyrinth.
Nimra clutched Faizan tighter, the staff burning in her grip.
"Then we fall together."
And the world swallowed them whole.