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Chapter 3 - Chapter 3: The Hollow Choir

Lila's breath caught as the creatures drew closer, their glowing eyes slicing through the ashen haze. They moved like shadows given form, their bodies fluid yet jagged, as if carved from the same obsidian as the towering spires in the distance. The ground vibrated with their approach, a low thrum that matched the pulse of the shard in her hand. She pressed herself tighter against the rock, her heart hammering. The voice she'd heard earlier-Find the seam-echoed in her mind, urgent but cryptic. What seam? Where?

She risked a glance around the rock. The creatures-five, maybe six-slithered across the cracked earth, their forms flickering between solid and translucent. They weren't animals, not machines, but something else, something that made her skin crawl. One paused, its head tilting as if sensing her. Its eyes, twin orbs of green fire, locked onto her hiding spot. Lila stifled a gasp, ducking back. The shard in her hand flared, its light spilling through her fingers, and she cursed under her breath. If that thing gave her away-

A sound like shattering glass split the air, and the creatures froze. The ground trembled, not from their movement but from something new, something bigger. Lila peeked out again, her pulse racing. In the distance, the crimson sky fractured, a jagged tear of white light spilling across it like a wound. The creatures hissed, their forms rippling, and scattered into the shadows, their eyes winking out. Lila exhaled, her legs shaky, but the relief was short-lived. The tear in the sky widened, and a figure stumbled through it, collapsing onto the ash-covered ground.

"Mom?" Lila whispered, her voice barely audible. She squinted, her heart lurching. The figure was too far to make out clearly, but the silhouette-slender, determined, moving with purpose-was unmistakable. Clara. It had to be. Lila's chest tightened, a mix of hope and fear. Her mother was here, in this nightmare place, but why? How?

The shard pulsed again, hotter now, and Lila gritted her teeth against the sting. She couldn't stay hidden. If that was her mom, she was in danger-those creatures could come back any second. Lila shoved the shard into her pocket and bolted from behind the rock, her sneakers kicking up clouds of ash. "Mom!" she shouted, her voice raw. The figure turned, and even from a distance, Lila saw the flash of recognition in her mother's eyes.

Clara hit the ground knees-first, the impact jarring her bones. The air was wrong-thick, acrid, like breathing through a mask of soot. She coughed, her vision swimming as the tear in the sky sealed behind her, leaving only a faint shimmer. The shards in her coat pocket burned against her hip, their light dimming but still alive. She'd done it. She'd crossed... somewhere. The world around her was a wasteland, all ash and jagged stone under a sky that looked like it was bleeding. But none of that mattered. Lila was here. She had to be.

Clara pushed herself to her feet, her engineer's mind scrambling to make sense of what had just happened. The shards, the rip in reality-it was like stepping through a glitch in the universe. Argent Labs had been working on quantum entanglement, theories about bridging dimensions, but this? This was beyond anything she'd read in their leaked patents. Her hands trembled as she gripped the shards, their hum steady but faint, like a signal losing strength. She needed to move, to find Lila before-

"Mom!" The shout cut through the haze, and Clara's heart stopped. She spun, her eyes locking onto a figure running toward her, ash swirling around her. Lila. Her daughter's dark hair was streaked with gray dust, her jacket torn, but she was alive, moving, real. Clara's knees nearly buckled, relief flooding her so fiercely it hurt.

"Lila!" she called, sprinting to meet her. They collided halfway, Clara's arms wrapping around her daughter so tightly she felt Lila's ribs creak. "Oh, God, you're okay," she whispered, her voice breaking. She pulled back just enough to cup Lila's face, her thumbs brushing away ash. "Are you hurt? What is this place?"

"I don't know," Lila said, her voice shaky but her eyes bright, almost feverish. "I was in the alley, and then the shard-it just... pulled me here. There's things out there, Mom. They're not human. They saw me." She glanced over her shoulder, her grip tightening on Clara's arm.

Clara followed her gaze, her stomach twisting. The wasteland stretched endlessly, its shadows shifting in ways that made her skin prickle. "We need to move," she said, her voice steady despite the fear clawing at her. "Whatever this place is, we're not staying." She pulled one of the shards from her pocket, its light flickering like a dying bulb. "These brought us here. They might get us back."

Lila nodded, pulling out her own shard. Its glow was stronger, pulsing in sync with Clara's. "I heard a voice," Lila said, her words rushed. "It said to find the seam. I think it's a way out, but I don't know where to look."

Clara's mind raced. A seam could mean anything-a rift, a portal, a weak point in this reality. She'd seen the tear in the sky, felt the pull of the shards. If they could find another, they might reverse whatever had happened. But the air was growing heavier, the crimson sky darkening, and a distant sound-like a chorus of hollow, whispering voices-began to rise.

"Stay close," Clara said, her hand finding Lila's. "We'll find it together." She didn't know where to start, didn't know what they were up against, but none of that mattered. She'd walked through a tear in the world to find her daughter. She'd tear this one apart to bring her home.

The hollow choir grew louder, and in the distance, the green-eyed shadows began to move again.

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