The beast's stare fixed on Jyoti, her body hanging in the air, chains clinking with each breath. Its ugly four sectioned face opened and closed with a sick hiss, strings of saliva dripping to the ground. Jyoti narrowed her eyes, studying both the creature and the vast chamber around her. Lines of tension cut across her forehead, her jaw set hard, her body tight and a ton of strain on her wrist from dangling she tightened her grip on the chain to lessen the strain.
The creature lunged first. With a shriek that reverbreated through the walls, it swung one of its long, slender claws toward her. The air itself seemed to slice under the force, sharp enough to split bones. Jyoti twisted her entire body, arching in a desperate swing, just enough to let the strike whistle past her. The claw slashed only empty air, sparks scraping off the cage. Her heart sank, but when she landed back with a jarring rattle of chains, she smirked at the beast.
"Too slow," she mocked, her voice hoarse but defiant.
The beast's grotesque maw curled into something like amusement. To it, this wasn't a fight—just its prey playing a doomed game. With a hoarse growl, it seized the cage and shook it violently, thrashing the metal chamber as though trying to snap Jyoti like a ragdoll inside. The walls screamed with strain, each movement jolting through her bones. Pain lit her shoulders, but her grip held. The beast's grimace twisted, half frustration, half cruel glee.
Yet amidst the violent rattling, something struck it—the chains were swinging, clattering, but Jyoti was gone.
It froze, confused. Its four jaws clamped and unclamped in irritation, each hinge cracking like stone against stone. A furious screech tore from its throats as it hurled the empty cage aside with terrifying force. The box screamed through the air before colliding with a towering mountain of similar cages piled in the distance. Metal thundered against metal, echoing like the collapsing bones of giants.
The beast growled, scanning the shadows, its grotesque face twitching as it searched. Its jaws clenched, saliva splattering in thick ropes as it stalked near the rubble. When no movement came, rage overtook it. A high-pitched screech erupted, so sharp and violent that Jyoti's ears bleed with pain. The sound drilled into her skull until her vision quaked with sparks. She swallowed the cry rising in her throat and forced herself to stay still, holding her breath.
She was hidden—barely. Pressed against the shadow of a broken heap of cages not far from where the beast had flung hers. Her chest rose and fell, but faint, controlled. This hiding had not been luck. It had been instinct, sharpened by her newfound strength. Her ability to veil her presence had grown—now something more than human, so strong the beast's senses slipped past her. She had planned for this. When the monster had started to crush her cage, she had already dislocated her thumbs, slipping them through the iron shackles. Better to bear broken bones than wear unbroken chains. By the time the beast had shaken the box violently, she'd been ready, seizing the moment to slip free and vanish into the rubble. For a few heartbeats she lay there, trembling but alive, the shock of freedom flooding her body. Her wrists throbbed from the escape, her thumbs bent at strange angles, but the pain only sharpened the truth—she had survived. Not cleanly, not easily, but through agony and blood. Each heartbeat felt stolen, each breath wrestled from death's jaws. She had braced the fall, forced her body past breaking, and somehow endured. Against all odds, she was still here.
Her survival was born of cruelty and arrogance—not hers, but the beast's. It had thought her as mere play thing. And so she lived.
Slowly, Jyoti's breathing steadied. With trembling resolve, she forced her dislocated thumbs back into place. The pain was excruciating, she bit down hard, choking back a scream that clawed its way up her throat. Tears stung her eyes, but she swallowed the pain. Her gaze lifted toward the mountain of cages looming above, a tower of rusting prisons that seemed endless. She began to climb, each pull of her body leaving her palms raw as jagged steel tore deep inside flesh. With every step, dread pressed heavier on her chest. These were not empty shells. Almost every box bore scars—slashes carved into steel, great dents like gaping wounds. Some glistened wet, fresh blood seeping through seams and dripping into black puddles below. The air carried the sickly tang of raw flesh, sharp enough to sting her nose. The truth clawed at her with cruel clarity: this wasn't a chamber at all. It was a graveyard of the discarded, a place where the living were caged and left to die.
The higher she climbed, the wider her view stretched. She reached a ledge near the mid-point of the pile and froze. Darkness yawned in every direction, a horizon without end. The chamber was vast, so enormous it mocked her senses. Even with her sharpened sight, she could barely grasp the scale. The walls, if there were walls, lay swallowed in shadow. The roof was lost in black. Her breath caught—she was a speck in a hollow abyss.
The beast still moved below, pacing and snarling, its claws scratching the floor in restless arcs. Yet as she stared into the darkness beyond, dread spread through her veins. This one beast—it couldn't be the only one. The silence beyond the screeches felt too alive, too heavy. Shapes shifted in the dark, or perhaps her mind playing games. Still, the thought clung: others lurked here. Watching. Waiting.
She clutched the torn edge of a cage, pressing her forehead against the cold metal. Her pulse hammered in her ears, not only from fear but from awe at the vastness of it all. She was trapped in a world too large, for a pit dweller to comprehend. A vast land such as this was too hard for her to imagine, coming from clustered residency with not enough place too breath.
And yet, here she was.
The beast's screech echoed one final time before it turned, lumbering into the dark horizon. Its massive body soon disappeared into shadow, but the sound of its claws dragged on, scratching farther and farther until silence echoed the cavern. Jyoti remained pressed against the cage wall, breath ragged, ears still ringing. The silence grew heavier, wrapping around her until even the faint drip of water seemed loud.
Her sharpened sight searched again. She could see the pile of cages stretch endlessly, broken and bloodstained, a monument to suffering. Somewhere in the dark, unseen creatures stirred. She felt them—lurking just outside her vision, in the heavy air that pressed against her skin. The thought twisted her stomach, but she forced herself to look upward again. If she stayed still, she would be nothing but another forgotten box in this endless grave.
Questions tore at her mind. How many had been sent here? What was this place, this abyss that seemed to stretch forever? And most of all—what waited for her in the dark beyond?
The endless pit gave no answer. Only silence. Only the promise that worse things hid among its shadows.
And Jyoti, alone, clung to the torn cages, caught between the vastness above and the monsters below, her heart pounding with the knowledge that she is alive.