Jyoti pressed her palm against the cold, jagged steel, her breath shallow as she gazed up at the towering mountain of cages. The pile stretched into the black abyss above, stacked so high that the summit seemed lost in the shadows. The thought of climbing it sent dread twisting in her chest. It would take almost an entire day—maybe more—to reach the top. And even then, there was no guarantee survival waited there. For all she knew, the summit only hid another horror.
Still, she began her climb. Every step upward was a battle. Rusted bars scraped against her hands, and sharp edges tore at her skin until her palms were slick with blood. The higher she climbed, the more the truth of this place revealed itself.
It was not just a heap of cages. It was a graveyard.
Through the cracks of twisted boxes, she saw bones, yellow and brittle, still chained to the iron frames. Many were half-devoured, as though someone had wasted fruit—biting into it only to leave the rest to rot. Some cages gaped open like grotesque presents, their contents spilled out for the beasts to pick at. Every sight was a reminder: these boxes were made to hold the living until they were fed to monsters.
Jyoti gagged and nearly lost her grip when her eyes fell on one cage in particular. Inside, two small bodies lay huddled together, half-rotten, their arms locked around each other in an embrace that had outlasted death. It was as if their bond had become a defiance against the beast, a final stand carved into decay. The creature had not eaten them fully—almost as though it had mocked their existence, leaving them discarded like spoiled offerings. Bile rose in her throat; she wrenched her head aside and vomited into the darkness below. Her stomach cramped with emptiness, her body purging not food, but the horror seared into her sight.
"What could those children have done to deserve this?" she whispered hoarsely, though her voice was swallowed instantly by the cavern's vast silence.
Each new cage she passed told another story of torment. Some corpses looked ancient, brittle as ash. Others were disturbingly fresh, flesh still clinging to their bones, their blood dark and sticky along the bars. Jyoti realized with a shiver that some had died only two or three days ago. That meant the cages were still being lowered here regularly. People were still being sent to this abyss.
The realization chilled her. This wasn't just a forgotten pit. It was an active slaughterhouse.
And yet, what haunted her more was the sheer size of the place. A land this vast, this empty, left unused by the regime? It made no sense. Overpopulation was one of the greatest issue in the Pits—every inch of ground taken, every drop of air rationed. And here was a cavern so large it could swallow entire cities. The only reason it had not been used must be because of the beasts. This abyss was theirs. A hunting ground carved out in secret.
Her mind burned with questions, but she pressed them down and forced herself higher. Her muscles ached, her throat raw with thirst, her stomach clawing itself with hunger. She could not remember when she had last eaten. Time itself blurred here. Without the Cathedrals to ring their hymns, without the curfew bells to mark the cycle of day and night, there was nothing but darkness She could not tell if hours had passed or days. Only the throb in her limbs and the dizziness clouding her head told her time was moving at all.
At last, she stopped. Her hands shook too violently to grip the bars. She pressed herself against the cold side of a cage and let her body rest. The dizziness swelled until her vision warped. Shadows seemed to move and dance at the edges of her sight, twisting into shapes that weren't there. She panted, lightheaded, sure she was about to fall.
Then—music.
Her breath caught. A sound unlike anything she had ever known rose in the cavern. A melody. Soft at first, then swelling, pure and radiant. It filled the hollow abyss like water pouring into an empty vessel. The notes seemed to wrap around her, touching her skin, threading into her bones. With each tone, strength seeped back into her body, warm and steady. Her dizziness ebbed, her mind sharpening.
She froze, eyes wide. Music was forbidden in the Pits. Only the droning chants of the Faith Cathedrals were permitted, their hymns pounding obedience into weary minds. She had never heard a melody before—not truly. And yet this song, whatever it was, felt more divine than any chant she had been forced to sing. It lifted her, filled her with something close to light. The same sensation she had felt when she first glimpsed the strange scriptures. Power. Resonance. A touch of something beyond herself.
Her lips parted. "What is this…?" she whispered.
But no answer came. The melody swelled and echoed through the black, its source invisible. She twisted her head in every direction, straining to see, but the sound was everywhere and nowhere. It was not of this cavern. It was something greater, seeping through reality itself.
The sound pulled her back from the brink of collapse. Her fingers tightened on the bars. Her body steadied. And just as she began to draw in another breath, movement stirred above.
From the infinite blackness of the ceiling, a massive shape descended. A box—larger than any she had seen yet—creaked and groaned as chains lowered it down from the void. Its steel sides gleamed faintly in her sharpened sight, massive and imposing as it swayed through the cavern's air. The sound of its descent echoed like a funeral bell.
Jyoti's hallucination snapped. Her eyes locked on the box, every nerve in her body alert. Whatever strength the melody had given her, it now bristled into readiness. A new presence was coming. A new fate sealed within iron walls.
Her unease sharpened into something more—resolve. She had survived this long, endured cages and monsters and hunger. Now, as the massive box lowered from the dark, she straightened her body against the steel bars. The melody still thrummed faintly in her bones, and for the first time, she felt prepared for what was coming.
The abyss had not broken her yet.
And she was not done fighting.