The glow inside him faded, leaving only the echo of heat in his veins. Erwin stood in the silence, chest rising and falling, eyes fixed on the spot where the creature had dissolved.
The ground here was wrong. It looked like stone, but it flexed faintly under his weight, as if something alive was buried just beneath the surface. The air was heavy, damp, and carried a faint metallic tang that clung to his tongue.
He turned slowly, taking in his surroundings. The place stretched out in all directions, a wasteland of jagged ridges and shallow pits. Above, the "sky" was a dome of shifting black mist, lit here and there by pale, drifting lights that moved like fish in deep water.
Somewhere far off, something screamed. It wasn't human.
Erwin swallowed hard. He needed to move. Standing still felt like inviting the darkness to notice him.
He picked a direction and started walking, keeping his steps light. The ground sloped downward, leading him into a shallow basin where the mist hung lower. Shapes moved in the haze — too far to make out, but enough to keep his pulse high.
A sound broke through the stillness. Not the wet dragging of the creature from before. This was sharper. Human.
"Help!"
The voice was faint, but it cut through the air like a blade. Erwin hesitated. Every instinct screamed at him to keep moving, to stay unseen. But the voice came again, weaker this time.
He followed it.
The basin narrowed into a gully, its walls slick with some dark, glistening growth. At the far end, half-buried under a collapsed arch of bone-like material, a woman struggled to free herself. Her clothes were torn, her hands scraped raw from clawing at the debris.
She looked up as he approached, eyes wide. "Please—"
Movement in the mist behind her cut her words short. A shape emerged — tall, thin, its limbs too long, its head tilting unnaturally as it stepped forward. Its skin shimmered like oil, and its mouth was a vertical slit that opened slowly, revealing rows of needle teeth.
Erwin's fingers tightened around the chunk of stone still in his hand. The hunger inside him stirred, eager.
He could run. He could leave her. The thing would feed him if he killed it.
The woman's voice shook. "Don't… leave me here."
The creature stepped closer, its movements slow, deliberate, as if savoring the moment.
Erwin's heart pounded. He didn't know her. He didn't know this place. But he knew one thing — if he walked away now, he'd never stop hearing that voice.
He stepped forward.
The hunger purred.