The door slammed behind them with a finality that made Mae jump. The once, safe haven, of the house now felt like a prison. Every creak of the floorboards, every gust of wind outside, sent a chill racing down her spine. The pulse beneath their feet had faded, but it still hung in the air, vibrating the walls, the floor, everything.
Mae turned toward Lucien, her chest rising and falling rapidly, her breath still caught in the fear, the lingering energy that seemed to curl around her heart like a vice. "What was that?" she whispered, her voice barely audible over the thudding of her pulse. She had to know. She could feel it inside her, a tremor in her bones, a pull at her very soul.
Lucien's eyes, usually so unreadable, were narrowed now, his gaze sharp, focused. He didn't speak right away, his expression darkening, as though the weight of his knowledge was a burden he hadn't wanted to share. But he knew, Mae had to understand. "The Unseen," he said, his voice low, the words weighted with centuries of truth. "Or, as they were once called, the Forgotten."
Mae's heart skipped a beat, the name ringing through her like a bell, resonating in the pit of her stomach. "Forgotten? What do you mean?" She stepped closer to him, her breath catching in her throat. "What are they?"
Lucien's eyes flicked to hers, and for a moment, the room seemed to bend around them, the hum outside barely a whisper compared to the tension in the air between them. He sighed, the weight of the knowledge pressing on him like a thousand pounds. "Their history, my species, we're the only ones who know the full truth. The Forgotten were created by the Veydrin, the people who once ruled this world." He took a step forward, his form moving like liquid in the shadows. "They were intended to be gods. Perfect, godlike beings, bred from the remains of the last war. The Veydrin wanted to create a new breed of gods, immortal, all-powerful. So they tried... and they failed."
Mae could feel the chill of the room closing in, the weight of his words sinking deep into her. She instinctively stepped back, as if she could somehow distance herself from the truth. "They were born from ripped reality itself," Lucien continued, his voice soft, almost distant, as if he were speaking a story he'd told himself a thousand times. "The Forgotten were failed experiments, fragments of dark energy, twisted and bound together with flesh. They were never meant to exist. But they did. And when the Veydrin realized their creation was flawed, they sealed them beneath the earth. Trapped."
Mae's mind raced, trying to process the weight of his words. Failed gods. Creatures bound in darkness, hidden beneath their feet all this time. But why now? Why had they awoken? Her voice trembled. "But how, how do you know this? How can you be sure?" Lucien's eyes flicked down to his hands, to those strange, unnerving gloves he always wore. His fingers flexed, the tension in them almost painful to witness.
"My species," Lucien paused, his voice growing softer, darker. "We were created to guard the truth. The Unseen were my creators' most terrible mistake. And my people, the Construct Hybrids, were born to keep their existence hidden, locked away. We were designed to protect their secrets." Mae felt a cold shiver run down her spine. "So, you're-"
"Yes," Lucien interrupted, his tone final. "We're not from here. Not completely. My existence is a byproduct of their experiments. Flesh wrapped around chains of light and dark energy. I'm neither alive nor dead, but a construct of what was and what should never be. I carry the chains of their past and their failures."
He stepped closer to her, the distance between them charged with something electric, something deeper than the hum of the earth beneath them. Mae swallowed, her pulse quickening again. "You, you were created to guard these monsters?" Her voice was tight, a mixture of fear and disbelief. Lucien's gaze softened for a moment, his lips parting as if he would say something else, but he hesitated.
"Yes," he said finally. "To guard the secrets. To protect the world from what they might become. They were designed to be gods, Mae. And gods, once they awaken, they don't forgive." Mae's heart pounded in her chest, but before she could speak, before the gravity of his words could settle fully, the world around them seemed to shift. There was a sudden crack, like the earth itself had split open. A deafening crack reverberated through the house.
Lucien's hand shot out, pulling her closer to him as the ground shook again, louder and sharper this time. Mae's eyes widened as a shadow, dark and shifting, slipped through the crack in the earth. Something unseen. Something far older than them, far darker than anything they had faced before.
The first Unseen had emerged.
Lucien's grip tightened around her wrist, his gaze narrowing with grim resolve. "We have to move. Now." The ground rumbled once more, louder than before, as though the very world was collapsing beneath them.
Her heart pounded in her chest as she stumbled slightly to keep up, the ground shaking beneath them. The house groaned, its very foundation seeming to tremble under the weight of something far more powerful than they had imagined. "Lucien!" Mae gasped, her voice tight with panic. "Wh-what's happening?"
"Stay close," he ordered, his voice low and urgent, his eyes flicking toward the growing cracks in the walls. "The Unseen are waking. They're here." Before Mae could respond, a deafening crash shook the house. Louder than any quake, louder than the hum they had felt earlier. It sounded like the very fabric of reality itself was tearing apart. The floor beneath them cracked, the walls rattling as if they were struggling to hold the world together.
Lucien pulled her into the room they had just vacated. The door slammed shut behind them with a violence that sent a shockwave through the walls. For a moment, the two of them stood in the dim light, staring at the door, their breaths coming in sharp gasps. The pulse still thrummed in the air, stronger than ever, vibrating through their bones. But something else, something darker, seemed to follow it now, like a shadow trailing at their heels.
Mae's pulse raced. "We need to warn the oth-" Lucien cut her off, his eyes snapping toward the door. "They're already awake." The words barely left his mouth when the door behind them exploded open. Ashar, Riven, Kaine, and Sethis rushed in, disheveled, their expressions a mix of confusion and alarm.
"What's going on?" Ashar demanded, his eyes narrowing as he looked between Mae and Lucien. "Why are you two-" Before anyone could speak further, the ground beneath them cracked open once more with a sickening sound. The walls of the room seemed to buckle, warping as if they were being pulled apart by invisible hands. The air turned thick, suffocating with an ancient power that pushed against the very air they breathed.
Lucien stepped forward, his voice low, barely above a whisper. "They're here." And as if to answer him, the air shifted with a chilling sound, like the rustle of a thousand unseen eyes opening. A shape loomed in the doorway. Dark, twisted, and barely tangible, like a shadow, but larger, more solid. A presence that could bend reality with its mere existence.