The footsteps grew clearer.
Slow.
Uneven.
Dragging.
Like something half-alive… or remembering how to be.
Felix tasted it before he saw it—
a sharp, metallic bitterness that curled across his tongue like cold iron dipped in burnt caramel.
He staggered.
Nia caught him instantly.
"Felix? What is it?"
"Fear," Felix whispered.
"And something else. Something older."
Aya raised the metal rod of broken machinery like it weighed nothing.
"Well whatever 'older' tastes like, it better keep its distance."
Leo gripped his gear shield with both hands.
"Everyone… just stay behind me. I don't like this. I don't like this at all."
Tomas barely breathed.
"I swear if this thing jumps at us—I'm throwing you at it, Leo."
Leo squeaked, "WHAT—?!"
But Lina didn't say a word.
She stared at the shadows ahead, sketchbook forgotten in her lap.
Her eyes were wide, glassy, following something only she could see.
"Lina?" Aya said softly. "Hey. Hey—what's wrong?"
Lina didn't blink.
"He's coming."
---
A pale shape emerged from the corridor.
At first it looked like a smear of white against the dark.
Then...
it stepped into the faint caramel light.
The children froze.
It was a man.
Or it had once been.
Tall, but thin to the point of being skeletal.
Dressed in ragged brown attire that looked fused to its body.
Skin dusted with powdered sugar as though coated in ash.
But its face…
Its face was half-covered by a cracked sugar mask—
hard, glossy, split down the middle.
The other half of its face was normal.
Too normal.
An exhausted human eye.
A trembling cheek.
A mouth that quivered like it forgot how to make expressions.
The figure leaned on the wall, panting.
And then—
It lifted its head.
Its one exposed eye locked on Felix.
"Felix…"
Nia shoved Felix back, blocking him with her entire body.
"Nope. No. Stay away from him!"
The figure blinked slowly.
Its breath rattled like sand scraping metal.
"I… know you."
Felix's skin crawled.
"I don't know you," he whispered, though something in his chest ached in contradiction.
The masked man dragged one foot forward.
"You… came back."
Aya yelled, "We just got here and we're also about to leave—BACK OFF!"
She swung the metal rod.
The man lifted a hand—
—not to attack.
To shield his face.
The rod stopped an inch from the cracked mask.
Aya's breath hitched.
The man lowered his hand slowly.
"No harm," he rasped. "No harm… to the bearer."
Leo frowned.
"Bearer… Felix. He means Felix, doesn't he?"
Tomas muttered, "Oh good, the creepy chocolate ghost thing only cares about Felix. That's somehow worse."
Felix stepped forward despite Nia grabbing his sleeve.
He didn't know why.
But something deep inside him—
something connected to the key—
pulled him toward the masked man.
"What do you want?" Felix asked quietly.
The man swayed.
Then—
he knelt.
Not in reverence.
In exhaustion.
Dark, syrup-thick liquid dripped from his fingers, pooling on the chocolate floor.
"Help… us," he whispered.
"Wake… the roots."
Felix's breath stuck in his throat.
He had heard those words before.
In the vision.
In the darkness.
From this man.
"He's from the District," Felix murmured.
"He's been here a long time."
The masked man nodded painfully.
"Too long…"
Lina took a small step forward.
"You're… you're not trying to hurt us, are you?"
The man lifted his face.
"I was like you once," he said.
"A child. A taster. A chosen one."
Felix's heart slammed against his ribs.
Aya whispered, "Chosen for what?"
"To feed the District…"
A ragged breath.
"To keep it alive…"
Leo choked, "Alive?! The city is alive?!"
"No…" the man rasped.
Not the city.
The roots under it."
Felix shivered.
He could taste it now—
the truth.
Heavy. Bitter. Ancient.
The Bitter District wasn't a place.
It was a living system.
A buried organ of the city.
A forgotten heart.
Powered by flavors and memories and—
—and children like him.
Felix staggered backward, horror clawing up his throat.
"No. No—no. I'm not part of this. I don't want this!"
The masked man reached out, desperate.
"You must stop it."
His voice cracked.
"Before it wakes hungry."
The chamber trembled beneath them.
Dust fell from the ceiling like powdered sugar shaken loose.
The masked man tensed.
"It hears us…"
Nia pulled Felix behind her.
"We need to go. Now."
A deep rumble vibrated through the walls.
Lina screamed.
A second rumble.
The chamber groaned like something enormous was shifting beneath it.
Tomas shouted, "Run!"
Leo didn't argue.
Aya grabbed Lina, pulling her toward the exit.
But Felix didn't run.
He stared at the masked man—
who stared back with a single terrified eye.
"Felix."
The man's voice was faint.
"Please…"
Another violent tremor shook the floor.
The man shoved Felix back with surprising strength.
"GO!"
The corridor roof cracked.
A massive chocolate beam fell directly toward the group.
Nia screamed Felix's name.
Felix saw the beam fall—
And saw the masked man leap—
He felt hands shove him sideways.
And then—
CRASH.
The beam crushed the masked man.
Sugar dust exploded.
Silence.
Felix's ears rang.
Nia dragged him to his feet, sobbing.
"Felix—Felix, we have to go!"
Aya shouted from the tunnel, "MOVE! The whole place is collapsing!"
Felix looked back.
The masked man's hand twitched once beneath the beam.
Fingers reaching.
Begging.
Felix stepped toward him slightly
but another collapse shook the chamber.
Nia grabbed him.
"Felix! You can't save him!"
Felix's voice broke.
"He saved me…"
A final crack roared through the air.
The chamber ceiling split.
The group sprinted into the corridor as the Bitter District collapsed behind them....
swallowing the masked man
and the first layer
into darkness.