The tunnel swallowed them whole.
Dark.
Narrow.
Breathing.
Felix could hear the chamber collapsing behind them, each crash echoing through the passage like distant thunder. The sound chased them, pushing them faster, harder, until their lungs burned and their legs shook.
But even as he ran, Felix kept looking back.
At the darkness.
At the place where the masked man had been.
At the hand reaching for him.
---
Nia was the first to slow down, pulling Felix into the side of the tunnel before he ran himself into a wall.
"Felix… stop. Stop. You're shaking."
He didn't even realize he was.
His whole body trembled like the key inside him was rattling against his bones.
"He saved me," Felix whispered.
"He saved me, Nia… and now he's buried. Because of me."
Nia cupped his face gently, forcing him to meet her gaze.
"None of this is your fault."
Felix didn't believe that.
But he wanted to.
---
Aya leaned against the wall, panting hard.
"Okay… okay… someone tell me what that thing was. Because if that was a person, I'm going to cry. And if it wasn't… I'm also going to cry."
Leo collapsed onto the floor dramatically.
"I'm crying already. I'm emotionally broken. Leave me here."
Tomas nudged him with his foot.
"Get up before the floor digests you."
Leo shot to his feet.
"DIGESTS? Tomas, please stop TALKING."
---
Lina hadn't said a word.
She clutched her sketchbook to her chest, eyes wide and unfocused, breathing sharp and fast. Aya knelt beside her, rubbing her back gently.
"Hey… it's okay. You're safe. We're safe."
But Lina shook her head violently.
"No… no we're not. He didn't want us here. He wanted Felix."
Felix stiffened.
Nia's fingers tightened on his shoulders.
---
A distant tremor rolled through the tunnel.
Not from above.
Not from collapsing rooms.
But from deeper below.
A slow, rhythmic vibration.
Like something breathing under the city.
Felix felt it in his teeth.
In his bones.
In the key pulsing through his arm.
Aya swallowed hard.
"What… what was that?"
Tomas shook his head.
"That wasn't the ceiling. That was… lower."
Leo's voice cracked.
"Lower than this? How deep does this cursed chocolate city go?!"
---
Felix took a shaky step forward.
"It's waking up," he whispered.
"Whatever he meant… the roots… they're waking."
Aya frowned.
"The roots of what? The tunnels? The machines? Something else?"
Felix looked up at the dripping chocolate ceiling.
"No. Not machines."
He closed his eyes.
And in the dark behind his eyelids…
He saw them.
Black tendrils.
Thick as tree trunks.
Twisting beneath the city like veins under skin.
Reaching upward.
Hungry.
---
Felix gasped and stumbled back.
Nia caught him again.
"Felix! Hey—stay with me!"
"I saw them," Felix said breathlessly.
"The roots. They're alive."
Leo blanched.
"Alive as in 'plants' alive? Or alive as in… I don't know… monster alive?"
Felix didn't answer.
He didn't have to.
Their silence was answer enough.
---
A faint scraping sound echoed behind them.
Soft.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Aya whipped around, rod raised.
"Tell me that's just rocks settling."
It wasn't.
The noise drew closer.
Dragging.
Scratching.
Breathing.
Leo whispered, voice trembling, "Please tell me that's Ambrose. Please tell me it's Ambrose coming to rescue us."
Tomas snorted.
"Ambrose wouldn't rescue us if we were drowning in hot cocoa."
Lina suddenly gasped.
"No… it's not Ambrose."
She pointed with a shaking hand.
At the darkness.
Where something moved.
---
A silhouette appeared.
Shuffling.
Unsteady.
Covered in dust.
Crushed.
But alive.
Felix's heart stopped.
It was the masked man.
Dragging himself through the tunnel.
One arm useless.
Mask cracked further.
Body bent unnaturally from the fallen beams.
Yet he crawled forward.
Toward Felix.
Toward the light.
Toward hope.
---
"Felix…" he rasped, collapsing only a few feet away.
Aya stepped in front of him instinctively, but the man didn't reach for her.
He lifted one trembling hand—
Reaching only for Felix.
"You… must… go deeper…"
Felix crouched, ignoring Nia's sharp gasp.
"Why?" Felix asked.
"What's down there? What are the roots?"
The masked man's eye flicked toward the floor.
"Truth."
He gulped a pained breath.
"And a hunger that Ambrose cannot control."
Felix's skin crawled.
The masked man coughed violently, syrup-like liquid spilling between his fingers.
Then—
His voice dropped into a desperate whisper.
"Find the heart… before it finds you."
---
The tunnel shook violently.
The masked man flinched.
Then he shoved Felix backward with the last of his strength.
"RUN!"
The floor behind him cracked open.
Something black surged upward.
Writhing like a living shadow.
A root.
A real root.
Felix stared in horror as it wrapped around the masked man.
The last thing the man said before the root dragged him into the darkness was a single, broken word.
"Run…"
---
Felix ran.
They all did.
None of them looked back.
And behind them, the Bitter District awakened.
Hungry.