Haruka's footsteps echoed off the narrow, stone walls. Her breath came out in sharp little gasps as she turned another corner—only to find another identical hallway.
No color. No windows. Just gray brick and darkness.
"Daichi?" she called again, louder this time. Her voice cracked. "Haru?!"
Only silence replied.
Not silence.
Whispers.
Faint and too many. Layered over each other, like dozens of people talking in a room just out of sight. She spun around, but there was nothing behind her.
She backed into the wall, eyes wide.
Then came a giggle. A child's giggle. Her giggle. From when she was younger. A memory.
She snapped her head toward it — nothing.
"H-Hello?" she said, trembling. Her fists clenched tight at her sides. "Who are you?!"
Another whisper floated by her ear
"She left you here."
Haruka's heart skipped.
"No, she didn't," she snapped, turning around. "Yui's looking for me! She wouldn't—!"
"Your brother's not coming either."
Her breath hitched.
She turned again. And again. Every whisper came from a different direction. Every time she turned, the voice moved behind her, like something was circling just out of sight.
"She's the youngest so she's the weakest." One of the voices said.
"Shes so dumb."
"Such an ugly thing."
The palace twisted around her like it was alive. Walls stretched too long, then suddenly bent inward like they were collapsing. Shadows curled and peeled from the corners. The air stank like rot and cold metal.
Haruka gripped the hilt of her sword tighter, her knuckles pale beneath the smudges of dust and blood. Her breaths were sharp and unsteady. She turned a full circle — then again. Her eyes flicked from one hallway to another.
Whispers circled her.
Childish giggles echoed off the marble. One close. Another behind her, then suddenly there was silence.
The lights above — if they even were lights — flickered. Something changed in the air. It got heavier, like the gravity had thickened. Then tiny cold hands suddenly appeared. Tiny, cold, and sharp. One gripped her ankle. She gasped and whipped her head down — and immediately wished she hadn't.
A child was crawling from beneath the cracked floor tiles — but it wasn't a child. Its face was blank, no features, just a smooth sheet of pale skin stretched across a too-small skull. Its body twitched and jerked like a puppet being yanked on invisible strings.
More came. Crawling out of the walls. Slithering from vents. Dropping from the ceiling like spiders.
Dozens of them. All child-sized. All faceless. All reaching.
Haruka staggered back, slashing her sword toward them. One shrieked when it was hit — a high, unnatural sound — before crumbling into black dust.
But the others didn't flinch.
They grabbed her arms. Her legs. Her waist. Her throat.
She screamed, twisting violently, trying to break free. Her foot slammed one across the temple — it crumbled too — but more grabbed her leg as soon as it lifted and they started to drag her.
Her knees scraped against the cracked floor, skin tearing open. Sharp shards of stone sliced through her legs, and blood smeared behind her as she kicked and flailed.
"N-no—let go of me! Let go!!!"
Her voice cracked. She stabbed the sword into the ground, using it as an anchor, sparks of blue energy crackling across the marble. The force slowed them — for a moment.
They yanked harder.
She felt something rip. A sharp sting in her thigh. Her body scraped along the floor again — and she screamed.
Her arms shook with effort as she swung the blade sideways, slicing five of them clean in half. Dust exploded in her face. She coughed, eyes watering, but kept swinging. Her blade left arcs of glowing light across the dark corridor.
But no matter how many she destroyed, more kept coming.
From behind her. From the walls. From beneath the floor.
She was being swallowed. Drowned.
One climbed up her back, clutching her hair. Another bit into her ankle — not with teeth, but with fingers digging like nails into her skin.
One of the voices said "it'll be so fun ripping you apart.."
"No!!" She screamed, Her body vanishing into the thick, endless dark, until only the echoes of her screams remained.
———————
The quiet was too thick. The kind that settled in the lungs and refused to let go. Haru and Daichi stood in the stillness, their breaths the only sound anchoring them to the moment. The halls stretched out in strange angles ahead of them, and the ceiling lights flickered like dying fireflies. Haru's hand gripped the edge of the wall, trying to steady himself, a sharp edge of unease curling in his gut.Then, something sliced through the silence. A scream—distant, raw, and panicked.
Haru froze. His breath caught. Then his eyes widened in horror.
"Haruka?!"
Haru didn't think. Didn't pause. He took off at full speed, sprinting away, footsteps pounding against the warped floor.
"Haru!" Daichi's voice cracked behind him. "Wait! We don't know where she is! It could be a trap—Haru!!"
But Haru couldn't hear him anymore. His heart was thundering in his chest, louder than anything else. Panic crawled up his throat like a chokehold, every second without an answer making the silence more unbearable.
He raced through the twisted hallways, the scenery warping and changing with each turn. Doorways stretched. Shadows reached. And Haru didn't stop. He couldn't stop.
"Haruka!!" he shouted again, voice breaking. "Answer me! Where are you?! Please—say something!"
Behind him, Daichi ran as fast as he could, but the hallways themselves seemed to shift, distorting the space between them.
"Haru! Don't go alone! We'll find her, I swear—we'll find her—just stop running!"
But Haru was gone around the corner, driven by instinct and fear and guilt.The palace twisted silently behind them, swallowing the sound.And somewhere deeper in the dark, the whisper of Haruka's scream still lingered.