"The difference between a protagonist and a background character? The protagonist gets a dramatic death scene. The extra just gets a line in someone else's flashback."
***
I squeezed through the crack. Felt the rough stone scrape against my already tender ribs. The pain was sharp but clarifying. A physical anchor that kept me focused on the task ahead rather than spiraling into anxiety about everything that could go wrong.
On the other side, a narrow maintenance tunnel stretched into darkness. Exactly as I'd expected from my knowledge of the novel.
The passage was maybe four feet wide and barely six feet tall. I had to duck slightly as I moved away from the crack. The air was stale but breathable. It carried the faint scent of old iron and forgotten machinery. Decades of work and sweat soaked into the very stone.
Behind me, I could hear my teammates discussing their next move in urgent whispers. Their voices filtered through the narrow gap I'd just traversed.
