Dominic frowned, confusion and shock twisting in his chest.
None of what had happened made sense.
One moment he had been falling through the earth, touching a wall of solid shadows, then standing before a floating orb, then watching a rift tear open with clawed hands reaching for him. And now he was simply back in the corridor as if nothing had occurred.
What was that? And what was happening to him?
He didn't understand how his mind and body could be pulled from one place to another so instantly, as if someone—or something—was tugging on pieces of him like threads.
And the aged voice… twisted, commanding, and furious. It felt like he had brushed against something malevolent.
Something that wanted him for its own purpose and had guided him not to help him, but to take advantage of him!
Protected.
That was what the voice had screamed.
Protected by what? Or by who?
The questions beat through Dominic's mind with no answers to catch.
He looked around the corridor. The wall of shadow was gone. It was just normal shadows right now.
The suffocating darkness had thinned, leaving only the faint glow of his torch licking across the symbols on the stone.
The voice that had guided him here was silent, completely and utterly gone.
He hadn't received power. He hadn't received answers. All he had found was danger and confusion.
Maybe this was the moment to turn back. Everything in this place felt wrong. His instinct told him he shouldn't be here.
He took a step backward and turned toward the entrance where he landed earlier.
Suddenly a shiver crawled down his spine.
Something was watching him.
The sensation was too sharp to ignore, like cold fingers brushing along the back of his neck.
Dominic turned slowly, torch trembling in his grip.
A shape peeled itself from the shadows at the far end of the corridor.
The creature emerging from the darkness was huge. Its body hunched and angular, covered in bristling black fur that shifted like smoke.
Its limbs were long and thin and bending at unnatural angles.
Two glowing yellow eyes shone from a head that looked narrow and stretched, with a mouth that split open vertically to reveal rows of needle-like teeth.
Dominic widened his eyes.
He knew instantly he couldn't fight that thing.
The creature let out a hiss.
Dominic ran.
He sprinted down the corridor as fast as his legs allowed, torchlight whipping wildly across the walls.
Behind him, the monster lunged forward. Its claws scraped stone as it chased him.
He kept running and refused to look back. But with every step, his body began to feel heavier as if some invisible weight were dragging at his limbs.
His muscles that were normally strong from years of helping his grandfather hunt, started to lag. His breath turned ragged far too quickly.
Something was wrong. The corridor, the air, and the pressure in this place was wrong!
His body was weakening faster the deeper he ran.
Ahead, the tunnel split in two. Dominic veered left without hesitation, picking a direction purely out of instinct and fear.
His boots pounded against the stone, but the scraping claws behind him grew louder, closing the distance quickly.
He forced his legs to keep moving, but the monster found him again.
Its twisted shape burst into view at the corner he had just taken, its yellow eyes flaring with predatory focus. It let out a snarl and lunged after him.
Dominic pushed himself harder, but suddenly the ground shifted.
The entire floor tilted sharply beneath him, throwing his balance. Before he could react, the left wall groaned and opened like a massive stone door being forced aside by some unseen mechanism.
Dominic was hurled sideways into the opening.
The monster skidded across the tilting floor and was flung in with him.
Both of them tumbled through the sudden passage, rolling across a new stone floor. The opening slammed shut behind them with a heavy thud.
Dominic scrambled backward on hands and elbows, torch still clutched in his shaking grip.
They were inside a chamber now. Not too large, but not so small either.
The ceiling rose just high enough for the monster's hunched form to unfold.
Dominic's pulse thundered in his ears as the creature lifted its head toward him.
The confined space amplified every hiss of the monster.
Fear hollowed out his chest as the truth hit him. He was now trapped in this chamber with the monster by himself!
Regret slammed into him. He shouldn't have come. He should have stayed home, stayed safe and alive!
But regret meant nothing now. Only death stood in front of him.
The creature stepped toward him, its long limbs clicking.
Its vertical mouth opened and closed with a sucking hiss, rows of needle-like teeth glistening with foul saliva.
Dominic hurled his torch at it in frantic desperation.
The creature swatted it aside with a single flick of its arm. The torch skidded across the floor, sparks scattering before it guttered into a dim flicker.
Darkness thickened.
Dominic grabbed his small hunting knife, the blade shaking as he held it up. But what could that tiny piece of metal do against a thing like this?
The monster lunged.
Its clawed hand clamped around his leg. Dominic gasped as it jerked him off the floor and hauled him upside down.
The creature's breath washed over him, thick with the stench of rot and death.
Then it threw him.
Pain exploded through his body as he slammed onto the stone. Before he could breathe, the monster lifted him again and threw him down a second time.
Dominic felt something crack inside his chest. His vision blurred, his ears rang, and the world spun sickeningly. He started to have trouble breathing.
"I'm dying," he realized dimly. "This is it."
The monster threw him once more.
And in that instant, right as he hit the ground, he saw two streaks of pale grey light shot across the chamber.
They slammed into Dominic's chest, and for a heartbeat he saw nothing but white static bursting behind his eyes. The pain in his body was gone in an instant.
The monster loomed over him, its arm stretching forward to grab his head.
However, something inside Dominic snapped awake.
He felt a violent surge of instinct, unlike anything he had ever felt. His body moved before thought.
He blitzed forward and became a sudden blur, and slipped beneath the monster's reaching claw.
In the next heartbeat he was behind the monster.
He didn't remember swinging his knife.
But when he glanced down, the blade in his hand dripped with dark red blood.
The monster let out a distorted shriek as a deep, diagonal gash split open across its torso, spilling dark red blood.
The chamber echoed with the sound as Dominic stood frozen, staring at the impossible speed he had just moved with and the wound he had inflicted.
"What was that?"
Something definitely had happened to him. But he didn't know what.
—