The subway tunnel was an open wound in the belly of the city, a place where humidity dripped from the walls like cold sweat. Kael walked ahead, his assault rifle pointed into the darkness and a tactical flashlight mounted on the barrel cutting through the underground mist. Behind him, Sophie gripped a corner of his military jacket, her short, irregular breathing echoing against the chipped tiles of the walls.
Every one of Kael's steps was calculated. It wasn't just a matter of physical survival; it was a battle against the silence that seemed to want to swallow them whole. On the surface, the city was falling apart, but down here, in the realm of the forgotten, reality seemed to grow denser, almost viscous.
"Kael, stop for a moment... please," Sophie whispered. Her legs were shaking, and the paleness of her face was accentuated by the raw light of the flashlight.
Kael stopped, but he didn't lower his weapon. He scanned the rusted tracks that disappeared into the dark before turning toward her. "We can't stay still for too long, Sophie. The Organization doesn't sleep. And that being... he sees us even without eyes."
"Why is all this happening? Why us?" Sophie sat down on an old, half-rotten wooden bench. "Yesterday I was at the bar. I was waiting for you. There was music; there was the smell of clean rain. Now... now I don't even remember the color of the walls in my house. I feel as if someone is tearing the pages out of my diary, one by one."
Kael knelt down to her level, putting one knee on the ground. For the first time since this madness began, his expression softened. "It's the Entity. It feeds on who we used to be. But as long as I remember you and you remember me, there is still hope. The Commander of the hitmen wants to break this bond because it's the only thing he can't control. You are my anchor, Sophie. Without you, I would just be another nameless soldier in this ghost war."
Just as he uttered those words, a screeching metallic sound echoed through the tunnel, coming from the direction they had come. Kael snapped to his feet, switching off the flashlight. The darkness became absolute, broken only by the small glowing indicators on his gear.
"They're here," Kael murmured.
From the shadows, no human footsteps emerged, but rather the hiss of liquid smoke. Two hitmen from the Organization appeared like inkblots in the dark. They didn't need flashlights; they seemed to sense the warmth of life or perhaps the accelerated beating of Sophie's heart.
Kael didn't fire immediately. He waited until they were close enough. When the first hitman raised a blade as black as obsidian, Kael drew his combat knife and lunged forward. The struggle was silent and brutal. Kael used his strength to pin the enemy's arm, feeling that unnatural texture beneath his fingers, as if he were fighting a mass of compacted ash. With a quick movement, he snapped the hitman's neck. The creature didn't make a sound; its tactical mask cracked, and the body began to vanish into a cloud of black particles.
The second hitman opened fire with a silenced pistol. Kael threw himself to the side, dragging Sophie behind an iron pillar. The bullets hit the metal with a sharp clang. Kael returned fire, aiming not at the body, but at the electrical cables hanging from the ceiling above the enemy.
Sparks exploded like small fireworks, illuminating the tunnel for an instant. The hitman was blinded by the flash of light—a weakness Kael had sensed: those beings, born from the darkness of oblivion, hated the violent light of reality. Kael leapt out from cover and emptied half a magazine into the opponent's chest. The hitman exploded into a trail of smoke that was quickly sucked away by the tunnel's air currents.
Kael returned to Sophie and helped her up. "We have to find the old resistance bunker. If there is still a place where memories are protected, it's there."
"And what if that's gone too?" she asked, tears streaming down her face.
"Then we'll build it ourselves, Sophie. Even if I have to carve your every smile into the walls of this city with my own hands."
They resumed their walk through the underground labyrinth. Kael felt the weight of the rifle and the weight of his mission. He knew the Entity was watching them, amused by their struggle. But he also knew that every step taken together was an act of rebellion. They were no longer just fugitives; they were the last guardians of humanity in a world that was vanishing into nothingness.
As they moved deeper into an abandoned sector of the metro, Kael noticed drawings on the walls: graffiti that hadn't been erased yet. They depicted faces, dates, names. It was proof that others had tried to resist before him. He squeezed Sophie's hand, promising himself that her name would never end up on a forgotten wall. The war was only just beginning.