The masochists

The ground gave way beneath Elara's feet.

A moment ago, she had been staring into the face of her own reflection, held within the shrouded figure before her. Now, she was falling—swallowed by darkness, the cold air rushing past her ears. The pendant burned against her palm, but she refused to let go.

A sudden force yanked her sideways. Rael. His grip was firm, his blade gone as he twisted their bodies midair, aiming for the jagged outcroppings along the cavern walls.

"Elara—hold on!"

The crash came before she could brace herself.

They hit the stone floor hard. The impact rattled through her bones, her breath knocked from her lungs. She coughed, rolling onto her side as pain shot through her ribs. Rael groaned beside her, already trying to push himself up.

The chamber they had fallen into stretched impossibly far in every direction. The walls shimmered, lined with cracks of pale violet light, as if reality itself had fractured.

A deep hum vibrated through the space. The same whispering voices from before, only now they weren't in her mind—they filled the air, threading through every shadow.

Rael steadied himself, his crimson eyes flicking to her. "Are you—?"

"I'm fine," Elara breathed. She wasn't, but now wasn't the time to say so.

A sharp, scraping sound echoed through the chamber. Both of them snapped to attention. The cloaked figure had fallen with them. But the child was gone.

Instead, something else stirred in the farthest recess of the cavern.

Elara's heart pounded. The shadows thickened, writhing along the ground like living tendrils. A presence loomed just beyond the broken veil of light, something vast, something waiting.

Then, from the darkness, it spoke.

You have awoken me.

The voice was not singular. It was layered, shifting, as though a thousand tongues had spoken at once. The very air vibrated with its weight.

Elara swallowed hard, gripping the pendant tighter. "Who are you?"

A deep chuckle, ancient and patient.

You already know.

Rael stiffened beside her, his muscles tensed. "Elara—"

A figure stepped forward, emerging from the abyss. Tall, draped in tattered cloth, its face obscured by a veil of shifting black mist. Its form wavered between solid and incorporeal, as though it did not fully belong to this world.

But the worst part—

Its eyes. Twin voids, empty yet brimming with a presence that had always been watching.

Elara felt the weight of its gaze settle on her. The whispers in her mind intensified.

You carry the key, it murmured. And yet, you do not understand its door.

Elara clenched her jaw. "Then explain it to me."

A pause. Then, a slow, measured step forward. "Once, there was balance. We stood at the threshold, keepers of the veil. Until your kind sealed us away."

Elara exchanged a glance with Rael. "The Forgotten One," she whispered.

The figure let out something between a sigh and a growl. A name given by those who feared what they did not comprehend.

Rael stepped in front of her, his stance defensive. "If you were locked away, there was a reason."

A rumbling laugh. "And yet, here you stand—breaking the chains they forged."

Elara's fingers tightened around the pendant. "I didn't break anything."

The figure tilted its head. "Didn't you?"

A crack split through the chamber, light bursting outward from the walls. The cavern trembled, and the veil behind the entity rippled. The prison that had held it for untold centuries—weakening, fracturing.

Elara's stomach twisted. She had seen what happened in that vision. The destruction. The void seeping into the world. If this thing got loose—

Rael's voice was steady, but she could hear the strain beneath it. "Elara. We need to leave. Now."

She didn't argue.

She turned, sprinting toward the only visible path out of the cavern, the pendant burning hotter in her grip. Rael was right behind her, his footsteps echoing against the trembling stone.

Behind them, the Forgotten One did not chase.

It only watched.

And as they reached the passageway, its final whisper crawled into Elara's mind, cold and amused.

Run while you can. You are already too late