The darkness did not merely swallow them-it digested every sense they had.
No sight. No sound. No touch.
Only the awareness that they were still breathing... and that something else was breathing with them, or living among them.
Then a whisper, not in their ears, but inside their ribs:
"Run... and we will chase you.
Fight... and we will learn-or let us feast on your corpses for dinner.
Surrender... and we will wear your faces tomorrow."
When the lights returned, nothing was the same.
They were no longer in the tunnel. They were in a strange place.
They stood in a vast, circular chamber with walls of polished black stone like mirrors, yet reflecting nothing.
At the center: a lone throne of twisted bones. Empty.
Omar (gasping, checking his body):
"Am I... still me? Pinch me. No don't. I don't want to know."
Sarah (blinking rapidly):
"Where is Fatima?!"
Fatima was already there, standing a few meters away, her samurai sword drawn, her magnum aimed at the empty throne. Her eyes were not confused they were resolute.
Fatima (calmly):
"He is here."
Rayan (looking around wildly):
"Who? The Voice? I don't see anyone!"
Adam (pointing to the floor):
"Look... the shadows are moving toward the throne."
Indeed, dozens of shadows slithered across the floor like serpents, converging at the base of the bone throne. They twisted, rose, and took form.
A figure emerged taller than any human, wrapped in a cloak woven from darkness itself. Its face was a smooth, pale mask, featureless except for two pulsing red eyes that blinked slowly, like a waking god.
The Voice (now with form, deeper and closer):
"You have passed the first test. Congratulations. Most dissolve before they even hear my whisper."
Mustafa (stepping forward, sword ready):
"Who are you?!"
The Voice:
"Did you not recognize me?"
Mustafa:
"No... Who are you?"
The Voice:
"When a person dies, their loved ones forget them."
Then the voice faded as it spoke:
"Mustafa... Beware. You are forgetting Mohamad, just as you forgot me."
Suddenly, Fatima shouted in an angry voice:
"Sofiane ! You'd better come out here. You are punished!"
Sofiane laughed as he departed without revealing himself:
"Too late, Mother Fatima... Sofiane was killed by your husband. Now I am the leader of the People of the Last Silence, and the controller of these tunnels."
A silence as heavy as graves long forgotten by time settled after Sofiane's laughter faded into the depths of the hall. Everyone looked at one another, their eyes trembling between fear and disbelief at what they had heard. Some among them knew Sofiane's story; others heard his name for the first time. But what was his connection to Fatima and Mohamad? That tale was told in the earlier chapters... and now, the time for revenge has come.
Omar (in a hoarse voice, barely audible):
"Mother... what did he say? Sofiane... my uncle Sofiane... was killed by my father? Then he returned to become... the leader of the Last Silence?"
Fatima (her sword is still raised, but her hand is trembling for the first time):
"I don't know... I think it's something else wearing his memory. Something cursed by God and established in this hell... or a copy from the People of the Last Silence."
Sarah (approaching cautiously):
"How do we kill something that was already dead?"
Mustafa (his voice cold as ice, yet his eyes welling with tears):
"We don't kill it... We run. Now."
Kareem:
"I thought he sacrificed himself to save Mustafa."
Rayan (terrified):
"Yes... that's the story we know. But where? The tunnel is laughing at us!"
Maria:
"We have strayed far from the Tunnel of Amal..."
Fatima gazed at the empty throne, then toward the golden passage still gleaming at the far end of the chamber. She breathed deeply, as if exhaling the very breath of her life.
Fatima (in a terrifying calm):
"Sofiane... my son... if you can hear me... your mother has not forgotten you. But the one behind your mask is not my son. My son died a martyr. And you... are nothing but a rotten echo. You were once a righteous uncle... but now, you are merely a memory."
A faint rumble began to fill the chamber. The black walls started cracking, and from their fissures, tiny red eyes emerged thousands of them.
Adam (whispering):
"It's time to leave."
Omar (with a dry, slightly mad laugh):
"It seems dinner has started without us."
They all ran toward the golden passage, never looking back. Behind them, they heard Sofiane's voice whisper one last time:
"Run... Mother. The shadow does not die. The shadow waits."
They vanished into the light. And the throne crumbled behind them.
Thus began a story of revenge... and the guilty one was Mohamad.