The endless corridor twisted beneath Alex's feet like a serpent made of stone and shadow. No matter how far he walked, the path ahead remained the same—cracked cobblestone underfoot, walls etched with pulsing veins of black light, and the constant, maddening sound of whispering just out of reach.
He had grown used to the voices in his mind—mostly the cold, enigmatic tone of the Horror System. But now the whispers came from somewhere else. Closer. Organic. Wrong.
They slithered around his ears like phantom fingers.
"Alex…"
"Don't look back…"
"Do you remember her?"
He stopped in his tracks. That last whisper—so familiar it stopped his breath.
Her.
He didn't remember anyone clearly. Faces came in flashes, like reflections in broken glass—warm eyes, soft laughter, a hand reaching out just before everything turned black. Was it a memory, or another trick of the Horror System?
A shuffling sound echoed from behind him. Alex turned slowly.
The corridor had changed. Where once there had been empty shadow, now stood a figure. Shrouded in darkness, it had the outline of a human, but its limbs were far too long, its head tilted in an unnatural angle. The whispers stopped. Silence pressed down like a suffocating weight.
Then the figure spoke.
"You're not supposed to be awake yet."
Its voice was layered—dozens of voices speaking in chorus, some familiar, some alien. The thing stepped forward, and Alex instinctively braced himself, calling on the power that now coiled within him like a slumbering beast.
The figure paused. It cocked its head as if examining him.
"So… you've already begun to change," it murmured. "Good. The others didn't last this long."
"The others?" Alex asked, voice hoarse.
"They screamed until their throats split. You're different. You're… interesting." A grin peeled across its face—jagged, bone-white teeth revealed beneath a mask of darkness. "But that won't save you."
The creature lunged.
Alex reacted on instinct, summoning the dark energy inside him. A shockwave of shadow burst from his palm, slamming the figure back into the wall. The corridor trembled. Cracks raced up the walls like lightning.
Panting, Alex stepped toward where the creature had hit.
It was gone.
Only the whispers remained.
"Don't trust your eyes…"
"Even the light lies…"
The Horror System's voice returned suddenly, sharp and urgent.
"Warning: Anomaly encountered. Rogue Entity—'The Watcher'—identified. Not part of the original sequence."
"Proceed with extreme caution."
Alex felt a chill crawl down his spine. The Horror System—so far detached and emotionless—sounded… afraid?
There's something deeper going on here, he realized. Something even the System doesn't control.
The corridor finally opened into a vast atrium of obsidian glass and crimson light. In the center stood a black monolith, pulsing with energy.
A checkpoint.
But unlike before, this one was different. Glowing runes spiraled along its surface, and at its base sat a journal—old, bloodstained, and barely holding together.
Alex picked it up.
Scrawled on the first page were three words:
"You are not alone."
He closed the journal, heart pounding.
The abyss had more secrets than he could have imagined—and now, he wasn't sure who the real enemy was.