Chapter 5: Splintered Reality
John staggered down the endless dark hallway, breath ragged, heart hammering. The laughter of the Twins echoed behind him — distant but clear, as if they lingered just out of sight. His flashlight flickered, casting warped shadows that danced on the peeling walls.
"Jake? Mom?" he called into the void. No answer. Only the low, guttural breathing of something huge far below. The Shadow Beast was still hunting.
The hall split — left or right. Both paths led into deeper blackness. His skin prickled. Something was watching.
A shape stirred in the left corridor — small, thin. A figure in rags. Rick.
"John... you made it," Rick croaked, face pale, eyes sunken. "But they won't let you leave. Not now. Not after the thirteenth floor."
"Where's my family?" John demanded.
Rick smiled sadly. "Lost in the cracks... in the mirrors... unless you find the Heart."
"The Heart?"
Rick pointed upward. "Top floor. Where God fell. Where the world broke. Find it... or stay here forever."
A scream tore through the walls — Cherlyn. John's mother. Distant, terrified.
"Mom!" John ran.
The hall warped, twisted, stairs bending impossibly upward into spirals. Lights flashed — glimpses of rooms filled with broken toys, claw marks, old blood stains. Whispering voices — secrets of lost souls — filled his ears.
"John... help us... join us..."
He stumbled into a wide chamber — the Observation Deck. Windows overlooked the dead city, lit by an unnatural moon. And in the center — a broken cross. Blackened. Burned.
"This was God's Tower," Rick whispered behind him. "But He abandoned it. Left us to the Hollow Ones. And now... the Heart feeds them."
The Shadow Beast roared below — shaking the floor, cracking the walls.
"You have to choose," Rick hissed. "Go up... or stay here and die."
John gripped the iron pipe tighter, breath fogging in the cold. The path upward loomed — steep, dark, and full of unknown horrors.
He took a step toward the stairwell, heart pounding.
"I'm coming for you, Jake... Mom... hold on."
The shadows behind him shifted — and the Twins giggled softly, watching him go.
End of Chapter 5.