Opening – The Threshold
The wooden door should not have been there.Not in the Hollow Spire. Not in this world.
Its grain shifted subtly, as though carved from smoke that forgot it wasn't wood.Every instinct told Rain: Don't touch it.Every instinct also whispered: But it's the only way out.
The predator's metallic claws screeched on the steps below.
Rain twisted the handle and stepped through.
The World Between
Silence.The smell of damp earth and old paper filled his lungs.
He stood inside a library without walls — shelves extending into a dark mist, lit by floating lanterns. The ground beneath him was uneven stone, etched with spirals that hurt to look at.
A bell tolled once, though no clock existed here.
From somewhere between the shelves, a figure approached — tall, draped in a coat stitched from maps, their face hidden beneath a shadowed hood.
Dialogue – The Librarian
Librarian: "You've taken the wrong path."Rain: "It was either this or get ripped apart."Librarian: "Wrong paths can lead to longer falls."
The hood tilted toward him, and Rain felt his heartbeat stutter.
The Librarian raised a hand — Rain's Shard Timer appeared, glowing in the air between them: 01:49:03.
Librarian: "You've already lost twenty seconds simply by opening the door.Time here… bleeds differently."
A Bargain
Rain's gut twisted. If time flowed slower or faster here, he was gambling with the shard's deadline.
Rain: "Then tell me how to get back."Librarian: "I can return you… but you'll need a token. A story. One you've never told anyone."
Rain's mind raced. Every second spent thinking was a second burned.He gave the only one that came to him — the night his sister vanished, and the storm that left him waking up on the wrong side of the city with blood on his hands.
The Librarian's head tilted further.
Librarian: "That will do."
The Cost
They handed him a thin, black card engraved with a single silver line.
Librarian: "Show this to the next thing that tries to kill you. If it stops… run."
The shelves around him twisted — became stairs, then steel walls. The smell of oil and rust returned.
Rain stumbled back into the Spire — just as the predator's claw lashed toward his face.
Cliffhanger – The Card's Power
Instinct took over. Rain slammed the black card into the creature's path.
The claw froze mid-swing.The predator's many eyes widened — with fear.
It spoke for the first time in a voice that wasn't hunger:
"Why… do you carry that?"
Rain didn't wait for an answer. He ran — and this time, it didn't follow.