The darkness didn't just sit around them —it tightened.Closed in like a living throat.
Alex, Sophie, Leo, and Evelyn pressed their backs together, forming a small trembling circle in the middle of the shifting black.
They heard the creatures before they saw them.
Scratching…skittering…bones clicking in the dark like animal teeth grinding.
Leo whispered, barely audible, "They're surrounding us. They're moving in a perfect circle."
Sophie clutched his arm. "How do you know?"
He swallowed hard."I can hear their footsteps… twelve of them. No—fourteen. No—"His breath caught."They're multiplying."
The lantern pulsed faintly beside Evelyn, its glow like a dying star.
A thin blue line inside the flame stretched into a familiar shape.
An eye.Opening.
Evelyn flinched. "No—don't—don't open—please—"
But it opened wider, the flame twisting unnaturally.
Alex leaned close to her, whispering urgently, "Ev. You're still here. The lantern isn't you. Fight it."
She nodded, but her hands were trembling violently.
Then—
Something moved in the blackness.
A pale shape, crawling on the wall.Limbs bent backward.Head dragging upside-down.Breathing none of them could see… but all of them felt.
Sophie whispered, shaking, "Alex… it's above us."
Another skittered across the ceiling.Another dragged itself along the floor.Another crawled sideways along the seats.
All of them circling.Closer.Closer.
Leo whispered, voice cracking, "We're trapped… we're actually trapped…"
The darkness answered him.
"y e s ."
A creature's hand slammed onto Leo's shoulder.
Cold.Soft.Too many fingers.
Leo froze, breath trapped in his lungs.
Sophie reached for him instinctively.
Alex hissed, "Don't move—DON'T—"
But it was too late.
The creature dragged its fingers slowly down Leo's back.
Not attacking.Not grabbing.
Feeling him.
Exploring him.
Savoring him.
Leo shut his eyes, tears forming."I can't… I can't take this… please…"
A voice whispered inches from his ear:
"stAy StiLL… i WaNt YoUr ShApE."
Leo broke.
He screamed.
The darkness erupted.
The creatures attacked at once —claws scraping, mouths opening, hands reaching from every direction.
Alex yanked Leo backward, barely avoiding a swipe that sliced through the air where his throat had been.
Sophie shrieked as something brushed her ankle.Evelyn stumbled as the lantern suddenly flared bright blue.
A wave of light blasted outward—
The creatures shrieked, folding in on themselves, hissing and twisting away from the glow.
But the light wasn't steady.It flickered.
Dimmed.
Brightened.
Dimmed again.
The lantern whispered inside Evelyn's skull:
"yoU wAnT mOrE lIgHt…dOn'T yOu, EvElYn?"
Her vision blurred.Her knees buckled.
Alex grabbed her. "Ev! Stay with us!"
"I'm… I'm trying… it's so loud—"
The lantern pulsed violently.
Light exploded—but this time the creatures didn't retreat.
They moved toward the light.
Drawn to it.
Sophie screamed, "EVELYN, STOP—THEY LIKE IT—THEY LIKE IT—"
The lantern's flame stretched into a wide, vertical mouth-like slit.
It whispered:
"iT's NoT fOr ThEm."
The train jolted violently, throwing them all to the floor.Evelyn slammed her head against a seat, gasping as the lantern hovered above her, glowing brighter and brighter—
until its flame formed not an eye…
but a hand.
A hand reaching out.
Alex yelled, "EV! GET AWAY FROM IT—"
The blue hand made of flame brushed Evelyn's cheek.
Her eyes rolled back.
Her body arched.
And the lantern whispered a final, chilling phrase:
"LeT mE iN."