Rose's voice trembled, uneven, as if she were grasping for something beyond her reach. Her hands twitched at her sides, fingertips brushing the seams of her worn clothes, seeking some anchor in the texture. She stood on the cold stone of the cavern, her eyes darting to Xin, then dropping to the ground beneath her feet. Her brow furrowed, the weight of her thoughts etching lines across her face.
"It was strange," she said, her voice low, almost a murmur. "I fell into this place where I couldn't feel the ground beneath me. I was floating, weightless, untethered. What's the word for that?"
Xin's gaze softened, his voice quiet but steady. "Zero gravity."
She nodded, a single sharp motion, then her lips pressed into a thin line. "Yes. That's it. Zero gravity." Her frown deepened, her words carrying a heaviness she couldn't shake. "Is that normal? I followed what the visor told me to do. It was all I had to survive. It took so long... So long. But I found this rock, drifting out there in the void. I grabbed it, held on tight, pushed off it to move forward until I reached something solid."
Her shoulders shifted, a restless shrug that betrayed more than her words could carry. She paused, her breath uneven, as if the memory itself was a weight pressing down on her chest. Xin didn't speak. He watched her, his mouth tight at the corners, his eyes careful, tracing the fragments of her story as they spilled out, scattered like shards of a broken dream.
"I've been climbing this mountain for months," she continued, her voice wavering, thin as mist curling through some ancient, forgotten ruin. Her eyes flickered, unfocused, staring through Xin rather than at him. "Half a year, maybe more. Searching for the exit. Always searching. But I made it to the top, didn't I? I reached it."
A brittle laugh broke from her lips, sharp and fragile, like glass cracking under pressure. "Only after fighting those bugs. So many bugs." Her words tumbled faster now, spilling out as if silence might swallow her whole if she stopped. "Not only the man-eating ones, you know. Woman-eating too. But I'm tough. My skin's thicker than most." She flexed her fingers, the motion sharp, implying the snap of bones without sound. Another laugh followed, hollow and fleeting, dissolving into the cavern's stillness.
Xin hesitated, his mouth half-open before the words finally stumbled out. "When you fell… did you happen to see anyone else down there? A body, maybe. A person?"
Rose tilted her head, a teasing smile tugging at her lips. "I saw something, yeah. But not really a person. More like… a life someone decided to throw away. You know, like when you're done having a good time in a relationship and life just left him heartbroken and lonely." She made a little flicking motion with her hand, laughing lightly at her own joke. "That's what it felt like. Just discarded, lying there with nothing to hold on to."
Xin didn't laugh. His gaze lowered, voice quieter than before. "I lost someone… someone who fell down there."
Her smile faltered. For a moment, she wasn't sure if she'd crossed a line or if he was only half-serious. Rose leaned closer, trying to read his expression. "Wait. Hold up. Why would you say that? You just made it sound like you actually lost someone—like, for real. Did you?"
Her words hung heavy, bitter, filling the space between them with a sour weight. Xin opened his mouth to ask more, but the world interrupted.
A scream tore through the cavern, raw and jagged, a man's voice ripping apart the silence like metal splitting. Rose froze, her breath catching, her shoulders locking as her mouth hung open, soundless. Xin's chest tightened, his pulse hammering in his ears.
Then another sound came, not human, vast and unearthly, rolling down from above. It was no scream but a groan, immense, as if the sky itself were fracturing, splitting open with a weight that made the stone beneath them hum. The sound vibrated in their bones, chilling their marrow, turning their blood to ice.
Rose staggered, her arms wrapping around herself, her voice trembling. "What was that? Xin, what was that?"
Xin's heart sank, his eyes widening, pupils dilating as if he'd glimpsed something unspeakable. "No," he whispered, the word hoarse, broken. He wanted to clamp his mouth shut, to swallow the words, but they had already escaped.
The cavern trembled. Dust drifted down in faint streams, coating their shoulders like ash. Somewhere far above, a presence pressed down, heavy, suffocating, undeniable. The sound came again, louder, closer, a groaning weight that seemed to bear down on the world itself.
"Sky Hollows," Xin breathed, the syllables trembling on his lips.
Rose blinked, her fear momentarily eclipsed by confusion. "Sky Hollows? What are Sky Hollows?"
He didn't answer. His body swayed, exhaustion breaking through the fragile barriers he'd built to hold it at bay. Sleepless nights, endless battles, the relentless ache of survival clawed at him, rising to the surface. His thoughts splintered, shattering into jagged fragments, each one cutting deeper than the last. Memories surged unbidden: skies torn open, bleeding light; shadows swallowing entire ridges; screams silenced in an instant. His jaw clenched, a vein pulsing in his temple.
Not here, Not now not again...
The sound roared through him, a storm tide threatening to drown him. His knees buckled under its weight, sweat slicking his palms. Rose's voice reached him, faint and distant, asking something he couldn't hear. His mind screamed, a cacophony of memories: experiments gone wrong, losses too heavy to bear, urges he'd buried deep. His heart thundered, stress and madness surging, threatening to crush him.
Then there was a change in the glassy sky.
It was subtle, almost imperceptible, like the eye of a storm opening. A thin, unnatural calm spread through him, seeping into his chest, sinking into his bones. The madness didn't vanish, but it dulled, muffled, wrapped in an eerie serenity. His breath steadied, though his eyes still trembled at the edges, betraying the storm within.
The room pulsed with the echoes of that otherworldly groan, the promise of something vast descending. Rose's voice broke through, sharp with urgency. "Xin? Xin, what's happening?"
He didn't look at her. His gaze locked upward, toward the opening in the stone, where no barrier could shield them from what loomed above. "It's starting again," he said, his voice low, heavy with dread.
Shun's eyebrow arched, his worry mingling with frustration, first his eyes drifted from what seemed like a message then to Xin . "Starting again? What's starting again? Xin, talk to me. What's coming?"
His mind reeled, fragments of memory clawing at him. He saw it again: the torn sky, the shadows, the silence that followed. His hands shook, and he clenched them into fists, trying to anchor himself. "They're not something you can fight and defeat you just survive and last until sunrise," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"I thought it was over. I thought we'd outlasted them them. But they're here. Again." His voice cracked, the weight of his words pressing down on him. "I can't do this again, Shun. I can't lose more people..."
shuns hand reached out, hesitating, then resting lightly on his arm. "You're not alone this time," he said, his voice firm despite the tremor in it. "I'm here now. Whatever these Sky Hollows are, we'll face them together."