Their footsteps echoed in the dark void, their voices echoing back to them as if coming from endless depths. At the end of the stone staircase, their feet suddenly stopped, and everyone stood in silence. They found themselves before a massive entrance, its opening like the mouth of a monster swallowing light.
Kaito whispered in a low voice, as if reading from an ancient book:
"The Caverns of Shadows..."
No one was surprised. They were used to Kaito knowing the names of places they had never seen before. They didn't ask how, and they didn't dare.
Minamoto produced black metal bracelets engraved with strange symbols and distributed them to everyone. As soon as they put them on, a faint light emanated from them, like a candle flame, revealing a short distance ahead.
But even with this light, nothing could be seen but damp walls that creaked as if moving in the darkness, and the sound of water dripping from the ceiling, as if monitoring their progress.
They exchanged silent glances, then continued walking with cautious steps, the darkness gradually swallowing them up… towards an unknown future.
The tunnel stretched endlessly, its ceiling low and its walls covered with black cracks that extended like dried veins.
Taeko was constantly joking with Hiro Shin, exchanging silly jokes to break the heavy silence. Tsuki walked quietly beside Kaito, her eyes scanning him from time to time. Hana and Saya followed Minamoto's lead.
After a few minutes of walking, a sudden, cold wind swept through the tunnel, like the breath of a giant creature breathing from the darkness itself.
The laughter stopped, and hearts trembled.
Instinctively, everyone turned off their glow bracelets, letting the tunnel swallow them up in total darkness.
The silence grew heavy... but there was a suffocating sensation, a sense that something was watching them, monitoring their breathing.
Minamoto slowly raised his head... and suddenly, a few centimeters from his face, there was a monster. A deformed humanoid body, but with terrifyingly long legs, bone-white skin, gleaming black teeth, and twisted arms as if trying to wrap themselves around something invisible.
The monster stood motionless before him, its eyes absent, but on its back was a deep black gash, throbbing like an open wound that swallowed the light.
Kaito didn't move, his eyes fixed on that gash, as if trying to remember something.
Then, without warning, the monster moved, its gait twisting, passing them one by one... but it didn't pay attention to them.
Then they understood.
It doesn't see... but it hears. The tiniest sounds, even breathing.
Everyone held their breath, their ears ringing from the pressure.
No one dared move, as if the slightest tremor would herald death.
When the monster finally pulled away and plunged deeper into the tunnel, they all breathed very slowly, but inside, fear still gripped their chests. It was clear that even if they attacked him together, only the strongest would survive... and the rest, nothing would remain.
In this confusing silence, Kaito spoke in a low voice:
"These are... the Watchers.
"Creatures with many eyes... but they don't see with their eyes. They only hear the simplest sounds.
No one asked him how he knew this... because Kaito himself didn't know.
They were just fragments of shattered memories... surfacing at the surface of his mind at the most terrifying moments.
End of Chapter