Lina stood paralyzed. The last remnants of her scream still echoed across the cave, a broken melody swallowed by the jagged stone walls. Her knees hit the floor first, then her hands, palms scraping rock and grit as if pain could reconnect her with the world she just lost. Her mother's eyes, once so full of weary strength, now hung frozen in Lina's mind, wide and lifeless.
Seraina didn't speak. She couldn't. She stood beside Lina, her own body trembling, her hands smudged with blood.She stared at the scorched wall, the fading image of Lina's mother burned into her brain, her strangled final gasps still rattling in her ears.
Then, a rumble. The cave groaned. A section of the wall behind them collapsed inwards, the same wall that moments ago had been a solid prison. Rock dust spiraled into the air. Chains clattered to the ground. And from the sudden wreckage, two figures tumbled forward.
Noemie and Annelise.
Lina's head jerked up. Her face was streaked with tears, her lips cracked from shouting, her eyes burning. When she saw Noemie collapse in a heap, blood pooling around her back, something snapped inside her.
"No... No..."
Lina crawled back, knees scraping stone, staring at the woman she'd beaten only minutes ago. Her hands, the same hands that once held her mother's warmth, had done this.
Noemie coughed, her voice barely a whisper. "I tried... I tried not to scream."
Annelise collapsed beside her, bound arms finally free, her face ghostly pale. Seraina rushed over, her instincts pulling her toward Noemie as she inspected the torn welts, the bruises that patterned her skin like cruel tattoos.
"What are you doing here?" Seraina whispered, brushing blood away.
Noemie tried to answer, but her voice cracked. Annelise, barely able to sit up, answered instead.
"Ladina said if she screamed... you'd die. That was the only rule. We didn't know it was you hitting her."
Lina stood slowly, swaying like a reed. Her hair hung loose, her chest heaved, her clothes clung to her skin like guilt. Then, a laugh escaped her lips. Not a joyous laugh, but a fractured one, one born of disbelief and grief and a mind fracturing at the seams.
She turned to Annelise, eyes wide.
"You.... this is your fault. I was dragged here because of you. My mom... she died because of you!"
Annelise didn't resist. She knelt her head.
Lina lunged. Her fists rained down. Slaps, punches, her words turning into sobs. Seraina pulled her back, wrapping her arms tightly around Lina's body.
"Stop it! They're victims too!" Seraina cried. "Can't you see? We all are!"
Lina collapsed again. Her body melted in Seraina's arms.
All four were silent.
Only sobs remained.
A wind brushed through the ruins of the cave wall, and with it came a scent none of them had noticed in days: fresh air. The smell of the forest.
They turned, dazed, and saw the light. Trees swaying beyond a crumbled stone archway.
Annelise looked at it, then at Noemie.
"We can leave..."
Seraina turned to Lina, but Lina was frozen again, staring past them, eyes dilated.
"No... they're here."
Bushes stirred violently. Branches cracked.
Panic surged. Seraina and Annelise grabbed Noemie, trying to lift her.
"We have to go now!" Seraina shouted.
Noemie groaned. Her body sagged.
They made it to the edge of the exit. Then Noemie stumbled.
"Wait! Don't leave me!" she cried, her voice ragged.
Lina turned. She saw Noemie crawling, reaching out.
And behind her.....shadows. Women, silent and cruel, emerging from the brush. Expressionless, eyes vacant.
Lina screamed. "Noemie!"
Seraina reached for her. But it was too late. Pale hands clutched Noemie's arms. One dragged her back.
"No! Let me go!" Noemie screamed, clawing at the stone.
Seraina ran forward, grabbed her wrist.
"Pull!"
Lina joined. Annelise, limping, tried to hold onto both of them.
Noemie kicked, thrashed. The hands tightened.
"I won't go back! I won't!"
Then, just for a moment, something in the cave wall glowed.
A symbol.
Seraina's eyes locked on it. She gasped.
"Lina..... this symbol..... it's the same one. From my research. The one about subconscious pattern recognition."
Lina looked at it. A single tear rolled down her cheek. Her voice was hoarse, raw.
"This place..... it's not just built to trap us..... it knows us."
The ground shook. Noemie screamed again. Lina's grip loosened.
Then...
Her body was wrenched from their grip.
Dragged into the blackness.
Gone.
The forest light faded again.
And the silence returned, heavier than before.