The flashlight was already flickering.
Ren grunted and slapped the base. "It's fine. Tape it tighter."
"You said that last time," Hina muttered. "Then it died in the sewer tunnels."
"This isn't the sewer," he grinned, teeth catching in the LED glare. "This is bigger."
They stood at the far edge of a chain-link fence that no one had touched in years. Behind it lay the broken husk of C-Line, Section 9, an abandoned subway spur that wasn't on any maps anymore. Concrete flaked off in sheets. The rails were rusted, crooked like ribs under skin. One of the cracked support pillars bore red spray paint:NO BELOWand, carved beneath it,WE WARNED YOU.
Ren adjusted the taped-up flashlight to face the entrance.
"Alright, we're live," he said, voice lifted with the strange, electric confidence of someone trying not to be scared. "Say hi to the chat."
Yuto rolled his eyes and flipped off the lens. "You're gonna get us arrested."
"No one cares about this place anymore. Look at it."
Minato crouched by the half-buried maintenance hatch, running his fingers along the edge. He looked smaller than the others, pale in the LED beam, his voice distant. "It's not locked."
"Don't open it yet," Hina said, glancing behind them, as if expecting someone — or something — to call them back.
Ren checked the phone screen. "Three thousand viewers already. Oh damn, we're climbing fast."
@mirrorc0il: Wtf this is real?@straywire: it's the real station I checked the blueprints@TEETHLING: don't go in. I'm serious.@angelbitten: you don't come back if you go below.@sunrot.live: its scripted scripted asf
Ren grinned wider. "Guess we're famous."
Minato twisted the latch. The hatch let out a low groan, like something old being disturbed — something that had been sleeping too long.
Warm air spilled up. Stale. Thick. It smelled like rust and hospital floors.
"Let's go viral," Ren whispered.
And they descended.
The ladder was slick with grime. Ren led the way, holding the phone up. Hina followed, then Yuto. Minato came last, closing the hatch behind them. The clang of it echoed like a gunshot.
The tunnel stretched on in tight silence. It shouldn't have gone this deep. The stairs that followed were older than subway infrastructure — uneven stone that looked hand-carved, lined with metal glyphs that pulsed in the light like veins.
No one spoke.
At least, not the kids.
But the chat kept rolling.
@nocliphour: those walls look alive@rotmouth88: the symbols are from angel script. like real angel script.@K0LDCH4IN: behind the girl. I swear to god.@burnedface: there's a fifth shadow.
"Ren," Hina hissed. "Did you hear that?"
"No. What?"
"Breathing. Not ours."
The flashlight shuddered, the beam pulsing. Ren turned the phone to the side wall just in time to catch something — a blur, thin and long — pulling back into the dark like it knew it had been seen.
The viewers saw it clearer than the kids did.
@REDWIRE: REWIND. 7:28 mark.@eye4loss: it touched the wall@blindprey: tell them to leave@VOIDROT: I'm serious. THEY NEED TO GO NOW.
The chat filled with warnings.But the kids didn't see it.
They kept walking.
The tunnel widened.
The station below wasn't made of steel and tile. It looked carved. Or grown. The platform was warped, edges bent inward like the whole place had melted and re-hardened. The rails ran straight into a wall that hadn't been there minutes ago.
And in the center, buried halfway into the stone, stood a monolithic black pillar.
The Blade.
It wasn't shaped like a weapon. It was crooked, fractured, humming faintly with heat that pressed behind the eyes. It looked like a spine. A spike. A bone made of shadow.
Minato stopped walking.
@veilwatch: 412K watching.@ch4stityburns: I can't breathe@brokenangel: the Blade is moving@sleeprot.tv: HE'S NOT ASLEEP ANYMORE@l0gg3d.0ut: GET THE KIDS OUT PLEASE
Yuto turned in place. "Where's the tunnel? Guys — the stairs are gone."
The way they came was sealed.
No ladder. No hatch. Just stone. Smooth. Like they'd never entered.
And now, something was watching.
The chat was screaming.The viewer count hit 1.2 million.Reaction videos were already spawning. People watching live fainted. Some said they smelled blood through their screens.
@glov3face: there's a mouth in the floor@rindbone: what's wrong with the audio@KAI-FR4Y: SOMETHING JUST CRAWLED BEHIND THE SMALL KID@cutframe: THIS IS REAL. THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING
Hina began sobbing.
Minato stepped toward the Blade, eyes wide, arms limp.
Yuto screamed. "Minato! Don't—"
The lights blew out. The camera spun, catching a massive, bone-white limb sliding down the wall like a hand without fingers.
Then Ren's voice: "Run!"
But they didn't.
Because there was nowhere to go.
The screen flared red.
A screech — long, metallic — rang out from somewhere below.
The Blade pulsed once.Minato vanished into the light.
Yuto slipped and was pulled across the floor, his hands dragging blood trails into the dark.
Hina screamed as she reached for Ren — but the ground opened between them.
The final frame was Ren's face, pale, eyes wide in absolute terror —— just before something huge and wet covered the camera in black.
The screen went static.
And then it ended....
The livestream was pulled after twelve minutes. But it was too late. It had been captured, mirrored, re-uploaded.
News broke within the hour.Conspiracy channels dubbed it "The God's Blade Incident."Experts said it was faked.No one believed them.
Ren. Hina. Yuto. Minato.All four gone.No bodies. No camera. No equipment.Only a melted streak on the platform wall where the Blade had been.
And a phone.
Still warm. Still intact.Still recording.