The air pressed heavy against Ethan's chest as though the tunnels themselves were breathing. His flashlight beam quivered, cutting swaths through damp darkness, but it could not push back the red glow ahead. The light was neither flame nor lamp—it was something far older, older than the broken subway walls, older than the city itself.
Selene tugged his arm, urging him to keep moving. "Don't stop now," she whispered.
Her whisper carried differently here. It bounced back at them from the walls, fragmented, multiplied—like the corridor itself didn't want their words to escape.
Ethan swallowed. His throat was raw, his lungs burned from the endless running, yet he could not shake the pull of the glow. It was calling him. Not Selene. Not anyone else. Him.
They emerged from the narrow passage into a wider hall that stretched into shadow. Dozens of doors lined both sides, each painted the same color as the crimson ribbon Ethan still clenched in his palm. The sight rooted him to the spot.
Every door was alive.
Faces pressed against the wood from the inside—half-seen, blurred, as though the surface was water instead of solid paint. Mouths opened, closed, stretched in silent screams. And then came the sound.
The whispers.
It began as a faint hiss, then grew into words. They seeped from the cracks between the doors, twisting together until they filled the air with a chorus of despair.
"Help us…""Don't open…""Find me…""He's here…"
Ethan staggered back, colliding with Selene.
Her flashlight trembled across the doors. She was pale, but her jaw was set. "So it's true," she murmured.
"What's true?"
Selene stepped forward, her eyes scanning the corridor like a scholar confirming a long-feared hypothesis. "The Crimson Corridor. They said it was just a myth—stories to keep people away from the tunnels. But no… this is where the city keeps them."
"Keeps who?" Ethan demanded.
"The ones who vanish. Every soul the Hollow City has devoured."
Ethan's knees weakened. He pressed his hand against the cold concrete wall to steady himself. The idea was absurd. And yet, as he stared at the twisted faces behind those crimson doors, he knew—some part of him knew—Selene was right.
One of the doors rattled. The wood splintered under invisible force. A pale hand shot through the gap, grasping wildly in the air. Ethan's flashlight caught its details—long, bony fingers, nails sharp as knives, skin stretched thin.
The whispers surged.
"Ethan…"
His name. The voice came from behind the splintering door.
He froze, the blood draining from his face. "Did you hear that?"
Selene whipped her head toward him. "What did it say?"
"It said my name."
Before she could respond, the door burst outward. The crimson paint cracked like old glass, and a figure crawled through—taller than any man, its limbs bent at impossible angles, its mouth stretching wider and wider until its jaw unhinged.
It screeched.
The sound was no longer whispers but a shriek that ripped through Ethan's skull. He fell to his knees, clutching his head, his vision blurring.
Selene grabbed him, dragging him backward. "Don't look at it!" she yelled.
But Ethan couldn't tear his eyes away. The creature's face was wrong. Horribly wrong. For beneath the distortion, the pale skin, and the bleeding eyes… he saw something familiar.
It was his own face.
"No…" Ethan's voice broke.
The doppelgänger lurched toward him, bones cracking with every step, its mouth twisting in grotesque imitation of a smile.
"Selene—"
She was already pulling him, forcing him to his feet. "Run!"
They sprinted down the corridor. The whispers became laughter, echoing from every door they passed. Hands slammed against the crimson surfaces, nails clawing to get free. Ethan's double screeched behind them, its footsteps shattering the silence.
The corridor bent and twisted, stretching longer than it should have, as if the city itself wanted to trap them here forever. Ethan's lungs screamed for air, his legs felt like lead, but the terror clawing at his back pushed him onward.
Finally, they crashed into a metal gate at the end of the corridor. Rusted, chained, but real—a barrier between them and whatever hunted them.
Selene ripped at the chains with bare hands, her knuckles splitting open. "Help me!"
Ethan slammed his flashlight against the lock again and again until the metal cracked. The gate gave way just as the creature lunged. They tumbled through, slamming the barrier shut behind them.
The doppelgänger slammed against the bars, shrieking Ethan's name.
The sound seared through his skull, but slowly… slowly… it faded. The glow of the corridor dimmed until nothing remained but darkness.
They collapsed in another tunnel. For a long time, neither spoke, only their ragged breaths echoing.
Finally, Ethan turned to Selene. "What was that? Why did it look like me?"
Selene's eyes were unreadable. "The Hollow City doesn't just steal people. It reflects them. The Corridor shows what you fear most. And maybe…" Her gaze lingered on him. "…maybe what you're becoming."
Ethan's stomach twisted. He wanted to argue, to deny, but the image of that broken version of himself wouldn't leave.
"Why me?" he whispered. "Why is it always me?"
Selene reached out, brushing her fingers against his cheek. For the first time since he met her, her touch wasn't just guiding—it was gentle. "Because you can hear it. Because you're chosen. And because without you, we'll never get out of this city alive."
Her eyes softened. In that terrible place, with whispers still crawling along the walls, her face was the only thing that felt human. Ethan leaned closer before he realized it, drawn not just by fear but by something else.
But before their lips could meet, a distant sound rolled through the tunnel.
A bell.
Low. Metallic. And impossibly loud.
It rang once. Twice.
The walls shook with its echo.
Selene's hand dropped from his face. Her expression hardened. "No… it can't be time already."
Ethan's skin prickled. "Time for what?"
The third bell rang.
And from the darkness ahead, dozens of pale lights flickered into existence—like lanterns carried by invisible hands. One by one, they began moving toward them.
What do you think is approaching Ethan and Selene? Share your thoughts below!