LightReader

Chapter 43 - Chapter 43: The Doorway Below

The doorway stood like a wound in the air, a jagged frame of pure light carved out of nothing. The shadows clustered around it, motionless, as if awaiting permission. The crystal above the chamber pulsed once—slow, commanding—and the walls whispered with vibrations no human ear could fully register.

Hayes was the first to break the silence. "We're not seriously going in there, are we?" His grip tightened on his rifle. "We've seen enough already. This planet's not dead, it's… watching us."

Marquez, though pale, shook her head. "We came here to explore. If we stop now, we'll never understand what this place really is."

Okafor studied the doorway with a kind of grim fascination. "Knowledge like this… it could rewrite everything we know. Physics. History. Even religion. Do you really want to turn back?"

Daniel didn't answer. His crystal was already responding, glowing brighter, syncing with the rhythm of the doorway. He felt no fear—only inevitability. As if all his life, this was where he had been meant to walk.

He stepped forward. The shadows moved aside, almost respectfully, parting for him.

"Daniel, wait—!" Hayes growled, but he followed anyway, unwilling to leave the kid alone.

One by one, the others stepped through.

---

The Descent

Crossing the threshold was like plunging into deep water. Sound vanished. Gravity wavered. For a moment, their bodies felt weightless, stretched, then slammed back into place.

They stumbled into a vast hall.

The scale was impossible—its ceiling lost in darkness, its walls lined with towering crystalline pillars that hummed like organ pipes. The floor was smooth as glass, reflecting their figures like a mirror.

Marquez's voice cracked over comms. "This isn't underground anymore." She turned slowly, scanning the infinite space. "This… this feels like another dimension."

Daniel touched one of the pillars. It vibrated beneath his hand, sending shivers through his bones.

Images bloomed across the surface—visions of alien cities, not human, rising across Mars in its youth. Spires of living crystal, skies filled with winged shadows, oceans alive with strange leviathans.

Then came the war again. This time, clearer. Figures of light fought against things of shadow—creatures vast, many-limbed, with eyes burning like suns. The destruction was apocalyptic.

Okafor's voice was hushed. "We're standing inside the memory of a civilization that predated us by millions of years."

Hayes spat. "A memory that's waking up. And if those things in the visions are still out there—" He stopped himself, unwilling to finish.

---

The Call

Suddenly, all the pillars flared at once, blinding. Their hum rose into a chorus. The reflections on the floor rippled, then shifted—no longer showing the crew, but strangers.

Alien figures.

Tall, cloaked in crystal armor, their faces hidden behind veils of light. They stood in perfect rows, silent, unmoving, like guardians awaiting orders.

Then one stepped forward. Its head tilted, and though it spoke no words, every member of the crew heard the same thing inside their skulls:

The heart remembers. The seed awakens.

The crystal in Daniel's chest burned hot, and he cried out, falling to his knees. The alien figures all turned toward him as one.

---

And the hall, once silent, now throbbed with the beat of a thousand hearts—resonating in sync with his own.

More Chapters