CHAPTER 1443: STORY 1443: THE PULSE BELOW

The maw flexed slowly, its ridged “teeth” clinking together like wet stone. Each breath it exhaled reeked of rot and iron, warm enough to bead sweat instantly on Mira’s face. She and Elena froze, their backs pressed to the pulsing wall, waiting for it to inhale again.

It didn’t.

Instead, the path beneath their feet shifted—a slow undulation, like standing on the tongue of something waking up. The red veins in their legs throbbed in sync with the rhythm beneath them, and Mira realized with dawning horror that the pulse was no longer coming from the walls—it was inside their bodies.

“We can’t go forward,” Mira whispered. “It’s waiting.”

Elena’s gaze darted around the narrow chamber. “Then we find another way. Now.”

The maw twitched, the ridges parting slightly to reveal darkness layered with twitching filaments. Somewhere deep in that blackness, a single blink flashed—a massive eye, lidless and pale, hidden until now.

Mira grabbed Elena’s hand and they sidestepped along the curve of the wall. Every step made the floor groan, and the pulse in their veins quickened.

From behind them came a sound like fabric tearing underwater.

They turned just in time to see the wall where they’d entered bulge outward. A huge, veined mass pushed through, the outline of shoulders and a head forming. It wasn’t the three-faced thing from before—this was larger, almost human in scale, but with no face at all. Where its head should have been was a gaping cavity, spiraling inward like a miniature version of the stair they’d descended.

It lunged.

Mira shoved Elena ahead and slashed the knife across its arm. Instead of blood, a spray of tiny black tendrils lashed outward, wrapping around the blade and pulling. Mira let the knife go before it could drag her in.

The creature’s spiral-head tilted, the movement eerily inquisitive. Then it leaned closer, and Mira’s knees buckled as a high-pitched vibration filled her skull.

Come forward...

The voice wasn’t in her ears—it was inside. Elena cried out, clutching her head.

The maw ahead inhaled sharply.

The force dragged them toward it like a riptide. Mira clawed at the wall, fingers sinking into the soft, wet surface. Elena’s grip slipped, and she was pulled closer to the teeth.

“Hold on!” Mira screamed, but the pull was relentless.

Then, from within the darkness of the maw, a shape appeared—thin, humanoid, but moving like liquid. It reached out with elongated fingers, not to seize them, but to point... toward a thin fissure high on the wall to their right.

Mira’s gut told her it was the only chance.

With a surge of strength, she leapt, catching the fissure’s edge and hauling herself up. She grabbed Elena, dragging her with her just as the maw snapped shut, the sound echoing like a thunderclap through the “throat.”

They scrambled into the fissure, the walls closing in around them.

Behind, the pulse grew louder.

Ahead, it was dead silent.