Whispers of the Forgotten Pines

Ethan's stomach lurched as he plummeted through darkness. The air rushed past him, cold and damp, thick with the scent of earth and something older—something rotten.

He had no idea how far he was falling.

Or where he was falling to.

Lillian's scream rang out somewhere above him, but before he could call back—

Impact.

The fall should have killed him. Instead, it felt like crashing into thick, icy water. But there was no water. Just darkness. The sensation of sinking. Being swallowed whole.

Then—

He landed.

The ground beneath him was solid, yet it pulsed beneath his palms like something alive. He gasped for air, rolling onto his back, his body aching from the fall.

A few feet away, Lillian groaned. "I hate this place," she muttered.

Ethan pushed himself up on his elbows, his heart still hammering. "Where… are we?"

Lillian didn't answer. She was staring ahead, her face pale in the dim glow of the book still clutched in her arms.

Ethan followed her gaze.

His breath caught in his throat.

They were in a massive cavern, so vast it stretched beyond sight. Jagged stone formations jutted from the ground like the ribs of a long-dead beast. The ceiling, if there even was one, disappeared into a swirling mass of shadow and mist, shifting as if it were watching them.

And in the center of the cavern…

A structure.

It was ancient, built from obsidian-black stone, twisting and reaching upward like skeletal fingers. A staircase wrapped around its base, spiraling toward a single glowing doorway near the top. The air around it felt wrong, bending and twisting, as if reality struggled to hold itself together.

Lillian gripped Ethan's arm. "We need to leave."

Ethan nodded, but deep down, he knew—there was no way out.

Not yet.

They had fallen into something far older than Whispering Pines.

And something was waiting for them inside that structure.

A soft whisper curled through the air.

Not from the shadows.

Not from the mist.

From the book.

Lillian gasped, nearly dropping it. The pages flipped on their own, revealing a symbol—one Ethan had seen before.

On the statues.

On the door in the Chamber of Echoes.

And now—on the entrance of the dark structure ahead.

Ethan clenched his fists. There was no turning back now.

Taking a deep breath, he met Lillian's gaze. "We go in."

She hesitated. Then—she nodded.

Together, they stepped toward the forbidden doorway, unaware that the shadows were already moving.

Watching.

Waiting.

And whispering their names.

What lies inside the ancient structure? Who—or what—is watching Ethan and Lillian from the darkness? The answers await in the next chapter…