there even in the summer the air thick with something I couldn't explain there
was a door at the very end of the hallway steel reinforced completely different from the others in the house
it didn't have a handle just a keypad that blinked red whenever I got too close I only tried to go near it once I
was small maybe seven or eight and I had gotten separated from the nanny that day
I don't know why I went downstairs I think I was just wandering the way children do when no one is paying
attention the hallway felt different back then endless and empty the lights
buzzing softly above me when I reached the door I pressed my palm against it
and I remember the way the metal felt cool solid wrong and then I heard it a
sound from the other side faint but there something shifting moving it was
quick just a second maybe two but I know what I heard I didn't get the chance to
press my ear against the door before a voice cut through the air like a blade
don't touch that my father never raised his voice around me he barely spoke to
me at all but that day he sounded different sharp cold like the edge of
something dangerous I turned and he was standing at the end of the hallway his face
shadowed by the dim light I don't know how long he had been watching me I don't
remember what I said if I said anything at all he didn't explain he didn't offer
me Comfort or tell me there was nothing to be afraid of he just stared at me for a long moment before nodding toward the
stairs I ran after that I stopped wandering for years I convinced myself
that my childhood wasn't strange that the things I remembered were just dreams
stories I made up in my head but the mind has a way of protecting itself it
buries things pushes them so deep that you almost forget they're there almost
the dream started a few months ago at first they were just flashes
metal doors dimly lit hallways the distant sound of something scraping
against the walls then the voices started not real ones not outside my
head but in my sleep I'd hear them crying whispering I'd wake up gasping my hands shaking my
heart hammering against my ribs like it wanted out I stopped keeping the lights off when I slept I started checking my
doors twice three times before bed and then yesterday the email came there was
no sender no subject just three words in the body of the message you
remember don't you my stomach dropped the second I read it my hands felt numb
my skin cold I stared at the screen for what felt like forever my mind racing
through every possibility maybe it was spam maybe it was a mistake maybe but it
wasn't someone knew the question is how much do I know chapter 2 the sunel were
real I didn't sleep after the email I lay awake in my bed staring at the
ceiling feeling the weight of something pressing down on my chest like a slow steady force my skin felt electric too
sensitive like if I moved even a little something terrible would happen the words kept flashing behind my eyes you
remember don't you I wasn't sure what I remembered not fully just fragments
half-formed images slipping through my mind like water through my fingers the
problem with memories is that they don't always come back clean Sometimes they come in pieces Jagged edges that don't
quite fit together making you question if they were ever real to begin with but
I knew deep down in the part of me that had always known something wasn't right
I knew I closed my eyes and let myself sink into the past the tunnels weren't
something I was supposed to think about for years I convinced myself they were just part of the house like a basement
or a wine Celler that's what I told myself that's what I was told but now as
the memories resurfaced I could see them for what they really were I remembered
how cold they were even in the Dead Heat Of Summer how the air always smelled stale untouched as if it didn't belong
to the world above how the walls were smooth in some places like they had been
built with intention while in others they were rough uneven like they had
been carved out of the Earth itself they stretched far beneath the estate farther
than a simple basement should go I never questioned why they existed back then I
didn't question much at all I was a child and children accept the worlds they are given it wasn't until I got
older until I started remembering the things I had forced myself to forget
that I realized the tunnels weren't just there they weren't used I wasn't alone
in that house I never was there were other children ones who played with me in short bursts of time ones who
appeared and disappeared like Whispers In The Wind they weren't like me not
exactly their clothes were different worn in a way that suggested they had been passed through too many hands their
faces were quiet Expressions muted like they had learned early on that speaking
too much was a dangerous thing we weren't close not really I
think I tried in my my own childish way to befriend them I'd ask them to play
offer them toys I never really cared about try to make them laugh sometimes
they did but mostly they watched me with unreadable eyes as if they were seeing
something I couldn't they never stayed long one day I'd see them the next they'd be gone no
goodbyes no explanations no mentions of where they had gone or if they'd ever come back it was as if they had never
been there at all I asked about them once I remember sitting at the long
dining table my feet swinging beneath the chair my fingers tracing circles
into the smooth polished wood I asked one of the nanies the one who was always too nervous too careful with her words
where did the other kids go she froze not in an obvious way not in the way an
adult does when they don't want to scare a child it was quick just a second maybe
less but I noticed it they went home she said I wanted to ask more I think I
opened my mouth to do it but something about her tone made me stop I never asked again there were
rules in the house some of them made sense like don't talk to strangers or
don't run in the halls but others were strange unspoken things that lingered in
the air like static electricity one of the biggest rules was that I wasn't
allowed to go too far down into the house the lower levels were off limits I
didn't question it I didn't need to I already knew what happened when I
stepped too close to the wrong places the steel door the one I had touched
only once the one that had sent a sharp cold thrill through my body like an
instinctive warning I had forgotten so much or maybe
I had just forced myself not to remember but now I did I remembered the
way my father had looked at me when he caught me standing too close to that door the way his voice had cut through
the air sharp as a knife demanding that I never go near it again I remembered
how late at night when the house was quiet and everyone was supposed to be asleep I would hear noises coming from
below soft muffled sometimes quick like hurried footsteps other times slow
dragging like something or someone was moving in the dark and I remembered the
voices not full words just fragments pieces of sound that barely made it
through the thick walls slipping up through the cracks in the floor I used to think it was the wind or maybe the
staff moving things in the middle of the night but it wasn't because sometimes
when I pressed my ear to the cold tile listening holding my breath so I wouldn't make a sound I heard something
else I heard crying not loud not hysterical just soft choked sounds the
kind people make when they know no one is coming to help them I don't know how long I lay there lost in those memories
it could have been minutes it could have been hours my body felt numb like I wasn't fully inside of it anymore I
wasn't supposed to remember this the thought hit me like a weight dropping into my stomach I wasn't
supposed to remember any of this chapter 3 Whispers in the Dark the past has a
way of creeping up on you when you least expect it it doesn't come back all at once clean and linear it comes in pieces
fragmented sharp slipping through the cracks of your mind when you think you've buried it deep enough to forget I
spent the next few days Dr crowning in those pieces caught in a cycle of remembering things I didn't want to
remember the tunnels the children the steel door and the sounds beneath the
floor but it wasn't just the places I was remembering now it was the people
the ones who were there and the ones who weren't supposed to be the first face that came back to me was hers she wasn't
like the others the staff in the house always changed always moving in and out
like ghosts their names and faces blending together until they became nothing more than background noise but
she was different she stayed longer than most long enough for me to notice her I
never knew her real name the others called her Miss Elise though I don't know if that was even right she wasn't a
nanny in the traditional sense but she looked after me in ways that the others didn't she was younger than most of the
women who worked in the house with warm brown eyes and a soft voice she used to
sneak me candy when no one was looking Whispering sh don't tell like it was a
game between us she told me bedtime stories when the nightmares got bad
stories about places far away places where little girls didn't have to live in locked houses with too many rooms and
too many rules I liked her I think in some way I loved her she was kind and in
that house kindness was rare and then one night she was gone I was in bed when
it happened half asleep my body heavy with the kind of exhaustion that only comes when you're young enough to still
believe sleep can keep you safe then the sound came cutting through the silence
like a blade screaming not the kind you hear in movies not theatrical or
exaggerated this was real raw the sound of someone who knew they weren't getting
away I sat up so fast I felt lightheaded my tiny hands clutching the blankets
breath stuck in my throat the walls in my room were thick built to muffle sound
but I still heard it Miss Elise screaming down the hallway her voice
breaking into something high and sharp before it was suddenly cut off silence
and then not I stayed frozen in bed my body rigid waiting for what I didn't
know maybe for someone to come in and tell me it was just a dream maybe for Miss Elise to come back tell me a story
tuck me in like she always did but she didn't come back the next morning I ran
to the kitchen hoping to see her there she wasn't I checked the library the
sitting rooms the small garden out back but she was gone I asked one of the
other maid where she was she left the woman said without looking at me I
frowned but she didn't say goodbye the maid wiped her hands on a cloth her
expression carefully blank sometimes people leave without saying goodbye it
didn't feel right it felt wrong like a thread in a sweater pulled too hard
unraveling everything at once I never saw Miss Elise again no one spoke her
name after that night something shifted after she disappeared I wasn't allowed
to roam the house as freely anymore I was told to stay upstairs where I could be watched but there were times brief
moments when I still managed to slip away my small feet padding across the
marble floors carrying me toward places I wasn't supposed to be that's when I
found the corridor I had never seen it before the house was massive a Labyrinth
of hallways and doors some leading nowhere others leading to Rooms I wasn't
meant to enter but this one was different the walls were bare not
decorated with the expensive paintings or sculptures that filled the rest of the house the air felt stale colder
somehow like the sunlight from the windows upstairs had never reached this far down and the doors heavy metal doors
lined up on either side of the hallway each one bolted shut from the outside I
walked slowly my time tiny fingers trailing along the wall my heartbeat quickened with each step I didn't know
what I was looking at what I had stumbled into but I felt it the wrongness of it the unnatural silence
pressing in thick as a storm about to break I stopped in front of one of the
doors unlike the others this one wasn't locked it was cracked open just enough
for me to see inside there was nothing in the room except for a small cot a
thin blanket crumpled at the foot of it and a metal bucket in the corner something was scratched into the floor
faint almost invisible in the dim light I crouched down straining to read it
yeah help me a hand grabbed my wrist I gasped spinning around my chest tight
with panic it was a boy he was maybe a year or two older than me small and thin
his face pale beneath the dim light his fingers dug into my skin his grip
trembling but firm you shouldn't be here he whispered I stared at him my mouth
opening and closing my mind scrambling to make sense of what was happening he
glanced at the doors then back at me his eyes Dark Hollow locked onto mine don't
let them lock you in and then he was gone I don't remember how I got back
upstairs I don't remember if I ran if I walked Ed if someone found me and
dragged me away the next thing I knew I was in my room the curtains drawn the
walls closing in I never saw that boy again I never saw any of them again and
now sitting here staring at my reflection in the dark window I realized something that makes my stomach twist my
fingers curling into my Palms I was different I was treated like a daughter
the others they were treated like something else chapter 4 the ones who never left
yeah yeah I don't know what I expected to find when I started digging maybe I
thought it would be nothing just paranoia old memories twisting into something worse than they really were
maybe I wanted proof that my childhood wasn't as strange as I was beginning to remember it but the deeper I looked the
less sense everything made I started with the houses my father
had owned more properties than I could count Mansions pent houses Estates
tucked away in places so secluded they didn't even appear on public records some were gifts some were Investments
but others others felt different I had lived in at least five of them growing
up though never for long there was always an excuse for the moves Renovations new business ventures
security concerns I had thought nothing of it then I had been a child what did I
know about the way powerful men shuffled their lives around like chess pieces but
now looking back I realized something strange each estate no matter how
different had a pattern there were always rooms I wasn't allowed in always
corridors that felt too quiet too empty as if they had been built for something
else entirely and beneath them always always were the tunnels I had forgotten
them for so long I had convinced myself they were just a trick of childhood memory but they were real I found the
blueprints by accident it had taken weeks of searching sorting through old legal filings property listings anything
that might give me a clue most of it let nowhere deals hidden under shell companies contracts signed by people who
barely existed then I found it a set of architectural plans buried in a tax record from over
20 years ago listing Renovations on one of my father's oldest Estates at first
it looked normal a blueprint of the house square footage security installations but then I saw the lower
levels there were sections that didn't match rooms marked but not labeled
hallways leading nowhere spaces unaccounted for and deeper still beneath
even the foundations something else a separate structure tunnels not
just cellers or basements these were connected passageways running like veins
beneath the property no exits marked no public documentation explaining why they
existed I sat back in my chair staring at the screen my stomach twisting into
knots I needed to know more I started searching for the names of the children
I remembered it wasn't easy I didn't know their last names if they had even
given them to me some of them I could barely recall at all just flashes of
faces voices lost to time but I remembered the boy from the locked
hallway I remembered the way his fingers had dug into my wrist the fear in his
eyes when he told me not to let them lock me in I tried looking for him first
nothing no Miss person's reports from that time no child with that face ever
appearing in a news article no school records no birth certificates it was as
if he had never existed I tried another name then another then another every
single one LED nowhere the children who had played with me the ones who had come
and gone so quickly they weren't just missing they had been erased I felt sick
my hands trembled as I scrolled through pages and pages of databases searching
for something anything that might prove I wasn't imagining all of this how do
people disappear Without a Trace how do you make it so that a person was never real to begin with I needed answers I
needed to talk to someone who had been there someone who had seen what I had
seen I found him late one night buried in the depths of an old old internet Forum that had been inactive for years
it wasn't easy tracking him down people who worked for my father didn't just leave and the ones who did they knew
better than to talk but he was old now maybe too tired to be afraid anymore it
took days of back and forth before he agreed to meet he made me come to him
some rundown Motel off the highway the kind of place that felt forgotten he was already there when I
arrived vied sitting on the edge of the bed his fingers wrapped around a cup of coffee that had long gone cold I could
tell he had once been strong his frame was still broad his posture still stiff
but age had settled into him softening the edges stealing whatever confidence he might have had in his youth he didn't
ask my name tell me what you remember he said instead his voice was rough worn
like someone who had spent too many years smoking or shouting I swallowed hard shifting in the chair
across from him the tunnels I said the ones under the estate his fingers
twitched around the cup I need to know what they were for I said forcing the words out who was down there for a long
time he didn't speak then finally he sighed the tunnels were never empty he
murmured his voice was quieter now almost as if he was afraid someone would
here even here even now I felt something cold crawl up my spine not then he said
not now I stared at him my mouth suddenly dry my pulse hammering against
my ribs not now the words echoed in my head bouncing off the walls of my skull
rattling something deep inside me not now I thought about the blueprints the
unmarked space the underground structures that didn't have exits I thought about the names that
didn't exist the children who had vanished I thought about the boy from
the hallway the way he had gripped my wrist and whispered don't let them lock
you in I thought about the things I had heard in the dark the crying the voices
the whisperers what happened to them I forced myself to ask my voice was
shaking my my fingers digging into my thighs my nails pressing crescents into my
skin the man exhaled rubbing a hand over his face you already know he said a wave
of nausea rolled through me I shook my head pushing back the bile rising in my
throat no I whispered no I don't I said
the old security guard leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees his eyes
met fine Hollow and heavy he didn't blink what if some of them never left I
barely made it out of the motel before I collapsed to my knees gasping for air chapter 5 the house that watches the
drive felt longer than it should have I had traced the root on my phone a dozen
times before leaving memorized every turn every stretch of road that led back to the place I swore I would never
return to but as I drove the road stretched endlessly ahead of me twisting
and shifting in ways that made me feel like I was being led somewhere else entirely the estate had been abandoned
for years I knew that I had checked the records it was no longer owned under my father's name or any of the dozens of
companies that had shielded his assets no one had lived there in over a decade
but part of me couldn't shake the feeling that the house would still be waiting for me unchanged untouched
touched holding on to the things I had buried deep inside my mind when I
finally reached the gate my hands felt stiff against the steering wheel the
property was enormous a sprawling mansion that once played host to the kind of people whose names made
headlines it was the kind of place meant to impress meant to intimidate but now
it was just a hollow shell a monument to something long gone the driver way was
cracked weeds curling through the fractures the front doors once polished and Grand were dull with age Windows
covered in dust reflected nothing but an empty sky but the house was still
standing I hesitated gripping the steering wheel until my Knuckles turned white there was something unnatural
about it something too still too patient like it had been waiting for me to come
back I stepped out of the car gravel crunching beneath my feet the air was
thick unmoving the wind didn't touch this place even the Birds the insects
everything was silent my keys jingled in my pocket though I had no use for them the lock
had long since rusted the doors swollen with moisture and neglect I pushed them
open the wood groaning as if in protest inside the air was stale thick with a
scent of dust and something deeper something rotting the house was exactly
as I remembered it the high ceilings the marble floors the grand staircase
leading to Rooms I was never meant to enter but it felt different now I took
slow steps forward my fingers brushing against the walls as if I needed to ground myself in Something Real the
wallpaper was peeling at the edges revealing layers beneath older patterns older versions of
the house that had been covered up and forgotten with every step memories surfaced I saw myself as a child running
through these Halls playing in the corners where no one was watching I saw the other children the ones who never
spoke much the ones who never stayed long I saw the staff the way they
averted their eyes the way their faces would go blank whenever I asked the wrong questions and then there was the
door I found it exactly where it had always Ben at the end of the lower hallway half buried under Fallen beams
and shattered glass the sight of it made my stomach twist it was different now
rusted corroded by time but I knew it I knew it I reached out with trembling
fingers brushing against the metal and the memories slammed into me all at once
I was seven again standing before it my tiny hands pressed flat against the
surface my father's voice rang in my ears sharp
unforgiving don't touch that but I had and now standing here as an adult I felt
it all over again the weight of something terrible just beyond this door pressing against it waiting I exhaled
stepping back the house was silent until it wasn't a sound soft at first almost
imperceptible a faint rhythmic noise my breath caught in my throat it was coming
from beneath my feet I swallowed hard heart hammering against my ribs I told
myself it was nothing just the foundation settling the wind against old pipes but the longer I listened the more
I realized it wasn't random it was deliberate a slow scraping sound a
padrão um ritmo algo vivo virei minha cabeça lentamente tentando rastreá-lo
estava se movendo, se deslocando sob o chão, viajando pela casa como um sussurro nas paredes, dei um passo
para a frente então outro o som seguiu eu não estava sozinho aqui eu nunca tinha estado
sozinho aqui todos os pelos do meu corpo se arrepiaram minha pele arrepiada com o peso
de mil olhos invisíveis e então uma voz não clara, não alta, apenas um sussurro
Mal ali deslizando pelas rachaduras do chão uma única palavra não o sangue em meu
veias viraram gelo minha respiração saiu em rajadas curtas e agudas eu me senti enraizado
o local meus pés se recusando a se mover meu corpo gritando para eu correr mas eu
eu não poderia ouvir outro sussurro por favor não era possível não era possível
esta casa estava vazia, estava abandonada há anos, não havia ninguém lá embaixo, mas a voz era real.
o som era real eu apertei meus olhos fechados minhas mãos apertando
punhos Eu vim aqui para obter respostas Eu vim aqui para encontrar a verdade, mas agora
de pé nesta casa que me observava nesta casa que respirava eu não tinha certeza se queria mais saber eu abri
meus olhos a casa parecia diferente agora ela sempre foi grande, grande demais com muito
muitos espaços vazios, mas agora parecia cheio, como se as paredes estivessem segurando algo dentro delas, algo
que não queria ser esquecido meus dedos tremeram eu ainda podia ouvir o leve raspar The Whispers ondulando
através do ar a verdade sempre esteve aqui e o que quer que estivesse por baixo disto
casa ainda estava esperando capítulo 6 o que está abaixo da porta resistiu em
primeiro a ferrugem corroeu as dobradiças, travando-as no lugar como uma ferida selada
com o tempo pressionei minhas mãos contra o metal corroído sentindo seu peso
os anos de negligência o mantinha fechado o ar no corredor era denso e imóvel
carregado com algo invisível, cada instinto em meu corpo gritava para mim
parei, eu não parei, peguei uma cadeira quebrada dos escombros e a enfiei entre
o batente da porta e a maçaneta enferrujada gemeram em protesto metal raspando contra metal um som que rangeu meus dentes
no limite, apoiei meu pé no chão e puxei com mais força, colocando tudo o que tinha nele, então com um
estalo repugnante a ferrugem cedeu a porta se abriu revelando uma estreita
escada aberta que descia em espiral em direção ao nada o cheiro me atingiu primeiro
não era apenas poeira e Milo, era mais antigo do que aquele ar viciado e denso de decadência.
tipo de umidade que se infiltrou nos ossos de um lugar há muito esquecido, hesitei em
o limiar olhando para a escuridão o sussurro havia parado o raspar o bater rítmico de
abaixo do chão ele se foi agora engolido pelo silêncio eu exalei lentamente tentando me firmar então
segurando a borda do batente da porta, dei o primeiro passo, as escadas eram irregulares, a madeira velha rangia sob meus pés.
quanto mais fundo eu ia, mais frio ficava o ar ficava pesado pressionando
contra minha pele como uma segunda camada minha respiração ficou mais lenta meu pulso martelando
nos meus ouvidos passo a passo eu desci pelo
time I reached the bottom the light from the open door above had disappeared swallowed whole by the dark I flicked on
my flashlight the beam cut through the Blackness Illuminating a narrow hallway
lined with stone the wall were damp stained with thyme patches of mold
creeping along the edges the ceiling was low forcing me to hunch slightly as I
moved forward the tunnel stretched ahead leading deeper into the
underground I swallowed hard gripping the flashlight tighter the silence was
suffocating and then a door smaller than the one above but made of the same
reinforced metal it was slightly a jar the lock broken the edges rusted with
age I reached out and pushed the door creaked open revealing a room that
should not exist the underground chamber was small the walls lined with old
crumbling bricks but what caught my attention wasn't the structure it was what was inside the remnants of a life a
thin tattered blanket lay crumbled in one corner a rusted metal bucket sat
beside it scattered across the floor were tiny o objects shoes dolls with
missing limbs a single playing card yellowed with time I took a step forward
my breath catching in my throat there were more runes smaller separated by
makeshift dividers like holding cells some had metal bars in place of doors
others had thick chains bolted into the walls I scanned the area my flashlight
sweeping across the space then I saw it the writing carved into the concrete
etched deep into the walls were words left behind some were faded scratched
over but one stood out above all the others still here I stepped back my
pulse pounding so loudly it drowned out everything else my hands felt numb my
body rigid with something close to Terror I didn't realize I was shaking
until the flashlight trembled in my grip the beam of light flickering wildly across the walls something had happened
here something had lived here and I wasn't alone the sound came from
somewhere in the tunnel a slow deliberate shuffling like something moving through the dark I turned sharply
my flashlight scanning the hallway but it was empty then a breath soft shallow
clo the hairs on the back of my neck Rose I was being watched I forced myself
to move stepping away from the chamber back into the hallway my feet felt heavy
my limbs stiff with adrenaline the silence stretched thick and
unyielding then another noise not shuffling this time tapping rhythmic
slow like fingers dragging against the stone walls my chest tightened my breath
hitching I knew what this was I had heard it before as a child late at night
beneath the floorboards my flashlight flickered and then just at the edge of the beam a
shadow not a trick of the light not my mind playing games something
moved I ran I turned my footsteps slamming Against The Damp floor my
breath ragged as I tore back up the staircase stumbling grasping at the railing desperate to reach the surface
the tunnel felt endless the air grew tighter pressing against me pushing me
down as if the house itself didn't want me to leave my legs burned my heart
pounded the top I was so close then a whisper low Hollow right behind me don't
leave me I let out a sharp cry hurling myself forward slamming into the door at
the top of the stairs it wouldn't open I pushed my hands scrambling against the
rusted metal my body shaking violently The Whisper came again closer this time
a breath against my ear I screamed throwing all my weight into the door and
it gave I stumbled out into the hallway crashing onto the floor gasping for air
the house was silent no Whispers no tapping no movement just Stillness I lay
there for a long time my chest rising and falling in sharp uneven bursts then
slowly I turned my head back toward the door it was closed again just as it had
been before sealed rusted as if it had never been opened at all chapter 8 are
they still down there the message hadn't left my mind it was burned into my
thoughts echoing every time I closed my eyes you were were never supposed to
leave that single sentence unraveled everything I thought I knew it confirmed
what I had feared all along that someone had been watching me that I had never really escaped that I had spent my whole
life believing I had slipped through the cracks when in reality they had just been waiting for me to fall back in I
didn't sleep I didn't turn on the lights I sat in the dark of my apartment the
curtains drawn my breath slow and care careful as if making too much noise would somehow invite whatever was out
there inside my phone sat beside me on the table the screen black the weight of
that last message pressing down on my chest like an anchor I told myself I
didn't have to go back that I could stop now leave this alone pretend that I never saw the tunnels never heard The
Whispers never remembered the children that had been swallowed by the walls of that house but I couldn't I had to know
the truth I left before the sun rose the city still caught between night and
morning a quiet empty thing that felt as lifeless as I did the drive to the
estate was faster this time but the weight in my chest grew heavier with every mile I told myself I was prepared
but the moment the house came into view something inside me recoiled the Mansion
stood like a corpse its Windows hollowed out the Gates still rusted and bent from
where I had forced them open the first time the air was thick pressing down like a warning like the house itself
knew I had come back to dig up something that should have stayed buried I parked in the same spot as before gripping the
steering wheel my fingers so tight they achd I scanned the tree line the empty
Drive searching for signs that I wasn't alone but nothing moved the silence was
suffocating I stepped out of the car the gravel crunching beneath my feet and made my way way toward the lower levels
I knew exactly where I was going I had been here before the door to the tunnels
was still rusted in place still heavy with time and Decay but I didn't
hesitate this time I wrenched it open the scent of damp Earth and old Air
rushing past me in a stale gust the darkness swallowed me whole as I stepped
inside the tunnel was colder than before I could feel it wrapping around me settling into my skin like something
alive the flashlight in my hand flickered as I moved deeper sweeping across the stone walls the metal doors
the abandoned remains of whatever had once existed here I retraced my steps
checking the same rooms the same rusted beds the same discarded belongings that
told me someone had lived here long ago but this time I searched harder I ran my
fingers along the walls pressing against the cracks looking for anything I had missed I turned over broken Furniture
sifted through dust covered blankets moved deeper into the tunnel until my own breath felt foreign too loud too
unnatural in the silence I found nothing no voices no Whispers no signs of Life
the tunnels were empty I stood there my heart pounding staring at the abandon
space around me The Damp air thick in my lungs the tunnels weren't empty y when I
was a child so where had they gone I thought of the boy who had grabbed my
wrist the fear in his eyes the warning in his voice when he whispered don't let
them lock you in I thought of the children who had come and gone the ones who had played with me for only a short
while before disappearing into nothing I thought of The Whispers beneath the floor the rhythmic tapping the shuffling
movements in the dark if the tunnels weren't empty then if there were people down here if children had lived in these
underground rooms what had happened to them had they been moved were they taken somewhere else or were they still out
there trapped in another place I hadn't found yet I turned back my head spinning
my breath unsteady and that's when I saw it a door one I hadn't noticed before it
stood further down the tunnel half hidden in the shadows different from the others it wasn't rusted wasn't covered
in years of dust and grime the metal was newer the bolts uncorroded a fresh
entrance I stepped toward it pulse hammering in my throat my flashlight shook as I reached out my fingers
grazing the surface unlike the others this one was locked from the outside
bolted shut sealed I froze this wasn't an old door
this wasn't part of the past this was new someone had been here someone had
never stopped coming here my body went cold my breath caught in my chest I
pressed my ear against the metal my skin prickling every nerve in my body
screaming at me to run silence and then a breath a single shallow inhale muffled
by the door but unmistakably real I stumbled backward my flashlight swinging
wildly my pulse roared in my ears drowning out everything else no no no no
I wanted to believe it was a trick that my mind was playing games that the
o peso do que eu havia descoberto estava distorcendo meus sentidos, mas o ar estava diferente agora, estava carregado de
algo que eu não conseguia ver, mas podia sentir pressionando contra mim, envolvendo-me
me avisando que eu tinha visto muita coisa, não pensei que tinha corrido, voltei correndo
os túneis meus passos batendo contra a pedra minha respiração aguda e irregular a escuridão parecia mais pesada
paredes mais apertadas como se estivessem se fechando tentando me impedir de deixar minhas pernas
queimado quando cheguei à escada subindo os degraus empurrando a porta enferrujada com tudo que eu tinha
a luz da manhã me atingiu como um tapa muito brilhante muito repentino eu tropecei sob o
cascalho ofegante minhas mãos tremendo enquanto eu me levantava a propriedade estava
silencioso atrás de mim a porta ainda aberta o túnel ainda esperando como se me desafiasse a
voltei virei as costas e fui embora minha mente girando com tudo que eu tinha visto tudo que eu tinha
senti que as crianças eram reais, os túneis eram reais e em algum lugar
escondidos sob a superfície eles ainda estavam eu cheguei no meu carro abrindo a porta
porta meu pulso ainda acelerado eu tinha toda a intenção de ir embora de chegar tão longe
longe deste lugar o máximo possível, mas quando eu estava prestes a ir embora
algo chamou minha atenção não na casa nem no túnel mais distante
a linha de árvores uma estrutura pequena mal visível através da névoa uma nova entrada
uma nova porta que levava ao subsolo os túneis nunca foram abandonados eles tinham
só foi movido movido
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