Jared continued to move through the tunnel. The air grew heavier as he moved down the slope. The flashlight cast its light over the rough walls. These seemed to have also been the work of the creature he'd just encountered. 

He switched off the light. Darkness closed around him like a fist. For a long, patient moment, he simply listened. He let the Dark seep out. It oozed into the space around him, slowly filling even the smallest spaces. With each place that it found, he received new information. A stagnant pool of water filled from water that trickled from a broken pipe. The taste of the minerals in the soil. Air displacing itself around him.

The tunnel breathed with the pulse of the Dark. He could feel the residue of it on everything that his Dark touched. Either a large spell had been cast here or a lot of little spells for a good amount of time. There was definitely another Shadow Kind in the tunnel. And who ever they were, they were using a lot of Dark.

Jared breathed in deeply and pulled the Dark back in. He move again. Slow and careful, keeping his body low. The heavy smell of earth carried a faint smell of rot. The taste of it caught on the back of his tongue. He was deep now. Too deep for him to get any kind of signal with his cybernetics. The static on his communicator and the inability to link up to anything left him feeling forgotten. Did his team even know where he had gone?

A faint Dark thrumming vibrated in his bones. It was coming in waves, washing over him like the tide. Each time it rolled in and crashed into him, he felt whispers wander through his mind. It felt like some long lost friend that had found him again to only leave him just as he soon as they arrived. It left him with a strange empty melancholy; longing for something that he never had. Anemoia. A fool's desire.

He shook his head in an effort to clear his thoughts of the cobwebs that clung to the edges of his mind.

He rounded a bend and found the first sign of architecture since entering the tunnel. The wall was concrete, slick with condensation. The passage widened into a chamber half-collapsed by time and neglect. He stepped carefully over a ridge of rebar and ancient plastic conduit, his light playing over the wall of the room that was in front of him. 

A sound rose from within the dark to his side. A muffled whimper. Jared stopped breathing. Were there more people trapped down here? He swept his light over the room in quick arcs until he landed on the huddled figures. Chains gleamed faintly in the light. Bodies slumped against the wall. Twelve, maybe more. They were bound and motionless.

He swept the light once across their faces. Civilians. Commuters. Office attire torn and filthy. A few of them seemed to respond to the light, their eyes fluttering open. One stirred weakly, muttering something that Jared couldn't understand. Most of them remained still and unresponsive. None of them looked at him.

He moved closer, gun drawn, keeping his profile narrow. Moving the light over the room, he looked for anything else that might be hiding in the darkness. When he crouched beside the nearest prisoner, the man’s gaze rolled toward him, pupils glassy, lips trembling.

“Department Seven,” Jared whispered. “Stay quiet. I’m getting you out.”

The man didn’t respond. His mouth opened slightly, a hoarse sound scraping from his throat. It was half a word, half a sob. He seemed completely unaware of Jared, his gaze fixed some where in the distance. 

Jared reached his Dark into the man's mind, gently exploring to find a connection. But there was nothing there. Just the sounds of waves crashing on the shore and a man standing on the out cropping of rock looking out at the ocean with longing. 

He glanced toward the others. Some were in the same condition. Most looked worse. One woman’s head sagged forward, the crown of her skull sunken, caved in like soft clay. Jared didn't think that she was alive. Heart beat rising and attempting to rationalize, he stared at her. She was in the wreck. She hit her head on something in the crash. No. The wounds were too deliberate. Too localized. Too precise.

And there were others with similar injuries. A person slumped on the end with the their chin against their chest. He couldn't see their face, but their wound was on full display. The head was hollowed out like a bowl. The brain was gone. The white bone gleamed clean in the weak light. 

Covering his mouth, he struggled with the sensation to vomit. He was afraid that if he started that he wouldn't be able to stop. That their killer would find him here vomiting amongst the dead. He stepped back, mouth dry. He closed his eyes and spun the Dark around him, pushing out the tide that continued to press itself against him.

Something moved above him.

The sound was quiet. A soft scrape of metal moving against metal. He lifted his pistol and flashlight, pointing them towards the source of the sound. There was a ladder in the corner. Rusted bars imbedded into the concrete wall marched up towards the ceiling where there was a metal hatch that stood open. Just beyond the hatch was darkness that his flashlight couldn't reach.

He felt the Dark wave slam against him. A heavy pressure behind his eyes. Claws that raked against his brain. His cybernetics jittered with static. The flashlight flickered. The abyss opened its maw and beckoned him.

Then it spoke to him. Directly into his mind like words written against the bone of his skull.

“Curious.”

The word carried the weight of intent. He could feel it as it threaded itself into the fabric of his thoughts. Weaving itself deeper and looking for something. Jared staggered with the pain of it, pressing his hand against his head while still holding the pistol. The pressure deepened and touched the edge of the abyss within him. It bloomed in his vision opening impossible geometries and the hidden equations that bound the universe together. They spiraled out of the Dark and coiled inside his mind.

The flashlight beam swayed in front of him, catching a glimpse of a shape descending.

It wasn’t human.

It floated. Its long body robed. Its skin pale. A bulbous head with four tentacles that hung from where its mouth should be. The tentacles writhed as if tasting the air. It seemed to be seeking him out. There was no sound as it moved towards the ground. Horrifically, graceful. 

He moaned and pointed his pistol at it. “Don’t move,” he said. His voice was steady despite his heart slamming in his chest.

It responded with another wave of pressure that smashed into his skull. He cried out and stumbled back. Everything titled as sounded fragmented into a buzzing white noise. For a moment all he could see was static. Then there was a looming silhouette that crawled into the edge of his perception. The flashlight hit the floor and spun. Lighting up the creature in pulses and then letting it fall back into darkness.

The thing was coming closer.

It hovered just above the ground. Tentacles twitching. The nearest survivor pulled away from the creature as if sensing it in the darkness. The creature turned its head, looking towards the movement. It regarded the human like a craftsman admiring his work. Then it reached forward and placed one thin hand against the man's face. 

The man screamed. It leaned into him, the tentacles wrapping themselves around the man's head. There was a cracking and then a wet sound. The creature withdrew. The man's skull had deformed. He slumped into quiet stillness as the creature released him. 

The smell of blood hung in the air.

Jared screamed and jerked the pistol up. He fired.

The bullet tore threw the creature's shoulder and a grey ichor sprayed the wall. It jerked and twisted around. Unnaturally fast. Jared took another shot, but it went wild as another pulse hit him and he fell to his knees. Blood trickled from his nose.

He dropped onto his side and rolled, hiding his body behind a broken slab of concrete. He gasped for breath. His heart pounded in his ears. His thoughts surged in angry whispers that weren't his own.

Leave here.

He could feel the Dark unfolding inside him as the abyss stretched itself wider.

Kneel before your god.

A pressure against the back of his eyes. The Dark called to him. It felt like long fingers were gently flipping through the layers within his mind. 

He bit down on his tongue until he could taste the copper of his blood. The pain helped bring him back into the physical world. He pulled out his second pistol. 

He stood up to take another shot and a wave hit him. No longer able to hold onto the Dark, it roiled out of him and spread out from him in a wave of darkness. The Dark struck the creature and the psychic static snapped like a taunt wire. The creature moved back towards the corner with the ladder. 

Jared lifted both his pistols and fired. Controlled bursts. Aiming center mass. The rounds struck it in the chest and stomach. It stumbled back against the wall and hissed at him. It wasn't a sound that he heard, but one that bled into his nerves.

Then it was gone.

Jared panted and leaned against the concrete. Looking at the ladder and then at the hatch as the metal clanged shut. 

He stood in the dark room. His chest heaving. The flashlight beam highlighted the chained bodies. Were any of them even still alive?

He wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand and let out a shaky breath. He could feel the quiet hum of the psychic energy fading from his thoughts. As it ebbed, the abyss closed and the Dark coiled itself back inside him. 

Whatever that thing was, it had almost killed him. But he couldn't just let it run away. Who knows where it would go next. This could be a dead end or this could be a tunnel that led into another subway line. There was no way of knowing. As long as that thing was out there it would be hunting and killing.

He looked at the people chained and slumped in the beam of light. 

He reloaded his pistols. 

He walked toward the ladder and began to climb.