Mira’s scream was swallowed by the bridge’s shadow. The cold fingers around her ankle didn’t yank in a single motion—they reeled her in, like a fisherman drawing a catch, slow enough to keep her off balance but fast enough that Elena’s grip began to slip.
“Hold on!” Elena’s voice was raw. Her nails dug into Mira’s wrist, but the rubble shifted under her knees, stones tumbling into the dark gap where Mira’s leg had vanished.
The digits tightened. Mira felt the bones in her ankle grind. The cold wasn’t just on her skin anymore—it was inside, flooding up her calf like black ice.
Co down... see the roots...
The voice filled her head, deep and layered, as if it ca from multiple mouths speaking at once.
“Elena—cut it!” Mira gasped.
“With what?!” Elena’s gaze darted wildly, landing on a jagged length of rebar sticking from the bridge wall. She lunged for it, almost losing her balance, and swung it down toward the gap.
A shriek burst from below—not air, not sound, but a vibration that hit Mira’s teeth like a tuning fork. The fingers released her all at once, sending her tumbling backward into Elena. They both collapsed onto the stones, gasping.
The rubble moved.
It didn’t slide or collapse—it breathed. Dust puffed between the rocks as the gap beneath them widened, exposing a void threaded with faintly glowing veins of red. Sowhere deep inside that darkness, sothing was climbing upward.
Elena grabbed Mira’s arm. “We’re not staying to see it.”
They scrambled down the far side of the pile, boots skidding on loose gravel. Behind them, a pale shape erged from the gap—not the claw from the plaza, but sothing more spindly. A head, hairless and smooth, with eyes like wet glass. No mouth, just a slit running from chin to chest, twitching as if about to open.
It didn’t follow imdiately. It simply watched, head turning with an unnerving slowness as they fled under the bridge and into the open street.
The pounding from the plaza returned—closer, heavier. Each beat seed to answer sothing in the creature beneath the rubble. Its slit began to part, the edges peeling wetly to reveal rows of small, glassy teeth. Not for chewing—for grinding.
Mira’s vision swam. She didn’t realize she’d slowed until Elena shoved her forward. “Don’t look at it!”
But she had looked—and in that mont, the creature’s thoughts pressed into hers.
The gate will open. You will be inside when it does.
They didn’t stop running until the bridge was out of sight. Even then, Mira could still feel the cold in her ankle, as if sothing of those fingers had remained inside her.
The city was quiet again, but the silence had a weight to it.
Like a held breath.
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