The tunnels were a blur of jagged turns, flickering lights, and muffled voices. Evan stumbled behind Lena, his breath coming in short bursts. Every nerve in his body screamed to stop, but there was no choice — the pounding footsteps behind them grew louder with each passing second.
Lena didn't look back, her pace unrelenting. "Keep up, Evan!" she called, voice cutting through the cacophony of alarms.
Evan's heart raced. He could feel it — the weight of something monstrous lurking behind them. Whoever was coming, they weren't just after him; they were hunting them all.
Turning a corner, Lena stopped suddenly, yanking Evan back just as a bolt of lightning shot down the corridor. The air seemed to crackle with energy. For a split second, Evan swore he saw a shadow dart across the walls, too fast to be human.
"What was that?" he gasped.
Lena didn't answer immediately. She motioned for him to follow her as she ducked into a side room. The door creaked closed with a heavy thud behind them. The sound of footsteps faded, but the air inside the room was thick with tension.
Lena's eyes were wide with concern. "They're not ordinary people. They're hunters. Trained to deal with... people like you."
"People like me?" Evan repeated, his mind racing. "I don't even know what I am!"
Lena exhaled slowly, her fingers brushing over an old, leather-bound book in the corner. "You've awakened something inside you. Something... ancient. And dangerous. That's why they're after you."
Evan blinked. "Ancient? Dangerous? This is crazy. I'm just—"
A loud bang echoed through the corridor outside, followed by the unmistakable hiss of air, like the sound of something massive being dragged along the ground.
Lena grabbed Evan's wrist, pulling him toward a small hatch beneath the floorboards. "We don't have time for explanations. We need to move."
Before Evan could protest, she pushed him down into the hole, and he fell into the darkness below.
They landed in a pile of damp earth and stone. The room smelled of old wood and mildew. It took Evan a moment to steady himself and get to his feet.
Lena was already moving toward a small stone archway, the edges of which seemed to shimmer in the faint light. She turned back to him, eyes hard. "This place is an emergency route. It leads to a safe house. It's the only way to get you out of here."
As they crossed the threshold of the archway, the air shimmered, and the walls seemed to pulse with energy. Evan's head spun. The sensation was both familiar and alien, like being yanked through some sort of veil. A crackling noise filled the air, and the next moment, they were somewhere else.
They were on a cliffside, overlooking a sprawling cityscape.
For a moment, Evan could only stare. The city looked so... normal. But beneath that veneer, something was wrong. The sky was a murky gray, and strange, flickering lights danced along the horizon.
Lena pointed toward the city. "This is where you'll learn everything. But first, we need to find you a place to hide."
Before Evan could ask more, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. There, in the distance, he saw the dark silhouettes of several figures climbing toward them, their movement unnaturally fast.
"They're coming," Lena said, urgency in her voice. "We have to go—NOW."
They ran, dodging between abandoned buildings and dark alleys, heartbeats in sync with their footsteps. With every turn, Evan couldn't shake the feeling that they weren't just being chased.
They were being hunted.
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