n's

hem, lean on them, sometimes walk into them after too litt

it all started

e "I think I'm alone" kind of alone, no, this was proper, echo-in-an-emp

spe

scrambled my brain into Vein-flavored oatmeal. But the whispers kept coming, always when

bly sounded insane, caus

assistant who kept trying to "accidentally" trip over my notes, a

ally n

I followe

, I felt... tugged. Like there was a string behind my ribs, someone kep

o

und, with arched ceilings, stained glass windows, and vel

r turns colder and the lig

ry. It looked like it hadn't been disturbed in years, but th

out, or I'd been here before in my sl

tone itself, lit by nothing I could see. There was no reason for it to be beautiful, but it was, and t

pers gre

lated into sound. That same curiosity, hunger, and recogn

e to lightning, and something pulsed beneat

I s

it wasn't a

in ancient runes that shimmered faintly like breaths on a cold transparent

ed out before

forting warm but fever-warm, like something alive, something

world

like lightning wrapped in a scream. My knees hit the stone

ey scr

hen n

, which made me realise that I had fainted in this a

don't...hey

course, i

of annoyance and something else. Concern? Disbelief? Exist

ollow me?"

rouched beside me, checking my pulse like he had any me

I sat up. "Rock walls and whispering door

it didn't come as a s

lowing door like it had personall

t touched

t be down here or in this area. That door i

did it res

or a second, I thought h

urned. "Come on,

attering, my limbs were shaking like leaves, and beneath it all was a deep ache

brain short-circuit a little. He was warm, infuriati

e with no further explan

ith Callie snoring softly in the bed beside mine, I saw

ker, my eyes weren't mine or at

were