The air was thick with decay. A rancid, fleshy stench that seemed to cling to their skin, burning its way into their lungs with every shallow breath. Raelyn stumbled forward, her hands scraping against the damp. pulsing walls that shifted under her touch like living tissue. The stone wasn't stone at all. It was warm. Wet. It quivered as if drawing life from her touch.
Damien groaned somewhere behind her, his voice ragged and strained. "This... This isn't real."
"It is," Amara said, her voice steady but low, words forced through clenched teeth. "And it's only going to get worse."
Eden remained silent, her gaze, body tense. She kept herself close to Damien, her fingers brushing his arm every so often—grounding him, keeping him steady. Raelyn noticed the way Eden's touch seemed to calm him, even if only slightly.
Raelyn's chest tightened as she tried to keep her breathing even. Her memories of the maze had always been hazy, clouded by trauma and survival instinct. But being here again brought every nauseating detail crashing back. The walls glistened, slick with some viscous secretion that oozed from their pores. Low, Lickening groans throbbed through the air like the heartbeat of something ancient and ravenous.
"It's hunting us," Raelyn whispered.
"Let it come," Damien snapped, though his voice trembled, his fits clenched tight enough to make his knuckles whiten. "Let the bastard show itself."
Raelyn's gaze darted to Amara, hoping for some kind of reassurance. Amara's expression remained carved from stone, her eyes fixed on the endless corridor stretching before them.
"Vexis won't reveal itself yet," Amara said. "Not until it's had its fun."
As if on cue, the floor shifted beneath them. A sickening squelch accompanied their every step, as if they were walking over a carpet of raw, writhing muscle. Raelyn gagged as something pulsed against her ankle, curling around it with a sickening squirm before releasing her with a set, slurping sound.
They kept moving. Because stopping meant dying.
Damien's breathing quickened, his eyes darting wildly over the undulating walls. His hands clutched his temples, nails digging into his scalp. "Shut up. Shut up."
Eden's hand found his arm, squeezing gently, "Breath, Damien. In and out. Focus on my voice."
He sucked in a sharp, shuddering breath, his gaze locking on Eden's face. For a moment, he looked almost sane.
But the voice came again. The dark, rotting voice slithering through his mind like a parasite.
"Suffering suits you, Damien. You break so easily. Pathetic. And your angel can't save you. Not here."
Damien's knees buckled, his body jerking as if electrocuted. He let out a strangled cry, the sound thick with terror and rage. Eden's expression tightened, a flicker of something unnatural sparking in her eyes. Her hands hovered over him, fingers twitching as if battling some invisible force.
"Leave him alone," Eden hissed under her breath, her voice trembling with barely restrained fury.
Vexis laughed. Its voice twisted through the air like a festering wound torn open. "Why would I? He's mine. You can't protect him forever, little angel."
Raelyn started at Eden, confusion mixing with horror. "What... What did it just call you?"
Eden didn't answer. She only gripped Damien's arm tighter, her knuckles white. "We need to keep moving."
They pressed forward, stumbling through the throbbing corridors of flesh and bone. The walls seemed to close in, the air growing thick and damp like the inside of a rotting carcass.
But worse than the stench was the sound. Wet, slithering things squirming just beyond sight. Inhuman murmurs caressing their ears, whispering promises of agony and madness.
The floor trembled violently, the entire maze groaning as if roused from some dreadful slumber. And then, it began to feed.
The walls split open like festering wounds, spilling out tendrils of dark, glistening tissue. They snapped and twisted through the air, dripping with putrid bile. Raelyn cried out as one of the tendrils lashed against her shoulder, the impact cold and slimy, leaving a streak of burning pain.
Arama tore her free, her fingers tight around Raelyn's wrist. "Keep moving. It wants us to be afraid. It wants us to be weak."
"Mission accomplished," Damien rasped, stumbling after them, his steps uneven.
Eden remained at his side, her fingers brushing his shoulder as if weaving some unseen barrier around him. Raelyn noticed the strain in Eden's face, her jaw clenched tight with effort. Whatever she was doing, it was costing her.
The corridor twisted again, the air growing heavier with the scent of blood and decay. The darkness deepened, the only light a sickly crimson glow that seeped from the walls themselves.
And then they heard it.
The sound of something eating. Wet, gnashing noises accompanied by deep, guttural moans of satisfaction.
"What the hell is that?" Damien whispered, his voice a strangled gasp.
Amara's expression of darkness. "Vexis is making us hear what it wants us to. Trying to break us."
"But what if..." Raelyn's voice wavered. "What if that's real?"
They rounded the corner, and the answer slammed into them with nauseating clarity.
A massive, pulsating chamber stretched before them, its walls slick with blood and oozing tissue. And in the center, a mass of writhing figures—humanoid shapes stitched together by cords of living flesh, bound in grotesque clusters that quivered and writhed with every agonized breath.
Their faces twisted in silent screams, eyes hollow and sightless, mouths sewn shut with threads of sinew. The floor itself rippled beneath them, hungrily absorbing whatever fluids leaked from the writhing mass.
Damien retched, collapsing to his knees. Eden knelt beside him, her touch gentle, desperate. "Look at me, Damien. Just me. Stay with me."
Raelyn's throat closed, her own stomach churning with revulsion. Her gaze flicked to Amara, who only stared at the nightmare before them with a grim, knowing expression.
"We have to keep moving," Amara said. "Before it decides we belong in that mass."
And Raelyn knew she was right. Because even now, the maze was drawing them closer, its hunger insatiable.