Blood and Sparks: The Edge of Power
Chapter 20: The Descent into Hollow Earth

Chapter 20: The Descent into Hollow Earth

The subway tunnel swallowed us whole.

But it wasn’t the same tunnel anymore.

Not really.

It had changed—or maybe we had.

We weren’t running through the remnants of a city anymore, not the decaying bones of civilization buried beneath layers of rubble and war. We were somewhere older, somewhere that had been waiting beneath the surface long before the streets above had ever been paved.

I could feel it.

A weight pressing down on my chest.

The air was thicker now, dense like something unseen had soaked into it, curling around my skin, winding into my lungs, settling into the marrow of my bones.

And the silence—

It was the kind of silence that wasn’t just an absence of sound.

It was active.

Listening.

Waiting.

And it wasn’t empty.

System Update:

Mimicry Active: Tier 1 Kinetic Energy Manipulation.Psionic Influence Detected. Effects: Unknown.Physical Enhancement: 65% Durability, 55% Strength Increase (Stable).

The system alert sat wrong in my skull.

Psionic Influence Detected.

It didn’t say if it was an attack.

Or a connection.

The last time the Watcher touched my mind, it had been like a parasite—forcing its way in, trying to consume. But this time, it didn’t feel foreign.

It felt close.

Familiar.

Like I had left with something from that encounter.

Or maybe—

Something had left with me.

The Silence Between Us

We ran.

The sounds of the war above—the bombings, the collapsing buildings, the screaming—were distant now, muffled by layers of earth and concrete, as if we had fallen out of sync with reality itself.

I could still hear our footsteps against the cracked pavement, the damp slap of boots on wet stone, the shuffle of shifting rubble. But it all felt muted.

Like the world itself was being smothered.

Like something didn’t want us to exist here.

Jace moved slower now, still favoring his ribs. His breathing was shallow, his expression drawn tight with pain. But his eyes weren’t on himself.

He was watching.

Scanning the tunnels.

Looking for something he couldn’t see.

Tucker hadn’t spoken in nearly ten minutes, and he hadn’t looked at me once since the Watcher screamed. His fingers stayed curled around the hilt of his machete, grip white-knuckled, like it was the only thing anchoring him to reality.

Liv was ahead of us, leading.

And she hadn’t stopped sparking.

Blue electricity crackled across her fingertips, snapping against the damp walls, skittering across the stone like nervous static. It wasn’t controlled. It wasn’t intentional.

It was instinctive.

A reaction to something none of us could name.

And then there was Rylan.

Still unconscious. Still bleeding.

But his body was shivering—not from cold.

It was more like something was passing through him.

Like something inside him recognized this place.

The Tunnel That Shouldn’t Exist

The subway curved.

A sharp left. Then a steeper descent.

I slowed my steps.

Something felt off.

I turned—

And felt my stomach drop.

The tunnel behind us was gone.

Not blocked.

Not collapsed.

Just... gone.

Like the path had never been there at all.

Like we had stepped into something that didn’t want us to leave.

System Alert:

Local Infrastructure Scan: ERROR.Tunnel Does Not Match Registered City Plans.Estimated Age: UNKNOWN.

"What the hell?" I whispered.

Liv turned. "What?"

I pointed. "The entrance—"

She followed my gaze, then froze.

Her eyes flickered with static. "That’s—"

Tucker swore under his breath. "Yeah. That’s not normal."

Jace’s breathing turned sharp. "We should go back."

"Back where?" I muttered.

Jace turned fully, and I saw the exact moment he realized.

His face paled. His hands clenched.

The tunnel wasn’t there anymore.

Just nothingness.

Liv swallowed. "Kai. What does your system say?"

I hesitated.

Because my system wasn’t registering this tunnel at all.

Not just unknown.

Nonexistent.

Like we had stepped into something outside the normal world.

Something that had never been mapped.

And the air—

The air was getting heavier.

I inhaled, but it didn’t feel like breathing.

It felt like something pressing in.

Like the tunnel itself was closing around us.

Then—

I saw it.

The Wall of Echoes

At first, it just looked like rock.

Old. Rough. Chiseled away in uneven places.

But then my eyes adjusted—

And I saw the faces.

Hundreds of them.

Mouths open in silent screams, their expressions frozen in agony, their eyes hollow voids.

Not statues.

Not corpses.

Something else.

Something trapped.

A slow, crawling dread wrapped around my ribs.

These weren’t human remains.

They weren’t dead.

They weren’t alive.

They were something between.

Something preserved.

Something held.

And they were watching us.

I took a step forward.

Liv grabbed my arm.

I hadn’t realized I was reaching out—hadn’t realized how strong the pull was.

Like the wall was calling.

Like it was listening.

Like it was waiting for me to touch it.

System Alert:

Psionic Residue Detected.Source: Unknown.Energy Signature: Matches Prior Encounter (The Watcher).

I yanked my hand back.

Cold bit into my spine.

The Watcher had been here before.

Tucker shifted uneasily. "Tell me I’m not the only one seeing this."

Jace exhaled sharply. "What the hell is this place?"

Liv’s sparks jumped again.

And that’s when I realized—

The tunnel wasn’t silent.

It was breathing.

The stone exhaled.

A slow, low vibration.

Like a heartbeat beneath the ground.

Like the world was waiting for something.

Then—

A whisper.

Not sound.

Not a voice.

A presence.

A weight curling into my mind like it had always been there.

You should not be here.

The words weren’t spoken.

They weren’t heard.

They just arrived.

Injected into my mind.

Jace flinched. "Did anyone else just—?"

Liv exhaled sharply. "Yeah. Yeah, we did."

Tucker’s grip on his machete tightened. "I’m so goddamn sick of things talking in my head."

My system flashed red.

System Alert:

Psionic Contact Initiated.Analyzing Entity...Threat Level: UNKNOWN.

The pressure grew.

Then—

Rylan gasped.

We all turned.

His body convulsed, hard enough that Tucker almost dropped him.

For the first time in hours, his eyes snapped open.

They were pitch black.

No whites. No irises. No pupils.

Just void.

A hollow reflection of the thing we had left behind.

And when he spoke—

It wasn’t his voice.

"You are late."

The walls screamed.

The faces shifted.

And the tunnel collapsed inward.

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