Anne stirred.
Her body ached, her head throbbed, and the air around her felt heavy—like breathing through velvet soaked in ash. She blinked slowly, her pendant glowing faintly against her chest, casting a soft halo of light in the pitch-black void.
A cough echoed nearby.
Anne sat up.
In the corner of the pit, nestled between two skulls, sat a little girl.
Pale skin. Red hair that seemed to grow as she breathed. Her nails were long, curling unnaturally, and her eyes shimmered with a strange mix of joy and exhaustion.
Anne crawled toward her. "Are you okay?"
The girl looked up, her voice raspy but cheerful. "I'm fine. You brought light."
Anne glanced around.
The pit was circular, its walls slick and cold. At each corner, skulls were stacked like forgotten warnings. The air was damp, metallic, and still.
The girl smiled. "It's been fifteen years since I saw light. It's… frustrating."
Anne's heart sank. "You've been here that long?"
The girl nodded. "I stopped counting after year ten. I think."
Anne sat beside her. "Is there a way out?"
The girl's smile faded. "There's no hope here. Everyone in the pit just… dies."
Anne clenched her fists. "But you've survived. That means you know something."
The girl tilted her head. "I guess I do."
"They call me Egry," she said. "I don't know why. It's just what I've always been called."
Anne listened closely.
"I came here because of a tree," Egry continued. "It was the first thing in the overworld. Old. Twisted. Beautiful. I used to sit under it and dream."
"One day, an entity appeared. Her name was Eve. She told me to go away. She said the tree wasn't mine."
"But I didn't listen."
Egry coughed again, her nails twitching.
"I went inside the tree. There was a hollow. A tunnel. And then… this place."
Anne's pendant flickered.
"The air was different," Egry whispered. "It felt like it belonged to me. Like I was meant to be here."
Anne leaned in. "But something changed?"
Egry nodded slowly.
Her eyes darkened.
"Yes," she said. "Everything changed."
To be continued…