Burning Beneath

The hum in the air wasn’t mechanical. It was too steady, too alive.

Sam’s breath slowed as her eyes adjusted to the cold, flickering light. The walls stretched endlessly, lined with dark machinery—panels cracked open, wires snaking across the floor like veins. Screens flickered with static, flashes of symbols she couldn’t recognize.

She took a cautious step forward.

The floor creaked beneath her, metal groaning under her weight.

In the center of the room, the chair sat perfectly still beneath a single overhead light. Its cold, sharp frame felt deliberate—an invitation or a warning, she couldn’t tell.

But it wasn’t the chair that held her attention.

It was the shadows.

They stretched unnaturally along the walls, pooling in corners where the light should have reached. Something was hiding there, watching.

Waiting.

Sam’s pulse quickened, but she moved forward anyway, drawn by the quiet pull she had felt since the maze.

Her hand hovered over one of the panels. The static on the nearest monitor sharpened into jagged symbols, then flickered into a single word:

“SIT.”

She swallowed hard.

The chair didn’t look threatening, but everything about this place screamed trap.

Yet the pull in her chest tightened. She wasn’t being forced. She was being led.

But by what?

The shadow along the far wall shifted. Not flickering—moving.

Something tall and thin emerged just beyond the edge of the light.

It didn’t step forward.

It leaned in.

Watching.

Sam’s breath caught. Her mind instinctively reached for answers, but she had none. Not here.

She turned slowly back to the chair.

Another word burned onto the screen:

“DECIDE.”

Her choice was clear but impossible.

• Sit and face whatever was orchestrating this.
• Confront the figure lurking in the dark.
• Or turn away, knowing this place wasn’t designed to let her leave.

But as she hesitated, the figure in the shadows began to move.

Slow. Deliberate.

Not toward her.

Toward the machines.

It reached for a lever on the wall, fingers impossibly long.

And Sam understood—if she didn’t choose now, the choice would be made for her.