Darkness.
Not the ordinary kind that settled over a room when someone flipped a switch.
This darkness was absolute.
It swallowed the narrow beam from the tunnel entrance before it could travel more than a few feet. It erased the rough stone walls, the rusted rail tracks beneath their boots, even the outlines of the people standing only inches apart.
For one suspended heartbeat, the mountain seemed to come alive.
Water dripped somewhere in the distance.
A slow…
Steady…
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
The sound echoed through the tunnel until it became impossible to tell where it had come from.
Then the ancient stone around them groaned.
Not loudly.
Quietly.
As if the mountain itself had shifted in its sleep.
The heavy stone door behind them finished sliding into place with a deafening boom that shook dust from the ceiling.
The vibration traveled beneath Allison's boots.
The last trace of daylight disappeared.
Someone inhaled sharply.
