Chapter One

Chapter One – The Rift Beneath the World

I used to think silence was safety.

That if I stayed quiet long enough, the world would forget to hurt me.

But silence doesn't make monsters go away.

It only teaches them to speak louder.

"Dahlia!"

The pounding on my door rattled the thin walls of my studio apartment hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling.

Aunt Lora's voice followed immediately after, shrill, nasal, and impossible to ignore.

"Dahlia! Open this door right now!"

I dragged a hand down my face and pulled my hoodie tighter around myself.

"It's seven in the morning," I muttered.

The pounding continued.

With a sigh, I unlocked the door.

"It's seven in the morning, Aunt Lora."

She swept inside without waiting for an invitation, bringing with her the overpowering scent of cheap powder and perfume.

Uncle Ren stumbled in after her, red-eyed and sour-faced, the stale smell of alcohol clinging to him like a second skin.

He looked around my apartment with obvious disdain.

The kitchenette barely fit two people. The sofa had seen better days. My dining table doubled as my work desk.

"So this is where you waste your money?" he scoffed. "Tiny and useless. Just like your sense of respect."

I closed the door behind them.

"Good morning to you, too," I said dryly. "What do you want?"

Aunt Lora lifted her chin.

"Money."

Of course.

"Your cousin needs tuition," she continued. "And your uncle's sick again."

I stared at her.

"My cousin is twenty-eight."

"He can't find work."

"And your husband is only sick when he runs out of beer."

Uncle Ren's face darkened.

Aunt Lora sucked in a sharp breath.

"Watch your mouth, Dahlia," she snapped. "After everything we've done for you—after your father died, we took you in—"

I laughed, a short, humorless sound.

"After my father died," I said evenly, "you took his house."

They went silent.

"And his savings."

Aunt Lora's expression stiffened.

"You don't get to rewrite the story just because you've told the lie long enough."

For a moment, all she could do was stare...then outrage twisted her face.

"You ungrateful brat!"

"I already sent you five hundred last week."

I crossed my arms.

"You think money grows in my kitchen sink? I work twelve-hour shifts. I barely eat decent food."

I looked between them.

"If you want more money, get jobs."

Uncle Ren surged forward.

The movement was sudden enough that instinct took over before thought could catch up.

His hand lifted.

And for the first time in years...I didn't freeze.

My fist connected with his jaw.

The crack echoed through the apartment.

He staggered backward, eyes wide with disbelief, clutching his face as his beer belly quivered beneath his stained shirt.

Shock flashed across his features.

I had hit back.

Aunt Lora shrieked.

"You dare raise your hand against your elders?!"

I met her gaze.

"Try me."

With a furious cry, she snatched up the nearest vase and swung it toward my head.

I caught her wrist midair and her eyes widened.

I twisted it just enough.

The vase slipped from her grasp and shattered against the floor.

The sharp sound rang through the apartment.

For several seconds, no one moved.

I stepped closer.

Close enough for Aunt Lora to see that my hands weren't shaking.

Close enough for her to understand that something had changed.

"You've taken enough from me," I said quietly.

"If either of you ever steps foot in my apartment again, I'll hand every piece of evidence I have to the police."

I tilted my head.

"Your scams. The forged signatures. The money you siphoned from my father's accounts."

I held her stare.

"Now get out."

Aunt Lora's lips trembled.

"You..." Her voice cracked. "You monster."

I glanced at the shattered vase scattered across the floor then back at her.

"Maybe."

I opened the door.

"But at least I pay my bills."

They stumbled into the hallway, muttering curses and threats over their shoulders.

I shut the door behind them.

At last, the apartment fell silent.

For a long moment, I stood there with my forehead resting against the wood.

Then I exhaled, my hands trembled, not from fear. But from something raw and electric that coursed beneath my skin.

It was relief.

For the first time in my life, I had stopped asking monsters to be kinder.

I had simply shown them my teeth.

By the time I got to work, the adrenaline had worn off, leaving behind nothing but exhaustion and bruised knuckles.

My boss yelled about missed deadlines.

My coworkers whispered when they thought I couldn't hear them.

I smiled through it all.

I was used to surviving... that was my only talent.

When night fell, the city felt... wrong.

It became still, too quiet.

Even the usual chorus of traffic seemed muted beneath the low, heavy sky pressing down over the rooftops.

I had just drifted into that hazy space between waking and sleep when the floor beneath my bed trembled.

The windows rattled, a picture frame tipped sideways.

I cracked one eye open.

A minor earthquake, I thought.

Nothing new.

I rolled over, pulled my blanket higher, and let the steady hum of the fan lull me back to sleep.

I didn't know that while I dreamed, the earth beyond the city was splitting apart.

That somewhere beyond the mountain ridge, stone was opening like flesh.

A wound was being carved into the world.

Dark and ancient, almost alive.

By morning, the street outside had descended into chaos.

Ambulances blocked intersections.

Police tape cut across sidewalks.

People gathered in anxious clusters, drawn toward disaster like moths to flame.

I saw stretchers being loaded into emergency vehicles.

There're people with surprisingly pale faces, trembling hands and eyes wide open but disturbingly empty.

"What happened?" I asked the woman standing beside me.

She looked at me as though she couldn't quite believe I hadn't heard.

"The mountain..." Her voice shook. "It opened."

I frowned.

"What do you mean, opened?"

"A cave appeared overnight." She hugged herself tightly. "Some men went inside before the authorities arrived."

Her gaze drifted toward the stretchers.

"They didn't even make it halfway."

"What happened to them?"

"They came back screaming."

A chill slipped beneath my skin.

"One of them said something was calling to them from the dark."

I stared at her.

"Calling?"

She nodded.

"They said it spoke."

Her expression twisted.

"It begged."

Her voice dropped to a whisper.

"And then it screamed."

Around us, people murmured prayers beneath their breath.

Others hurried away.

Fear moved through the crowd like a living thing but beneath my unease, something else stirred.

Curiosity, it burned through my apprehension like fire through fog.

Then my eyes caught a man in a gray coat hurried past, a clipboard tucked beneath one arm.

A researcher, I guessed.

I caught his sleeve before he could disappear into the crowd.

"Hey."

He looked startled.

"You're with the investigation team, right?"

He hesitated.

"We're assisting, yes."

"So what's going on in that cave?"

He glanced around before lowering his voice.

"We don't know."

"That's comforting."

His expression tightened.

"It's not a normal cave."

"It appeared overnight. Our equipment is malfunctioning near the entrance."

He adjusted his glasses.

"High resonance."

"And magnetic interference."

He hesitated.

"It's almost as if..."

He stopped himself.

"As if what?"

His eyes shifted toward the distant mountain.

"...as if it's alive."

I let out a low whistle.

"Creepy."

I shoved my hands into my hoodie pocket.

"So what happens to people who go inside?"

"They lose their minds."

His answer came too quickly.

"Or they come back..." He swallowed. "...different."

I tilted my head.

"Different how?"

"We don't know yet."

I considered that for all of three seconds, then I smirked.

"Sounds fun."

He blinked at me.

"...You're not serious."

I looked him dead in the eye.

"I'm dead serious."

I pointed toward the mountain.

"You hiring?"

His mouth opened, then closed.

"You want to volunteer?"

"Depends."

I shrugged.

"What's the pay?"

He stared at me for several long seconds.

Finally, he said, "Three hundred thousand dollars."

I stopped breathing.

"If you reach the deepest accessible point and bring back usable data," he continued, "you'll receive the full amount."

He hesitated.

"If you choose to remain with the research team afterward, there will be additional compensation."

Three hundred thousand dollars.

Enough to buy a house in the city.

Enough to never answer Aunt Lora's calls again.

Enough to stop surviving and finally start living.

Something tightened in my chest, it's ambition and finally, freedom.

Maybe even peace.

Slowly, I smiled.

"When do we start?"

That night, I couldn't sleep.

I couldn't stop thinking about the cave.

About the men who had returned screaming.

About the voice that had called to them from the dark.

And about the mystery hidden beneath it all.

Three hundred thousand dollars.

People said monsters lived in the dark.

Maybe they did.

But I'd spent my whole life surviving monsters that smiled across dinner tables, stole from the grieving, and called themselves family.

I'd survived them all.

At least the monsters beneath the earth may have the decency not to pretend they loved you.

I closed my eyes and listened to the city breathing beyond my window.

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