THE THING BENEATH
1637 Words
The roar shook the entire palace.
Books crashed from the shelves.
Glass shattered somewhere in the distance.
I stumbled backward and nearly fell.
Lucien caught my arm before I hit the floor.
His grip tightened.
For the first time since meeting him, he looked genuinely alarmed.
Not angry.
Not cold.
Not annoyed.
Alarmed.
And that terrified me more than the roar itself.
Because if Lucien Draven was afraid...
Then whatever was beneath the palace was far worse than I imagined.
The floor trembled again.
A deep vibration traveled through the stone beneath our feet.
Not from above.
Not from outside.
From below.
Far below.
Something was moving.
Slowly.
Patiently.
As if it had been asleep for centuries and had finally opened its eyes.
"Lucien."
My voice came out shaky.
"What is happening?"
His gaze remained fixed on the floor.
"The same thing I spent years trying to prevent."
That wasn't an answer.
Before I could demand a better one, the library doors burst open.
Several guards rushed inside.
Their faces were pale.
One of them was bleeding.
"Your Highness!"
Lucien released me immediately.
"What happened?"
"The eastern wing."
The guard swallowed hard.
"Three servants disappeared."
Silence.
My stomach twisted.
Disappeared?
"What do you mean disappeared?" I asked.
The guard looked uncomfortable.
"As in... gone."
"People don't simply disappear."
The guard looked at me.
Then at Lucien.
Neither of them answered.
And somehow that frightened me more.
Because it meant they had seen this before.
Lucien grabbed his sword from a nearby display.
The blade looked ancient.
Black metal.
Silver symbols.
The moment his fingers touched it, crimson light flashed across the weapon.
I stared.
Okay.
Definitely not normal.
"Stay here."
I laughed.
Actually laughed.
"You're joking."
"I'm not."
"Something is eating servants and you want me to stay in a library?"
His expression remained blank.
"Yes."
"Absolutely not."
For a second I thought he might argue.
Instead he surprised me.
"Fine."
I blinked.
"Fine?"
"Stay close."
That was it.
No argument.
No threat.
No order.
Which somehow made me suspicious.
Very suspicious.
We left the library.
The palace corridors were chaos.
Servants ran everywhere.
Nobles shouted orders.
Guards rushed past carrying weapons.
Fear hung in the air.
Everyone knew something was wrong.
Nobody knew what.
The further we walked, the colder the palace became.
I wrapped my arms around myself.
The temperature kept dropping.
Breath fogged in front of my face.
The crest on my wrist began burning again.
I hissed.
Pain shot through my arm.
Lucien noticed immediately.
"The crest?"
"Burning."
His expression darkened.
Of course it did.
Apparently everything involving me made him look like he wanted to commit murder.
Wonderful.
We reached the eastern wing.
The corridor was empty.
Too empty.
No servants.
No guards.
No sound.
Nothing.
Even the air felt wrong.
Heavy.
Like the hallway itself was holding its breath.
One of the guards pointed ahead.
"Last seen there."
A door stood open at the end of the corridor.
Lucien approached first.
The rest of us followed.
The room beyond looked untouched.
No blood.
No signs of struggle.
Nothing.
Just an ordinary guest room.
Except for one thing.
The wall.
My heart nearly stopped.
A message had been carved into the stone.
Not written.
Carved.
Deep enough to c***k the wall.
Three words.
SHE HAS RETURNED.
The room went silent.
Every guard stared.
I stared.
Then slowly looked toward Lucien.
His face had gone completely white.
"What does that mean?"
Nobody answered.
The crest burned hotter.
The words on the wall suddenly seemed alive.
Watching.
Waiting.
Then something moved.
I froze.
A shadow slipped across the ceiling.
Fast.
Too fast.
The guards saw it too.
"Above us!"
Everyone looked up.
Nothing.
Empty stone.
The shadow vanished.
The room became silent again.
Then.
A scream echoed through the palace.
Far away.
Another servant.
Another victim.
The sound cut off abruptly.
As if someone had covered their mouth.
Or worse.
Lucien turned instantly.
"Move."
We ran.
Corridor after corridor.
Staircase after staircase.
The screams led us downward.
Deeper.
Lower.
Toward the oldest parts of the palace.
The parts nobody seemed to use anymore.
The walls changed.
New stone became ancient stone.
Dust covered everything.
Spiderwebs stretched across forgotten hallways.
The deeper we went, the more violently my crest burned.
Until tears filled my eyes.
"Lucien."
He looked back.
One glance at my face and he stopped.
"What is it?"
"The crest."
I grabbed my wrist.
"It feels like it's pulling me."
His expression hardened.
"Pulling you where?"
I looked ahead.
Toward a dark corridor.
A corridor nobody else seemed to notice.
At the very end stood a massive black door.
Ancient symbols covered its surface.
The moment I saw it, my heart skipped a beat.
Because somehow...
I knew that door.
Not from memory.
Not exactly.
But from somewhere.
Somewhere deeper.
Somewhere impossible.
A vision flashed through my mind.
A woman wearing a black crown.
A battlefield covered in blood.
A king screaming her name.
Then darkness.
I gasped.
The vision vanished.
But one thing remained.
A single word.
Seal.
The same word Lucien had used.
The same word whispered by the book.
The same word echoing through my dreams.
My eyes lifted toward the ancient door.
And suddenly I knew.
Whatever was happening...
Whatever was awakening...
Whatever had written SHE HAS RETURNED on the wall...
It was connected to that door.
And somehow...
It was connected to me.
Then the door moved.
Not opened.
Moved.
As if something enormous had struck it from the other side.
The entire corridor shook.
Guards stumbled.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Another impact followed.
BOOM.
The black door cracked.
Every drop of blood drained from Lucien's face.
"No."
A third impact.
BOOM.
This time the c***k spread across the ancient symbols.
Dark energy leaked through.
Cold.
Ancient.
Wrong.
Then a voice echoed from behind the door.
A voice that sounded old enough to have witnessed the birth of kingdoms.
A voice filled with amusement.
A voice that made every guard tremble.
"Found you."
And somehow...
I knew it wasn't talking to Lucien.
It was talking to me.
The voice laughed again.
The sound crawled beneath my skin.
Ancient.
Mocking.
Patient.
As though it had waited a very long time for this moment.
Every guard in the corridor stepped back.
One dropped his weapon.
The sword clattered against the stone floor.
Nobody moved to pick it up.
The black door shook again.
Another c***k appeared across its surface.
Dark mist escaped through the opening.
It spread across the floor like living smoke.
The symbols carved into the door began glowing.
For a second, I thought they would stop whatever was trapped inside.
Instead, the glow started fading.
My stomach dropped.
The seal was weakening.
Lucien cursed under his breath.
A very bad sign.
Because Lucien never looked rattled.
Never.
Yet now his hand tightened around his sword.
His knuckles turned white.
The guards exchanged nervous looks.
"Your Highness," one whispered.
"What do we do?"
Lucien didn't answer immediately.
His eyes remained fixed on the door.
Then he spoke.
"Evacuate everyone from the lower palace."
The guards froze.
Everyone?
That was thousands of people.
Whatever was behind that door was dangerous enough to clear an entire section of the palace.
The realization made my chest tighten.
The guards rushed away.
Soon only Lucien and I remained.
The corridor suddenly felt much larger.
And much darker.
Another vision struck me without warning.
One second I was standing beside Lucien.
The next.
I was somewhere else.
A throne room.
Dark banners hung from towering walls.
Bodies covered the floor.
Blood stained the marble.
A woman stood at the center of the room.
She wore black armor.
A silver crown rested on her head.
Her face was hidden.
Yet somehow I knew her.
The same woman from before.
The one from my visions.
The one who shouldn't exist.
Slowly she turned toward me.
Then she smiled.
Not kindly.
Sadly.
As if she already knew how everything would end.
Run.
The word echoed through my head.
Run before it wakes.
I gasped.
The vision vanished.
I nearly collapsed.
Lucien caught me before I hit the floor.
"What happened?"
I stared at him.
"The woman."
His entire body stiffened.
"What woman?"
"The one I've been seeing."
Silence.
A dangerous silence.
"What did she look like?"
"I couldn't see her face."
His jaw tightened.
"But?"
I swallowed.
"She wore a crown."
Lucien closed his eyes.
Just for a second.
That reaction told me everything.
He knew exactly who I was talking about.
And he didn't want me to know.
The crest on my wrist suddenly burned.
I cried out.
The symbol glowed bright crimson.
Brighter than ever before.
The light reflected against the walls.
Against the floor.
Against the ancient door.
Then something impossible happened.
The symbols carved into the door answered.
One by one.
They lit up.
As if recognizing the crest.
As if recognizing me.
The corridor began shaking violently.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
The c***k across the door widened.
Lucien's eyes widened.
"No."
The voice behind the door laughed.
Louder this time.
Triumphant.
"At last."
The door trembled.
The chains binding it snapped one after another.
CLANG.
CLANG.
CLANG.
Each sound echoed through the corridor.
Each one felt like a countdown.
Lucien grabbed my wrist.
His expression was deadly serious.
"Listen to me carefully."
For the first time, there was no coldness in his voice.
No arrogance.
Only urgency.
"If anything happens..."
His grip tightened.
"You do not stop."
"What?"
"You run."
The same word from my vision.
Run.
Fear flooded my chest.
"What is behind that door?"
Lucien stared at the growing c***k.
Then he whispered something that made my blood freeze.
"The reason your family was chosen."
The corridor exploded with darkness.
And the door finally began to open.
- Writer
