The bronze doors didn't simply open; they sank into the earth with the weary sigh of something that hadn't moved in centuries.
Beyond them lay a darkness so absolute it felt physical. It wasn't merely the absence of light; it was a hungry, velvet void that seemed to reach out and swallow our flashlight beams the moment they crossed the threshold.
No one spoke. Even Marcus, who always had something to say, stared into the opening without moving.
The silence that rushed out to meet us was profound. In the woods, there had been the crunch of snow, the distant rattle of branches, the thrum of the Heart deep below. Here, there was nothing. Even our breathing sounded muted, flattened against the immense scale of the space beyond.
"Nobody moves until I say," Damien whispered.
He took the fi
