The dark beam wasn’t light at all. It felt like a thousand icy needles yanking Maya straight up into the sky. The beach, the forest, Julian’s face—all of it shrank and blurred beneath her. The air thinned out, sharp and metallic, and it stank of old, dead stars. She struggled to breathe, clawing at nothing as the black ship sucked her inside.
THUMP.
She hit the floor hard. It was cold, softer than stone—almost like velvet left in a freezer. The beam vanished. Maya just lay there, chest heaving, hands trembling. Underneath her, the ground pulsed with a slow, deep beat. This place wasn’t just a machine. It was alive.
“Julian…” She could barely get the name out.
She turned and caught one last glimpse through the hole in the floor before it closed up. The beach faded away. The thousand clo
