Chapter 64: Below the Stairs

The voice message stayed frozen on Darian’s screen, waiting for someone to touch it. Nobody did.

Cassian was still standing at the window, two fingers on the curtain. The dawn had not arrived yet, but the color of the sky had begun to shift from black to dark gray, like ink slowly dissolving in water.

"How long do we have?" Darian asked.

"An hour. Maybe ninety minutes."

Darian reached for the phone again, felt its weight heavier than before. Twelve messages and forty-three missed calls pressed against the metal like they were humming louder than the phone itself. The cracked screen split his sister’s name in two with its white line.

Then he heard the scratching on the outer wall.

Light. Different from the knock before.

Cassian went rigid. His fingers stayed on the curtain.

"That’s not footsteps," he said, his voice lower than before.

"Meaning what?"

Cassian turned toward him, gave him one look, then walked toward the chair. He grabbed the jacket thrown over the back and tossed it at Darian.

"Put it on. Now."

"What’s happening?"

"Whatever I’ve been tracking found us first."

Darian pulled the jacket on with one arm. His shoulder refused to move at the speed he needed. The scratching continued on the wall. Slow. Rhythmic. Like someone counting on their fingernails. Fingernails on wood. Not human.

"Is that what attacked me in the alley?"

"Smaller. That one was just watching."

Cassian opened the drawer under the bed. He pulled out a metal blade longer than any knife should be, and slid it into his belt without looking at Darian. There was a thin blue line along the edge, like ink dissolving into steel.

"And what do I do?"

"Run. Through the back door. There’s a fire escape outside. Takes you to the street behind this building."

"And you?"

"I’ll hold it back."

Darian looked at the paper in his pocket, felt its crease under his fingers through the fabric.

"If I run now, does that mean I agreed?"

Cassian paused, hand on the door handle.

"It means you want to live until dawn. The decision comes after."

Cassian walked out through the front door without closing it behind him. The scratching on the wall stopped at once. Dead silence. Unnatural, like the quiet in the room after the first knock.

Darian stood and walked to the back door. His hand trembled on the handle. Before he opened it, he looked at his phone one more time.

He pressed play on the voice message.

His sister’s voice. Broken up. Afraid.

"Darian... answer me. Just answer."

Her voice cracked in the middle of the words. Like someone talking while crying. In the background, he heard running water. A door closing. Then her voice returned.

"I don’t... I don’t know what happened. Some people came. They asked about you. Dad said I didn’t know anything. But I... I know you’re in something. I can feel it. I always feel you."

She went quiet for a moment. Darian heard her breathing in his ear.

"If you can hear this, don’t answer. I know that if you’re hearing it, you can’t answer. But... I’ll be here. I won’t move."

The message ended.

Darian locked the screen without listening to it again. He slid the phone into his side pocket, away from the paper.

Then he opened the back door.

Cold air hit him in the face. The smell of rust from the iron stairs in front of him, and the smell of old water pooling in a puddle below. The stairs were narrow, carved into the outer wall. Not bolted. Every step had its own sound when he stepped on it.

He went down two steps. Stopped.

From below, he heard the sound of a body moving across asphalt. Slow. Heavy. Not human.

It wasn’t footsteps. It was the sound of something crawling. Its whole body moving at once, like a snake but larger. He heard iron bending under its weight. Heard something hit a metal barrel, and the barrel rolling.

Then he heard the breathing.

Long breaths. Deep. With a wet rattle at the end. The breathing of something that had lived in a damp place for a long time.

From above, he heard another sound. Cassian. Not words. Movement. Running.

Then the sound of impact. Iron against iron. Something large hitting something larger.

Darian looked up the stairs. The door he had walked out of was still open. If he went back, he could close it behind him. But Cassian was outside.

If he went down, there was something below. Something he had only heard. Never seen.

From outside, he heard Cassian’s voice. Not full words. Just a voice raised. Two words. He couldn’t make them out.

The thing below the stairs went quiet.

Darian felt time stop.

In his head, his sister’s voice: "I’ll be here. I won’t move."

In his head, Cassian’s voice: "I’ll hold it back."

In his head, another voice. An older one. From the alley. From the thing he had killed. The sound of its breathing as it came down on his chest.

The thing below the stairs moved again.

It descended one step.

The stairs screamed.

Darian put his foot on the next step. Descended.

The next step was louder. He stepped. It screamed.

The thing below stopped.

Darian took the rest of the stairs. Three steps. Two. One. His foot touched the wet asphalt. His hand stayed on the iron. His whole body told him to go back, but his mind wasn’t listening.

The thing was ten meters away. In the dark. He couldn’t see it. But he could feel it. He could feel the heat coming off its body. He could smell it. Burning iron, and stagnant water.

The thing moved toward him.

Darian ran.

There was nowhere to go but one direction. The small gap between the wall and the stairs. Narrow. Less than the width of his shoulder. He pushed into it sideways, scraping against the brick, skin on his hand tearing on the stone.

The thing was behind him.

He heard it in the gap. Its body didn’t fit. It stopped outside, pounding on the brick. The pounding got louder. Louder. Louder.

Darian ran to the end of the gap. He came out on another street. Wider. Cars parked on the side. One streetlight falling on the asphalt. Nobody around.

He heard a voice from above, from the direction of the stairs.

Cassian.

"You done?"

Darian didn’t answer. He was still running. He ducked through a side door of a building, climbed another staircase, made it to the second floor, sat on the floor beside a broken window. His back against the wall. Hand on his chest. Breathing hard.

After a while, he heard footsteps on the stairs. Faster than the thing’s steps. Lighter. Cassian.

Cassian reached the top, looked at Darian, and stopped.

"You were going to leave me."

"You told me to run."

"I told you to run through the back door. Not through streets with nobody in them."

"There wasn’t time."

"There was more time than you used."

Darian looked at him. Cassian was still standing. Hand on the knife. No blood on his clothes. No scratches.

"What was that thing below?"

"Something that was looking for you."

"And where is it now?"

"Below."

"Below where?"

"Below ground."

Darian looked at the window. The dawn was still rising. The sky was gray.

"If you’re going back down, I’m coming with you."

Cassian looked at him.

"No."

"Why?"

"Because you’re not ready."

"Ready for what?"

Cassian turned, looked at the window, then back at Darian.

"Ready to see that thing with your own eyes. Right now you only saw its shadow. The shadow isn’t enough."

Darian went quiet.

"If you walk now, you’re out of it. If you stay, you’re in it."

"And what do I want?"

"That’s what I’m waiting to find out."

Cassian stood, reached out his hand, and pulled Darian up.

"Come. There’s something I need to show you."

They went to the top floor, the roof of the building. Up there, the air was colder, the sky gray, and the city below asleep. Cassian stood at the edge, looked down at the streets below them.

"Look."

Darian looked. Streets. Cars. A streetlight. A tree.

"What?"

"Look again."

Darian looked again. Nothing.

"I don’t see anything."

"Because you don’t want to."

Darian went quiet. Tried to focus. Felt his chest tighten.

Then he saw it. Far away, on the roof of a building across the street, something was standing. Not a person. Not an animal. Just something standing, not moving.

"Is that the thing that was below the stairs?"

"No. That’s a different one."

"What’s the difference?"

"The one below the stairs was looking for you. This one is waiting for you."

"Waiting for what?"

"Waiting to see what you do."

They went down from the roof. Cassian stopped at the building door, and Darian stopped before him.

"I don’t know if I trust you."

"I didn’t ask you to."

"And you want me to go to someone I don’t know, at an address I don’t know?"

"I want you to do what you think is right."

"And you?"

"I won’t be there."

"Why?"

"Because I’m not looking for students. I’m looking for people who can go on alone."

Darian went quiet. Looked at the street. The dawn was closer now.

"I’ll go."

"Alright."

"But not because of you."

"Because of what?"

"Because I want to know if I want to forget or not."

Cassian looked at him.

"That’s a good decision."

"It’s not a decision. It’s a question."

"That’s enough."

Darian opened the door. Stepped into the street. Cassian was still standing in the doorway.

"One more thing."

"What?"

"The thing that attacked me in the alley. What did it want from me?"

Cassian was quiet for a moment.

"It wanted to see how you were afraid."

"Why?"

"So it could know if it could use you."

Darian said nothing. Then he turned and walked down the street.

In one hand, a paper with an address. In the other pocket, a phone with his sister’s voice on it.

He walked. He didn’t look back.