Lila
The tremor did not stop.
It rolled through the building again, stronger than before, vibrating up through the soles of my shoes and into my knees. The walls creaked softly, like the structure was adjusting its weight. Somewhere below us, metal rattled.
Hana whimpered and pressed her face into my side.
"It's under us," Alex said.
No one corrected him.
Ethan moved first. He stepped into the hallway and looked both ways, listening. The lights flickered again, then steadied. For a moment, everything went still.
Then we heard it.
A low, dragging sound beneath the floor. Not loud. Not violent. Just heavy. Deliberate. Like something shifting its body to get comfortable.
"We need to leave the building," Ethan said quietly.
"But my dad" The words slipped out before I could stop them.
"I know," he said, turning to me. His voice was steady, but his eyes were tight. "But if they were here, they're not here now. And whatever that is… it knows we are."
Another vibration ran through the floor, followed by a dull thud. A ceiling panel down the hall dropped and shattered, spraying dust across the tiles.
That decided it.
We moved quickly but carefully. The stairs felt endless as we descended, every step echoing louder than I wanted. Hana clutched my shirt. Alexa held onto the railing with one hand and Ethan's sleeve with the other.
Halfway down, the sound changed.
Closer.
The dragging noise was replaced by a slow grinding, like stone scraping against stone. The building groaned again, this time deeper, like the foundation itself was under pressure.
We burst out through a side exit and into the open air.
The campus looked different now.
The ground near the science block had cracked in several places, long dark lines spreading across the pavement. One of the cracks pulsed faintly, then stilled.
We backed away instinctively.
"Don't run," Ethan said under his breath. "If we run, it'll follow."
We moved slowly instead, retreating across the quad. The wind picked up, carrying the sharp metallic smell again. Somewhere behind us, inside the building, something shifted heavily.
Then the ground near the entrance lifted slightly.
Not breaking through.
Just testing.
Hana cried out softly.
I turned my body to shield her, my heart hammering so hard it hurt. I thought of Dad in his lab coat, hunched over a microscope, scribbling notes like the world made sense if you looked close enough.
If he'd been here when this happened…
I pushed the thought away.
The ground settled again.
After a long moment, the movement faded.
Whatever it was, it stayed beneath the building.
For now.