Chapter 16: The Fire That Burns the DarkThe whispering was closer now.

  Soft at first. A raspy, wet noise, like something trying to form words but failing.

  Then it grew louder.

  Sam froze, his grip tightening on the bottle of lighter fluid. The sound wasn’t coming from one direction.

  It was all around them.

  Carter cursed under his breath, his shotgun already raised. “Tell me I’m just losing my mind.”

  Lena exhaled, her face pale. “No. It’s them.”

  Sam’s heartbeat thundered in his ears. “Them?”

  Lena’s eyes flicked to the door they had just forced open. The one they had stepped through.

  “The Whisper wasn’t alone.”

  A deep, unnatural groan echoed through the tunnels.

  Something smmed against the sewer walls, followed by the wet sp of bare feet against stone.

  They were coming.

  Nowhere to RunGrace moved first, grabbing an old fre gun from the supply crate. “We need to move. Now.”

  Lena shook her head. “Too te. They already know we’re here.”

  Sam turned, shining his fshlight back toward the door.

  A figure stood there.

  At first, it looked human.

  But then the light hit its face.

  Sam’s breath caught.

  The skin was peeled away in pces, exposing torn muscle and something bck and pulsating underneath. The eyes were milky white, but aware. The mouth was stitched shut with something that looked like hair, but the skin around it moved—like something was trying to speak through it.

  Then it tilted its head toward him.

  And whispered.

  The sound wasn’t just noise.

  It was inside his skull.

  Sam stumbled back, his hands flying to his ears, but it didn’t help. The whispering dug deep, sending cold fingers into his thoughts, twisting something at the back of his mind.

  He clenched his teeth. Fought it.

  Carter grabbed him, shaking him hard. “Sam! Stay with me, man!”

  The thing took another step forward, and behind it, more shapes appeared in the tunnel.

  Three. Five. Seven.

  Grace fired the fre gun.

  BOOM.

  The bright red streak of fire smmed into the first Whisper’s chest. For a moment, nothing happened.

  Then—it screamed.

  A horrible, high-pitched, inhuman screech, its body convulsing as the fmes spread over its skin. The fire didn’t just burn—it ate through it like acid, bckening the flesh until it colpsed onto the tunnel floor.

  But the others?

  They didn’t stop.

  Lena yanked open a rusted side door. “Through here!”

  Sam and Carter bolted first, leaping over the burning corpse. Grace followed, reloading the fre gun as she ran.

  Lena was the st inside, smming the door shut behind them.

  The whispers on the other side intensified, the sound pressing against the metal, crawling into their bones.

  Sam exhaled sharply, his mind still reeling. “What the hell was that?”

  Lena’s face was pale. “I told you. They don’t die normally.”

  Carter exhaled. “Then we need more fire.”

  Through the Veins of the CityThe new tunnel was tight and winding, barely rge enough for them to walk without crouching. Water dripped from overhead pipes, and the air was thick with the smell of mold and rot.

  Lena led the way, moving fast. “These tunnels connect to an old supply station. We might find more fuel there.”

  Sam wiped sweat from his forehead. “And what if they’re waiting for us?”

  Lena didn’t slow down. “Then we burn them.”

  The group pushed forward, the tunnel sloping downward until they emerged into a wide underground reservoir.

  Sam’s fshlight flickered over the massive, rusted pipes stretching across the walls. A broken maintenance walkway ran along the side, and beyond that—

  A storage area.

  Carter grinned. “Bingo.”

  They moved toward it fast, their footsteps echoing in the empty space.

  Then—a sound.

  A deep, low growl.

  Not a whisper.

  Something else.

  Sam froze. “Guys?”

  Lena stopped mid-step, her face suddenly tense.

  From the darkness beyond the storage area, something stirred.

  Not the Whispers.

  Something bigger.

  Something worse.

  The Thing in the DarkThe first thing Sam saw was the teeth.

  Rows of them, gleaming in the dim light, stretched too wide for a human mouth.

  Then came the eyes—multiple, too many, blinking unnaturally across its massive, elongated skull.

  And the body?

  It was wrong.

  Parts of it looked human, but others… others were stitched together, mismatched limbs fused by something that wasn’t natural.

  Lena’s breath caught. “No…”

  Carter stepped back. “You know what that thing is?”

  Lena’s voice was barely a whisper.

  “They call it the Collector.”

  Sam’s stomach twisted. “Why?”

  The Collector moved, its massive limbs shifting as it dragged itself forward.

  Then Sam saw it.

  The arms.

  There were too many of them, some stitched together, some still wearing pieces of tattered clothing.

  It wasn’t just one creature.

  It was many, fused together, their bodies merged into something that shouldn’t exist.

  And the worst part?

  Some of the faces were still moving.

  Mouths whispering.

  Sam felt bile rise in his throat. “Oh, hell no.”

  The Collector lifted its head, its many eyes focusing on them at once.

  Then, in a chorus of broken, rasping voices, it spoke.

  “Come back.”

  Carter raised his shotgun. “Nope.”

  He fired.

  The bst hit the Collector’s chest, but it barely reacted. The wounds closed instantly, the flesh shifting, absorbing the damage like it was nothing.

  Sam took a step back. “Lena, please tell me this thing burns.”

  Lena swallowed hard. “We need more fire.”

  Grace didn’t hesitate. She grabbed a gas canister from the storage crates, kicked it forward, and fired a fre straight at it.

  BOOM.

  The explosion lit up the entire reservoir, the fire ripping across the wet stone.

  The Collector shrieked, its many voices blending into one, its flesh bckening and peeling away.

  For the first time, it looked afraid.

  Lena grabbed another gas canister. “Keep burning it!”

  Sam grabbed his lighter, flicked it open, and hurled it into the fire.

  The fmes roared higher, spreading across the Collector’s twisted body.

  It screamed again—then colpsed.

  The mass of bodies convulsed, the limbs twitching violently before finally… going still.

  The whispers stopped.

  The tunnel fell silent.

  Carter exhaled, wiping sweat from his face. “Please tell me that was the st one.”

  Lena didn’t answer.

  She was staring at the burning corpse, her face grim.

  Sam’s stomach sank. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

  Lena nodded slowly.

  Then she turned to them.

  “This city… it’s infested.”

  And deep inside, Sam knew—

  This fight was far from over.