Threads Of The Void

Chapter-4 "Into The Unknown"

Shirozai lay motionless on Yoshiko’s back, his shallow breaths brushing faintly against her neck. His unconscious weight was a constant reminder of how much energy he’d drained during the fight—against both her and Luther. But it wasn’t just the fight that had left him like this. The overuse of his strange abilities had taken its toll, leaving him silent and vulnerable. She adjusted his limp frame, her steps echoing softly through the narrow metallic corridors.

The abandoned facility loomed around her like a labyrinth of shadows and steel. Each dimly lit hallway seemed to stretch endlessly, branching off into dead ends or leading to more featureless doors. The faint hum of flickering lights above was the only sound accompanying her, save for the occasional creak of distant metal. Despite its abandonment, the facility was oddly clean—sterile, even—aside from the scattered skeletons lying crumpled against walls, their lab coats stained with time. She glanced at one as she passed, its empty sockets staring back, as if in silent warning.

Yoshiko pushed forward, unease gnawing at her. Something about this place felt... wrong. Not just because of the unsettling stillness or the haunting remains of the researchers who once worked here. It was the air itself—stale, heavy, and almost expectant, as if the walls held secrets they were desperate to keep.

Her grip on Shirozai tightened slightly. Why was she doing this? Why was she carrying someone she’d barely known for more than a week, someone she’d nearly killed not long ago? She tried to brush the thought away, but it lingered, gnawing at the edges of her mind.

This wasn’t logical. She could have left him outside, let the wild creatures and scavengers claim him. Or better yet, she could have killed him when she had the chance, as she had with so many others before. Yet here she was, weaving her way through a maze of corridors in search of something—anything—that might help him.

Kindness? The word felt foreign to her. Yoshiko had long since abandoned the luxury of being kind. Survival didn’t leave room for charity or sentimentality. So why was she doing this?

The train of thought soured in her mind, and she forced herself to stop thinking about it. She needed to focus. The path ahead stretched on, unyielding and cold, and she had no way of knowing if it would ever lead somewhere meaningful.

Finally, she stopped in front of a large steel sliding door. A dull red light blinked on a security camera mounted beside it, its lens pointed directly at her. She barely spared it a glance before pressing the panel to open the door. The steel slid open with a groan, revealing another corridor bathed in dim light.

What Yoshiko didn’t notice, however, was that the camera had followed her every movement. Somewhere deep within the facility, a monitor flickered to life. On the screen, her figure and the unconscious Shirozai came into view, captured in grainy black and white.

A shadowed figure leaned closer to the screen, silent, observing them intently.

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It had only been a few minutes since Yoshiko passed the previous sliding iron door, but the air felt heavier now. There was something... off. A prickling sensation ran down her spine, like unseen eyes were drilling into the back of her head. She glanced over her shoulder, her sharp eyes scanning the dim corridor behind her.

Nothing. Just the empty hallway, stretching endlessly into the distance.

Still, the feeling persisted—someone was following her. Or something. She shook her head and tightened her grip on Shirozai, adjusting his weight slightly. “I’m just being paranoid,” she muttered under her breath, her voice barely louder than a whisper.

She wasn’t used to feeling this vulnerable. Her powers, especially her tentacles, had been spent entirely during the fight with Luther and Shirozai earlier. The sensation of being powerless didn’t sit well with her. Without them, she couldn’t lash out at a threat or defend herself effectively. And carrying Shirozai, though he wasn’t particularly heavy, slowed her down. She wasn’t moving at her usual speed, and that left her exposed.