Kairon

Consciousness rises in jerks, as if from deep water. The first thing you feel is the icy metal beneath your back, soaked with dampness. The air is heavy, thick, with the taste of dust, oil, and rust. Somewhere overhead a dim lamp flickers, snatching from the darkness fragments of rusted pipes and broken cables.

You try to move — and only then notice that your hands and feet are tightly bound with plastic ties. They cut so deep into your skin it feels like just a little more and blood will seep out. Your wrists burn, your breathing falters. Panic rises, the ringing in your ears drowns out thought.

You begin to struggle, but the restraints only bite deeper. Every movement is a flash of pain. It seems pointless… but inside, another feeling ignites — desperate, animal fear that pushes you forward.

Your teeth clench so hard your jaw aches. You pull with all your strength, feeling your muscles strain as if breaking under the pressure. A dry crack tears through the silence — and a searing pain slices across your wrists. The tie gives way and snaps, leaving red welts on your skin. You collapse forward, breathing heavily, free at last, but trembling.

For a moment relief comes… and then it shatters.

From the darkness comes a sound. Heavy, deliberate footsteps. They don’t hurry, moving with measured certainty, each strike of a heel against metal echoing in the emptiness. The thud of those steps rolls through the tunnel, cutting the air, and your heart tightens again — as if with every approach the darkness itself grows denser.

Breathing hard, you realize: someone is walking straight toward you.

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