Chapter 24 - : 24 : Floor 1!
The moment Aiden and Luna stepped through the glowing portal, the world around them shifted.
Gone was the warmth of the garden, the breeze rustling through the flowers and the scent of flowers. Instead, they were greeted by a cold, echoing emptiness and flickering overhead lights. The floor beneath them was not stone or grass—but smooth concrete tiles, dull gray and slightly cracked. Faint fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, hanging from a ceiling wrapped in dust-covered pipes.
Luna blinked, her ears twitching and tail brushing nervously against Aiden’s leg.
"W-Where... where are we?" she asked softly, her voice echoing eerily down the tunnel.
Aiden narrowed his eyes, his boots crunching lightly against stray gravel and dirt as he looked around.
Posters—faded and torn—lined the walls. Benches sat on either side of the narrow platform. And behind them, massive steel tracks stretched endlessly into the darkness.
Aiden’s lips parted slightly in awe. "...Is this a subway?"
"Sub...way?" Luna repeated, confused.
Aiden ran a hand through his hair. "It’s... a kind of underground transport system. But this place... it’s so quiet. Dead."
Luna slowly stepped beside him, heels clicking softly. She tilted her head, taking in the strange iron poles and the signs with strange markings she couldn’t read.
"I’ve never seen a place like this," she murmured, clinging to his arm. "It’s so... cold and lifeless. Like no one’s been here in centuries."