Chapter 45 – Their Path, Our Path

[Record of Those Who Remained]

“That day, we chose not to board the train.”

“We were not given only one choice.”

“The train is merely a means of transport.”

“It does not have to be the destination.”

“We had to find another way.”

“But whether that path was right… no one knows.”

I reread the faded words, their meaning… elusive. “The train is merely a means of transport.” What did that mean? If the train wasn’t the destination… what were they searching for? What was… the other way?

I picked up another document, its pages brittle, the ink faded.

[Record – 032]

“We have chosen to follow His word.”

“Now, we will open the true path.”

“If we can connect with the Abyss directly, without taking the train…”

“That path… is not just an exit.”

“It is the path… that leads us back… to the beginning.”

My fingers tightened around the paper. “His word…” Who is “He”? A leader? A guide? A… god?

I looked at Yuri, her eyes narrowed as she scanned the document, her expression… thoughtful.

“…I think… I understand,” she said, her voice low, her gaze meeting mine. “They weren’t just… survivors, Noah. They were… a cult.”

Her words sent a shiver down my spine. A cult. Not just a group of survivors, but a group with a shared belief, a shared purpose.

I reread the words, their meaning now… chilling. His word. The true path. A path not out of the Abyss, but… deeper into it. Back to the beginning. Where are they now?

My gaze fell on another piece of paper, a single, torn scrap, its writing fresher, more recent than the others. I picked it up, my heart pounding.

[Final Record]

“We follow the path He has shown us.”

“Now, we seek only one thing.”

“Our path.”

“We will not remain in this station.”

“We go deeper.”

They didn’t want to escape the Abyss. They wanted to… go deeper?

I looked at Yuri, at Luna, the weight of the words settling upon me, a growing sense of… unease… in my gut. “We need to find them,” I said, my voice low, urgent. “The answers… they’re down there. Somewhere.”

I scanned the small, concrete chamber, the scattered documents, the dust-covered table, the worn sofa. They’d been here. They’d waited. But they’d left. And they’d left a way… for us to follow.

“This is… sloppy,” Yuri muttered, her gaze fixed on a section of the floor in the corner of the room.

A square section of the concrete floor looked… different. Like a… a lid.

I stepped onto it, and a hollow thud echoed from beneath.

“Yuri, Luna! I found something!”

Yuri approached, her arms crossed, her gaze skeptical. “A trapdoor?”

Luna knelt down, running her hand across the surface. “Feels like… wood…”

I traced my fingers along the edges of the square. It was definitely… a lid.

“There’s something… underneath,” I said, my voice hushed, a thrill of anticipation running through me.

I looked at Yuri. “Help me lift it.”

“Sure.” She took a deep breath, bracing herself, and together, with Luna’s surprisingly strong assistance, we lifted the heavy wooden lid, the sound echoing in the small chamber, dust motes swirling in the air.

Beneath the lid… a ladder, descending into darkness.

“A secret passage,” Yuri murmured, peering down into the darkness, her expression thoughtful. “Is this… their ‘path’…?”

“Deep…” Luna whispered, her golden eyes wide, her small body trembling slightly. “…can’t see… bottom…”

A cold draft, a damp, earthy smell, rose from the darkness below, a chilling reminder of the depths, of the unknown. Their path. Our path.

I placed my hand on the ladder. “I’ll go first.”

And then, I began my descent.

The air grew colder, damper, a faint, salty tang clinging to it, as I descended the metal ladder, its rungs cold, rough beneath my hands, the darkness below… absolute. This isn’t just a basement. This is… something else. The station… it was surrounded by water. An underwater passage? A hidden chamber?

I continued my descent, one rung at a time, the darkness pressing in on me, the silence… deafening.

And then, the ladder ended.

I stepped onto solid ground, and my breath caught in my throat.

A vast cavern stretched before me, its walls smooth, curved, as if carved by water, droplets of moisture clinging to the stone, a steady drip… drip… drip… echoing in the silence. A shallow pool shimmered in the center of the cavern, its surface undisturbed, reflecting… nothing, the darkness absolute, yet… somehow… alive.

And on the floor… a pattern.

I clung to the ladder, taking a deep breath, my heart pounding, my mind reeling.

A massive, circular pattern, unlike anything we’d seen before. Not just a static design, but… a moving, breathing, living thing, its intricate lines and symbols shifting, swirling, pulsing with a hidden energy. It was a clock face, its twelve markings glowing faintly, strange symbols etched between them, their arrangement both familiar and… alien. And the hands of the clock… they were moving, slowly, deliberately, marking the passage of… something.

I fumbled for my pen and paper, my fingers tracing the intricate design, capturing its every detail, my mind racing.

“Not just a decoration… this is… the Abyss’s time…?”

But no. It was more than that. What if… what if this isn’t just a clock? What if it’s a… a device? A way to… control time? To connect with… the past?

I finished the sketch, my hand trembling, my heart pounding, the implications of the pattern’s power… terrifying.

“We have to go back,” I said, my voice hushed. “We need to… understand this.”

I turned to climb back up the ladder, but a voice, Yuri’s voice, called out from above.

“Noah! You alive down there?”

And then, Luna’s voice, a cheerful, yet slightly frantic sound.

“Noah! Yuri says you no answer and she’s worried—mmph!”

Her words were cut off abruptly, followed by Yuri’s exasperated sigh.

“Luna, honestly!”

I chuckled, picturing the scene, Luna’s exuberance, Yuri’s long-suffering patience. Luna had obviously clamped her hand over Yuri’s mouth.

“I’m fine,” I called back, grinning.

“Well, answer next time, dummy!” Yuri shouted, her voice echoing down the shaft, her relief… palpable.

I started climbing, the cold, damp air of the cavern receding, the familiar stillness of the station returning, the feeling of… suspended time… settling over me once more.

Yuri stood at the top of the ladder, her arms crossed, her brow furrowed. “What took you so long? We were worried.”

“Just… admiring the view,” I said, grinning, as Luna rushed forward, her golden eyes wide with concern.

“Noah okay?”

“Peachy keen. Just need some… water.” I took a deep breath, then turned to Yuri, my voice hushed. “There’s a cavern down there. A big one. And on the floor… a pattern. A clock.”

Yuri’s eyes widened. “A clock…?”

I unfolded the sketch, showing it to her, the intricate design, the twelve markings, the strange symbols, the absence of hands.

“It’s not just a clock,” I said, my voice low, urgent. “It’s… moving. Like a real clock. But it’s not measuring… time. It’s… controlling it. Or… connecting to it. I think… it’s a device… a way to… access the past.”

Yuri stared at the sketch, her brow furrowed, her mind racing.

“Control time?”

“I don’t know for sure,” I admitted. “But think about it. The visions… the ghosts… they were all… memories. From the past.”

“So the clock… it controls the memories…?” Luna whispered, her eyes wide.

“Maybe,” I said. “Or… it’s a way to… connect with them. To… access them.”

“Then we need to decipher it,” Yuri said, sitting down at the table, pulling the other sketches towards her.

I blinked, surprised. “Now?”

“We have all the patterns now, don’t we?” she said, her gaze fixed on the sketches, her brow furrowed in concentration. “From one to ten. It’s time to put the pieces together.”

She was right. We’d reached the tenth floor. We had all ten patterns. It’s time… to understand.

“Alright,” I said, my heart pounding with a mixture of anticipation and… dread. “Let’s do it.”

We spread out the sketches, the patterns shimmering faintly in the dim light, each one a piece of the puzzle, a clue to the Abyss’s secrets, to our own… fate. It was time to find our path. The path… that wasn’t the train.