Unevitable | Ryeji |

Chapter 46: Echoes of Destruction

Yeji's POV:

I could barely breathe as I rushed back into the tunnel, my heart pounding with every step. My thoughts were a mess, my chest tight with a fear I couldn't shake.

Niki. My younger brother.

After so many years apart, after all the pain and confusion, I had finally found him. I wasn't going to leave him behind. Not again.

The others wouldn't understand. They didn't know what it felt like-to lose someone like that, to believe they were gone forever, only to find them again. I had no choice. Niki was my responsibility. He was my blood. I couldn't let him slip through my fingers now.

The air inside the tunnel was suffocating, thick with tension. Every echo of my footsteps made my heart race faster, the sound bouncing off the stone walls like a ticking clock.

"Niki!" I called out, my voice cracking with desperation. "Niki, where are you?"

Nothing but silence answered me. I felt like I was walking into the lion's den, but I couldn't stop. Not when my brother was somewhere in here, maybe hurt, maybe trapped. The darkness felt heavier with each step, almost like it was closing in on me.

I took another step forward, then suddenly, every light went out.

Total darkness.

I stopped, my breath hitching. The silence was overwhelming, the blackness so thick I couldn't see my own hands in front of me.

Shit.

I blinked, trying to adjust to the void. My fingers grazed the rough stone wall beside me, the only thing grounding me in the darkness. I clenched my jaw, pushing down the rising panic. This was a trap, and I had just walked straight into it.

"Niki," I whispered again, quieter this time, knowing it was dangerous but unable to stop myself. I needed to hear his voice, anything to let me know he was still here, still okay.

I took a step forward, then another, carefully navigating through the pitch black. The faintest sound of shuffling reached my ears, distant but unmistakable.

"Niki..."

I steadied my breathing, honing in on the faint shuffling sound. My heart raced, but I forced myself to stay focused. Slowly, I moved toward the noise, each step deliberate, careful not to make a sound.

The darkness felt endless, pressing in from all sides. My hands brushed the cold stone walls as I moved forward, using them to guide me. Every instinct screamed that this was dangerous, that I should turn back. But Niki was here, I knew it, and there was no turning back now.

The sound grew louder, closer. I swallowed hard, straining to hear anything else that might give me a clue-breathing, footsteps, anything.

"Niki?" I whispered again, my voice barely audible.

No response, but the shuffling had stopped.

I froze in place, listening intently. Had he heard me? Was someone else here? My mind raced with questions, but I forced them aside. The silence dragged on, stretching my nerves to the breaking point.

Suddenly, a low groan echoed through the tunnel, weak but familiar.

"Niki," I breathed, my chest tightening. I surged forward, the sound giving me the courage to push through the darkness.

My hand collided with something soft, something warm.

"Niki?" I knelt down, my fingers brushing against fabric, then skin. He was there, slumped against the wall, his breathing shallow.