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A couple of nearby windows were the sources of the light that they’d first noticed, but said windows were so foggy and dirty that Loren still couldn’t make out anything on the other side, even with his eyes.

Darksteel didn’t hesitate, though. He pushed through the double doors as their small party followed.

What awaited them, however, was not the outside. Instead, they found themselves in another building. It looked decidedly less ancient than the one they’d just left behind, but it was still just as empty.

Abandoned? Hmm. Well, at the least the others didn’t need their flashlights, anymore.

The floors were a dusty stone, and thick pillars supported a low ceiling with long cracks running through it. Otherwise, however, the room had no walls, and light poured in from distant windows in all directions.

And there was something else, too. Loren noticed it right away, but he couldn’t actually tell what it was. Something almost invisible to the naked eye. It hung there in the air, covering everything like a thin veil.

What the hell was that? He felt like he’d seen such a thing before--and yet also not. Surely, he’d remember something so strange.

Certainly, his eyes had picked up on a few oddities over the years, but now, after his most recent mutation, which he instigated only a few days ago, he was beginning to worry that he might’ve messed himself up again. He’d hoped that he’d grown out of that early phase, but the fear never really went away, honestly.

The historical horror stories about mutation had been drilled into his mind, after all.

Agh. He tried to stay focused. Getting distracted might well be a death sentence in a place like this, he felt.

The group kept following Darksteel, but now it was truly dead quiet. Even the reapers had ceased their chatter--which was not typically a good sign, in Loren’s experience.

He thought he could hear something peculiar, too. Just the general background noise of a big city, he’d thought at first. But as he continued listening, he felt like there was another layer in there. Muted but not totally.

Perhaps Roman was hearing it, too, because the man was holding a cupped hand up to his ear.

Hmm. Did he have a power that aided his hearing? Loren felt compelled to inquire. “What is that noise?”

Roman took a moment before responding. “Screams.”