Chapter 16. The Darkness Within

The silence within the Shadowfang cave was heavier than the darkness that had swallowed Samantha whole.

The moment she stepped deeper into the ancient cavern, it was as if the world disappeared. The stone walls, the faint moonlight behind her, even the sound of the wind are all gone. Only blackness remained, pressing in on her from all sides. She reached out, blindly hoping to touch something, anything, but her hands met only air. Panic clawed at her throat.

She blinked. Once. Twice.

Nothing.

“I can’t see…” she whispered, the words trembling from her lips. “I can’t see.”

Her breath quickened, heart hammering inside her chest like a caged drum. Fear tightened its grip as her knees buckled beneath her, and she stumbled forward, landing hard on the jagged stone floor. Pain lanced through her palms and knees, but it barely registered through the wave of dread crashing over her.

She remembered Ronan’s warning. Derek’s hesitation. The ancient tales whispered by the guards of madness, blindness, torment.

“This is it,” she whispered to herself, voice breaking. “I’ve gone blind.”

She clutched at her chest, hot tears slipping down her face. “Please…” she cried into the void. “Ancient Spirits, please… I only came here for answers. I didn’t come to steal. I didn’t come to desecrate. I just… I just need to know who I am.”

Her voice echoed faintly, swallowed almost immediately by the oppressive darkness. There was no response. No light. No movement. Nothing.

“Please…” she begged again, her voice raw with desperation. “I’ve already lost everything. My home. My family. I don’t even know if I ever had one. All I ever had was a name someone gave me, a life someone borrowed for me. I need to find out who I am… even if it costs me everything.”

She closed her eyes though it made no difference and pressed her hands together in a silent plea.

“If you can see my heart,” she whispered, “please… know that it is pure. I’ve made mistakes, but I’ve never stopped searching. I’ve never stopped hoping.”

Silence.

A stillness so vast it felt as though time itself had stopped.

Back at Black Ridge Park, the night was quieter than usual. Clouds veiled the moonlight, and the wind carried a chill that wasn’t there the night before.

Ronan and Alex sat at the edge of the training grounds, staring into the distance as if they could somehow reach Samantha with their thoughts.

Derek approached from the shadows, hands tucked into the sleeves of his coat. “Any word?” he asked softly.

Ronan didn’t look up. “There’s no way to get word, Derek. She’s alone out there.”

“She should’ve reached the Shadowfang by now,” Alex added, her voice heavy. “It’s the third day.”

Derek’s jaw tightened. “And if the stories are true?”

“They are,” Ronan said. “That’s the worst part.”

“But if anyone can face what’s in there,” Alex whispered, “it’s her.”

Ronan nodded slowly, though his eyes were clouded with worry. “I just hope she gets the answers she’s looking for… before the Shadowfang takes her.”

Back in the heart of the cave, Samantha remained on her knees. Her tears had slowed, but the fear hadn’t gone. The weight of solitude, of complete disconnection from the world, pressed on her like a thousand stones.

And still nothing.

Until…

A sound.

A faint, almost imperceptible murmur stirred from the depths of the cave. Samantha held her breath. She hadn’t imagined that. She knew she hadn’t. It was low at first, like the whisper of shifting rock or the sigh of old wind. But then it grew, a hollow echo curling through the cavern like smoke.

And then the voice.

“We didn’t take your vision, child.”

Her head snapped up. Her eyes, though blind, widened.

She froze. Her breath caught in her throat. Her hands gripped the stone floor beneath her.

It wasn’t a voice she recognized not Ronan’s, not Derek’s, not even one that sounded human. It was ancient, layered, as though more than one being had spoken at once.

The cave wasn’t just rock and stone.

It was alive.

Tears still clung to her lashes, but they no longer fell. A strange quiet settled inside her—a calm that hadn’t been there before. For the first time in days, maybe even in years, she didn’t feel alone.

Slowly, she whispered into the dark, “Then… who did?”

No answer.

Just silence again.

But this time… it wasn’t empty. It was waiting.

A single tear slid down Samantha’s cheek, this one not from fear—but from awe.

She was not alone in this place. Something was listening. Something had answered.

She took a shaky breath, her voice trembling but resolute.

“If you didn’t take my vision… what happens next?”

Still, the cave did not reply. But something had shifted.

The air felt different. The ground beneath her palms no longer bit with cold, but seemed warm—alive. Something ancient had awakened.

And it had heard her.

She stood slowly, wiping her eyes, trembling yet filled with a flicker of courage. She took one careful step forward, then another.

She could not see. But for the first time since stepping into the cave…

She didn’t feel lost.

The chapter ends with her standing still, breathing hard in the dark, when the same voice, or perhaps another layered tone, whispered again:

“Come forward, seeker. The truth awaits.”