Chapter 12 - RUTH HALVERSON

Mara tightened the rope around Caleb and anchored it to an iron rail left by the miners.

The central mass pulsed.

With every pulse, whispers rolled across the water.

Lena stepped from behind the stone column.

Beside her came another woman.

Older.

Gray-haired.

Ruth Halverson.

Her eyes were black.

Mara understood.

They were bodies kept alive and rewritten.

Ruth spoke first.

“Ezra is quiet now.”

Mara fought the urge to look back.

Lena smiled.

“You always hated silence.”

“You’re not my sister.”

“I’m everything your sister remembered.”

“That isn’t the same.”

Lena tilted her head.

“Why?”

Mara had no answer.

Caleb groaned.

The black veins around his eyes deepened.

Ruth looked at him.

“He’ll be easier soon.”

Mara raised the poker.

“Stay away.”

Ruth laughed.

“You think this is an infection.”

“What is it?”

“Survival.”

She pointed to the stone.

“Before humans cut into this mountain, we had no words. No faces. No names.”

Lena touched her own chest.

“You gave us those.”

Mara felt horror settle into something colder.

The Echoes did not merely feed on people.

They became people.

Then spread by grief.

By love.

By voices no one could resist.

Caleb whispered, “Mara…”

His real voice.

“Burn it.”

Lena’s face changed.

“Don’t.”

Caleb looked at Mara.

“Please.”

Mara searched the cavern.

Old wooden supports.

Rusting fuel cans.

Mining equipment.

And a narrow ventilation shaft marked on Halverson’s map.

A plan formed.

Dangerous.

Maybe suicidal.

She whispered to Caleb, “Can you still hear me?”

“Yes.”

“Then when I say run, run.”

He laughed weakly.

“I’m tied to a rail.”

“I’ll fix that.”

Ruth stepped forward.

“You cannot kill a mountain.”

Mara picked up an old miner’s flare.

“No.”

She struck it.

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Red fire exploded in the dark.

“But I can make it scream.”