She tried to make a call, but saw she was out of range of any service. So she raised her phone like a flashlight instead.

The beam of light spread out, growing wider and wider in the perfect silence and darkness.

Illuminating…sarcophagi. Closed caskets. No living people. That was almost a relief. Because this was the kind of place serial killers and nightmares lurked.

Tricks of the mind? She had the distinct impression she was being…

Watched. The young woman’s head swung around rapidly. Shock was fading from her veins as mortal panic began to set in. The sky was gone. She had just been walking down the street, having failed her audition—and now she was here.

It was natural to panic. Or think this was some kind of—nightmare. The first thing the girl did was slap herself. Hard.

“Ow.”

The crack of flesh on flesh was loud in the silence. Somehow—reassuring. She rubbed her cheek. She felt the stinging pain, and believed this was reality.

She inhaled deeply; it smelled of dust down here. Dust and stone and—

Not actual death, or the mortification of corpses. That was a relief. Actually—there was this old, herbal smell in the air. And there was air to breathe.

But no wind. The young woman began to panic again.

“Hello? If this is a joke, I’m not laughing! Can anyone hear me? Hellooooo—”

She shone her phone up desperately. But there was no sign of anything that could point to how she had fallen. And the ceiling was so high up—if she had fallen the entire way, she would have splattered her entire body across the ground and thus joined the inhabitants of this place.

What had happened? For a second, she panicked again. Then she slapped her cheeks again.

“Focus, Sid—”

She growled. She wasn’t a child. She was twenty five, damn it. A respectable…sometimes unemployed…member of society. She had work sometimes. She was an actor! She might not have graduated from university, but who needed that racket?

She wasn’t helpless. The first thing she did after the immediate panic was to check her phone.

“No reception.”

She sighed. But part of her had expected that. If she was far underground, she’d be out of the range of cell service. On the other hand—her mind was now beginning to process past shock. This could be aboveground too. It only felt like an underground vault. The lack of sunlight proved nothing.

How did I take one step onto the street and end up in the air in here, though? That was what strained her mind’s ability to process. It was like…magic. The young woman shook her head rapidly. No, that was not where she was jumping first.

“Believe nothing. If this is some kind of trick, I—I’ll find a knife. And stab someone.”