The underground sewer system beneath San Diego stretched endlessly through darkness afterward while ancient stone tunnels dripped steadily beneath rusted iron pipes and stagnant black water carrying the smell of rot through the suffocating air, and far below the sleeping city something unnatural breathed softly within buried chambers forgotten by modern mankind centuries ago.
Not animal breathing.
Not human breathing.
Something older.
Slower.
Hungrier.
Marcus Kane walked through the flooded tunnel afterward while heavy boots splashed through filthy water now beneath dim lantern light carried by trembling ghoul followers surrounding him.
Nobody spoke loudly anymore.
Even monsters feared certain silences.
The sewer walls themselves felt wrong tonight somehow.
Wet stone pulsed faintly beneath layers of moss and ancient symbols scratched into the tunnels long before San Diego existed above them.
