CAPTURED BY THE ALIEN Chapter 27: 28

The air in the temple felt like it was closing in around us, thick with an oppressive weight that made every breath feel harder to draw. The words of the Guardian echoed in my mind, their meaning rippling through the space like an aftershock. Every choice has its price. What price was I about to pay? What price had Varek already paid?

I glanced over at him, seeing him standing there, his back stiff, his eyes darkened with something I couldn’t quite decipher. We were both standing on the edge of something huge—something beyond our control—and yet there was a part of me that refused to let go. A part of me that pushed forward, against all reason, against every warning that flashed through my mind. The truth was, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I wasn’t ready to stop. Not yet.

“Carmem,” Varek’s voice broke the silence, low and serious. “We need to move. The Guardian was right about one thing. We’ve already crossed the point of no return.”

His words settled like stones in the pit of my stomach, but I couldn’t bring myself to argue. His tone was final, and the look in his eyes told me that he was as trapped in this as I was.

I nodded, trying to push down the fear that clawed at my insides. “Where do we go from here?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, his gaze shifted to the far corner of the temple, where the runes had begun to glow more brightly, as if they were calling to us. There was something pulsating there, an energy that beckoned us deeper into the unknown.

“We follow the light,” he said finally, his voice distant. “That’s where it all begins. That’s where the answers are.”

I didn’t question him. Not now. I just followed, each step bringing us closer to the heart of whatever this was. The runes on the walls flickered with an eerie rhythm, casting strange shadows that seemed to move of their own accord. I could hear my heart pounding in my chest, each beat louder than the last, each one seeming to sync with the pulsing glow that seemed to grow stronger the further we went.

As we approached the source of the light, the temperature dropped even further. My breath formed clouds in front of me, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Something was wrong. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the temple itself was alive, that the very stone beneath our feet was breathing, shifting with every movement we made.

Finally, we reached the center, where the light was the brightest. There, hovering above an altar of black stone, was a crystal. It was pulsing with the same rhythm as the runes, an otherworldly light shimmering across its surface. The moment I laid eyes on it, I felt a pull, an undeniable urge to reach out and touch it.

Varek seemed to feel it too. I could see the way his body tensed, the way his eyes narrowed as if trying to resist it. But the pull was too strong.

I stepped forward without thinking, my hand extending toward the crystal. The moment my fingers brushed its surface, a surge of energy coursed through me, sharp and electric, as if I were being electrified from the inside out. I gasped, my body locking up as the power overwhelmed me. My vision blurred, the world around me spinning wildly.

Then, all at once, it stopped. The energy that had been suffocating me released its grip, and I staggered back, disoriented, gasping for breath.

Varek was there, catching me just before I fell. His touch was cool against my skin, but there was something else—something that felt darker than before. He was watching me intently, his brow furrowed, his lips pressed tightly together as if he were struggling with something.

“What happened?” I asked, my voice shaky. My heart was still racing, and I could feel a strange, cold energy swirling within me. It wasn’t just the crystal—it was something else, something that had latched onto me in that moment.

Varek didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he looked down at the crystal, his gaze hardening.

“You shouldn’t have touched it,” he said, his voice low, almost haunted.

I frowned, confused. “What do you mean? I thought we were here for answers. Isn’t that why we came?”

He exhaled sharply, his hand tightening around my arm as he guided me away from the altar. “The crystal doesn’t give answers,” he muttered. “It takes. And now, it’s taken something from you.”

I shook my head, trying to clear the fog in my mind. “Taken what?”

But Varek wasn’t looking at me anymore. He was staring at the crystal, his expression dark and unreadable. The pulsing light had grown erratic, and I could see the energy around it beginning to twist, bending unnaturally, as if it were reacting to something—something that had been triggered when I touched it.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” he said quietly, his voice distant, almost to himself. “But whatever it is, it’s tied to you now.”

I felt a knot tighten in my stomach, the weight of his words sinking in. Something had changed. The power from the crystal had coursed through me, and now it was inside me—something dark, something ancient. I could feel it, like a whisper in the back of my mind, an ever-present hum just beneath my skin.

I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could form the words, the ground beneath us trembled once more. The entire temple shook violently, as if something were awakening deep within the earth. The runes flared to life, their light blinding, and a deafening roar echoed through the stone walls, shaking the very foundation of the temple.

Varek’s grip tightened on my arm as he pulled me toward the exit, his eyes wild with panic. “We need to get out of here. Now.”

I didn’t question him. I didn’t need to. The roar that had shaken the temple was not just a sound—it was a warning, a threat. Something had been disturbed, and it was coming for us.

The dark energy inside me pulsed in response, and for the first time, I wasn’t sure whether I was still in control.