2025-11-16 19:53:04The blade should have cut through him. Chris felt the rush of air, cold and final, as the hunter’s bone-forged weapon sliced downward, but something stopped it.
A shockwave burst from Chris’s palms, invisible yet heavy enough to slam every metal tray, bucket, and corpse table against the walls with a thunderous crash.
Bodies slid. Instruments clattered. Lights flickered. The entire corpse-wash shook. Chris stood frozen, arms raised, breath trembling like a trapped bird.
The hunter stumbled back half a step, not far, but far enough to show surprise. “You” the hunter growled. “Your seal is breaking.”
Chris stared at his own hands, horrified. “I didn’t do anything!” he cried. “I don’t know what’s happening!”
The bone-armored hunter pointed his blade again. “You are awakening.”
Ben groaned from somewhere behind a toppled table. “What… what the hell was that?”
Chris didn’t answer. He couldn’t. His chest felt too tight, his lungs too small. The hunter charged. Chris staggered backward. “Wait—stop—please”
The blade swung again. Another shockwave exploded, stronger this time. It threw Chris into a metal cabinet and hurled the hunter across the room, sending him crashing through the autoclave station in a storm of shattered glass and crushed steel.
Chris gasped, sliding to the floor. “I—I can’t control it”
“Chris!!” Ben shouted. “What are you doing?!”
“I don’t know!” Chris shouted back, terrified.
The hunter pushed himself up, bone armor cracking and resetting with a sickening grinding sound. “You can’t run from what you are,” he snarled.
“I’m not, I’m not anything!” Chris cried. “I’m just”
The corpses answered for him. Prince… rise… Chris’s blood iced. Ben scrambled toward the exit. “I’m calling the district watch, this is insane, this is”
A bone spike shot from the hunter’s gauntlet and speared the floor inches from Ben’s foot. “Leave,” the hunter warned without looking at him. “This does not concern you.”
Ben whimpered and ducked behind a cabinet. Chris stepped between them. “Don’t hurt him. Hurt me if you must, but leave him out of”
The hunter struck. Chris blocked reflexively, and a pulse blasted outward, blowing the hunter back again. The lights above them burst one by one. Darkness swallowed the room.
Screams, not human, echoed through the black. Bone songs. Loud. Violent. Voices of the dead surged like a tidal wave. Protect… Awaken… Destroy… Remember…
Chris clamped his hands over his ears. “Please—stop—STOP”
The hunter’s voice cut through the chaos. “Your kind were a plague,” he hissed. “And I will finish what the nobles began.”
Chris gasped. “The nobles? Jenna’s family?”
“They led the purge,” the hunter said coldly. “They slaughtered the Bonekeepers to erase your lineage.”
Chris’s throat closed. “No, no, Jenna wouldn’t, she wouldn’t”
“She married you to contain you.”
The truth felt like being stabbed. The hunter approached, his bone helmet glowing faintly in the dark. Chris backed up until his shoulders hit the cold tile wall.
“There is no escaping your fate, Christopher Oakwood.”
Chris’s voice broke. “Why me?”
“You are the last.”
The hunter lifted the blade. Then something slammed into the corpse-wash door from outside. BOOM.
The hinges bent. BOOM.
Ben screamed, “What now?!”
The hunter paused, head tilting. BOOM.
The door burst inward, ripped completely off its frame. A figure strode inside, drenched from rain, hood low, coat dripping, eyes like blades. Marco.
He held a bone-core scanner in one hand and a black-market shock baton in the other. “Step away from the kid,” Marco growled.
The hunter straightened. “You dare interfere?”
“You’re not taking him,” Marco said. “Not tonight.”
“This does not involve you.”
“Everything in this city involves me,” Marco replied. “Especially Bonekeepers.”
Chris choked out, “Marco—run—he’ll kill you”
Marco smirked. “Relax. I didn’t come alone.”
He clicked a button on his belt. Four ward-emitter pylons lit up around the room, small triangular devices that embedded themselves into the walls, forming a glowing circle.
The air tightened, humming with static. The hunter hissed. “Null wards?”
“Prototype ones,” Marco said. “But they’ll hold you for, what, thirty seconds?”
Chris couldn’t breathe. Marco looked at him sharply. “Chris. We need to go. Now.”
Chris shook his head violently. “I—I can’t leave Ben”
Ben peeked from behind the cabinet. “Don’t worry about me! Just GO!”
A crack split across one pylon. The hunter growled. Marco swore. “We have twenty seconds! Move!”
Chris hesitated only one more second. One painful, shaking, terrified second. Then he grabbed Marco’s outstretched hand and ran.
The two sprinted down the hallway, footsteps splashing through puddles of rainwater dripping from holes in the roof. Behind them, the hunter roared.
Wards cracked. Bone scraped metal. Marco shoved Chris. “Faster!”
“I—I’m trying”
“You blasted a corpse-wash with raw marrow shockwaves,” Marco barked. “You can definitely run faster than that!”
“I didn’t mean to!”
“Intent doesn’t matter right now!”
They reached the back exit. Marco slammed his shoulder into it. The door burst open, spilling them into the alley.
Rain drenched them instantly. “Left,” Marco ordered.
Chris stumbled after him. “Why are you helping me?!”
Marco didn’t look back. “Because you’re the only one who heard them.”
“Heard who?!”
“The dead.”
Chris slowed. “Marco, what do you know about me”
“Not here,” Marco snapped. “Keep moving.”
Before Chris could argue, a deafening explosion shook the corpse-wash. The null wards collapsed. The hunter’s voice boomed through the alley. “CHRISTOPHER!”
Chris’s heart nearly stopped. Marco grabbed his wrist. “Run. NOW.”
They bolted down the alley, slipping between shadowed buildings, dodging rusted dumpsters and shattered neon signs. Rain pounded harder, almost drowning the bone-screams rising from behind. Run… run… RUN…
Chris didn’t know if the voices were warning him or begging him. Maybe both. They burst into a wider street, lit by the pale glow of broken streetlights.
Chris collapsed against a wall, panting. “I can’t, I can’t do this”
Marco grabbed him by the collar. “Listen to me, Chris. That thing won’t stop. Not until you’re dead.”
“I didn’t do anything to him!”
“That’s the point. He’s programmed to kill Bonekeepers.”
Chris shook violently. “But I’m not a Bonekeeper!”
Marco stared at him. Cold. Serious. Certain. “Yes. You are.”
Chris’s voice cracked. “I, I can’t be”
“You felt the pulses.”
“I didn’t mean to”
“You heard the bones.”
“I always hear them”
“You survived a hunter’s blade.”
“I got lucky”
Marco slammed him lightly against the wall. “Chris. Look at me.”
Chris met his eyes, rain dripping off his chin. “You are the last Bonekeeper Prince,” Marco said. “And somebody wants you erased.”
Chris’s heart dropped. His blood went cold. His fear sank deeper than bone. Rain hissed around them as the hunter’s footsteps echoed closer.
Marco pulled Chris behind him and raised the shock baton. “Stay behind me.”
Chris clutched his arms, shaking uncontrollably. “Marco… I’m scared.”
Marco smirked faintly. “Good. Only idiots aren’t scared.”
The hunter turned the corner. Bone armor gleaming. Blade raised. Eyes burning. “Christopher Oakwood,” he growled. “Your bloodline ends now.”
Marco whispered, “Get ready.”
Chris whispered back, “For what?”
Marco grinned. “For your first real fight.”
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CHAPTER 12 — The High Marrow Enforcer
The High Marrow Enforcer stepped into the chamber like a nightmare sculpted from steel and bone. Its armor was carved from fused vertebrae, polished to a mirror sheen.Null-runes crawled across its gauntlets like living veins. Its skull-like helmet glowed with cold blue fire.And in its hand, a null-forged execution blade, humming with lethal precision.Chris staggered backward, breath broken. “W-why… why would she…? Why would Jenna want me dead?!”The Enforcer’s hollow voice echoed beneath the helmet.“She has offered your marrow as tribute.”Chris felt something inside him crack. “No… no, that’s not.... Jenna wouldn’t... she couldn’t... ”Marco grabbed Chris’s arm. “Kid, listen to me. We believe what the evidence says, not what your heart wished it was.”Chris shook violently. “I loved her… she was my life… she... she took care of me... she.”Lira snapped sharply, “She played you.”Chris flinched like she’d struck him. Lira’s mother, the ghostly imprint, stepped between them. “Chr
CHAPTER 11 — The Forbidden Stair
The hidden marrow door closed behind them with a thud that echoed like a warning. Chris flinched. “That door isn’t opening again, is it?”Lira traced its surface. “Not unless the corrupted Bonekeeper opens it.”Marco exhaled sharply. “Great. We’re locked in a crypt with a traumatized giant serpent, a corrupted bone-zombie, and whatever nightmare the nobles buried down here.”Chris swallowed hard. “Can you not list it out loud…?”Marco grabbed his shoulder. “Relax. In my professional opinion, we’re. ”“You’re not a professional anything,” Chris said.“Exactly,” Marco said. “So trust me.”“…That doesn’t help.”“It wasn’t meant to.”The corrupted Bonekeeper, still bowed, still trembling, turned silently toward the newly revealed stairway. It pointed down with its broken hand, bone shards clicking softly.Chris whispered, “Is he… leading us?”Lira nodded. “He remembers what happened.”“But his mind is…” Marco gestured vaguely at the creature. “Very crunchy.”Chris glared. “Marco. ”“What?
CHAPTER 10 — The Lower Sanctum of the Slaughtered
The deeper the bone serpent carried them, the colder the world became. Not cold like winter, cold like a grave that still remembered its dead.Chris shivered violently, gripping the serpent’s spine as it slid along the ancient tunnel. Bone-lamps embedded in the walls flickered to life at its presence, lighting the descent with eerie pulses of white flame.Marco muttered behind him, “I swear, if this thing suddenly decides it’s hungry” “It won’t,” Lira said.“It might,” Marco insisted. “Everything down here tries to eat him.”Chris’s voice wavered. “Please don’t say that right now…”The serpent hissed softly, almost… amused. Lira touched one of its ribs. “It understands fear. It was designed to respond to it.”Chris swallowed. “Designed by who?”Lira didn’t answer. The tunnel widened as they descended deeper, the walls expanding into a cavern so large Chris couldn’t even see the far end.Faint echoes drifted through the darkness, whispers that felt older than language. Chris’s breath h
CHAPTER 9 — The Fall Beneath the Bones
Chris didn’t fall. He plummeted. The fissure swallowed him in darkness, air ripping past his ears. He screamed until his voice cracked, arms flailing, nothing to grab, nothing but blackness spinning around him like the throat of a beast. “MARCOOOO !”Marco’s voice echoed somewhere above him. “STOP SCREAMING, KID, YOU’RE MAKING ME PANIC!”“I’M ALREADY PANICKING !”“PANIC QUIETER!”“That’s not how panic works!”Lira’s voice cut through the darkness, calm as stone: “Brace yourselves.”“FOR WHAT?!” Chris shrieked.The ground slammed into them. Except, it wasn’t ground. It was water. Cold, black water swallowed Chris whole, flipping him end over end. He broke the surface screaming, thrashing wildly.“HELP—HELP—I can’t—I can’t swim in the dark !”“Calm down!” Marco surfaced beside him. “You’re fine!”“NO, I AM NOT”Something yanked him under. Chris choked on water, kicking violently as something wrapped around his ankle. Panic exploded through him.He fought upward, breaking the surface wit
CHAPTER 8 — The Prince the Bones Chose
The moment Chris said “I accept,” the marrow-crystal obelisk detonated. Light, blinding, bone-white, violent, burst through the Chamber of Names like a shockwave from the heart of the earth.The walls shook. Dust rained from the ceiling. Bones embedded in the stone hummed so loudly it felt like the catacombs themselves were screaming.Chris staggered backward, covering his eyes. “WHAT’S HAPPENING ?!”Lira grabbed his arm. “You answered the call! The chamber is attuning to your marrow!”Marco ducked behind a half-collapsed pillar. “CAN WE UN-ATTUNE!? Because the ceiling looks like it’s thinking about killing us!”The obelisk split completely open, bone-light pouring from its core like molten energy. The ancestral specter, the crowned figure of swirling bone-dust, rose higher, expanding, gaining form, gaining presence.And then, it looked at Chris. Only Chris. Its voice thundered through the chamber:The prince has accepted his marrow. The bond must be sealed.Chris yelled, “I don’t kn
CHAPTER 7 — The Chamber of Names
The catacombs shook as the echo of the purge squad’s defeat faded. Dust drifted from the ceiling. Bones embedded in the stone walls vibrated with a low, ominous hum, like they were warning Chris to run faster.Marco helped Chris stand. “Can you walk?”“I—I think so,” Chris whispered, legs trembling. “My body feels like it’s made of jelly.”“Good,” Marco said. “That means you’re alive.”“That’s your medical diagnosis?” Chris croaked.“Hey, I’m not a healer,” Marco said. “I just pretend to know things.”Lira stepped in front of them, expression grim. “Move. We don’t have time.”Chris staggered after her. “Are more soldiers coming?”Lira didn’t slow her pace. “Not soldiers. Worse.”“Worse than purge squads?!”Marco muttered, “Depends on your definition of ‘worse.’”“Marco!”“Look, some things down here don’t need armor to kill you.”Chris paled. “Marco, please tell me you’re joking.”“You ever known me to joke at the right time?”“…No.”“Then yes, I’m serious.”Chris groaned. “I want a r
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