Underground Service Tunnel — Old Greystone
7:41 PM
Air heavy with mold and dust.
The narrow corridor was so low Jackim had to hunch, his broad shoulders scraping the cracked concrete walls.
Susan moved ahead like a shadow — leather jacket brushing against broken pipes, hair damp from the leaking ceiling.
Jackim's boots sloshed through puddles of black water.
The tunnel twisted and coiled like a snake.
No lights.
No maps.
Only the sound of their breathing and the drip-drip-drip of ancient leaks.
Susan tossed a glance over her shoulder.
"You slowing down already?" she teased, voice echoing off the stone.
Jackim grunted.
"Just making sure you're not leading me into a grave."
Susan's lips curled into a wicked smile.
"Would I do that?"
She didn't wait for an answer.
---
Sixth Avenue — Street Level — South Greystone
7:42 PM
Sleet peppering abandoned storefronts.
Claire Voss stalked through the intersection, barking into her radio.
"Seal off the underpasses. Block all sewer exits. I want him boxed in like a rat!"
A map glowed on the screen of her wrist tablet — hundreds of blinking red dots.
She zoomed in.
Service tunnels.
Storm drains.
Maintenance shafts.
Places where desperate men and clever women disappeared forever.
She cursed under her breath.
If Jackim reached the old subway lines, he'd be invisible.
No cameras.
No drones.
Only ghosts haunted those forgotten veins beneath the city.
---
Abandoned Subway Terminal — Forgotten Line 12
7:58 PM
Air sharp with rust and old electricity.
Susan kicked open a rusted gate, revealing a vast hollow space — the skeleton of a subway station swallowed by time.
Cracked mosaic tiles glittered faintly under the beam of her flashlight.
Steel pillars bent like arthritic fingers toward the shattered ceiling.
Jackim stepped carefully beside her, scanning the shadows.
The platform stretched into endless dark.
Train tracks choked with weeds and debris vanished into tunnels that looked like mouths waiting to swallow them.
Susan hopped down onto the tracks.
Her boots splashed through stagnant water.
Jackim hesitated.
"You sure about this?"
Susan flashed him a dazzling smile — all teeth and danger.
"Darling, being sure is for people who can afford to be boring."
Jackim dropped down beside her.
The splash echoed forever.
---
North Greystone — Upper City Overlook
8:03 PM
Fog coiling around neon lights.
A man in a charcoal trench coat leaned against the railing, watching the chaos unfold below.
Slender fingers toyed with a silver lighter.
A soft click. Flame flickered. Extinguished.
Beside him, a woman in a red dress tightened the belt of her coat.
"No sign of him yet," she murmured.
The man smiled thinly.
"They'll lead him to us eventually."
He pocketed the lighter.
"One way or another."
Above them, black drones drifted like carrion birds, scanning the streets.
Below them, Greystone boiled with searchlights and sirens.
And in the dark, forgotten veins of the city, Jackim ran out of time.
---
Abandoned Subway Terminal — Emergency Stairwell
8:11 PM
Stale wind whistling through cracked vents.
Susan pushed open a rusted metal door halfway off its hinges.
Beyond it, a spiral staircase plunged downward.
Into black.
"I thought we were escaping," Jackim said dryly.
Susan winked.
"Trust me. Up there is death. Down here is... complicated."
Jackim wiped rain and sweat from his forehead, his brown hair sticking to his temples.
"Great. Love complicated."
Susan descended first, her silhouette swallowed by shadows.
Jackim followed, fists clenched, nerves buzzing.
Each step downward felt heavier.
Colder.
As if the city itself were trying to pull them into its rotting gut.
---
Emergency Tunnel Junction
8:17 PM
Breath visible in the freezing air.
The staircase ended in a wide concrete hall lined with old service lockers and broken machinery.
Flickering emergency lights buzzed overhead.
Susan crouched by a wall panel, prying it open with a small knife.
Inside: a keypad.
She tapped out a code.
Beep.
Clunk.
A hidden door slid aside, revealing another passage.
Jackim stared.
"You planned all this?"
Susan grinned.
"I'm good at escape plans."
Her voice softened, just for a second.
"Because I've needed them."
Jackim caught the flicker of pain behind her teasing smile.
For the first time, he wondered what Susan was running from.
Not just cops.
Something worse.
Maybe something inside herself.
---
Edge of Old City — Maintenance Tunnel C
8:22 PM
Dripping water forming icy puddles.
They moved faster now.
Jackim's hoodie clung to his strong frame, dark with grime and rain.
Susan's jeans were ripped at the knee, exposing a long gash crusted with blood.
Neither of them spoke.
Words would slow them down.
Words would admit the fear gnawing at their spines.
Instead, they pushed deeper into the bones of the city.
Past rusted doors.
Past warning signs in dead languages.
Past the line where even monsters feared to tread.
---
Abandoned Control Center — Deep Sector
8:39 PM
Silence as heavy as lead.
Susan led him into a small control room littered with broken monitors and peeling maps.
Jackim slumped into a cracked leather chair.
His body screamed at him to stop moving.
Susan wiped sweat from her brow with the back of her hand.
Her skin glistened under the faint emergency lights — pale and almost luminous against the dark.
High cheekbones.
Sharp chin.
Full lips.
A beauty carved by danger, not comfort.
Jackim forced himself to focus.
"We can't stay here," he said.
Susan nodded.
"But you need answers before you die, right?"
She pulled a crumpled envelope from her jacket.
Tossed it onto the table.
Jackim stared at it.
His name scrawled across the front in handwriting he hadn't seen in years.
Shaking, he picked it up.
Inside, a single photograph.
A man he barely remembered... standing beside a woman with Susan's eyes.
And a name he thought he'd buried forever.
A name that would tear his world apart.
---