4. Chapter 4 - Matt #3
The sensation pressed against him the moment his boots hit the ground, subtle but unmistakable, like static crawling across the back of his neck.
The hyena reacted instantly with sharp restless awareness while instinct pulled his attention toward the excavation entrance visible farther up the ruined courtyard.
Everything about this place felt awake.
Rain soaked through Matt’s jacket while thunder rolled across the mountains hard enough to vibrate through the stone beneath his boots.
Up close, the monastery looked even older than it had from the air.
Massive sections of the outer walls had collapsed inward centuries ago, leaving shattered black stone exposed beneath newer reconstruction attempts that somehow looked fragile by comparison.
Like humans had tried to repair something they never fully understood.
Ground personnel moved quickly through the storm carrying crates between portable floodlights and reinforced equipment tents positioned near the excavation perimeter. Nobody wasted motion. Nobody lingered near the entrance longer than necessary.
Matt noticed that right away too.
Baptiste stepped beside him while rain streamed from the hood of his jacket. “You’re staring again.”
Matt kept his eyes fixed on the excavation site. “Tell me you don’t feel this place.”
Baptiste was quiet for a moment. “I feel it,” he admitted.
That answer should not have been reassuring, but somehow it was. At least Matt was not imagining the pressure crawling beneath his skin.
Commander Vale approached through the rain while Keene followed several steps behind carrying a sealed case in one hand.
“We move underground in thirty minutes,” Vale said. “Ground teams established perimeter containment shortly after sunset. No operative has descended below level three since yesterday.”
Matt tilted his head. “Because?”
Vale met his eyes evenly. “Because the last team that attempted it did not come back.”
The storm seemed quieter for about half a second after that sentence.
Matt looked toward the excavation entrance again as lightning flashed across the mountains overhead. The floodlights illuminated the massive claw marks surrounding the exposed descent beneath the monastery.
Up close, they looked even worse.
The marks were too deliberate for random damage and too precise for animal behavior.
The gouges cut through solid stone in long, controlled arcs, deep enough that rainwater pooled inside them before spilling into the darkness below.
Matt stared at them longer than he meant to. His animal instincts went completely still, sharpening toward something beyond the reach of his human senses.
Thunder rolled across the mountains again, low enough that Matt could feel the vibration through the soles of his boots.
Matt dragged his eyes away from the claw marks and realized everyone nearby had gone quiet too.
Not frozen exactly. Focused. Several operatives near the perimeter had subtly shifted position toward the excavation entrance without seeming consciously aware of doing it, their attention narrowing toward the darkness below the monastery with the same uneasy instinct pulling at him.
Rain hammered against the ruined stone around them while floodlights buzzed softly through the storm.
Then, somewhere beneath the mountain, something answered. The sound barely registered at first.
A low metallic groan drifted upward from the excavation shaft, deep enough that Matt initially mistook it for shifting machinery somewhere underground.
But the noise continued a second too long for that explanation to feel convincing.
Stone scraped against stone far below them with a slow grinding weight that seemed to vibrate through the courtyard itself.
Every predator in the landing zone reacted at once as weapons lifted across the courtyard.
Several operatives turned sharply toward the entrance while the wolves near the perimeter bared teeth almost unconsciously beneath the rain.
Commander Vale stepped toward the excavation perimeter without raising her voice. “Report.”
One of the ground operatives near the floodlights pressed a hand against the headset covering one ear while static crackled faintly through the surrounding comms. “Movement sensors just triggered below level three.”
Matt's gaze sharpened with concern. “I thought nobody was down there.”
“Nobody should be,” the operative answered.
That somehow made the situation worse.
Another deep groan echoed upward through the mountain beneath their feet, followed this time by a distant sound Matt could not fully identify. The noise carried through the excavation shaft distorted by distance and stone, low and uneven enough that his brain struggled briefly to place it.
Then cold understanding tightened beneath his ribs.
Heavy, slow breathing drifted up from somewhere deep beneath the monastery.
Matt’s pulse jumped. Around him, the storm suddenly seemed quieter than the excavation entrance.
Baptiste moved beside him without taking his eyes off the darkness below. “You hear it too.”
Matt nodded once. The breathing continued for several seconds before fading again into silence deep underground. Nobody spoke afterward. Nobody looked away from the entrance either.
Rainwater streamed down the carved claw marks surrounding the exposed descent while thunder rolled somewhere high above the mountains. The floodlights illuminating the upper excavation site suddenly looked very small compared to the darkness beneath them.
Matt swallowed once before speaking. “So,” he said, unable to fully keep the tension out of his voice, “I’m assuming that’s not normal monastery behavior.”
***