Murat stopped. Something didn’t feel right. He turned slowly, raising the flashlight behind him. The passage stretched back the way he’d come but it didn’t look the same. Not exactly. The angles felt off. “Okay… just go back,” he muttered. He retraced his steps, moving faster now.
The beam of light flicked across the walls as he tried to remember turns, curves—anything familiar. Nothing stood out. Everything looked the same. Another turn. Then another. Murat slowed. His breathing changed. He turned again and stopped. This wasn’t the same passage. It couldn’t be. He spun back, trying to reorient himself. Too many openings. Too many paths.
The echo of his own footsteps made it worse, bouncing from different directions, blurring any sense of where he’d come from. Murat swallowed. The air felt colder now. He checked his watch. Later than he thought. Much later. “How long was I down here…?” he whispered. He turned again, this time more carefully.
He needed to get out. Now. Because something told him that he had already gone too far.