Vaporous Affliction

For hours we walked through that eerily silent darkness. I watched the seconds ticking by on my wrist watch. It was only at Kalla’s prompting that I looked up. That’s when I saw them. We were in the statuary already, it was not a structure as I had so naively presumed. Now I stood in the midst of these horrific things. Each in it’s own cruel pose, most devouring a globe which I assumed to be the world. Except for one statue.

While all the other statues, in one way or another, promised the cruel and torturous death of all mankind; the one I looked upon at that moment did not. This statue didn’t even match the others. For unlike all the other statues, which matched the winged horror that was the statue of Extarch in the library. This particular statue had no wings at all. In their place were a sickening tangle of outstretched human arms. Each hand holding a sphere in it’s palm. Fourteen total.

This representation of Extarch didn’t seem to bother anyone else. We kept moving forward into the ever spreading darkness of Orting. As we moved across that bridge under the gaze of the statues I found myself reciting the characteristics of the four humors from Shakespeare's time. Then, upon looking to all my companions, I found that I was not the only one reciting things from my life. Everyone was, Walter was reciting when to sow different seeds, Kalla was reciting different types of berries, even Denzle had a quirk as he listed off a long line of names, his own included. In fact the only person who didn’t seem to be affected in such way was Kevin. He didn’t seem to be nearly as nervous as everyone else.

After we passed by the last statue it took half an hour to reach the next structure. It was a massive Stalactite, so large that I could not help but presume that it had been made, not naturally, but by mankind. The inside was a tomb, the entire thing had been carved so to house the dead. The walls were filled with inset beds, each containing skeletal remains of some kind.

At first glance I took the remains to belong to humans, but as I examined them more closely on lower levels of the stalactite tomb I found that my assumption was not entirely true. While some of the remains appeared to be human, many of the remains had deformed, dog like skulls, and extra appendages. My first thought was they were placed there as a ritual of some kind. On closer examination, though, I found that some sinew still attached the out of place bones, as well as extra sockets for the extra appendages. It was as if they belonged to an entirely different species.

On an on we went, spiraling down that massive stalactite tomb. Finally, near the bottom of the stalactite we came to another supply cache and map. Based on the map we could’ve taken any of fourteen bridges from here. Only five of which were marked. The bridges that were marked lead to “The Royal Tomb,” “The Sacrifice room,” “Home,” and “The Library of Extarch.”

Denzle turned to the six of us. For a moment he looked from person to person. Then he settled his intense gaze upon Molly. Telling her to choose if we should go left or right. She thought for only a moment before deciding left. So we began in that direction. Just before we left Denzle grabbed four tubes from the cache. Then went back to the lead of the group.

The bridge took the better part of an hour to cross. On the far end we found a tower waiting for us. The thing stretched far into the darkness below. When we reached the entrance we saw that the entire room was blocked by some kind of dark vapor that curled and spiraled up and then back inside the room. At this point Molly stepped past Denzle, stating that she had decided their direction so she should be the first to go inside the new room. Regardless of how it looked.

We all stepped back to let Molly explore the room. I felt a shiver run down my spine as we watched her step into the dark vapor. Then another step. A third step. Then she vanished from our sight. Swallowed up entirely by the dark vapors.

We only waited a few minutes. As each one passed it seemed like an hour went by. Then Molly was screaming. Kalla sprung forward to go to Molly’s aid. Denzle was fast to stop her from endangering herself. While he stopped Kalla I ran past and into the vapor to go to Molly’s aid.

Once I was inside the vapor I could more clearly see the room. It wasn’t very large. Molly was sitting in the center, she rocked back in forth. Her hands covering her ears. Her eyes shut tightly as she could. All the while heavy sobs shook her entire body. I ran to her as quickly as I could. When I started pulling her to her feat she screamed for me to let her go, that she didn’t want to go back, that she wouldn’t go back. As quickly as I could I dragged Molly from the room. Leaving the vapors hardly seemed to calm her. But she now seemed to recognize me. She threw her arms around me and collapsed against me as she let out sob after violent sob. 

It was at least ten minutes beforeMolly could talk again. After about three minutes of leaving the vapor I had a minor panic attack. Upon Molly finally calming down Denzle began to question her about what had happened. She just shook her head. She didn’t know. However I did know what had come to pass in the vapor. I remembered it from a case my father had worked while I was in high school.

When I told Denzle that I believed the vapor to be a drug that caused different levels of fear in different people he hardly seemed surprised. He said something along the lines of “What else could be expected from the Elder god of fear. Now with Molly being able to walk with only a little assistance we moved on. Everyone covered there faces with spare shirts to try and prevent them from breathing in any of the vapor. Except for Denzle and Kalla, who used rebreathers. Once we were inside the vapor Denzle pointed us to the left and we quickly made our way out on a bridge that direction. Once we were outside the vapor we looked back, waiting for Denzle and Kalla. 

It was some time before they joined us again. When they did Denzle held a new map in his hand. He put it up against the wall just outside of the door. Four paths extended away from the central point. Only one was marked, in large letters “HOME.” As Denzle held up the map Kalla rolled up a second map. From what I could see it had our progress drawn on it. After the map was up we continued on into the ever pressing darkness. It was now that I truly began to realize the danger that we were in. As even those who had lived their lives with this work such as Molly could still be so terrified. I could not even begin to imagine what could scare her so badly.

~End Entry Four~

~Olivia Eldritch~