Escape

In my sleep my dream was of my friends, they searched for me walking down the bridges desperately trying to find a clue of where I was, then there was a scream and they took off that direction. Sometime passed but they eventually came to a crossroads room, inside was a faint glow. Just as they went inside I woke up.

Standing in front of me were my friends. All except for Kevin. Molly was the first to do anything. She quickly hugged me, had I been standing I’m sure I would have fallen over. I was happy to see my friends once again. It felt like it had been years since I had last seen them. As I looked to Denzle I saw confusion on his face as to my current ordeal and state of nakedness. Finally Molly relinquished her grasp of me, leaving me feeling vulnerable.

“It’s good to see you well, might I ask what happened to you... and what happened to your things?” I could hear the concern in Denzle’s voice, mixed with fear. Which I believe he had all the right to feel. I didn’t want to tell him, I had no problem with everyone knowing, but I didn’t want to relive what had happened to me. So I handed him the book, at first he seemed confused. When he opened it and looked at the first page, the confusion lifted from his face. Soon it was replaced with intrigue.

While Denzle read about what had happened to me, Molly grabbed a change of clothes from her bag. These she quickly had me change into, while she had everyone turn to give me privacy. Once I was dressed Kalla handed me a mostly empty backpack.

“This is your’s, I’m sorry that we couldn’t recover more. We were barely able to get this much as it was. Most of your things fell over the edge when the creature dropped it. Your notes are still here, as well as your flash light, pillow and toiletries.” I thanked her then went to talk to Molly when Denzle finished reading.

He handed the book back to me with a grave look, he seemed to notice my arm now. Then he asked me, with a quiet voice so that our friends couldn’t hear.

“Are the three women with us now?” I nodded my head. Denzle looked around, his eyes traveling past all three women without any sign of recognition. He turned back to me and nodded. Then he spoke to the group. “We will rest here for a few minutes, someone give Olivia something to eat. We are getting out of this place.”

So everyone sat around for a few moments while I ate some food that Molly gave me, then we began on our way for the surface. They led the way, it took us nearly an hour  to reach the next room, another way point, this one with three path ways including ours. We walked through and began our way across another bridge. Eventually, after three more hours, we reached the room where I was taken from. We were all very quick to move on from this room and continue on our way. As we crossed the bridge back the way we came I saw a bridge below our own. The bridge was covered in the fresh corpses of humans and creatures, who bore a likeness to the ones who had taken me. Among the dead humans I saw Kevin.

When I asked what had happened all I could get from my friends was that Kevin went crazy. It was here that I began to hear sounds of fighting far off in the darkness of the city. We quickened our pace, we did not stop for rest until finally, nearly nine hours later we reached the stalactite burial chamber. Everyone was exhausted, so that’s where we stopped for our rest. Denzle took the first watch. Sometime while I was asleep he went to bed and had Ace take his place on watch duty.

My dreams had me wake up with a horrible feeling, andI feared what was in the darkness with us. Something was looking for us, and whatever it was, it was close. I rushed everyone, through breakfast and getting our things together. Molly was quick to listen, and so was Denzle. Though I imagine that Denzle’s reasoning was far different from Molly’s. We were quick to begin moving, but I don’t think we were quick enough, because now I could hear a noise that sounded like many foot steps. They were approaching from one of the unmarked pathways.

Everyone was moving, and we were going a good pace. It didn’t seem to matter how fast we were going though, the sounds were growing closer. Eventually while we were on the bridge, they came up behind us. We turned back to see them.a group of human looking ghouls with sharp teeth and pale skin. In the middle of them was a familiar figure. A man I had seen a few time before, not in person, but on security tapes, in a missing persons report, and in the university’s records. Now Lucas Duns stood before me and my friends. He began walking towards us.

“You cannot escape the darkness! It is all consuming! You will never escape this darkness! I shall take you all! You will never escape the darkness! Not even with your three witches!” As he spoke he got closer and closer, and he began moving faster. Then I heard Kalla fumble with her pack. She rushed to the front, I saw something orange in her hand. It didn’t make sense to me until I heard a click and saw a bright light shoot out from her hand. The flare hitting Lucas in the chest and nocking him down to his knee.

Lucas let out a terrifying scream that seemed to be comprised of multiple voices. Before he was standing again Kalla had almost loaded another round into the flare gun. The creatures that accompanied Lucas were reeling from the light. When he stood up he ran for Kalla. The spot he had been hit was now just a hole, no fire was left. Instead a black ooze dripped from a hole in his body. Then another flare, this one in his shoulder. He spun, collapsing by the edge. He rolled off and barely caught hold of the edge. The ghouls now surrounded him, trying to pull him back up onto the bridge. They were struggling to keep him up. 

As Lucas screamed out in his awful voice Ace walked forward. Ace grabbed a climbing pick from his pack. I went to call out to him as he approached, to warn him of the ghouls. But he walked through them like they didn’t exist. Ace stood above Lucas, then he lashed out, striking Lucas’s hand with the pick. Lucas held onto his ghoul’s and the ledge as best he could, but he fell into the darkness below, screaming out that the darkness would consume everything as he vanished from sight.

There was a moment of silence among us, I watched the ghouls as they raced back the way they had come from. We all seemed to stand motionless for quite sometime then we started began moving towards the surface again. Everyone looking over their shoulder from time to time, making sure we weren’t being followed. I found myself and everyone else reciting simple things as we passed under the gaze of those terrible statues. Finally, hours later we arrived at the waypoint.

Although we were all exhausted Denzle kept pushing us to move on. So we kept walking on through the darkness. When we reached the library we were all hesitant to go in at first. Remembering the close quarters, and the statue in the room we were all worried about what else might lurk in the shadows. The three women walked in ahead of me as we stood outside talking. When they came back they told me that there wasn’t anything lurking inside. 

Only after being told by my newest friends did I tell the group that there was no point in wasting time outside as we would have to go through the library to get out anyways. So we journeyed through the library, every corner we turned we expected to find a terrifying creature or demon, just waiting to prey on us. But even under the horrific gaze of Extarch’s statue we made it safely to the other side and began to walk back across the last bridge.

Though it was not a far journey it felt like it took days for us to cross that last bridge. Finally we reached that archway that separated this nether sphere from our world above. We were all overjoyed by the idea of seeing the sky above us. Outside was dark, from the moment I stepped out of that archway I could feel the coolness and hear rain falling heavily outside. I felt rejuvenated once we were in that cool cave, an invisible weight had lifted from my shoulders.

I sat down to write at one of the work stations, I believe that this will be the last entry of this journey. Even as I write, Denzle is calling Victor’s house so that we wont have to walk back to the house in this storm. I do imagine that when he hears the news of Lucas that Victor will find some relief in it.

Although we are free of that awful world that is below ours I cannot help but feel like a part of me is still imprisoned in the darkness. More than just my arm, but something that can’t be seen. Regardless of my personal feelings I can say now that we are done. I do not know the procedure for ending one of these journals. So I shall end it here. Considerably less grounded then what I was before.

~End Entry Seven~

~Signed Olivia Eldritch~