Into the Depths

There was a grunt as two men dropped down from the bright world above into the black caverns set into the Earth. After a couple of minutes the two men turned around and peered expectantly at a third man who stood on the ledge above them looking down into the cave.

"What is it?" one of the men said "Come on!" The man above took a minute to respond:

"I'm sorry. I have a bad feeling about this place, the darkness unnerves me." the man replied nervously. The first man sighed and said: "Well you don't have any choice in the matter. Now I suggest you come down here before I drag you down." The man stalled for a few seconds before dropping down as well to join the other two men who proceeded to immediately drop down further into the darkness.

Slowly they cotninued on down into the darkness, the air around them growing ever colder as they went. Eventually they came a part of the cave where there was nothing but a straight drop down into the depths, peering down the three men could feel their hearts racing as they stared into the infinite black below.

"You sure it's down there?" questioned the second man. "Yes" replied the first. "Where else could it be?" "Well I don't see how we're going to get down there" replied the second man. The first man smiled before grabbing the second and pushing him off the ledge into the pit. With a yelp the man plummeted down his screams steadily fading as they were consumed by the suffocating darkness.

The other two men remained calm faced as they proceeded to grab the rock face and slowly scale downwards into the dark. Soon they lost complete sight of the ledge they were on previously but that didn't matter as they slowly worked their way down clinging to the rock face like spiders.

Scaling down seemed to take an eternity as the men searched out for various foot and hand holds so as to continue their endless descent. After this eternity they finally felt their feet hit the ground and detached themselves from the rock face. Turning around they could see a light in the distance, the third man frowned and turned to his friend saying: "I thought you said this place was long abandoned." "It is." the first man responded "Why?" His friend turned back towards where the light in the distance lay and responded "Well then why is there a light?" The first man didn't respond and instead simply continued onwards towards the light and after a few seconds the third man followed.

It didn't take long to reach the light and as they emerged into it's warm glow they realised it was a sconce on the wall. They stopped and stood in silence for a few minutes observing where they were, it was obviously a hallway of some sorts with smooth stone walls overgrown with plant life. The walls however had strange ancient writing etched onto them, a type of writing that neither of them recognised. Nevertheless neither of them took time to examine it and instead after a few minutes had passed they pushed onwards further into the darkness towards another light.

Upon reaching the next area of illumination the two noticed they had reached a crossroads in the path but there was something strange there. Etched on the floor were two words: "Go left" what appeared strange to the two men was that these words were in English unlike the rest of the writing and they looked freshly and crudely etched into the floor unlike the ancient writing found on the walls. The third man leant towards the first and whispered: "We're not alone down here. We should go." Heart pounding the first man turned and replied "No. We should go on, maybe... maybe someone found something down here and is simply giving directions to anyone who comes down." The third man sighed silently carried onwards turning left and following the hallway down.

It was only a few minutes later that they reached a set of 10 empty cells all of which had their doors lying wide open. The third man began to push onwards before the first man said something: "Stop". The third man stopped and spun around "What is it?" "Can you hear that?" answered the first man "No I-" started the third man until he heard it, footsteps coming from behind them. Right behind them. Steadily approaching. Heart pounding he went to turn around before the first man shot his hand out and stopped him "Don't" he said "Don't turn around. Please." The footsteps continued, getting closer and closer and closer until they finally stopped. Looking down the third man could see a shadow from behind them. Something was there.

Looking up he could see the first man standing completely stiff in terror as he stared straight ahead in terror of the situation. "H-Hello?" the third man replied "J-Jeremy? Is that you?" Jeremy was the man who had been thrown off the ledge, surely he was the only one it could be. Nothing. Silence. "W-who are you?" Silence. Then the first man started to turn around, "David? What are you doing David?" asked the third man nervously. There was no response. One second passed. Then another. Then another. Then another. Then THUMP! David's body fell to the ground as he died instantly. The third man felt sick, what was this. What was going on? After a minute he heard footsteps again and upon looking down he could see the shadow behind him slowly drifting away as the creature moved away. The third man stood like this for another couple of minutes before slowly turning around, both David and the creature were gone and both without any trace of them having been there.

The third man spun around again and slowly regained his composure before he continued onwards, after all there was no going back now. It wasn't long before he had arrived in a lit room, around the edge of the room were cells all of which had their doors lying wide open. However there were people in these cells, every last one of them had someone inside all of whom were in the foetal position forcking gently back and forth facing the wall away from the doors. Gently he stepped into the room and proceeded to the centre of the room, there were about 15 cells in total all of which had someone in. There were men, women and children of all ages here and all of them were rocking in unison and complete silence. The third man was about to turn around and leave when something caught his eye in one of the cells, approaching the cell he saw a man who looked familiar. He frowned for a moment before it dawned on him, it was Jeremy but how did he get here? And how was he alive after the fall? He turned his head around and noticed that David was also in one of the cells on the other side of the room.

Turning around he took a step into Jeremy's cell and slowly approched him, "Jeremy? You okay Jeremy? It's me Harrison, hey i-im here to help you. That okay Jeremy?" There was no response as Harrison closed in on Jeremy and slowly bent down to examine him. Harrison felt sick as he saw Jeremy's face. It wasn't there, flat skin where the eyes and mouth should have been and a bump with no nostrils where the nose was meant to be. Harrison jumped up and ran out of the cell in horror backing off towards the centre of the room his head darted around in fear and horror as he watched the cells and their gently rocking inhabitants. Then after a minute or two they all stopped in unison and proceeded to stand up and turn around to face the entrance to the room in unison.

Harrison wanted to vomit as he stared out at all the faceless people standing in their cells facing out at him. Then he heard them: Footsteps. His heart thumped faster than ever as the footsteps approached him. His breathing intensified. He looked down and could see a shadow approaching him from behind. He closed his eyes, squeezing them shut like a small child in the hope that it would keep the monster away. Something touched his shoulder. Harrison's eyes shot open. Surely it was fine though, so long as he didn't turn around he would be fine. He continued staring at the floor for a moment until he noticed something in front of him, feet. His head sprung up in time to see the people from the cells, all of them, standing in front of him staring at him. "P-please no" he whispered "P-". He didn't get the chance to say any more as they reached out hands garbbing at his head clawing at his face forcing him backwards until he finally turned his head to protect his face from them and stared at the floor. Harrison's heart stopped instantly and his body fell to the ground.

'''Note from the author: So I hope you enjoyed reading and that it wasn't full of too many cliches (I'm not exactly sure myself). I wasn't exactly sure on how to end it so sorry if the ending is a bit weak.'''

Skullking55