Part Three: Basement
Your bare feet stomp down the stares as quickly as they can for you to escape whatever the hell is after you. The bashing echoes behind you as you reach the end of the wooden stares and search for a place to hide. You notice, though, that once your feet touch the cold concrete the creature behind the door has stopped slamming on it. With dread and anxiety building up inside of you, your body turns back to the door to fill a deadly curiosity. The rapid beating of your heart pounds in your chest and throat. Adrenaline is rushing through your body and ready for any other surprise that this cursed house has for you. A lump slides down your dry esophagus and your breathing begins to slow down. Your logical senses come back to you for your thoughts to stroll back in so that you can remain calm. Taking back your logical side, you turn away from the door and face the darkness before you. The light above you still flickers in its intermittent routine as if it didn’t care about your high blood pressure. Your only companions in this tenebrific part of the house are the twinkling lights above you who barely do their job in making sure you see where you’re going. Swallowing up another fear in your throat, you force your body to take small steps down the hall. The lay out of the basement seems a bit strange to you: A hallway just like before with rows of closed doors laid out and waiting for you. You, of course, don’t care much about the mysteries of the place anymore, you just wish to escape and hope to live another day.
As your bare feet contact the cold floor with each step, you can sense that something is behind you. Something is watching you from behind. Something is following you. You dare not look back as a lesson you learned from before. That might provoke the monster that’s stalking you again. The feeling welds up inside of you as your back stiffens and curls with each passing second. You know it’s coming closer, you can sense it. It’s strange to think how this “trial,” or whatever it’s called, is different from the past two. This one isn’t a noise like the others were, but a sense of someone’s presence. Is this some sort of experiment that you were thrust into? What is the strange monster testing for? Is the monster just playing prey and predator with you? Is this all just a game?
Your thoughts come back to the present of where you are. You’ve noticed that you have stopped walking. You’re simply standing in the hallway, staring down the blinking lights and doors that stare back impatiently. You begin to wonder what lies behind all these doors. Do they hide more inconceivable monsters, past participants of this experiment, puzzles to a dark past of the one who kidnapped you, or a secret of reality that no one should ever know; the truth of death.
Eager to find the way out of this hell, your feet march forward to what you hope is the end of the corridor. The freezing chill of this basement slowly seeps into your skin and activates your body’s natural way of keeping warm. You curl up your back even more and shiver as your feet continue their ambulating habit of your endurance. Thankfully, your eyes are now beginning to adjust to the lighting and you can now notice more details of the surroundings from the poor illumination. There’s not much to speculate over other than what you’ve already concluded. You suppose that the doors look older, more worn and aged, but nothing more. The sight of these doors and never-ending hallway starts to actually comfort you, like being able to predict it. You know that with one more step, there will be another set of doors awaiting your presence. You know what will happen and this somehow soothes you, just a little bit. You may not be able to see the end of the corridor, but at least you can guess that there will be more doors and another light above your head. You mustn’t become too complacent, though, or you’ll be stuck here forever.
A foggy breath huffs air around you and the lights go out. You’re in the dark again with that monster. The heartbeat in your chest picks up speed again. You hear the huff again with no designable location, it’s all around you. What do you do now? Would groping your way around with the walls help? It would mean the end for you if you were to run into that creature again. At least you know for certain that this thing is having fun with you, otherwise, you’d be dead now. Perhaps you can use this to your advantage. Play along with it’s game, and then strike when you see an opening. You may have a chance to leave this place. You’re not going to let this thing out-smart you.
You stretch your arms out and start to lean one way until you bump into a wall on your left and begin your blind navigation once more. As your feet take small steps to what you hope is onward, one of them taps on something. Sensing the need to bend down and touch it, you feel the basic shape of a torch. Hope swells inside if you as you straighten up with it in your grasp. You feel around for the switch and turn it on. At first, the torch flickers from a dying battery, but after a few smacks it starts to function properly, but barely. You point it forward to see nothing new of the hallway. Hopefully, the flashlight doesn’t give your position away to the monster who stalks you. The feet you wield continue down the hall as you expect an exit at the end, if it has an end.
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As you slowly ambulate forward, a quiet breath sluggishly exhales on your shoulder. It’s gentle enough to keep you from being surprised by it, but still creeps you out. You refuse to stop and turn around to see what’s behind you. The fear of it killing you from its sight terrifies you enough to impede your walking. No matter how much air you try to breathe in, it doesn’t satisfy your shot lungs from the fear that is developing within you again. Its breath gradually becomes heavier until grunts come from its exhaling. The voice is deep and demonic, too deep for a person. The appearance begins to form in your mind. Its groans are slow and heavy, only giant creatures like bears or lions have breaths this deep. You then start to hope that it’s just a bear instead of an unknown monster. Bears exist, bear attacks happen, and having a common creature stalk you is better than a monster. There are classes that educate people on what to do about bears. However, these are too long even for an awesome creature like a grizzly. A tiger, or lion maybe? If that’s the case, then why has it not pounced on you yet? Your feet refuse to go any further in fear of encouraging whatever the hell is behind you to strike.
The breathing and snarling stopped. You don’t recall hearing heavy paws thumping away or the sound of its breathing fading, but it has stopped. The courage slowly comes back inside your stomach and you brave to start walking again in the blackness with your torch. The desire of forever leaving this place swells inside of you, almost to the point of being unbearable. It doesn’t matter to you if amnesia has cursed your mind or that it’s possible you didn’t have a life before this, but what you do care about is getting out of here and forgetting that this place ever existed. You then start to imagine what you want your life to be like in the real world. You hope for a family that is anxious to see you again. They would joyfully embrace you in their arms after your long absence. Perhaps you have a lover, or you’re even married. Your friends would be ecstatic to see you again as well. It’s almost certain that you have loved ones who are waiting for you, hoping that you’re alright. Why else would you be so compelled to escape? The hall has not changed its form and continues to lead you in a single direction. That’s a good thing, it means that you don’t have to worry about getting lost. It also implies that the beast can appear in front of you and become a dangerous obstacle, though, so escaping must be quick before that happens. You can sense that you’re getting closer to the end, you must be, you’ve been trekking for a while now.
The feeling of something stalking you then starts to tingle your spine again. You psause for a moment and twirl around to see if anything is following you. There’s nothing from the shadows that you can distinguish. Nothing is following you, not directly, at least. There’s still that giant beast you have to worry about and chances are that it never left you alone at all. Another noise then catches your attention. It barely echoes from a distance, but you can still hear it. Could it be the same monster? It’s coming from the direction you’ve past and that’s where the beast approached, from behind you. You can hear it getting louder, coming closer, and becoming more distinctive as heavy paws with blades for claws. Two large eyes emerge from the darkness just outside your torch’s reach. The yellow glow they give off exemplifies the beast’s prowess as its slit-pupils lock on you. A wide grin full of white and sharp teeth grows under the eyes and span the width of the corridor. That same deep and low grunt-growl slips from the creature’s fangs and greets you with all its sinister pleasure.
Wasting no time, your body immediately turns back to the direction you were heading and bolt straight ahead. An awful roar explodes from behind you and causes your heart to beat even faster. Your feet plap against the cold concrete floor in a quick and consistent pace. It doesn’t matter if there will be any new obstacles in front of you now, you can’t let that thing catch you! Nothing about the hall changes, it continues its loop of dead lights and a row of doors on each side. Finally, a spec of light blinks into existence in the distance. As you advance your sprinting, the blimp gradually brightens up. You’ve found the exit! Thank God, you can finally escape! Your pace quickens as the hope builds up inside of you. You can finally go home! The details of the light at the end become more distinctive as you come closer at an incredible rate. Its an old wooden door with a glass window replacing its top half to let in the light of day. Not wanting to stop for a second with the monster behind you, your arm shields your front and you brace for impact. The door breaks and splinters from your successful ramming and you burst out to the other side. You look back for a second with the flashlight in your good hand to see if the beast is still pursuing you. A nerve-wrecking howl reverberates not too far behind you. Not taking the chance, you continue your running and head off into the woods. A sharp pain shoots through the arm you used to break down the door. For now, you do your best to ignore it and focus on out running the beast. Nothing besides out running that thing matters right now.
The fog in this forest thickens and makes it more difficult to see, but that still doesn’t force you to slow down, nothing will. The adrenaline in your body keeps you to speed as you move further away from that horrible hell-hole. The brume thickens even more with a crisp coldness to keep the sweat on your body frozen. It thickens to the point where you can’t even see in front of yourself anymore, yet you advance blindly forward with the same quick momentum. You keep running, and running, and running.
And running, and running, and running…
. . .
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You are conscious, and yet you are not. You’re aware that you were previously asleep, but your eyes are still shut. Finally opening them up, darkness still surrounds you. A window hangs above you on the ceiling, tilting to indicate that it leads to the roof. That means you’re in the attic.
Right?
END