Descent into Darkness (Major Spoilers for House of Ashes)

Chapter Eight

The trio waited for the elevator to come to a full stop before getting out, finding themselves in a new set of caverns with large, gnarled and dead trees and a strange green glowing moss of sorts growing on the trunks and spreading all over the ground edges. "I've seen some fucked up shit in my life, nothing comes close to this." Jason commented, almost in awe of the discovery.

Gabrielle had no idea what to think, well beyond the point of not knowing what to expect now. "The creatures don't seem to be following at least" He mused, though neither of them knew how long that was going to last. "Would you like to wait for them?" Salim quipped sarcastically in response.

"No need to be a smartass. Let's move." Jason replied, not really amused. The three of them continued onwards, having a look around at the archaeologist equipment left by the explorers as they moved. Gabrielle noticed that the further on they went, the more of that strange moss that came into view. She caught a glimpse of what looked like some kind of cocoon that had the same shape as the creatures that had been pursuing them, deciding to inspect it while the men looked at the notes that had been left laying around.

They eventually reached a short rockface, the one thing catching her eye was the large metal rings seemed to have come out of nowhere. Jason and Salim climbed up first, then reaching back to help her up. 

Once everyone was up, they moved on, the ground going from the rocky texture of the caverns to the metal of whatever they'd just stumbled upon. 

Reaching the end of the metal platform, the trio had been flawed by the sprawling metal structures spanning the huge cavern. She had begun to doubt they were even in the caverns any more at this point. 

Salim had been in so much shock and awe his next question came out in Arabic out of habit. "Yeah, what you said..." Jason agreed, despite clearly not understanding what Salim had said in the first place. Gabrielle just wordlessly looked around in shock and almost awe of what they'd just found. "What the fuck is this place?" He followed up with a question.

The green glowing moss seemed a lot more plentiful around the structures themselves. "What is this hell? Is this even real?" Salim couldn't contain himself, crouching down while he was inspecting the new surroundings. "God is punishing us for all the mistakes we have ever made..." He trailed off, unsure about how to even comprehend the situation now.

He went silent for a moment before speaking up again. "Zain is all I have left in this world. After my wife left us, I gave him my all." He'd opened up to them alot, now that the situation had potentially gotten worse. "I wanted him to have everything I didn't."

"Single parent, like Gabby. Tough fucking gig." Jason commented. The conversation had Gabrielle thinking back to her messy divorce with her ex-husband. "It is, but my boy has made me very proud." Salim admitted, a small, proud smile on his face. "He's going to London, to university. If only he'd stop stealing..."

She used the silence between the two men to speak up about her own experience, wanting to be more open with Salim specifically, especially since Jason already knew the story. "Joanna was an unplanned pregnancy, let's just say l made some mistakes when I was younger." She began, it was hard for her to talk about, but she pushed through. "I'd stupidly rushed into a marriage with the father, and things had started good but..." She trailed off. 

Salim stayed quiet as he listened, letting her get it out in her own time. "It didn't take him long for him to show his true colours. He was a narcissistic, emotionally abusive asshole. The marriage lasted two years, we got divorced and I cut contact for my daughter's safety." She finished explaining, not wanting to go into more detail than that.