It's Somewhere Beneath Us

Be Back Soon

The corridor we had chosen to go down was an oddly long one, taking us nearly ten minutes total to walk. We were used to the unnatural blueprints that the house had, but it was usually twisting and tangled paths, not straight ones. Once we finally came to the end of it, a simple metal door with a push bar was waiting. I stepped forward and threw it open, however, we immediately had second thoughts when we saw what waited on the other side.

My first impressions gave me flashbacks to Daniel's room; Overly large, concrete, and cavernous. Above and below us was darkness, and only two walls were visible, the one on our side and the one holding a door opposite. Between both doors was another catwalk, but instead of water below, there was nothing but the unforgiving darkness of the unknown. Lights hung from the wall overtop of the doors, and to our left and right, there was nothing but blackness running almost endlessly off into the distance. We all looked from the doorway, but none of us dared to step in.

"Yeah, I'm thinking it's a pass on this one, guys," Ethan said.

I nodded. "Yeah, I think you're right."

"I don't know if we're going to have another option," Bea whispered, pointing back down the hall behind us. We all looked to see what she was talking about. It was hard to make out through the distance and dim lights, but it was visible. A figure was making its way toward us, and from the look of its size and shape, it was our old friend, the Curator. It had been a while since we had last run into the thing, but it always seemed to know the worst possible times to show up. On the plus side, the lack of screaming and running coming from it meant that it probably hadn't seen us yet. We all looked at one another with worried expressions, and before anyone could decide anything, Bea slipped past us and into the room. Ethan and I followed suit and then silently shut the door.

I turned to the others, "Let's move quickly before it catches up."

Ethan sighed, looking down, "I'm getting really tired of catwalks."

We started across the grated bridge, making sure to keep our eyes up. The only thing holding the platform in place was several wires that ran up toward an unknown ceiling, and considering we had already had one walk break on us in our time here, we didn't want to think about another. I led the charge first, flashlight out and holding it to the floor. The door lights didn't reach the center of the catwalk, and I didn't want anyone to trip in the darkness. Our steps against the metal echoed into the abyss around us, filling the space with a rhythmic tapping. I tried to focus on that instead of the thought of falling or the thing from downstairs barging through the door behind us. It was that focus, however, that alerted me to a noise up ahead.

Creak...

My heart jumped into my throat, and the three of us instantly grabbed onto the railings tightly, preparing for the worst. After a moment, however, nothing happened, and I let out the breath I was holding captive in my lungs. It was a sigh relieved much too early.

"Oh, come now, there's no need to panic, you three. This house is indestructible, remember?"

My hand shot up, aiming the flashlight at the voice ahead of us. It was Him. It. The thing that haunted us. It stood there looking like someone I had once known and loved, but whose image had become a sight of torment.

"Well, almost always indestructible. Isn't that right, Ethan?" He looked past me and toward Ethan with a blank smile. Behind the poor façade of happiness was a sense of strange anger and malice. I quickly glanced over my shoulder to my friends, hoping they would ask me what was wrong and why I had stopped, but unfortunately, this was no longer in my head. This was real. Bea and Ethan's looks of concern made that clear.

"Um, do I know you?" Ethan cautiously asked, as if afraid of the answer.

"Ha. No. You don't know me. But Joel and Bea sure do. Isn't that right, you two?" He snickered. "Oh, I'm sorry, Beatrice, you may not recognize me. Maybe this will help."