I Am Chosen

The Abyss

In his mind's eye Hollis was standing at the edge of a precipice. He could hear voices echoing from below: his wife, his daughter. They were calling to him. All he had to do was take a step out into oblivion, and he could rejoin his family once again. But there was something; some small needling concern holding him back. What was it? Why not just take that step?

With each passing second Hollis's resistance faded and the wall of his sanity crumbled, brick by brick.

Kacey raced into the workshop, spotted the firecrackers and took all of the M-80s she could find; four of them. On her way back she passed through the kitchen and after just a few seconds' searching found a lighter, the rod-kind used to light barbeques.

Rushing headlong, she dashed out of the kitchen and back toward the basement stairs.

J.D. snatched up the Winchester rifle, aimed at the living wall and fired. He worked the lever and fired again, and again. The coils around Hollis had loosened slightly. J.D. focused his aim on the bases of those tentacles and blasted repeatedly until at last they loosened enough for him to pull the detective free.

The older man was heavy and seemed out of it. J.D. switched the rifle to his left hand, wrapped the other arm around the detective's waist and dragged him, staying close to the wall. The flashlight toppled from Hollis's grip and landed in the water. It was slow going, and J.D. had only managed to pull Hollis roughly ten feet when he heard something like the sound of fishing line playing out. A slimy appendage uncoiled from the wall and wrapped around Hollis's foot.

Kacey fled as fast as her feet would carry her, back down the passage, flashlight aimed ahead, M-80s in her pocket, lighter in her right hand.

Up ahead, in the swinging light's beam, she caught a glimpse of... something. Someone standing there. She ground her heels with each footfall to arrest her momentum and after a few more steps finally came to a stop. Shining the light ahead, she felt the blood turn to slush in her veins.

Standing there, waiting, was Piggy.

It can't be.

But it was. It was Piggy, mouth open, his glasses reflecting Kacey's light.

"You're too late," he said. "You can't stop it now. Your friends are dead. There's nothing left for you to do but run away. As far and as fast as you can."

Kacey's mind raced. Even if The Traveler had been able to raise Piggy's body, that body was buried in L.A. It was nowhere near here. What she was seeing was an illusion; an attempt by the Lord of the Flies to prevent her from doing what she was about to do.

It was scared of what she could do to it. Then you can't be scared.

She continued forward. Piggy held out his hand but Kacey didn't slow; she came within five feet of him and his head tipped backward, opening a slit along his neck that gaped like a widening mouth; the head fell further until it toppled off completely and a surging host of flies swarmed out from the cavity of Piggy's neck.

Swallowing the bile in her throat, Kacey pressed on, into the buzzing mass and through Piggy's still-standing, headless body.

She had been right. It was just an illusion. Not flesh and blood. Once past the Nightmare Piggy, she soon arrived once again at the quartz.

The voices of Hollis's family had become fainter; more distant.

He was losing them. Again.

No.

In his dream-state, Hollis extended one foot out over the abyss and leaned forward.

J.D. was on his ass, digging his heels into the wet earth but the thing had Hollis by the leg and it was reeling him in; reeling them both in. J.D. fired the Winchester one-handed into the tendril. It released but then two more came and took its place. He fired again but the trigger only clicked; the rifle's ammo was spent.

As the strength in his legs waned, he wondered dismally if this was the end.

Kacey had placed the M-80s all along the crack that J.D. had created with the first hole he had drilled. She pulled the trigger on the lighter now.

It clicked, but didn't ignite. She pressed again. Same result.

Once more, and a wavering flame finally appeared at the rod's tip. She held the fire to one fuse after another until all four had been lit, and then she ran back up the passage.

Piggy's head and corpse, along with the flies, had disappeared.

Kacey sat, drew her knees to her chest and pulled her arms up over her ears.

Seconds later a succession of BOOMING noises blasted through the tunnel.

There was a distant sound like thunder just before the entirety of J.D.'s surroundings quaked. This was quickly followed by another noise, like the twanging of a heavy-duty electrical wire. A sudden change in pressure caused J.D.'s ears to pop. The tendrils around Hollis's leg released, stiffened and froze as if they were stone and then... they liquefied, falling to the tunnel water in massive gobs of black goo.

Timber fell from the ceiling just a few feet in front of him, followed by fist-sized rocks. J.D. discarded the rifle and hefted Hollis with both arms, hauling him as quickly as he could back to the gangway.

The tunnel rocked fiercely enough that, even seated, Kacey had to keep a hand on the rock wall to keep from falling to her side. The flashlight rolled and she snatched it up, pointing its beam down the passage. Dust and small stones rained from the stone roof; every instinct Kacey possessed told her to run before everything above her came crashing down. But she fought back against those instincts; she would not leave J.D. and Hollis behind.

She tried the radio, but there was no answer. The quaking continued as Kacey shakily gained her feet and decided that there was nothing more she could do from here... she needed to find out what had happened to her brother and Hollis.

One hand on the wall to her right, the vibrating copper wires to her left, Kacey descended. The flashlight waved in her left hand and the air grew cooler the deeper she went. She had nearly reached the bottom when she saw J.D. at last, stumbling backward, holding Hollis around the waist. She rushed to them; upon seeing her, J.D. shouted above the rumbling that they had done it; their enemy was dead, but they had to get Hollis to a hospital. They rotated the unconscious detective, put his arms over their shoulders and ascended as quickly as the collapsing tunnel would allow.

Just before they reached the quartz, everything behind them came crashing down. Kacey risked a glimpse to see the entire passage cave in, sending a black cloud rushing over them. They needed no more incentive to race for the exit and after a few more minutes of maximum exertion, breathless and covered in soot, they emerged at last from the secret passage into the rec room. 

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I won't make you all wait a full week for the epilogue. Find out Hollis's fate in the next chapter!