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SPLAT!
I landed butt first into the cake, sending a shower of crimson chunks over everything. In the same instance, The Curator smashed against the wooden surface with a prominent THUD. For a moment, everything was still. Every living being in the room exchanged glances with one another, as if unsure of what was going on. Then, the thing from downstairs raised its head from its daze and looked around.
That’s when the Birds all let out a horrific screeching noise that I had never heard before.
All of them in the room rushed forward and began to violently thrash at the beast. The Curator wasted no time in fighting back, smashing the pathetic mascot costumes against the wall as if that’s all they were. The colorful puppets began to screech and run around the room in pure anarchy, turning on one another and sinking their teeth into flesh.
“Run!” I yelled to my friends over the chaos.
They all listened as I forced myself onto my feet. The fall had knocked the wind out of me, but landing on the cake was undoubtedly better than nothing. I dashed off of the table, and we all made our way to the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the birds start toward us, but The Curator pummeled it into the ground in an attempt to beat it to the punch. Luckily, two more birds behind it pinned its legs and prevented it from pursuing further.
We emerged into the hall, and the three of them looked back at me.
“Joel!” Ethan cried in triumph. “Holy shit!”
I gasped for air and rested my hands on my knees. The most I could muster was a slight wave before retching air. If I had eaten in the past few days, it would have been a very different sight.
“Keep… Going!” I gasped, urging them onward.
We all turned and headed for the library doors. Daniel held back for a moment till I caught up, and then he grabbed me by the jacket, practically dragging me alongside him.
“C’mon, kid! You didn’t get this far just to give up now!”
Ethan and Bea threw open the library doors then turned back to hold them open, but I suddenly saw a look of shock spread over Bea’s face.
“Look out!”
Daniel and I were abruptly brought to the floor as Larry tackled us from behind. He wasted no time in jumping on top of Dan and punching him over and over like a feral animal. I rolled to my knees and reached out, tearing him off and shoving him to the ground.
I quickly turned back to Bea and Ethan, “The third shelf on the right! Blue book! Get it open, now!”
“But, Joel-“
“Now!”
I felt bad for screaming, but my heart was about to explode out of my chest, and I was running on pure adrenaline. Larry sat up as I tried to help Dan to his feet.
“Well, Hi, Joel! Fancy seeing you here!”
“Dan, come on, get up.” The blows Larry had gotten in really dazed him, and he struggled to sit upright.
“Just going to ignore me, huh? That’s okay.”
Larry rushed forward and grabbed my jacket, yanking me and tossing me further down the hall. I slid to a stop in front of the library door, then felt a sharp pain in my stomach as he delivered a kick straight into my gut.
“This is too good to be true. For so long, all I’ve wanted was revenge for what you all did to me, and now, here you all are. Fell right from the sky!”
He kicked me again, and my vision when blurry. Any wind that remained in my lungs had now been fully expelled, and I felt like I was going to pass out.
“It’s too bad that your little girlfriend isn’t with you. Andi? Where’s she at, huh? You know I ran into her not long after you all threw me out? She actually tried to get me out of this place, but it was all in vain. This is my room. This is where I belong. Our rooms find us all eventually.”
“W-what are you…talking about?” I gasped.
Just then, we all heard a cry come from the kitchen. It sounded like the screech the birds had made a few moments ago, only louder and more frantic. Larry looked back in confusion, and I knew something was wrong. If he didn’t know what it was, then something terrible was about to happen, and we didn’t have time to stick around and find out. I rolled onto my stomach and shakily got onto my hands and knees when I heard another noise from the door on my right.
The Nursery.
The floor shook as whatever was on the other side lumbered to the entrance. That gave me enough adrenaline to stand fully back up, but Larry quickly grabbed hold of me.
“Going somewhere?”
He raised his arm to deliver a punch but stopped as the doors behind me swung open. I glanced over my shoulder, and I finally saw what the source of the Nursery’s breathing was.
It was another bird, although the size of this one would put the others to shame. It was nearly twice as large, and its body was fat and swollen. Its feathers were patchy, and underneath, its fleshy pink skin was visible and covered in a thick, creamy slime. It smelled awful. Its head retained its mascot appearance; however, its eyes weren’t fake plastic like the others. They were real, and bloodshot, and bulged fully out of its head. It groaned as it slid itself across the floor and tried to worm its bulbous body through the door frame. It was as if every movement was agony on the thing. Larry and I watched as it saw us and let out a crackly groan of surprise. The bird reared its head back, and its throat began to throb. Then, three different colored puppets came from its mouth, sliding out covered in the same mucus as its body.
“W-What the-“ Was all Larry got out before Daniel grabbed my arm and then shoved Larry from behind.
The man went stumbling toward the creatures, and one of the puppets looked up at him and growled. It lunged forward and clamped its teeth down into his leg. He fell to the ground, screaming in pain as the two other gremlins latched on as well, one into his arm and the other into his side. I watched in horror as they tore his flesh away. Behind us, I heard the kitchen doors fly open. I turned to see the Curator, covered in blood, its fake skin hanging off in several places.
“Joel, come on!” Daniel yelled, pulling me forward. I didn’t resist. Together, we pushed through the library doors. Out of my peripheral, I saw the Curator start forward as the massive bird inched closer to its young that fed on Larry. I heard him yell one last thing between his cries of agony.
“Your rooms are looking for you! Your rooms are looking!”
Bea and Ethan had the shelf open now, and they rushed over to pull us both through. I heard more commotion and flesh tearing from the hallway, but I didn’t need to know who’s or what it was. When Daniel was past the threshold, I spun around and slammed the door shut, then stumbled over to my pack and yanked it up, slinging it over my shoulder. My head spun, and all I wanted to do was rest, but we weren’t out of the woods yet. I flicked the switch on the control panel, and the spotlights outside burst to life.
“Come on.” I called to the others, leading them outside, “This way.”
We ran out of the safe room and up the catwalk. Walking through the circle of spotlights was disorienting and blinding, but that was the point. Thankfully, I had memorized the area by heart. I led Daniel, Ethan, and Bea across the same catwalk I had called The Curator from, and together we entered the doorway on the other side. When we had stepped into the dark hallway, I turned back just in time to see the thing from downstairs climb back over the edge of the kitchen wall. Damn it. It was still alive. However, as soon as it came face to face with the bright lights, it fell to the floor and covered its lidless eyes, squealing in agony. We didn’t have much time.
“Run!” I called ahead.
Nobody needed to be told twice. Together, the four of us took off, and we didn’t stop. We didn’t stop when we passed a safe room. We didn’t stop if we came to a crossroads. We didn’t even slow down when we came to the next staircase. We just barreled down them and continued on toward an unknown fate. As we did, Larry’s cryptic last words echoed in my ears.
‘Your rooms are looking for you. Your rooms are looking…’
When our lungs burned and our legs couldn’t carry us anymore, the four of us stopped. We entered a mold and mildew-ridden living room before spotting a smiley face on a nearby door. Something we hadn’t seen in a long time. The previous group had made it this far after all. We ducked into the room and sealed ourselves inside, panting like dogs from how far we had just run. After a moment, however, Bea used her remaining energy to stumble forward and pull me into a hug, her body trembling from a million emotions at once. After a moment, Ethan joined the embrace as well. Daniel didn’t, though. He just continued gasping for air before growling out:
“Are you kidding, Joel?! That was your plan?!”
I pulled away from Ethan and Bea and stared at him. Looking back on it at that moment, it really was a stupid idea. But despite that, only one response came to mind.
“Well… It worked, didn’t it?”
Daniel caught his breath and glared at me for a second with disbelief. Then, out of nowhere, I heard him begin to softly chuckle. Soon that gave way to a steady laugh, which quickly evolved into a wild cackle. I looked to Bea and Ethan with a nervous glance, thinking for a moment that Dan might be going full Larry when he surprised me by stepping forward and placing an arm around me.
“You’re insane, kid. But I’m glad you’re okay.”
After settling down, we all picked a random spot around the room to crash. It wasn’t very big, which allowed us to talk to one another still. I filled them in on what I had been doing behind the scenes while they told me about all of their detailed experiences. How the food tasted, how the place smelled, how excited they were for the next time we found a shower. Things that I wouldn’t have known from just the camera.
“I’m so glad you guys are okay,” I told them when we had finished exchanging tales.
“You too,” Ethan shot back. “There were a few times you didn’t make it to the spotlight that we were worried.”
“I was fine. Just running late was all. I wasn’t going to die before I could get you out of there.”
“Well, thanks for sticking around, kid. We all owe you one.” Daniel said.
“I don’t think so. I think each of you has saved my life at least one time, if not more. I kind of owed it to you.”
“Well, consider your debt paid then.”
“Not yet. I still have to pay the interest.”
Daniel softly laughed as the room fell to silence.
“So, what now, then?” Bea questioned. “Do we just keep going deeper?”
“I… guess so.” Ethan replied.”
“We need to be a lot more careful from here on forward, though,” Daniel told us. “We’ve only been down here for a couple of months, and already we’ve had a lot of close calls. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think the things down here are a bigger threat than that lumpy monstrosity.”
Ethan snickered, “I honestly think it helped us more than its hindered us since we got down here.”
“I’ll remember that for the next time you go scavenging and have to hide,” Bea told him.
“Oh shoot, Joel, do you even remember the route we just ran through?”
My heart sank as I remembered our primary goal, “Oh no… I really don’t. It couldn’t have been that bad, right? We only made a few turns. Maybe I can go back a little bit and retrace my steps?”
“No, it’s not worth it. We can get it on the way back up. Like you said, it couldn’t have been too far. Probably just a missed hall or two. For now, we should keep moving.” Daniel said.
“Alright. In the meantime, we should also probably get some rest.” I added.
Nobody had any objections to that. As we lay in the darkness, I felt Bea slide close to me, and I moved in to meet her. As I took her into my embrace, I felt instant peace. I was so glad she was okay. I held her tightly and listened to her breathing for a moment before she whispered into my ear.
“I missed you.”
The sentence felt odd to hear. Considering we had spent every day together for the past four years, we never really had to miss each other. But it went beyond that. Something intimate about the phrase created a pang of guilt in my heart. Guilt for memories long past. It began to constrict and strangle, but I shoved it down and focused on Bea. I really did care for her, and I really did miss her as well.
“I missed you too.”
With the stress of my friends being gone now lifted, and the lack of sleep that I had gotten the past week taking its toll, that night was the best rest I had gotten since arriving at the house. It must have been for the others as well because all of us ended up sleeping in way past intended. When we finally did get up and around that morning, we decided that we needed to take a day to do some serious scavenging. Unfortunately, my friends’ packs had been left at the playhouse, and I had burned through most of mine during the rescue mission. That meant we had less than a fourth of the resources we needed to stay alive.
Bea and Daniel paired up, going one way, while Ethan and I took the other hall. It was nice to have time alone with Ethan again. We hadn’t really gotten to hang out much since we left the house, although the term ‘hang out’ was quite a loose one. as we walked, he seemed less than his usual optimistic self, though. He was quiet and spacey, and I noticed him jumping at every little pop and crack of the house settling. When we stopped in a room that looked like an old food pantry, I confronted him.
“Everything alright, man?”
“Huh?”
“You just seem quiet today.”
“Oh yeah, I’m fine.”
“You sure? Cause yesterday you almost died, and you seemed more vibrant then than you do now….”
Ethan chuckled, “Yeah, man, I’m okay. I just…” He trailed off, and I waited for him to continue, but he never did.
“You just what?”
“I just… Do you think that we’ll all make it down?”
I was severely taken back, “What?”
“Like to the exit. Do you think we’ll all make it?”
“Ethan, what are you talking about?” I nervously laughed, trying to dispel his concerns, “Of course we will. You, me, and Bea have all been together since pretty much day one. We’ll always have each other’s backs. Plus, we have Daniel with us. He’s always put the group’s safety and well-being as a priority. He would never let anything like that happen.” Ethan nodded but continued staring at the floor. I could tell he wasn’t convinced. “What’s got you worried, man?”
My friend sighed, “I don’t know. I’ve just been having dreams…”
“Dreams? Like what kind of dreams?”
“It doesn’t matter. I guess being trapped in that place just really made me realize how in over our heads we are. I mean, we have no idea what could be down here or what it’s capable of, and that scares me. What if we had fallen into that playhouse, and instead of those birds, we got those dancers instead? Or the Curator? We got lucky, and we still almost died. You had to risk your life to get us out of there.”
“I won’t let anything happen to you, man.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.” Ethan stopped raiding the shelves and turned to look at me, “I don’t care if I die, but I don’t want to see that happen to any of you guys. That’s why I came after you and Daniel when you left. I couldn’t see what happened to Andi happen to you too.”
My heart sank. “It won’t, Ethan. We came down here to make sure that no one else has to go through what she did.”
“No, I know that I just… I know this is right. I know this is what we’re supposed to be doing. But I just have this feeling that we’re not all meant to make it to the end.”
I just stared at him. I honestly didn’t know how to respond. “Ethan, I’m not sure I’m following where you’re coming from. We’re going to be fine, man. Even if we aren’t, we have to believe that we are.”
He sighed and brushed his hair from his face as he turned his gaze to the floor again. “Yeah. I guess you’re right. I just need to know, Joel. I need to know if you have accepted the fact that we might not all make it.”
“I’d die before I let something happen to any of you,” I told him, staring him dead in the eye. He just patted a hand to my shoulder before throwing a few cans of food into the pack.
“That’s what I’m afraid of, man.”
We continued forward after that, and Ethan began to talk more along the way. I could tell he was trying to convince me that he was alright now, but I could still sense a lingering melancholy from him. I had never seen the guy so serious before. I mean, Ethan had his moments. He knew how to make people feel better when they needed comforting, and he knew when to stand firm in a situation. But in most dire cases, he was never too upfront about his thoughts and emotions. He even told me once that he didn’t think his opinions mattered too much, so there was no point in sharing them. I had said to him that wasn’t true, but he just said that some things don’t need to be shared, and his thoughts are one of them. The whole situation must have really bothered him if he was willing to talk to me about it.
By the time we got back to the room, Daniel and Bea had already returned.
“What’d you guys find?” Dan asked as Bea laid out their contents from the trip.
Based on the pack she was dumping items from, it was clear that a new bag was on the list of things she had found. We emptied our contents into the pile as well, and I was amazed to see that we had amassed quite the collection. Enough food to ration out for a few weeks, two bottles filled with the house’s chalky white water, some articles of clothing, an actual, real flashlight.
“Wow, good haul,” Ethan noted.
Daniel grinned with pure joy, “It gets even better. Show them, Bea.”
Bea reached behind her back and retrieved one more item. Ethan and I could hardly believe our eyes.
“Oh my gosh… Is that a gun?”
It was a sizable thing with a stained antler grip; the kind of pistol people out in my old backwater town would carry on their hip, mainly just for self-defense. However, here in the house, a weapon like this had a whole new power.
“Is it loaded?”
Bea nodded, “Seven shots left in the magazine. When we checked the chamber, there was an empty shell inside.”
“That’s unsettling.” Ethan pointed out.
“Where did you find that?” I asked in disbelief.
“We ended up in some sort of hotel room at one point.” Daniel told us, “It was just sitting in the side table drawer.”
“That’s insane!” Ethan cried. “Do you know how lucky that is?”
“Yeah, for real,” I added. “It’s too bad that nothing around here ever stays dead.”
“That’s not true. Those puppet things died. I think I saw one of the birds’ heads get crushed on the way out of the playhouse too. And technically, we’ve never actually seen The Curator die. It always just seems to escape last second. This could be a game-changer, though.”
Bea ran her thumb over the grip and stared down at the shiny object in her hand, “Yeah. And besides, I think hitting anything in the right spot with a .45, immortal or not, would be enough to slow it down.”
I looked at her quizzically, “.45, huh? I assume you’ll be holding onto it for now, Bea?”
“What? Why?” She said, suddenly perking up as if I had said something that jarred her from a trance.
“Well, I definitely don’t know anything about guns.” I looked to Daniel and Ethan, who both shook their heads as well. “It seems like you’re the most familiar out of all of us.”
“You did set right to work inspecting the thing when we found it,” Daniel added.
“Oh, uh, I don’t know about that. I mean, I know a bit, but I’ve never really shot one before, I just… If something goes wrong and we have to use it, I don’t want to be the reason someone gets hurt.”
“You won’t, Bea.” I reassured her, “You’re the most qualified out of all of us. I’d feel the safest with you having it.”
“I agree.”
“Yeah! Plus, if one of us does get hurt, you don’t have to feel bad! Good Samaritan law and all that!” Ethan said, giving her a pat on the shoulder. Bea rolled her eyes at the joke and smiled softly as she lay the gun on top of her new bag.
“Alright. I’ll take it for now. But we’ll pass it off between us depending on the situation, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Sounds fair.”
“Well,” Daniel said, clapping his hands, “I think this scavenge deserves a celebration, wouldn’t you all agree?” Daniel scooted to the side to reveal a four-pack of old coke bottles.
“What? No way?”
“Jeeze, you guys found all of the good stuff!”
We all four sat in a circle sipping on the long-expired liquid and laughing. We all agreed that there would be no wasting time tomorrow and that we would set out first thing, but we figured we deserved a break for the rest of that evening. After the last few weeks we had all endured, the stress was starting to get to us. It seemed like an evening to take a breather was needed, or else there might be some serious mental repercussions. You would think someone would eventually get used to witnessing horrors and abominations on a near-daily basis, but somehow it keeps finding ways to wear on you. It was no spa day, but the simple luxury and conversation was more than enough to make us feel a little better.
“Wait, so you did own a Ferrari?”
“Yes! I told you I did!” Daniel laughed.
“Dang!” Ethan said, enthralled. “What color?”
“It was this sleek, vibrant yellow one. You’ll never believe what I called it either.”
“What?”
“Bee.”
“No way.” our Bea chuckled, “I believed you for a second, but now I don’t.”
“It’s true! My wife hated the thing; thought it was too gaudy. Also thought I loved it more than her.”
“Eh, I could see that.” I jeered.
“Hey, now!” Dan said with a laugh as he took another swig of cola.
“You excited to get back to her, Dan?” Bea asked.
“To my Ferrari?”
“No, your wife, you jerk!”
Dan’s expression went solemn for a moment before he spoke again. “Well, we actually were taking a break from things for a while before I… You know. Ended up here. She’s probably glad I disappeared.”
“Oh, gosh, Daniel, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. You never mentioned-“
“Nah, don’t sweat it. You didn’t know.”
“Well, I’m sure that when we get out, she’ll be happy to see you again.” I chimed in. “Then you two can work things out.”
“Thanks, kid, but I don’t know about that one. Some things just aren’t meant to be fixed.”
“Well, hey, come on, Dan.” Ethan added, “What could be so bad that there’s no fixing it? You didn’t cheat, did you?”
I winced at the harshness of Ethan’s sentence.
“Nah, no. Nothing like that. Just things involving our daughter. Things we can’t fix.
“Wait, didn’t we ask you if you had kids, and you said no?”
“No. You asked me if I have kids.”
The room went stiller than pond water, and the floor shook from the mood crashing through it.
“Daniel…”
“Dan, I’m so sorry… I shouldn’t have said anything, I-“
Daniel nervously laughed and rubbed the back of his neck as he sat forward, “Look, kids, it’s fine. Like I said,” his eyes darted to the floor, “You didn’t know.”
None of us knew what to say. Our eyes all just joined his focus as we sat in complete silence. Finally, he stood.
“Well, I think I’m gonna turn in for the night. I know it’s early, but I’d like to be rested for when we head out tomorrow.”
“Dan-“
“I don’t mind if you kids wanna play cards or something, just keep it quiet, alright?” Dan stood and crossed to the corner of the room then lay down, curling his body toward the wall.
Bea, Ethan, and I exchanged glances but ultimately decided it was best to leave the poor man alone. After a moment, however, Bea stood and grabbed a blanket from our packs, then crossed over to him and gently lay it over top. He slowly reached a hand up to its edge and pulled it further over himself.
We traveled onward through the house for another couple of weeks, and as we had noticed before, the time to find the next staircase was becoming increasingly long. What used to take us a few hours to a day to find was now taking more than two full days to traverse. On top of that, the rooms seemed to grow more complex, often including the entirety of a structure’s layout, with the smaller rooms cramming their way inside and connecting to open hallways and exits. It was making the map a lot more challenging to fill out, which in turn meant we had to move slower.
I had already filled up the entire notebook I had brought with furious scribbles and notes that I figured only I could read by this point. There were still marked safe spaces, but now they were far and few between. We often had to find our own, and then we signed them out of courtesy. Occasionally there would still be a note letting us know where food might be or something we should know for the journey ahead, but their usual detail was now gone, and the death count was no longer being recorded. It was pretty disheartening to see. I got the sense that this was around the time they began to lose hope.
We traveled for most of a day when we came across another safe room. We thought about continuing further on, but when Bea and I went on ahead and saw the complicated stretch of hotel hallways, we thought twice about it and settled on the room. It was just an empty apartment-style area with a bathroom and a single bedroom, as well as a kitchen. There was, however, a closed door that had writing on it.
Here lies Nathan, May you find peace in a place better than this. It read.
Daniel started to open it, but after the foul stench of dead decay hit us, he left the thing shut.
“Best to not disturb the dead.” He muttered.
The following day when we woke up to set out again, I noticed Ethan in another one of his quiet moods. It had been a pattern ever since our conversation back at the pantry. As we packed up our things, I turned to him,
“Still having those dreams, huh?”
“Yeah,” He said darkly to the floor.
“Still not going to tell me about them, huh?”
He zipped up his pack, then smiled at me, “I’m fine, Jan.”
I laughed, “okay, okay. Just making sure you’re alright.”
We exited back into the corridors, and Bea sighed, “Alright. Let’s take on another labyrinth of hotel halls.” She was right to be annoyed. It was quickly becoming our least favorite setting. We all rounded the corner and began to move on when Bea and I stopped dead in our tracks.
“What are you guys doing? Let’s go.” Dan beckoned.
“Wait, that’s not…”
“What?”
“That’s not the way.”
“What do you mean.”
“Bea’s right. This isn’t the same hallway.”
“What do you mean this isn’t the same hallway? There’s only one hallway in this direction.”
“Yeah, I thought you guys said there was a hotel up ahead.” Ethan noted, “Not a hospital.”
“There was. I-I swear.”
“Yeah, Bea and I both saw it.”
“Maybe you were just tired, and it looked different?” Daniel suggested, “I mean, they’re both just hallways with a lot of doors. They look similar.”
“No, there’s no way. There was carpet, not tile. And the walls had mounted lights. There were no ceiling panels.”
Daniel and Ethan looked down the corridor then back at us but didn’t say anything. It didn’t seem like they understood what the big deal was. Bea and I could tell that something was wrong, however.
“Can we please go back and go another way? I don’t like this.” She pleaded.
“I agree. Something’s not right.”
Daniel sighed, “You two are really that torn up about this, huh?”
We nodded.
“Alright. There was another hall not far back. Let’s take that one.”
We hauled it back through a couple of rooms and then took another hallway, much to the confusion of Daniel and Ethan. It may have been a small thing, and maybe Bea and I really had just thought it was a different sight than it was. But two people hallucinating the same thing was unlikely, and on top of that, we didn’t want to take any chances.
We traveled for another day and a half before finding the next set of stairs, but this set was strange. There were no twists or turns to it, just a staircase going straight down into darkness. Even shining our new flashlight down the steps didn’t allow us to see the bottom; they were clearly expansive. The wet concrete slabs were stained with rust and grime, and the sound of our footsteps echoed frantically throughout the stone corridor as we descended.
About halfway down, A slight feeling of hope began to grow in my heart. This one was taking us deep. Maybe we were close to the exit. Perhaps all of this was coming to an end soon. Finally, the beam from our light shone across the bottom of the steps where a door sat on the wall. We swung it open, and the hope that I held in my heart quickly gave way to utter confusion.
For a moment, I didn’t even think we were inside anymore. The room was massive; no, that was an understatement. The room was gargantuan, with only the wall holding the door we stepped out of being visible. Every other wall was either too far away or stretched too high up to see. Looking in any direction yielded unending darkness that consumed the glow from our flashlight after a dozen yards or so.
We currently stood on a small, metallic bridge that, after the catwalk situation, I was eager to step off of. Below us was a pit of even more void; however, when we shone our light down, we could barely make out the glinting of a shiny surface. It took us a moment to realize it was black, still water. The bridge led over a long stretch of the pool below before joining a concrete mass that ran so large and vast that it was swallowed up by the shadows. There was nowhere to go but forward.
“Oh my gosh…” Bea said in pure amazement.
“What the… Is this still the house?” I asked.
“I think so,” Dan replied.
Ethan stood back, keeping the door held open. It was a habit we had developed in case of his next sentence. “Guys, there’s no handle on this one. Once we go in, there’s no way back out.”
“Do we have anything to prop it open with?”
“Lemme see.” He slung his bag from his shoulder and began sifting through. Eventually, he held up an old book he had brought along with him. “Eh, this one was boring anyway.” He opened it up and then wedged the pages beneath the crack of the door.
“So, do we just keep going?” Bea asked.
Daniel shrugged, “I suppose so. There’s not much else we can do if the stairs brought us here.”
“Everyone, just stay on alert. This is new. We don’t know what might be down here.” I told them.
Slowly, we crossed the rickety metal bridge. My heart pounded with every step as I got flashbacks to the playhouse. Thankfully, we made it across without anything giving out on us. When we had reached the landmass on the other side of the moat, we were suddenly more confused. The catwalk stepped off directly onto the middle of an asphalt road. Yellow painted lines and everything. To its edges, perfect sidewalks were built, and beyond those… grass?
I stepped to the lawn and bent over, unable to believe what I was seeing. However, once I ran my fingers through it, I realized how such green blades could grow in the dark.
“It’s fake turf,” I called back to my friends.
“Okay, this is seriously weird,” Bea said.
Just then, my watch began beeping, alerting us that it was nighttime above. Then, something strange happened. Ahead, lining the road, one by one, orange fluorescent streetlights began to flick on. They illuminated not only the road but something else that lay beyond. Houses. A suburban neighborhood of cookie-cutter homes painted various shades of green, orange, blue, and yellow.
“Yay…” Ethan nervously joked, “We’re home…”