My friend Alois had always been, just like me, different than others. Both of us used to be rejected by most people on schools, summer camps, etc., and before meeting each other we had never formed a proper friendship. We understood each other and that allowed us to finally feel a connection.
My problem was pretty basic: I was a medium. I was able to hear dead people talking to me. I would have whole conversations with a previous owner of my mother’s flat via giant pictures on our walls that had once belonged to him. I had also been visited by my dead grandpa a couple of times. In Alois’es case, it was a bit more difficult: he was attracting demons. He would subconsciously seek people who were or had been possesed by demons and he had a thing for demonology and rituals. He claimed it was all just to know his enemy, but I was always concerned.
Alois and I met while playing a MOBA game, we were both nerds and we ended up in the same team. Soon we started playing with my ex-classmate, Ben. Ben and Alois quickly became friends and not too long ago they have developed feelings for each other. As always in such situations, I became less important to them, but our friendship prevailed.
From the beginning of our friendship, Alois would tell stories about his previous life. Everybody loved listening to him, because he was a brilliant storyteller. The story that had always resonated with me the most was a story about a haunted fortification in the suburbs next to our city.
“People never liked it and every company that had bought this building have quickly abandoned it” he said. “There is a story that the bad atmosphere of this place lured a group of satanists inside about twenty years ago. They were sacrificing animals and whatever they were trying to conjure, it’s dwelling there now. I had been there once and I’m telling you, this place is something else. If you ever end up there somehow, do not enter the bunker”.
“Why?” I asked. “Is there something gross inside?”
“No, it’s empty. But don’t enter, it’s not that easy to get out”.
“Well, you got out” I smiled. Suddenly his face went pale, as he slowly shaked his head.
“I never truely got out” he whispered.
Knowing how unrealistic and superstitious he was, I forgot about this ominous conversation and continued living my life. Until one day, when Alois returned home - the three of us together, me, him and Ben, were renting a flat - completly ashen and scared.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I’ve been in the bunker” he answered. “It’s horrible. It’s awful. I don’t want to see it ever again”.
“Then don’t” said Ben, entering the room. “Nothing’s forcing you”.
“I’m not sure about this” replied Alois. “But I hope you’re right. Let’s just go to sleep, I’m tired as hell”.
The next day he went to the bunker again. He explained later, that the last time he hadn’t have enough courage to enter the building and he wanted to change it. It was just a couple of walls and bricks, nothing to be afraid of, after all. This day he also didn’t have enough courage, so he decided to go there again. He said the bunker was amazing and that he would have liked to see how far did the tunnels go.
“It’s becoming an obsession” said Ben around one and half week ago.
“It’s just a beautiful place. If you want to, you can go with me and you’ll understand” Alois replied.
“Don’t go there, Ben” I asked quietly. Unfortunatelly, he was too concerned about his boyfriend to care about himself.
They left after the supper and returned just before midnight. Ben was ashen and shaking, he asked for a hot cup of tea and went to sleep quickly afterwards, refusing to talk about their trip. The next day however he seemed way more relaxed about it.
“It actually just looks scary, it’s an awesome place” he said during breakfast. “All those small shafts in the ground, this unkempt park with huge trees and thorns everywhere, and this giant front wall with empty windows, it looks great! I really wish to see it again in a daylight, how about another trip, Alois?”
“NOOOOOOO!” Alois screamed at the top of his lungs. Ben and I looked at him, absolutely surprised.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked.
“Nothing. It’s just… You will never go there again, Ben. Ever”.
“But… I haven’t even entered the building!” Ben complained. “I want to touch the surface of the front wall at least”.
“No. You will never ever go there again or I will break up with you”.
After saying this, Alois went quiet. He was absolutely silent for the rest of the day and I had to be the one to comfort Ben after hearing those words. I was angry with Alois, seeing how deeply hurt my mate was, but I couldn’t just confront him with that. He was going through something we weren’t able to understand yet.
“Don’t hate him because of me” said Ben during the dinner. Alois was still locked in his room when we were sitting in the kitchen. “He did that to protect me”.
“To protect you from what? His obsessive behavior and his overgrown ego?”
“From what’s inside the bunker” he replied with a trembling voice. “He knows it’s too late for him, but I might be saved”.
“You believe in these demons?” I laughed.
“You haven’t been there, Wendy. You would believe as well”.
“Time to change it” I decided. “Where is it?”
“No, I won’t tell you” he said loudly. “You’re different, just like Alois. I was able to resist the temptation to return to the bunker, but he weren’t. And you won’t be able to resist it as well”.
I was upset, but I didn’t push it. The next day Alois left again without any explanation. Ben followed him to the door just to give him a goodbye kiss, but Alois pushed him away and he slam shut the door. From this day on we haven’t seen him again.
We have searched for him everywhere. Police was called and Alois was put on a list of missing people. As we expected, nothing worked. There was no sign of our dear friend.
“You think it’s the bunker demon?” I asked yesterday.
“I’m sure it is” Ben replied. He had been crying for a week after Alois had went missing and now he was learning how to talk again.
“So why don’t we go there to look for him?”
“Because the police had searched this place and they found nothing”.
“But I am different” I whispered. “I talk to dead people. I think I can find something more inside”.
“Don’t give me hope” Ben cried again.
“I’m sorry, I have to. I cared about him too” I replied.
Ben gave me the adress and I left in the evening. Before I got there, the world had gone completly dark. The way was covered in weeds and thorns and surrounded by old trees that resembled petrified giants. Halfway through the park I started feeling weird; there was something really unsettling about this place. I took my Holy Cross outside my pocked and raised it high. With this weapon I was ready to go deeper into what seemed like a primal woods.
The darkness was so thick, I almost faceplanted the lodge. Its walls were completly covered in creepers and the huge trees behind it made it seem like a shadow of one of their stoopy branches. I walked around it carefully; the tunnels were below the ground and some ventilation shafts were hidden in the weeds like a small traps for careless visitors. Empty, dark windows on the side of the lodge made me even more uncomfortable, so I rised my Cross a bit higher.
I climbed to the top of a hill and I saw the bunker. It was waiting for me down there, huge and grey, it’s giant empty windows making me think of dragon’s open jaws ready to spit fire, with three floors and a creepy round annex as a porch. I felt a touch of the wind of my face but the park behind my back was somehow completly silent.
I started walking towards the main entrance but each next step was harder than the previous one. Finally, I stopped about ten metres from the entrance and my courage left me - there was something incredibly evil inside, and my small Cross was definitely not enough to fight with it.
I left the park as fast as I could, almost falling into one of the ventilation shafts, and I sprinted home. As soon as I got to the first lantern, my fear stopped and I started laughing. It was just an ugly building and an abandoned park, nothing to be afraid of.
“I could go back there just to touch the front wall” I said to myself. “But it’s a mission for tomorrow. Now I have to go to sleep”.
I felt really tired, more tired than I usually feel even after very long days. I could barely move my legs walking home, all I dreamed of were a bath, a cup of tea and a good night sleep. When I was far away from the bunker, I looked back; there was a giant orange moon exactly above the hill next to the bunker. Its colour was so intense it looked like a sun that broke and stopped shining. This view made me realise something: the bunker was not ugly! It looked creepy but it was, in fact, a beautiful building that deserved to be praised.
I came home and immidietly went to sleep, without talking to Ben. Today I woke up and I have already made my mind: I will go there after returning from work. I have to see this beautiful place again, take a few photos and maybe gain some inspiration, I’m a writer after all. I will touch it’s surface and enter the bunker to contact with Alois’ ghost or something. I also feel my curiousity rising; I need to see how far do the tunnels go! I hope I will make it before the dusk, I really want to see this amazing building in the daylight. This time I don’t feel like taking a Holy Cross with me, it’s just a bunker and I’m not a coward. Wish me luck!