Let me tell you a story part two
Scene Five
They come. The cops. Nasty and Nastier. They saying nothing grab Leigh, leaving Donnie on the floor. Marched to a hole in the stone floor, bricks lead down, barely wide enough to fit. Shoved into it Leigh almost tumbles head first, puts out her hand on the wall, black liquid, damp maybe, the stuff clings to her, she wipes it on her jeans and descends.
Entering a chamber with a single chair and manacles upon it. A man hooded, mumbling, stumbles then almost warps towards her and back again. Leigh blinks, wipes her eyes. She remembers the black stuff, uses her sleeve, her eyes are dancing with lights. She turns back up the stairs, but it’s dark, something’s been pulled across the top, no way back.
“The Chair, sit.”, says a papery whisper. The hooded man is cast in shadow, only his mouth and jaw visible, teeth blackened and sharp. Leigh terrified goes forward but the hooded man whips around, “No, not yet! Him…” The force of the words has Leigh stumbling back against the wall, edging away. Another figure moves forward out of the dark, trance-like, dressed in a suit, he has to be a Fed. He moves like a puppet on a string, like he’s trying to resist but keeps getting drawn forward until he’s in the chair. He’s terrified. The hooded man returns with some molten liquid, the smell, so pungent, manure or skunk. The fed breathes it in, and starts giggling, eyes glassy then the hooded man forces the liquid down his throat, hissing, burning, the smell makes Leigh gag. The screams echo around the room, it is too much Leigh turns and falls into a side passage, roughly carved, she runs, she doesn’t look back plunging forward into darkness, hands outstretched, scraping and bumping as the passage twists and turns.
Scene 6
Leigh’s hand closes over something, something soft and malleable, she squeezes and here’s a pop, motes of something choke in her throat, she’s on the ground, wheezing, there’s a luminescence all around her. There are voices now, the prisoners, their chants rhythmic and hypnotic. Leigh sways, watching her skin crawl and pulse, there's something alive in her, something powerful and ancient. More screams echo down the passageway from the room she was in.
Leigh goes to stand but her hands are floppy, and elongated, they drag on the ground, sprouting tips burrow into the damp earth. She grunts and feels her body falling through into the soil, her mind racing ahead of her, voices are calling, and bells are ringing.
Epilogue
Leigh awakens cold and stiff on a black basalt floor. Around her stretch columns of black rock arranged in odd angular patterns, forming a cathedral of sorts, though broken and open to the sky. Immaterial figures flit between the columns in and out of the gaps around her. Leigh sees hundreds more coming out of the sea, up onto the beach, and towards this unholy place.
The Bell drones out all thought, its sound continues to echo against the rocks and the creatures move towards Leigh, darting forward to touch her and then back into the shadows, seemingly excited and afraid all at once.
One braver than the rest reaches out a clawed hand to Leigh, she sees its face full of hate and greed, eyes white unseeing. Leigh smiles and the hand passes through her stomach, Leigh lurches and the phantom enters through her, racing towards the light at her centre. The floodgates open and Leigh screams as the creatures pour into her each taking a part of her as they dive into the light, as Leigh fades into unconsciousness, she hears their screams of triumph, “The way is open, the door is here, the way is open, we can return!”