Under: Depths of Fear

G-Deck

Alexander found himself in some sort of storage area. Lots of boxes and barrels were piled up. He followed the signs towards the satirs when he heard music coming from a nearby room. Someone mosty likely forgot to turn it off. But if someone was still here....

He took his chances and ran into the door, breaking it open. The room appeared to be the postal office for the ship. After all, these vessels weren't just bringing man back home, but they also delivered letters from the front to loved ones at home. Alexander thought about his own family in the scottish highlands: His parents. Were they worried about him? His father had put on a brave face when he left, but his mother was reduced to tears.

But how would they think about him when they knew what he did?

Regardless, the music was coming from the room another room, the door marked with illuminating "Post" letters over it. But he noticed a letter on the office desk and tok a look at it. He wasn't sure why, but something told him that it might be important. He was also a curious person by nature.

The letter read:

"Thompson?" he whispered in shock. Tompson was part of his platoon and the only one he had regarded as a friend.  "Oh no, this must be his last letter to his wife before..." He silently prayed for his poor widow. Lewis always spoke so fondly of her.

Alexander quickly put the letter back and went into the neighbouring room. The music came indeed from a gramophone, but there was no one here. But on the wall behind it were pictures and notes that appeared to be centered around Black Donald.

Black Donald. In scottish folklore, he is often depicted as the devil. Alexander heard stories about him throughout his life, his father would often tell him stories about this creature when he was young.

Slightly irritated by this, Alexander pushed the Tone arm away, so that the reproducer would stop playing the damn music. Instead, it played another recording that was on the disk as well.

"This need not to be a solitary topic for you. For your departure, there is a need for you to dispense with me. Tell me."

"I heard them speak of him. He was there. There was always general word of his existence, put on this earth to chasten those who fend for themselves only. Never hath I seen him."

"Now when did you hear of him? And what was the name he went by?"

"Black Donald. They spoke of him after a murder was commited. After countless lives were lost to the actions of one. They said he roamed dead man's land. Slowly, peering into every man's lifeless eyes. Those who still lived, lived no more after he passed. Searching he was, they said, for the one who sided with his very own conjurer. Lucifer himself. Careful, listen you can hear the cloven hoofs."

"Now these are just dark tales. Possibly from you alone! Careful to speak of evil this way!"

"One doesn't know the terrors of sudden death until you see it. Darkness arises long before men are buried in their graves, those cloven feet will find those at guilt."

"Okay, take it. Sweep it! This will not construct our work! Make sure it's gone."

When the record was finally over, Alexander turned and left the room. This was bizarre, to say the least but he still nedded to get up onto the boat deck.

But when he finally found the the stairs, the door to to F-Deck was locked. He needed to find the key, or maybe another way up. Whilst looking for these things, he someone knocking on the door to his right and then the dor slowly creaked open. With a pounding heart, Alexander peeked inside.

Nobody was there. But just like before, candles were lit everywhere in the room. A can on a shelf stood out to him and he picked it up. To his shock, someone had sketched a picture of him and his commanding officer, Lieutenant Davis onto it. There was also a message: "Dare not turn around."

And just as he had read it, he could feel somebody watching him. He really, REALLY, didn't want to turn around, but what choice did he had? And so he did. 

Alexander briefly caught a glimpse of a giant humanoid creature peeking into the room, before it disappeared. He nearly had a bloody heart attack. "Calm down... No one is here. You're just imagining things."  he told himself. Naturally, no one was there when he looked outside. Just as suspected.

Alexander found a vent ad crawled through it, emerging in another corridor and checked out the map on the wall. The stairs were behind the locked gate further up the corridor and the kitchen was here as well. He began searching the kitchen for the key. He cheked every drawer, every crorner. But found nothing. And once he was done, the lights died again. "Great." he murmured and lit a match. He remembered that he didn't ehcked out the storage room yet so he went to investigate.

But as he went back to check, someone broke down the door and emerged from the storage room. It was giant man, all dresseed in black. Alexander immediatly turned around and fled in panic all the way back to the other side of the kitchen, hidding under a table before snuffing out his match.

He put his hands over his mouth so that his panicked breathing wouldn't give him away. And that's when he heard them: The sound of the cloofs.

His father told him that Black Donald would often emerge as a man, all dressed in black. He would speak, walk and act like a normal human and the sounds of his cloves were the only thing that would give away his true identity.

But these were just stories. This was real. The actual devil was hunting him, he was here to punish him for his cowardice. Alexander closed his eyes and prepared for the worst.

Finally, the light went back on. And, once again, no one was there. Relieved, Alexander emerged from his hidding spot and began going back to the storage room. And there, he finally found he key hes was looking for, hanging from the wall.

He got back outside and opend the gate. At the end of the corridor were the stairs leading up to F-Deck.

He wasted no time running up the stairs.