Hell Hole

Chapter Five: Dead or Alive

Parker rushed over to the edge of the hole as she looked over the side to reveal only a flight of stairs, among several that stood between her and the happily giggling baby. He was making his way down the next flight in an attempt to continue catching what appeared to be a butterfly made of fire, his legs cautiously reaching the next step down as he made his way to the next, still fixed on the creature and its glowing embers.

Parker's heart lit up with relief as she saw the child still well and alive. She looked back to signal her friend Cami with a smile and a wave that everything was alright, but when she turned back Cami was no where to be found.

Parkers heart sank as she began searching for her friend, quickly spotting her running silhouette in the distance, illuminated by flashing red and blue lights. Parker looked back to the baby and noticed he had somehow rapidly descended from what had to be ten or more flights down and in his escape down the stairs and had to be two stories from the bottom of what appeared to be a very old wooden building.

Somehow, buried beneath the earth that has been growing life over it all these years, something entirely too massive to make sense of, a tower maybe? Parker didn't hesitate too long to ask more questions in her head about the architectural structure beneath her before she saw a small fire in the middle, where Jame's lifeless body lay at the bottom beside , draining blood into a circular design creating a crimson ring with a glowing red and flickering embers in the center.

Something about it was beautiful, alluring from her birds eye view of it all, but the giggles of the child drew her hypnotized gaze from the fire, and what almost appeared to be...fireflies circling above? She quickly began descending down the stair case, careful not to slip or fall. The air around her was stale, dusty and hot. Fragments of ash dirt, and wooden debris from the building floating in the air as if gravity existed differently down here.

The place creeped Parker out but she continued to hustle as quickly as she could, carful to catch up to Xander who was more than likely at the bottom by now. How the child had found a way to the bottom of the stairs much faster than Parker confused her. She looked up to find she had only actually made her way down one flight.

What?! That's fucking impossible I had to have just ran ten flights?!

Parker thought to herself as she looked back down to the baby who sat next to James's body now.

Parker thought hard about what was happening. Nothing about it made sense and she was literally sweating from how far she thought she got. She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing. She began thinking hard about a solution to this very bizarre puzzle.

She opened her eyes and focused on the first things she found in front of her. She looked down, finding a small stone at her feet. Quickly, she picked it up and turned to walk towards the stairs behind her. She tossed the rock towards the bottom of the step, and watched as is dissipated like thin air in front of her, she looked over the stairs railing to reveal the stone laying at the bottom of all the flights of steps.

What in the actual fuck. How am I supposed to do that?

So she sat there staring, feeling the hot air warm her icy skin, the wooden boards beneath her bare feet, and she thought to herself in silence, only sounds of a cackling fire floors beneath her and a laughing baby who somehow sounded like it was right in front of you when you blinked.

"I can't be going crazy. This is crazy. This is all batshit crazy." She muttered out loud.

Placing both feet at the edge of the next flight of stairs she decided to take a leap of faith or experience the wrath of one hell of a stupid idea. She closed her eyes, and pointed her foot over the side of the stairs. Hesitating to take the first step, she listened. The baby sounded like he was right there, and as she listened further, so did something else.

Losing balance after inspecting the noises as long as she could, Parker fell forwards letting out a slight squeal of fear as she kept her eyes shut and placed her foot to what she believed would be the next step. As she opened her eyes, she realized she was wrong. She had already made it to her destination to the bottom somehow.

She looked up to discover the square design of the staircase that lead up to where she currently came from, at least a hundred feet up. The fire pit circled by James blood in front of her along with the smiling child on the floor looking up at Parker with wide eyes. He looked completely untouched aside from a little dirt on his hands and some ashes sticking on top of his fine and dark curly hair.

Parker looked around to find butterflies made of fire, floating around the thick square wooden pillars supporting the stairs above her. They were almost ethereal the way they would float, leaving tracers of golden light behind them. One of them drifted slowly in front of Parker's face. She reached out to touch one, quickly pulling her hand back as it burned her finger when she touched it.

She winced in pain but didn't focus on it too long. She took mental notes of her surroundings but continued to observe all the elements around her. Still at the foot of the stairs, she looked to the wall directly in front of her. The buildings dimensions were tight but there was some room to walk around down here. Wether it was safe was a different story.

Parker noticed the wall had some kind of table pushed against it, a red cloth that lay disheveled across it. She walked closer to examine, leaving the staircase and carefully maneuvering her way around the baby sitting on the floor and James's lifeless body next to him. As she came closer she observed what appeared to be a kind of sword on a simple curved mount balancing it up.

Parker walked even closer, leaning her face in to further inspect this bizarre weapon. As she did, she noticed the entire blade was constructed of what appeared to be a human spine that has been sharpened on the bottom ridges like thorns, assumably meant to impale enemies almost like a pair of ridged scissors. Whoever used this, enjoyed it. Parker turned to find Xander waddling off to the corner opposite from her, into the shadows that helped conceal a cracked door.

"Xander, no." Parker said, extra emphasis on the word no. She had about had it chasing this baby and didn't want anymore games. She made up her mind she had seen enough at that moment and was going to retrieve the child and go home. The cops had to be there with Cami by now, Parker had no doubt they'd be just as puzzled trying to find the way in.

Xander grinned again, ready to be chased and ran directly to the cracked door, slipping behind it quickly. Parker ran to pull him out from inside of what she presumed was a closet.

Although I assume you might have guessed it by now and by how the theme of this story seems to go, today wasn't the day where anything happened they way you thought or wanted it to next, because when Parker opened the door to what she had assumed was a closet with a toddler behind it, now had nothing but a wall.