The Facility

No one will believe this story. To be fair though, I am writing it from a cell. I was just a teenager when this happened, but I still remember it as clearly as I did the day after it happened. I can never forget it. Me and my friends had been planning to go out drinking at one of the warehouses by where I lived, in-between the school and my house. James was gonna bring the beer, his dad's cooler was full of them and he was so deep in the bottle that he probably wouldn't even notice they were missing. Issac was gonna bring the speaker and glow sticks so that we could hang out in style, and I was driving, cause my car was the least beat up out of them all. I was actually pretty hyped, even more so when I saw that James had his skateboard with him. So, everything being ready, we piled into my beat up hunk and drove to the place. It was pretty deep into the woods, just out of sight of the main road. I pulled up around back and parked by the entrance, an open rusted sliding door. We couldn't believe our luck, the place was awesome. There was the obvious leftover debris from a few other people who had found the place, broken needles, beer bottles and crushed up cans dotted around, but all things considered it was a pretty solid hang. "Yo dude, this is gonna be awesome" Issac exclaimed, just as pleased as I was. "Yeah, we got here just in time, the suns almost down " James said, grabbing a flashlight from his bag. I cracked a few glow sticks and threw them around. About a half an hour passed of us drinking and shooting the shit, nothing serious just normal guy stuff, girls and the such. That was until James messed up on his board. "WOAH" he yelled, landing hard as his board rolled away from him. Issac laughed at him, but I went over to double check. "Bro, what happened?" I asked. "I don't know dude, my board just gave away" James replied. I looked around, then spotted the culprit of his slip. "Yo, there's a hatch here" I called out. "No way dude" Issac laughed. "I'm serious man, come here" I shot back. The other two came over and looked with me. "Well I'll be damned" Issac said. The plate on the ground looked kind of like a sewer grate, but more sleek, and with a pull handle on it to open it up. "Come on man, open it up" James said. "I don't know man, we don't know what it is" Issac said nervously. James called Issac some unsavoury things before opening up the panel himself. "Jesus dude, it smells like death down there" Issac said. "And so, we solve the mystery of where our shit goes when we flush it" I chuckled, trying to ignore the smell. "Hey, that's seriously giving me bad vibes, can we close that thing please" Issac said, his voice shaking a little."UUUUUUCH, fine, buzzkill" James groaned. And so we tried to close it. And tried. And tried and tried and tried, but to no avail. We underestimated the amount of tech gone into this thing, it was like it was built to need tons of weight to close it. "Jesus, what the hell is that thing made of" James grunted. "Whatever, let's just leave it alone" Issac said. So we moved away, and we continued the night. A few more drinks in and we had forgotten the pit, until Issac decided he was drunk enough to skate. "HEY GUYS, what this" Issac laughed, hiccuping. And so, he bolted and jumped onto the board...straight to that hatch...that THING in the ground. He tried to jump, and I knew from the jump that he wasn't going to make it. It was like time went in slow motion, as I watched the board fall into the pit, followed swiftly by Issac's legs as he slowly started sliding over edge. "GUYS, HELP ME" he screamed, pure fear in his voice. I started running to him, but I knew I was never gonna make it. My heart dropped as I watched him slide, but by some miracle he managed to catch a rung of the ladder. We made it over and dragged him back up. James was pissed, the board Issac had just lost was James's mams last gift to him before she went out on deployment. She never made it back. "DUDE, MY FUCKING BOARD" James yelled, shoving Issac. "Shit man, I'm so sorry. I'll go down and get it" Issac murmured, his words slurred. "Shit man, hold on I'll go down with you" I said, immediately regretting it. "Hey, you don't have to, I'll go with him" Jason said. "Nah, don't worry about it it's fine, let's be real he might not even make it with the state he's in" I half joked. Jason laughed as Issac began climbing down the ladder. I quickly followed. It didn't take me long to realise that the ladder actually went down at a slant, so by the time I actually reached the bottom I was half dangling over the floor with my hands on the rungs of the ladder. I was worried, because I couldn't see Issac anywhere, or the board. "Hey dude, where the fuck did you go" I called out, squinting to see in the dark. I grabbed my flashlight from my belt and slapped the side until it sparked to life. It was then I saw him, in the dark, wobbling in place. "ISSAC" I shouted. He turned, his neck turning at an angle that no human neck should turn. It was then that I saw the thing that was eating him. I screamed, sprinting for the ladder, grabbing onto the rungs. I started the climb, my sweaty palms making it difficult to clutch the rungs. All I could imagine was me slipping and falling into the darkness, down to that THING that has taken Issac. I reached the top, and shot of the hole, running to Jason. "GET YOUR SHIT AND RUN, NOW" I screamed to him, picturing the thing right on my tail. "Woah, what the fuck, what about Issac" Jason said, confused. "He's gone, something is down there, now where the fuck are my keys" I said, patting my pockets. "What the fuck do you mean gone" Jason said running to the hole. I spotted my keys at the speaker by the door. "Dude, fuck you he's right here" Jason said. My heart dropped. I turned just in time to see Issac pulling himself out of the pit. But it wasn't quite him. There were marks on his neck, the too quickly healed wound on his neck and along his torso, his shirt torn. His puffed out skin looking too full. It was then I realised what had happened. That thing was wearing my friend. Jason noticed it too, but he was too late. The last thing I remember of him is seeing his body flying back into that hole, hearing the sick thud of his head on the concrete as he went, and the cleaning of his body hitting the rings. I ran. You can judge me if you want, see if I care. I ran. I got the fuck out of there, hoping to god that Jason was unconscious for what was about to happen to him. I made it to my car, praying that it would start one last time, the heap of shit just ONE LAST TIME. And it did. I don't know where I was going, I just slammed on the gas and went. I was close to home when I got pulled over, I guess I just started going there subconsciously. I tried to tell the cop what had happened, but of course he didn't believe me, and he believed me even less when I failed the breathalyser test. My parents were pissed, and refused to pay my bail. I tried telling them what happened, I told them all the same thing. It didn't help that when the facility, that warehouse that I described was gone, SOMEHOW when they went to check it out. Jason and Issac's disappearances were pinned on me, I was stamped as mentally unstable. They threw me into a straight jacket and put me on meds, then put me in a cell to die. But that's fine. At least here I'm safe. But I'll never be able to get that look out of my mind. The look that Issac's body had, whatever had infested him. It was hunger. Pure hunger. So to anyone reading this, if you go to an abandoned place, to explore, to drink, whatever, and you see and open hatch in the ground. It's already too late.