Horizon's my target

Chapter Five: The Train, and A Propostition

Ghostbur traveled deeper down the stairs, running his fingers along the rough bricks' edges along the stairs.

He gulped hard, swallowing any uneasiness he felt. The voice, -er, whoever was speaking in the back of his head, he guessed his conscience,- assured him he was perfectly safe. After all, he was dead already, right? What danger could he get into that would be worse than that?

Ghostbur didn't appreciate the sarcasm from the voice. In fact, he didn't like this voice very much at all.

Nonetheless, he continued farther into the depths of wherever he was going,, jumping at every small noise he heard, even if it was just the monotonous drip of yet another water droplet plinking against the stairs. He breathed in the musty, old smelling air, wrinkling his nose and deciding he wasn't going to do that again.

Eventually, after what felt like literally forever, Ghostbur reached a room, carved into the ground to create a basement.

The voice told Ghostbur to go in, so he did. The voice wasn't being very talkative now, Ghostbur noted. It just delivered his next instructions (while occasionally taunting him; stupid disembodied voices and their belief that just because they didn't exist then neither would consequences) and then vanished.

Cautiously, Ghostbur entered the room, peeking around the corner in hesitation and holding the torch out before him.

In front of him was a pretty normal room. (or more likely it was a basement; Ghostbur has bad memory he doesn't know specific words ok? Totally not the author covering up for forgetting the word basement and being too lazy to go back and change it what do you mean-) It was made of the same light grey stone material as the rest of the stairs before it, with torches similar to the one in Ghostbur's hand lighting the walls. They seemed to give the room a cozy, comforting glow, but to Ghostbur it just added to the creepy atmosphere. A dark red, almost dried blood (or, at least that's what Ghostbur's mind told him; what can I say, he's an over-active imaginative boi :) colored carpet lay across the floor, almost taunting Ghostbur to come in and step on it. With a shiver, Ghostbur actually entered the room. He wasn't sure why he shivered; it just carried an uncomfortable aura to it for some reason.

Inside the room was what looked to be someone's office. Mahogany bookshelves lined the walls, stuffed full with well-worn books and random slips of paper; maps, Ghostbur assumed. He ran his fingers along the shelves, rubbing them together as a fine layer of dust covered them. He wrinkled the bridge of his nose in disgust at this; Ghostbur definitely isn't a fan of dust. Way too... dusty, in his opinion.

Along the smooth grey walls were maps of some sort, and the same maps were sprawled across the dark wooden table to the side of the room too. On the table were bottles of deep, dark black ink, a quill laid haphazardly on the lip of the bottle. It seemed like someone had been about to write with it, but had gotten distracted and left the bottle open, leaving the forgotten quill to dry up by its side.

Ghostbur got closer to the table, carefully touching the edges of the maps to examine what was on it. On the crinkly parchment was a map of some sorts (no duh, really? Top tier writing here as you can see), detailing what looked to be a bird's eye view of some kind of town. The ink had started out in careful, precise strokes, almost as though Ghostbur could feel the love and care put into the drawing. At the top of the page in beautiful, flowy cursive were the words 'My L'Manburg', printed proudly, like whomever had written it was laying out the name of some sort of precious prize's name, something they held close to their heart. It was almost like they were laying out a secret project, something they were clearly proud of before Ghostbur, and he felt all this just by looking at writing; it was amazing, if he was honest. He'd love to see this 'L'Manburg' someday, whatever or wherever it might be. Feeling confident, he turned to examine another bit of paper on the table.