The Dark Depths: The Cellar

Chapter 6: Notes

Light. The thing people usually need so that sight is possible. Light.....was nowhere to be found. Thomas had walked along the wall for seemingly hours now. He hadn't stopped for anything, and he hadn't gone back to where he began either, which meant he was right about the size of the cellar.

The chains were still attached to his wrists, he hadn't found anything to pry them off with yet. Honestly, he wasn't looking for that, he was looking for light or a way out.

He stumbled along the wall. Just as he was about to sit down from exhaustion, his foot hit something. It was a shelf. He searched the shelf with his hands, pushing aside several empty boxes and cans, both of which made strange noises for what they were. They even felt somewhat strange as he pushed them aside. Finally, he grabbed something and-- hoping he was correct-- clicked the button on the end. He was right, it was a flashlight. He looked around, then at the shelf, and immediately regretted finding the flashlight.

On the shelf were boxes and cans, but they were not made of the materials they should've been. The boxes were made of what looked like dried flesh, and the cans of molded and hardened bone powder. Beside them were glass jars, each one filled with liquid, and in the liquid were a variety of different human organs. Eyes, tongues, stomachs, and kidneys all filled jars on each shelf. On the top shelf were ten, maybe twelve, skulls completely devoid of color. Bleached white, as though they'd been thoroughly cleaned.

Thomas couldn't handle the visual intake and quickly turned to his side and let loose what was left undigested in his gut. Afterward, Thomas thought for a moment and realized something, two somethings. First, one of the skulls had something written on it, and if Thomas could remember without having to look again, it was written recently. Second, other than the simple fact that they were there in the first place, something was off about all those body parts, eyes and skulls specifically.

He had no choice, Thomas couldn't know anything without looking. He quickly turned back and looked at the skulls more closely. Focusing on detail alone, Thomas saw that every single skull, including the one that was written on, looked identical. Each one had a crack running from the top of the left eye socket to the bottom of where the left nostril would be on the face, as well as a missing tooth. Thomas had a thought and quickly felt the inside of his mouth, a tooth on the left side of his mouth was missing, most likely plucked out by whoever put him down here. It was in the exact same spot as the skull. What was happening?

He looked at the skull that had writing on it. One word was sloppily written on the forehead, as if its creator was in a panic, it read, "INSIDE!" Thomas carefully picked up the skull, his stomach still churning from earlier, and looked inside through one of the eye sockets. In the back of the skull were two things, a key and a folded-up piece of paper that said, "Read when you're out!" He pocketed the note and looked at the key, there was a piece of paper attached, "cellar" was all it said, and Thomas pocketed it as well.

He didn't have to look at the body parts to understand that they were all identical as well. Instead, he turned and walked to where he began, finding the shape he was unable to make out before. When he saw what it was, he began to understand what was happening, and his determination to leave only grew stronger.

Laying before him, sprawled out on the floor, left arm reaching to where Thomas had found the wedge that freed him, was a body. It was Thomas, lying dead on the concrete, pale and cold, and by the looks of it just coming out of rigor mortis. Dead for a few days now. Thomas replaced the wedge and set off for the cellar door.

He was either going to be the last him to die, or the first to escape. Either way, this was ending-- tonight.