Two

The Depths: Part 3

I continued walking, crawling into a vent and climbing upward, so at least I could tell I was heading someplace different. I wasn't really sure where, but I'd find out soon enough. It was pitch black inside the vents, so I desperately hoped nothing else was in there with me. I never liked not being able to see. It was one of the reasons I used to keep a flashlight AND a lighter on me at all times.

However, the creepiest part about being in the dark was the fact that my left eye almost emitted a faint glow. I didn't like that, since it didn't look natural, so I made sure I moved more of my hair over it to cover the glowing. Even if it was helping me see, I didn't want it to show.

I crawled up and kicked another vent cover open, hopping into what looked like some old boiler room. There were pipes and machines everywhere. It was a little warmer than the other rooms I had been in but still was fairly cold.

I continued limping when I heard a soft hissing noise. I bit my lip and looked around when I suddenly looked up to see pipes overhead and a long black rope swinging above me. I frowned slightly as the rope dangled there, almost looking unnatural. That's when it fell on me. 

I squealed and quickly brushed it off, taking a few steps away as it fell on the floor and started slithering around.

"Snake," I told myself, stepping backward away from it. "Not good, not good!"

I had come across many creepy things in my lifetime, gunshots and distorted teachers, but I had NEVER been a fan of snakes. The way they hissed and slithered was offputting to me. 

I swallowed nervously as it quickly started slithering towards me, opening its mouth and showing me its two sharp fangs which had drops of venom dripping from them. I knew that the best thing to do when encountering a snake in the wild was to stay still and not agitate it, but my fight or flight response flared up and told me to sprint away.

I turned on my heel and started running, avoiding the searing pain in my cut foot as the wound re-opened and sprinting as fast as I could away from the slippery creature. As I ran I could see a few more snakes falling from the ceiling. I hated each and every one. They stuck to the damper, darker corners of the room where I could see their beady little eyes, watching me from the shadows.

It was hard to see in the dark and I occasionally tripped on broken pipes, but I didn't care as I continued running until I finally made it to another room, slamming the door shut behind me so the snakes couldn't follow. I grabbed a chair and propped it under the door handle just to be safe, even though I knew the snakes couldn't use the doorknob.

My gut told me that the snakes could seep through the small crack at the bottom of the door, but my mind knew that the crack was far too small. These were fairly large snakes, so I was pretty sure I was safe.

I was in a much smaller room now with two doors. One of them was the door I had just come through, and the other was boarded up. I decided that I absolutely was NOT going back to the horrifying snake-infested room, so the only thing left to do was press forward. 

I grabbed the loosest board at the bottom and used all my strength to pull it off. Since the wood on the actual door was rotting, some of that broke as well, so I was able to lie down and crawl through the now broken hole in the door, where I saw another one of those little white ghost things in the shadows.

"Hello?" I asked, wondering if it was the same one. 

It quickly looked at me, then rushed away. 

"Wait!" I called, taking a few steps after it, when the floor below me suddenly broke, causing me to fall down a floor, into what looked to be a small puddle of black sludge. It was gross and got all over my arms and hair. I hoped it wouldn't infect the open wound on my foot. It stung really badly.