We stand there in stunned silence after seeing the flash of pale skin drop down into the deafening abyss. An atomic bomb upends everything, sending shrapnel that slashes across my skin. It distorts everything out of proportion, a tilted camera angle through a cracked lens.
"Hell no." Elliot hisses. "What just happened?"
My vision snaps over to the charred girl. The boy didn't even hesitate when he hurtled into the abyss, didn't even look at her. It was like he didn't even see the ridges of charred skin, the way her cheeks had caved in, the shreds of her clothes still clinging to the swollen mass that is now her corpse.
"It's some sort of curse," Xen murmurs. It's what got Sam. And this body we found.” She wrings out her hands, tilting her head upwards. Eyes turning towards the slow-burning ember of the sky. “And now, this fucking kid who just ran straight into hell itself.”
“Why did this stupid thing have to be here?” Elliot scowls, pointing his chin in the direction of the tunnel. “Like, couldn’t it exist in some other piss-poor town? Why does Stoneridge have to be the place with the fucked up hole that keeps eating teenagers?” His hand tightens on the sledgehammer, knuckles nearly white around the handle.
A sudden crunch of footsteps snaps through every nerve in my body. I see the distant glare of flashlights in the small group of trees.
“They’re here. The cops or something.” I get out. I see Xen freeze, stance edged with panic.
Elliot scowls again, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them.
“I’m going in,” He says, voice rigid with determination. “I’m going to try and end this. I’m still going through with the plan.”
“What plan? We have no plan! It only involves us breaking a concrete wall and somehow locating a girl who the fricking police couldn’t even find!” Xen throws up their hands. But I can see the hesitation in her words.
I find my footsteps shuffling closer to the edge of the opening, as if by instinct. I was always the child who was out of place. The person who no matter how hard they tried, they could never seem to do anything right. They were quiet and shy, blending into shadows and trying to dissolve themselves against a backdrop of meaningless conversations. But I came to this place to shove away the mask of idleness. To try and forge an Orion-shaped hole in the ground, permanent proof of my existence.
I’m going to try this time.
“I’ll go.” I murmur, taking another step. The toe of my sneaker brushes the concrete foundation. I crouch down, staring into the darkness. I can practically feel the bones straining through my skin in anticipation of the hell that lies below. “I just want this to be over.”
The distant glare of flashlights caresses the nearby trees. They’re coming. No one wants to see a group of kids who snuck out at dawn.
Before I can even stop to think, I wedge my body into the opening. Clench my hands against the first rung, lower my legs down. I climb, descending into the abyss that stained my skin and scarred my skull with memories that weren’t mine.
The motions feel almost memorized now. The catch and release of my fingers on the rust-stained bars, the red flakes rubbing off onto the soft flesh of my palms. The sound of my tennis shoes banging against metal. It only took me a few seconds this time, whereas the first time I came down here- my body was frozen with fear.
My feet snap against the ground and a chill reverberates through my entire body, the hands of ghosts stroking my skin with fingers wrenched from bone.
Xen comes down next, limbs a blur of motion as she descends. Elliot comes shortly after, tucking the hammer tight against his side during the climb down.
YOU ARE READING
This Was A Bad Idea
Terror17 year old Orion has recently moved to a new town due to the harassment and transphobia they faced at their old one. They're a person stained with old memories that they'd like to forget. Thats why they're ecstatic when the local group of queer o...
