Entropy

LA| Chapter X: Darkness in the Blessed

Father did follow through with his promise; he started his vacation early to spend time with me and recover. We bonded more over the last few days. Sadly, I am anxious about Markus's next attack. There is this dark feeling forming in the basement of the apartment. It is growing stronger and stronger every day. I checked multiple times and saw nothing. The other residents never went down there either.

I wake up from a night terror, involving the basement. I gasp heavily in a cold sweat. The ominous and fearful energy can now be felt upstairs. At this point, I can't take it anymore. I get up to check it again. This is my first time checking it in the middle of the night. It's not a wise and safe idea to check if the basement is haunted at night. I know how the movies go.

"Hello, anyone down here?" I call out while slowly going down the basement stairs.

Nothing.

Typical unfinished basement with concrete everywhere, dusty family storage, and the smell of gravel. This is not helping me at all.

"Markus, are you down here?" I dare call out its dreadful name.

The atmospheric pressure is rising as I get closer to the bottom. My head hurts and it feels like a heavy weight is trying to push me down. This pressure is different from the invisible forces that Markus throws. One, the forces are much stronger and last to Markus's liking. Two, the pressure is more spread out.

I look around, only to find no one. I heavily sigh and fold my arms out of disappointment.

"I know you're down here," I say to the darkness, "Come out. I am sick of you."

Nothing happens. Silence laughs at me. I groan loudly.

"Seriously, you aren't gonna do anything?"

God, the silence is irritating me, along with my ringing ears.

"You melt," I insult before making my leave. I flip the bird to whoever is invisible in the basement before scurrying out of here.

In the morning, I finally complained to my dad. He told me he has been feeling it too, but is trying to brush it off as a typical basement feeling. He tried to ease himself that there are people too in the apartments. We both decided to go down together. The basement's entrance is connected to the stairwell at the back of the apartment's entrance. The residents give us friendly glances before moving on.

The last friendly glances we will ever get in this apartment.

"It feels more pressurising when we get close," he notes.

"I know," I said, opening the basement door, "Stay behind me. You may be my father and all, but you're fragile."

"I am not that old," he comments, pretending to be annoyed.

"I know," I repeat, "But the power can't be compelled by Christ of what lies down here."

We steadily went downstairs. The dark feeling gets angrier, heavy, and hot. It's much worse than last night. Markus is now taking our fights very personally and cliche-like... All we need is boss music and we are good.

"Markus, I know you are down here," I call out to him without any fear, "You can't hide from us."

"What in the n-name is this?" Father blurts out of nowhere.

I wince at him and see his feet turning into obsidian stone, gradually moving upwards.

"Naomi, help me!"

I blast light towards it, but nothing happens. A force slams me against the other side of the basement wall, knocking the breath out of me and pulling me away from my father. The calcifying process speeds up. All I can do is watch helplessly to see my father turn to stone and hear him scream my name for help.