The Nephillim of UQ

Chapter 1 - A Reddit Conspiracy

It all began with a Reddit post.
It was a conspiracy put forward about a terrible being housed beneath the hustle and bustle of the Great Court of UQ. I have never been one for conspiracy theories, ghost stories or the supernatural. At first, I had merely brushed it off as a joke made up by some student with too much time on their hands. But as I continued to read, I found myself more and more invested, pulled in by the mysterious allure the concept of the creature presented to me. Perhaps, I had thought, when night came crawling in, and the long bus lines at UQ Lakes maybe started to shorten, I would try to seek its presence.

Walking briskly through the sandstone archways, I stopped by the Forgan Smith building, where the Nephilim had been rumoured to be. My heart was racing. While I believed the idea was stupid, and could prove to be nothing other than fruitless, a small, yearnful part of me hoped to find something big.

I crouched to the ground and placed my ear to the pavement, waiting with bated breath.

There was nothing to be heard.

But still, something deep within my conscience had a feeling. The feeling of a presence. That I was not alone.

And so I knocked. Driving knuckle to stone, I announced myself to whatever was lurking within the catacombs. There was no reply.

Disappointed, I stood up, brushing the dirt and shame from my knees. Embarrassing as it was, I couldn't fight the want to try again, to try and contact the thing that had captured my attention. In my heart, I knew – I would find this Nephilim.

Determined and intrigued, I couldn't shake the idea of the Nephilim from my mind. As the days turned into nights and the semester carried on, I found myself researching every snippet of information I could find about this mysterious being. Reddit threads, old folklore, obscure academic papers – I delved into every source, hoping to uncover more clues about the creature rumored to reside beneath the Forgan Smith building.

Late one evening, as the sun dipped below the horizon, casting long shadows across the campus, I returned to the spot where I had previously crouched. This time, I had come prepared. I brought a small digital recorder to capture any sounds that might escape from the depths below. My heart raced with a mixture of excitement and apprehension as I once again knelt down and placed my ear against the cool pavement.

Minutes turned into hours as I listened intently, my breath fogging up the air in front of me. There was an eerie stillness, broken only by distant echoes of footsteps and the occasional rustling of leaves. I began to doubt myself, questioning whether I was chasing a mere illusion. Just as doubt was about to overcome me, I thought I detected a faint, almost imperceptible sound – a whisper carried by the wind, or perhaps the echo of my own imagination.

Undeterred, I activated the digital recorder, placing it on the ground near the spot where I had crouched. With a renewed sense of purpose, I drove my knuckles against the stone once more, the sound echoing in the quiet night. "If there's something down there," I called out, my voice steady but laced with a hint of nervousness, "show yourself. I want to know the truth."

Silence greeted my words, and I felt a mixture of disappointment and relief. I waited for a few more moments before finally standing up, dusting off my pants just like I had done before. But as I turned to leave, something caught my eye – a faint, almost imperceptible glow emanating from the cracks in the pavement.

My heart leapt in my chest as I knelt down again, squinting to make out the source of the light. It was subtle, like the soft luminescence of a firefly. My mind raced, and without thinking, I reached out and pressed my hand against the pavement, feeling a strange warmth beneath my palm. The glow intensified, spreading out from where I touched, creating intricate patterns that seemed to dance across the stone.