The heavy burden I carry on my shoulders. They have abandoned me to die. I navigate my way along the road. Need to see what's left. The beautiful anger within me grows stronger with every step I take towards the house. A house standing isolated against a dark forest in the background. The muddy ground becomes slipperier as I take my steps. The rain is no longer felt as my clothes are already wet and firm on my skin. Arriving at the door of the house, I try to open it. The door is locked, so I take a few steps back and kick it to force it open. The door, fragile, succumbs to the kicks and quickly falls apart. The door hangs half inward, towards the floor.
The house has long been abandoned, but my goal is to get to the basement. All I can think about is you. I did everything for you. All my blood, all my wounds, for your sake. The only thing I can remember is your bright blue eyes. So beautiful and fair in this malevolent life we've been given. We have always been poor, and there was no hope for us as we fought against all the injustices of the world that we needed to face together. We hoped that we would make it.
I draw closer to the basement door while discarding our memories that I had been thinking about. The basement door is hidden under a dusty rug in the kitchen. I must find out what remains. The cellar door creaks as I open it. The stairs down are gray, and the darkness is dense. A faint glowing light at the end of the stairs down is all that I can see. I gather my courage and continue. Thunder and whistling wind keep me company as I carefully descend.
The basement is empty. But how could the torches still be lit if the house had been abandoned for so long? Maybe the rumors were true, but I needed to see it with my own eyes. I felt increasingly worthless as I looked around the dusty cellar. My amazement focused on the torches, but something caught my attention – one of the torches looked different. I took a closer look. A red stain, resembling wine, was at the bottom of it.
But my amazement quickly disappeared as the wall next to the torch opened like a door to a bottomless hole of darkness. I fell backward but kept my courage. These secret passages under this house had gone unnoticed all these years. dust and dirt fell from the wall, sliding slowly sideways and opening a hole large enough for me to crawl into. I had come this far, I thought; might as well get to the bottom of this. From the hole emanated a strong, rancid smell of mold and an unholy stench. I took the red-stained torch from the wall and crawled into the hole. The smell became stronger as I went deeper.
The passage narrowed, and I had to crouch down against the floor. The passage ended, and a long staircase in a large room gap continued down in a spiral along the wall. The room was gigantic and seemed to be some kind of ancient structure, with statues of people with wings and beaked faces stretching their arms toward the dark abyss that the stairs descended into.
The smell in the room was unbearable; I needed to cover my nose and mouth as I continued down the stairs. What kept me from turning back was the thought of you. I cannot go on living without knowing the truth. The stairs felt like an eternity to walk on. I started hallucinating, and the walls felt like they shook now and then.
The statues, half embedded in the walls, seemed to almost look at me with each step I took. The darkness played tricks on me, and I tried to focus. There was a thick air emanating from the abyss of darkness. It carried the strong, unholy smell, drilling into my nostrils almost to the point of burning, and I began to feel a strong pressure against my head. The stairs seemed endless; how long had I been descending?
No sight of the end of these damn stairs. The pain in my legs became too much to bear and I sat down to rest. I could swear I saw the shadows of the statues in the walls moving. They seem to be whispering something to each other. The stench grew stronger where I sat. My mind was playing tricks on me the walls shook again. I found it difficult to focus, my thoughts revolved around the unholy stench that never left my nostrils and pushed itself further and further into my head. It started to give me a headache.
I held the torch in front of me and took the courage to continue for you, my love. I stood up and made my way down. The walls are shaking again and my memory is playing tricks on me . I think the end of the stairs is in the dark in front of me. I adjust my torch but the stairs appear deeper and deeper as I walk along the wall down the endless stairs. This hidden staircase whose origin seems ancient and these living statues that keep pointing and staring at me as I go down. I seem to have gone completely mad. I hear a woman's voice calling my name. It's you, I know it's you. I started running down the stairs I need to find you and embrace you. I have missed you so much. The walls shake again and the stairs shake. I lose my footing and I fall down and drop the torch.
It still falls I think because I haven't heard the impact hit the ground. The light is no longer visible. My eyes need to adjust to the darkness. The stench became stronger and stronger and my headache became more and more unbearable. The statues tell me to jump into the abyss. They laugh and tell me that the stairs are endless. They want me to end my pathetic life. The statues with their wings and beaks point at me and whisper to each other in the walls. The stairs shake one last time. My mind plays one last trick on me. My arms are bloody, my legs are bloody. The statues tell me the smell are my own rotten flesh. There is no one but the deep darkness and the holy stench whose I will unite with. I jump down. Let the old one take me.
