SOULLESS

Chapter two - Darkness Unfolds

Scared out of their wits, they remained silent for almost 2 minutes.

Then Ash broke the silence “Everyone okay?”

The truth is they weren't okay, and though they were severely injured they all managed a “yes” except for one voice that remained silent.

“Lizzy? Are you okay? Where are you?”

The silence followed. 

They started panicking, they thought maybe it wasn’t a good idea to come into this building without informing somebody. 

Fez said, “I think she may have passed out, what do we do now?”

“Okay first, let’s come together, and then find her, It's very hard to see in this total darkness,” Ash said.

“Yes, do we have night vision goggles?” Martha asked.

“Wait, let me see,”  Fez said.  

After a while of fumbling with his bag, he said “I'm afraid it's broken”

“Oh shoot, we’re stuck here forever,” Martha said. 

“Let’s not lose our hope and think about what to do,” Ash said and a silence followed.

“Okay Shall we all come to the car, from there we’ll group ourselves and find Lizzy” Fez suggested.

They all came toward the car but there was no car. 

“The car isn’t here,” Martha said, fumbling with the darkness.

Immediately after she said that the familiar hiss of the cat accompanied and there was a strange force that pushed them back.  

Ash was pushed into a room with a thud and the sound of the door being shut followed. 

Fez said, “What just happened? Ash? Martha? Are you alright?”

Only Martha replied,” I'm fine, but there was a strange force that pulled me back to where I was.” She stood by the wall. 

“I felt that too, okay where is Ash? Ash?”

“Omg we lost another one too, fez I think it's a terrible mistake that we came here and I don’t think we’re gonna get out of this building.”

But Fez wasn’t listening, he was absorbed by the music of the violin that came from the room near where he was standing. 

Slowly, he entered the room and saw that it was a trap because the door behind him immediately shut leaving Martha alone in the darkness. 

She too heard the sound of the door. 

panicked, she ran towards the door, stumbled into a manhole and screamed “Fez! Fez!”

The words echoed through the building.

Meanwhile, Ash panicked and immediately tried the door but the door was locked. 

She sat there screaming for her friends but no one on the other side of the wall seemed to hear. 

As she was sitting alone in the darkness, she saw a soft glow in the corner of the room. The glow gave her a sense of calmness to her  mind and she thought of going over to it. She went across the room and stumbled on the remains of the floor until she reached it. It was like a fluff, but she was gonna catch the fluff, it evaded her and flew downwards, illuminating the surroundings on the way, Ash could see that it was the staircase. She cautiously stepped downward.

Following the glowing fluff, Ash entered a cave. The cave had rugged terrain and it was a little difficult for her to walk now. But she managed to follow the fluff. The path of the cave was spiraling and after a while, she feared she might have a hard time breathing. So, she stopped, but the glow left her in the darkness. Panic came over Ash. She had no option but to follow the light now. She followed it until the fluff suddenly stopped, burned a bright yellow, and died. But by that time, she was no longer in the cave and she was in a large hall softly lit by a source she couldn't identify. She looked around her. The floor was octagon patterned and there were trees all over the border of the hall. She tried to find the ceiling, but her human eyes couldn’t locate it and it was only dark. It almost looked like the hall was placed in the middle of a forest.