The Red Rose

Chapter XXIV

We looked into the abyss for a good while, undecided about what to do.

"Ladies first?" I joked.

Carmilla rolled her eyes and said sarcastically:

"How chivalrous of you, my dear Miguel!"

I smiled and, preparing to jump, I said:

"It was a joke, come on!"

I think it was quite dumb, because I started bumping into various objects and walls, really looking like a pinball in a game. I guess I bounced around a couple of times before hitting the floor hard, landing in what seemed to be a puddle of water or mud. I must have fallen quite a few meters, enough to break a bone in a normal person.

Carmilla appeared gracefully behind me, landing almost like a cat, careful not to touch the puddle.

"Ugh, Miguel! How do you jump like that? I think you've landed in excrement!" she exclaimed, covering her nose.

"Shit! Literally!" I replied, disgusted.

I took a paper and tried to clean myself, but the smell was not going away, at least not for a while.

"I don't think I calculated the distance." I smiled.

"I think you didn't think about calculating." she corrected me.

We walked around the place, lighting our way with the flashlights we had, and I started examining what seemed to be some kind of shelving. Carmilla had found what looked like glasses, tubes, or different types of bottles.

"Hmm..." I thought out loud. "This place looks like some sort of laboratory or pharmacy, maybe it was a doctor's office."

"I think this was more than a consulting room, Miguel," she replied, pointing a flashlight to a spot.

We approached the place, and there seemed to be some kind of bed, but it wasn't just any bed; it resembled more a metallic table, a bit unusual.

"Miguel, this is—or rather was—a morgue," Carmilla said, examining the table. "They surely did autopsies here."

"Huh? But then, why would they put straps on the table? To me, it looks like they surely had a madman here. Look, over there. That table looks like the typical ones they use at the dentist, but it has straps," I said, pointing to the other side.

I wasn't going to say anything more than that we were perplexed. We didn't know if the place was a consulting room or a morgue; it was very strange. Besides, the dust was unbearable, making it hard to see, everything was gray, and the place had an extremely foul odor.

Carmilla began to sniff again, I followed her, and then we looked at each other.

"It's fresh..." she murmured quietly.

"How disgusting!" I exclaimed.

"Shh! It's fresh, and it's human...!" she said, then gestured with a finger over her mouth.

"Oh... Someone is here..." I murmured.

We continued exploring the place, which didn't seem very large, and this time we walked more slowly and alert. Carmilla and I turned a corner and saw what seemed to be a corpse.

It was in an advanced state of decomposition, but not enough for the time it had been in this place.

"Oh! This must have been the stinker..." I murmured and added, "Poor man, surely he fell and couldn't get back up."

I noticed that in the place, which seemed like some sort of bunker, there should have been stairs to go down, but since they were destroyed, the person who accidentally fell here, like me, probably couldn't get back up due to the depth of the place. Carmilla also looked up and said: