Magic of the Past

Tunnel Vision

It's still dark outside as we prepare ourselves to get to the tunnels. The ambience in the room is a little eerie, since everyone is quiet and a little bit scared. Nobody really knows what to do about the creatures inside the tunnels so you could say we are still a bit unprepared. However, we are getting close to leaving Kateryna's place to explore the darkness inside those mysterious underground paths. The 3 of us are all ready to go, packed with a bag filled with a second lantern, oil, some wood and of course food and drinks for a couple days. We skip our usual breakfast, since it is starting to get light outside and start walking. It's not too far from where we are, so we should be able to be there really soon.

As we arrive at the forgotten entrance to the tunnels, we hear noises coming from the tunnels already. They sound like some echoes of the screams of people who got lost inside. As we walk inside we make sure we have our lanterns lit, but just one at a time. This is our way of saving oil in case of emergency. As we walk in further it suddenly gets really quiet inside and I swear I can hear footsteps in the distance. Is the darkness getting over me already? Or is it maybe the fear in my body making me paranoid? I'm afraid these questions won't get an answer anytime soon. The deeper we get into the tunnels, the harder it becomes to locate ourselves on the map we took. The three of us are completely silent, giving me some kind of adrenaline rush caused by the fear of what's ahead. All of a sudden we hear a loud screem not too far from us. As we hear this, we decide to change direction towards the noise. It might be someone who needs help right? The closer we get to the noise, the more I am starting to feel like it's a trap. However, we keep on walking as we see a dim light on the right side in the distance. As we get closer, we hear voices. There seem to be 2 different people talking to each other, whispering. As we get really close Kateryna softly whispers: "Is anybody in there?". As soon as she finishes her sentence 2 figures step up to us. They're both wounded very seriously. Nevertheless, we decide to turn around and continue walking, since they seemed very suspicious. We notice they started following us after only a few minutes of walking and decide to walk to a place close to the exit.

As we get to the exit, we see their faces more clearly. I ask them why they are following us, annoyed by the fact they did. One of them answers: "Not here, come with us." After a little bit of following we get to some kind of room. It's pretty obvious someone has been there before. The room isn't too big, but it has candles on the wall and an actual door. As one of the strangers closes the door the other one starts talking to me. "My name is Kenth, and that over there is Marcus. We have spent quite some time in these tunnels doing research on what it is that haunts everyone inside these." Of course I am interested, but John seems a little skeptical on their true meaning of being inside here. "Have you seen those crawling creatures in the tunnels already?" John asks. "Of course, that's what we are doing research on. They are truly agressive though. They almost got us killed a few days ago", Kenth replies. "We have at least gotten a little further though, but it might be a good idea to share our experiences in order to safely continue traveling inside this underground maze", Marcus continues. He is right though, no matter if I like it or not. Going in here without knowing anything will most likely get us killed. "After weeks of being in here we found a possible weakness for the creatures, light", Marcus continues. "In one of the other rooms we trapped on of the creatures inside an old prison cell. As long as it's in there, we thought we could figure out more of what they actually are." I look at them with a questionable face. "How did you even come with the idea to risk your life going in here?", Marcus asks. As I want to start talking, Kateryna already started explaining our quest. Maybe these strangers will actually be able to help us with the research they did, so it's not a bad idea to be honest about it. I am just still not sure if we should trust severely wounded strangers who built doors in rooms in these tunnels to stay in here. Who knows what their true intentions are?