'Til the Sky Falls Down

The Adventure Begins

She felt warm against him despite the cold air that grew colder as they descended the staircase. Gari always admired Miko's way of standing out of a crowd. Always energetic, her style of dress, her hair, and her secret lovely singing voice. The only ones who ever heard her sing were him, Ana, and Toni all of whom were threatened to receive a serious beating if one of them ever told anyone else.

As they made it down to the final landing they saw a set of steel double doors that had been barred shut. "Had been" meaning that the bar that had once held it was now hanging down on the floor, completely rusted over. There was an eerie smell different from what they smelled from the meat hanger upstairs. It didn't smell exactly like rotting meat but was similar in a way.

"That's a weird smell" Miko said rubbing her nose.

"Yea it reminds me of something..." Gari said thinking.

"... me too..." she said as she continued rubbing her nose thinking.

"Well, whatever it is, it's coming from behind those doors..." he stated wondering what it could be inside.

They both stepped towards the door and put their hands on each of the double doors at the same time.

They heard a large breathing sound come from the other side of the doors and froze. Whatever was breathing was taking large and long breaths.

"It sounds like it's asleep" Miko whispered as quietly as she could for Gari to hear her.

"What the heck is that?" He whispered back. "it can't be like a cow they left behind or something could it?"

Miko shrugged her shoulders and peeked through a crack in the middle of the door. As she looked in her eyes grew big and she jumped back moving as quickly and quietly towards the staircase as she could. Gari stared at the fearful expression that rarely ever graced her face and became scared himself but, he was still curious as to what she saw.

He looked at Miko who was shaking her head hysterically, silently mouthing words, and still moving towards the stairs that led to the way out. She was trying to say words. Curiosity combined with fear overcame him and he leaned forward to peek through to door as well.

Inside lay something massive. He coudn't make out what it really was but it had no skin. It's red fleshy outer layer heaved between breaths as it lay on the marble floor.

"Oh what the..." Gari backed quickly away from the door to where Miko stood. They both looked at each other, fear locked in their eyes.

"You wanna get out of here now?" he asked Miko and she nodded quickly and began to run up the staircase. Gari stood for an extra second before following her back up as well. They ran as fast as they could out through the meat hanging room and out the door where Ana and Toni who were lounging around outside talking and laughing.

When they saw the look on Gari and Miko's faces and the fact that they were out of breath they hurried forward to meet them.

"What happened?" Ana asked worriedly. Miko and Gari came to a stop in front of them trying to catch their breaths. Miko leaned over on Gari who was leaning forward on his knees. Ana squatted down in front of him and studied their faces. Their faces reflected pure terror.

Toni stared at them both silently waiting to hear what happened.

"There's... something... down there..." Miko gasped out pointing towards the building.

"It's fricken huge..." Gari added panting and leaning over trying to catch his breath.

"What? What was it?" Ana pressed confused but they both just shook their heads in disbelief.