The Catacombs Project

Part 1

Hello, Felix.

    Felix searched the dark narrow tunnel for the source of the voice, lit only by the light on his helmet. “Hello?” he replied, assuming it was just part of the challenge.

    You accepted this challenge with the belief that you would be presented with harmless, yet terrifying, obstacles, but guaranteed you will escape physically untouched and resume your life as it always was.

    Felix slowed to a stop, but his heart raced. “Yeah?”

    What if I told you you know nothing about what you are about to encounter?

    Before he had a chance to react, a shriek made his entire body grow still and his breath catch in his throat.

    “FELIX!”

    “MARZIA?!” Felix shouted back. “What the fuck is going on?”

    You have two options. The door you just entered through is unlocked.

    Felix looked behind him at the door.

    You can leave now, but your girlfriend suffers.

    Without hesitation, Felix bolted away from the door deeper into the depths where he no longer had a clue what was awaiting him except that Marzia desperately needed him.

    Don’t you want to know what you will be facing before you try to rescue her?

    Felix continued to run. “I will do anything for her.”

    Would you die for her?

    “Anything!”

    So be it.

    About a minute passed before Felix stopped at a fork in the tunnel. “MARZIA!”

    “FELIX! HELP ME!” she screamed from the right tunnel. He followed her voice until he reached an open room. Marzia was tied in a chair, her head hung. He ran to her side.

    “Marzia,” he said, lifting her head. Behind a curtain of dark wiry hair, he found hollowed eyes a smile full of blood coming from her gums where her teeth were missing.

    Felix scrambled backwards, screaming.

    Her maniacal laughter filled the empty space as she rose to her feet, the ropes falling from her frail body. “It’s my new natural look. Don’t you like it?” she cooed in Marzia’s voice. “I call it, ‘By The Time This is Over.’”

    Felix leapt to his feet and ran back out through the tunnel, entering the one to his right when he returned to where the tunnels split. He began to choke out Marzia’s name as he ran, unable to restrain his tears. He tried to convince himself it was all just part of the challenge- a sick game they were playing. He will come out untouched as they promised, greeted by Marzia’s warm hug and hysterical laughter. He will hug her tightly for as long as he could until he felt fully safe again. But until then, he had to run.

He came across a lit section of the wall to his left. As he got closer, he noticed a familiar gold statue propped on a shelf engraved in the wall.

    Of course, we would never leave you completely helpless.

    “How the fuck is a plastic toy going to help me?”

    Telling you how to use your resources would be beside the purpose of the game, don’t you think?

    Felix rolled his eyes and took the statue in his hand, surprised at how heavy it was. Turning it over between his hands, he realized it was metal. What metal exactly, he wasn’t sure, but it was certainly heavy enough to do some damage if the challenge did turn out to be what the voice suggested: a nightmare.

    “F-Felix,” Marzia’s voice breathed out from behind him, careful to avoid spooking him. Slowly, he shifted his body until his back was pressed against the wall and he was facing his girlfriend, everything intact and perfect, just as beautiful as she was before he entered the tunnel. She took a step towards him and he held the statue in front of him, unsure whether to believe it was really her.

    How could it not be? he asked himself.

    She looked at the statue and giggled, a harmonious sound filling the tunnel and lifting his spirits. “You found Stephano!” she proclaimed, referring to the name Felix had given it playing a horror video game in which he befriended the gold statue and carried it throughout his gameplay. He reflected back to when it wasn’t his job, when he was little more free. Although he couldn’t ask for a better job, he wondered some days how is life would have been different had he never filmed himself playing- had people never watched him- had he never cared about having to please so many people.

When she realized his face hadn’t wavered from his frightened expression, she grinned innocently. “Babe… it’s me! I promise. No more messing around. I saw how scared you were and I felt so terrible for making you go through this alone.”

    He lowered Stephano. “Marzia…” He wrapped his arms tightly round her, feeling foolish for even considering that it was just another trick. He kissed her, and the warmth of her lips spread to his heart.

    He pulled away and realized his mouth was full of blood. Her face had reconfigured itself to resemble the one he had seen before- no eyes and no teeth, blood spilling from her mouth.

    “Mmm…” she cooed.

    Felix spit as much blood from his mouth as he could as he held Stephano in front of him again. “Touch me and I’ll shove this through your skull!” he shouted.

    The demonic-looking Marzia spread her mouth open in a smile so wide it forced the corners of her mouth to split open and blood to pour from the wounds. She leapt towards him, and he shoved Stephano deep into her eye socket. She let out a cry and he pushed it farther until he could feel it hitting the back of her skull. Her mouth had formed an O-shape and her voice fell several pitches as her arms twitched outstretched in front of her. She fell limp against the statue, and Felix withdrew it from her head, causing her to fall onto the ground. He stumbled into the wall and let his knees buckle beneath him as he slid toward the ground against it. He bought his knees to his chest and rested his cheek against them.

“Please, don’t do this to me anymore,” he begged. “Please stop this.”

    There’s no time for resting, Felix. We have so much awaiting you.