Underland Chronicles: 1 - The Border's Edge (A Gregor the Overlander FanFic)

Chapter 4

Pandora was busying herself by setting the table for dinner, walking back and forth from the table to the cabinets to get the dishes. Two plates in hand, one with a chip in the side, Pandora proceeded to make the trip back to the table when she heard a clamor arise from Rose's bedroom. She heard wood splintering, claws scratching, and Rose crying out as if she was about to die.

Panicked by Rose's disturbing shriek, Pandora dropped the plates, the porcelain shattering as soon as they hit the linoleum. "Rose!" She sprinted down the hallway and threw open the door. It was pitch black, and when Pandora tried the light switch, it didn't work. The room was only dimly illuminated by the light that seeped in behind Pandora from the hall, but it wasn't Rose's room she was looking at.

Rose's room had transformed into a cavern, with stalactites on the ceiling and a huge pit carved into the rocky floor. Pandora could hear Rose calling her name from it. "Rose?" she called shakily, walking slowly to the side and leaning over to catch a glimpse of what was inside.

Rose lay on her side, her face contorted in pain from an injury that Pandora could not see. Not even two feet away from her was a decaying corpse of a man whose stench hit Pandora like a train going full steam. Medieval-looking devices were scattered in the pit, along with Rose's dresser that was smashed to smithereens.

Rose's eyes widened and she gasped, "Pandora, look out!" But it was too late.

Pandora was shoved over the side by an enormous, white claw. Head over heels, Pandora tumbled, but she never hit the bottom of the pit. She just kept falling, and falling, and falling.

Head over heels she still tumbled, sometimes viewing the stalactites above her, and sometimes viewing the rocks below her. The more times she tumbled, the better view she got of what awaited her at the bottom of her terrifyingly long fall. It was not only rocks at the bottom, but many distorted, furry corpses along with one pale body that stood out above the rest...

Pandora woke up feeling distraught. The nightmare had left her shaken. She knew where she was, the Underland, but it felt strange to not wake up in her usual bed, wearing her usual pajamas, in her usual apartment. She stretched and stood out of bed, reaching for her jeans. As she picked them up, she felt a prickly sensation crawl down her back. She immediately sat back on the bed to avoid a hard fall.

Her hands let go of her jeans, shaking uncontrollably. Her eyes rolled backwards to show only whites and her chin dropped as if her neck had shrunk and could no longer hold up the weight of her head.

Within ten seconds, her hands had stopped shaking and she looked up as if nothing happened. The only thing that gave a hint to her strange behavior was her jeans lying in a crumpled heap on the bed, instead of in her hand. Pandora prayed that a similar episode didn't happen in front of anybody and longed for her medication. Before she left the room, she wiggled into her jeans and slid her feet into sandals.

Sighing, she looked down the hallway. The Palace's corridors all the looked the same. However, Pandora's legs moved mechanically, as if she was being guided by an unseen force. She felt as if her feet knew where they were heading even if her mind didn't.

Heading up a flight of stairs, she turned to one door in particular, a door that wasn't made of stone. It was wooden and looked centuries old; it had some sort of crude peephole in it. It opened with a creak and she stepped inside.

Nerissa was crouched in the far corner, touching a stone wall with her hand. Every single inch of stone in the room was covered in writing. The walls, floor, and even the low ceiling had been engraved with calligraphy. Nerissa looked up at her and opened her mouth to greet her, but Pandora cut her off.