Figments of my Brain

Deadline

Part 2

This path was narrow, too narrow and Seb had to keep his elbows close to avoid bumping them on the wall. The ceiling was low too and he had to stoop so as to not injure himself. The steps kept going downwards. As he kept walking, he noticed that after each twelfth step, there was a narrow landing. Along the walls, there were various ledges, and what looked like torch brackets. This tunnel seemed more frequented than the previous one, although it smelled far worse.

A while later, the tunnel widened out into a vast cave, filled with mounds and markings. There was a silence in the air, the type of silence that is so still that it smothers you, makes the feel desperate for any sound other than your own. A silence never heard in the Living World. Silence that makes it believe that you are stuck in Time, and leaves you afraid to move, even to blink, so as to not disrupt its eerie stillness. This place made Seb truly understand the gravity of his task. He had to succeed, or his friend, and he himself, would die. Yet, the longer he stood there, the more he was overcome by loneliness and fear. The silence made him feel small and inconsequent, and the air was thick with desolation. The stench of Death was so strong here that his entire body trembled, suppressing the need to gag. With a start, he realised he was in a cemetery, and the mounds across the floor were neatly placed tombs.

That was when it hit him, his destination was close. The instructions he had been given finally made sense- to go to the place that takes away the reason to live. For that was what this place was designed to do. All the trials he had endured in the past 12 hours were supposed to only weaken him. This burial chamber was carefully constructed to leave a person devoid of hope, devoid of their reason to survive.

Hope is a very powerful instrument, Sebastian. It is the reason we get up everyday, the reason we breathe. It dictates our entire life. Hope has the power to make a person, or to very slowly and painfully tear them down.

The words Seb had heard from his grandmother when he was 8 had stuck with him, and some two decades later were on his mind as he stepped into the Tomb Room. Instantly the wails erupted in his head again, a hundred times stronger than before, almost like a banshee screaming at him to turn back, warning him of impending doom ahead. But he knew what he had to do, and marched on inside, ignoring the poorly, perhaps even hastily, constructed tombs, ignoring their lack of epitaphs, his eyes set solely on the doorway at the other end of the burial site.

This was a smaller room, though the murals on the walls made it look larger than it was. An idol, presumably some deity, sat facing him, a large altar in front of Her. However, what captivated Seb was the sudden thrum of energy coursing through his bones as he locked eyes with the deity. Transfixed, he stepped forward, when suddenly his flashlight slipped from his clammy hands and died. For just a moment, he could see the deity's face right in front of his own, leering at him, Her amber eyes burning with flames of undiscovered secrets, and a dark promise.

He blinked, and his vision cleared. Needing some form of support, he collapsed on the floor, his shaky hands retrieving the backup torch he had. Per habit, he checked his watch. This time, he could do nothing but tremble in horror as raw, undiluted fear ran through his veins, freezing him from the inside, leaving his mind incapacitated as it tried to figure out how he could have spent more than 3 hours staring at a block of stone, when his life was on the line. At once, his survival instincts kicked in, as his eyes scanned the room, desperate to find what he had spent over 15 hours, without any respite, looking for.

Soon they came to rest at the feet of the deity, where rested an undeniably beautiful dagger, its blade viciously sharp silver, encrusted with blood- red and deathly- black stones, casting stars that danced across the walls from the light of his torch. With cautious steps, he approached it, only now noticing the rust- coloured stains on the floor, almost completely coating the stone altar. As he picked up the knife, a shudder passed through him, filling him with dread, making him whirl around and catch sight of a painting he had missed before.

It was right opposite the idol, adjacent to the doorway he had come through. It depicted a man being brought through the numerous corridors he had just experienced, through the Tomb Room and to the altar where he payed his respects to the Goddess. The next was a gruesome picture of a guard holding the same dagger Seb was now holding, at the victim's neck as he bowed over the altar. And finally, there was a picture of his limp body being placed in a new tomb in the Tomb Room, and the guard leaving through a side door he hadn't noticed earlier.

Though horrified, Seb knew he had to leave the place. He walked in the direction of the Tomb Room, to find the door that had let so many murderers out, so that he himself could leave, when he was ambushed. Not by people, or animals, but ambushed by some transparent bodies. By the demons in his head. He could feel the deity's gaze burning holes in his back. That was when Sebastian recalled the long- forgotten words of his grandfather.

What goes around, comes around, Sebastian. Never forget that spirits, whether animal or human, seek justice, and will ensure their wrongs are righted. You can't hurt people forever. Soon, your actions will catch up with you and they will make you feel what you did to them.

His 16 hours were up.