Echos In The Catacombs

Chapter 2: The Horror That Wakes

A/N: Elizabeth-Lillian Darcey ^
(Posh London accent)
(All the characters in this book have posh-ish English accents unless stated otherwise)

DISCLAIMER: None of the artwork used in this book belongs to me, all credit goes to the original artists
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Elizabeth's P.O.V

My eyes snapped open hastily. I was laying on my back, staring at a rather dull ceiling. The floor beneath me was cold, most likely made of an old stone. I sat up only to notice where I was. It was a small-ish windowless room, grey walls, ceiling and floor. It was bare, only accented by a small, dusty mirror that was hung on the wall in front of me, a single door to my left and, as I glanced behind me, what looked like a speaker of some sort, covered in cobwebs of course. 
The only light source was coming from and exposed bulb that was dangling from the ceiling.

I stood and took a few cautious steps over to the mirror, that's when I noticed it...

There was a hole in the very center of my forehead. 'A bullet wound?' I thought to myself. There was dried blood around the wound, so I reached for the back of my head and felt through my hair, which felt oddly bloodless, finding what I knew to be an exit wound. I turned to look at where I once lay and, surely enough, there was a pool of dried blood.

I turned back to the mirror as I felt a light tap on my right shoulder. Looking to my right I saw my own shadow, but considering the light was behind me the shadow should be by the mirror...
'Did it move on its own?' No, it couldn't possibly move there on it's own. That was when I caught sight of the circular hole in the center of its head. A bullet hole, one exactly like mine and in the exact same place.

The silence in the room was soon shattered when a male voice with a, not thick but surely noticeable, Scottish accent. "Ah, you're awake." The voice spoke. "Before you say anything more, I'd like to know why I'm not dead. Undoubtedly, a bullet to the brain should kill just about anyone."

"That is where you're wrong, my dear. You are not 'just about anyone', you are much more advanced...and much more dangerous than the rest of humanity." I looked at my shadow once more, except it looked different this time...It had a sadistic grin on it's face, that's what I imagine it was anyway. It was really just a wide gap of light spread across it's face in the shape of a large grin. One thing that truly caught my eye was the fact that its bullet hole had started to fill itself in with shadow. I turned my attention back to my reflection in the mirror only to find that the wound had sealed itself shut. My hand went into my hair again...no exit wound.

"The door to your left should be open now..." My face contorted into a look of confusion, "was it ever locked?" He sighed audibly, "it was, I've been trying to unlock it ever since they shot you." I frowned slightly, "why would they lock it if they brought me in here to kill me?" Even with the amount of questions I was asking, his tone seemed to remain mostly calm, "because they knew that one bullet wouldn't keep you down for good, not after all the experiments they've done on you," my eyes widened as he spoke, "after all the shit they put you through, all the serums they pumped into your bloodstream you'd think that they would know one bullet wouldn't do the job."

I looked to my left and walked towards the door, slowly pulling down the handle. As soon as I heard the satisfying sound of the door lock click I pushed it open to reveal a vast open space with two other doors, one straight ahead and the other, was again, to my left. Although it did have the same grey walls, ceiling and stone floors, this room look more advanced and it had natural lighting due to widows that were unusually high. I noticed the same small speaker mounted on one of the further walls. "You're doing excellent so far, Miss Darcey."

"Which door do I go through? Forward or left?" I asked. "Whichever you please, Miss Darcey. Forward lets you advance and left, let's just say, leads to something you may never have wanted to see..." My head immediately turned towards the door on the left, "left it is then." With that I made my way towards the door on my left, it seemed to open automatically probably due to some movement sensor. My fascination of this technology was soon dissolved, however, as he wasn't joking about something I didn't want to see...

It led into a large dead-end corridor with multiple cells on each side. Each cell door was ajar, enough for me to see inside, rows upon rows of children, no older than 14 I would say, strapped down to uncomfortable looking beds (they looked more like operating tables if I'm being truly honest) either with an empty syringe on the floor or a pillow over their faces, some even had both. "Suffocation or lethal injection, suffocation was only used if the injection failed to do its duty". I walked in to one of the cells and removed a pillow from the child's face. My face surely must have paled as my eyes went wide with shock, possibly horror too. "He looks no older than 9...what sort of monster would do this?" My voice wavered as my body trembled. "The same person that broke you, except you were one of the few successful ones..." His response was bland, but there was a sense of pity lingering in his tone. My attention focused itself on the restraints that bound this poor soul to his 'bed'. "There are burn marks, they're clearly visible on his arms and legs meaning he definitely struggled and attempt to fight his attacker."

"They said they only did it out of pity. 'Euthanasia' they called it..." My sadness melted away as my blood boiled with anger, "look around you, this wasn't mercy killing! This was murder!" I clenched my fists as I left the cell. "I couldn't agree more with you, Miss Darcey. I didn't even know about these cells until 3 days ago, and I've been working here for several years. That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to secrets in this place..." I turned on the balls of my feet and left the corridor without a second thought. "Straight ahead...where will that lead me exactly?" I questioned. "You'll just have to see for yourself, it can't be worse than what you just witnessed." "I'm going to refrain from asking anymore questions until I feel it's absolutely necessary because I feel like a child who constantly repeats 'why?'" I say as I made my way to the other door.

I watched as the door opened automatically, but what was beyond that door was a rather gory sight. "I stand corrected, it can be worse than what you just witnessed." It led me into another large room, except this time the windows were low enough down that you could at least see out of them. Scattered corpses, most likely being either guards or scientists, were littered around this 'new' room, all with their throats ripped out, some even had their limbs torn off as if some feral, untamed beast had mauled them to death. I walked further into the room only to notice several simultaneous blood drips, I looked up to find several more bodies hanging, wires were connecting their bodies, much like mangled paper dolls, and securely keeping them suspended from the ceiling. Small lights were stuck into their eye sockets and their mouths. 

"I suppose this is was a serial killers Christmas lights look like? Or perhaps they just wanted to add their own......decorative flair?" I commented with a seemingly flat tone, although I very much wanted to throw up. "Who could have possibly done this?" There was a short pause, "this was the work of Subject 0..." the voice stated. "S-subject 0? Wh-who is that?" He sighed once again, "I'm afraid that information is classified, meaning I cannot tell you directly who Subject 0 is." He paused and cleared his throat, "I can, however, tell you where their file is..."
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Hope you enjoyed Chapter 2 of Echos In The Catacombs
Chapter 3 should be out soon

Catch You Later~