Room 93 (FIRST DRAFT)

Present

I look out the car window, still processing Elizabeth's words. She was possessed in that room. It couldn't be anything else other than a possessing. I have never believed in exorcisms or the supernatural but this is beyond what I could ever have imagined.

Elizabeth pulls my car up on the edge of the road, the tyres screeching. It isn't raining yet but I can feel the water hanging above my head the same way Elizabeth had all those years ago in the room, before the water appeared from no where. I can still see the horrific image of dying Jason that Elizabeth showed me. These things don't leave you in a hurry.

The car was parked on the curb lining the road beside a church, it's tall steeple looking down upon the trees, buildings and people below. The steeple shatters the light around it, forcing the light to swerve round and shine away from it. The trees look withered and tall, a strong feature of the otherwise dull landscape. The church's stained windows paint images of Jesus and God although Elizabeth's tale is making me question their very existence.

Elizabeth gets out the car and hands me my car keys. I bury them in my pocket and join her in the chilling wind. Her grey hair spins around behind her but she does little to stop it going out of control. We stand in front of the church and outside my car for what feels like hours although I guess it's probably closer to 10 minutes. Neither of us speak we just stand silently listening to the winds harsh calls and howling cries. Then, out of the blue, Elizabeth walks slowly round the back of the church and over into the grave yard. You always see graveyards in horror films, whilst the characters are looking for an ancient ghost bent on revenge, but even with the darkening and wet sky the atmosphere feels much calmer than that of a horror movie. I guess horror film directors go a bit overboard with the drama.

Elizabeth walks straight through the grave heparin and towards a huge stone building like a tomb. The door looks fused into the walls of the tomb and there isn't a key hole to fit a key into. It appears to be completely sealed off from the living. But Elizabeth hobbles over to the rear end of the building and bends down, inspecting the grass below. She is definitely off her rocker... She mumbles a bit as she runs her hand through the grass tenderly. Curiously I watch as she locates a hidden button buried in the earth. The ground below us disappears as we sink lower and lower. My stomach clenches violently in my throat and I feel empty. I'm not scared of heights but our descent terrifies me beyond imagining. I scramble for a hold anywhere but I find nothing. Slowly the ground below us slants until we are slipping down a slide like wall. My heart rate slows as the ground comes into focus and I run my fingers along the smooth stone slide. We collapse in a heap on the floor, our speed ceasing in seconds. Normally we would have died falling from that height but somehow the sliding turns the fatality and broken bones into a thud, bruises and aching joints. The sloping wall softened our fall but I still think I have broken my ankle.

Elizabeth stands and brushes herself down, her hands trembling.
'How did you find this?' I ask my voice trembling from the bottled up adrenaline.
'I found it when I was meeting a friend in the graveyard. I was confused by the sealed tomb so I walked all the way round. My foot must have pressed the button on the ground and I fell down into this place,' she whispers, her breaths so small as not to disturb the layers of dust, 'This isn't what I want to show you though - or at least not the main bit - follow me through here.'

She walks away through a hidden passage way and into a huge room filled with gravestones that are all rough and old. Each one has a number and and word scrawled on to it. I bend down and peer at the nearest one inspecting it.
4
Spiders
I frown. Spiders? Is that a name? I look at the next one.
18
Fire
Fire? What's the relationship between the two words? I can't even begin to think what it could be. Elizabeth chuckles quietly and beckons me to a older grave stone that is covered in ivy. I bend down before it and read.
1
Water
Water, fire and spiders. They're all a part of nature? I really don't get it.
'You don't get it do you?' She asks. I shake my head, my gas estriol fixed upon the grave. Elizabeth chuckles and pulls me to the side of the grave stone, pointing at the rough edge. A name is carved into it
Jason
My breath catches and I open my eyes wide in worry. Jason died because of the water. Realisation hits me like a sledge hammer. These are the bodies of the children who died in the room.

I circle the grave and peer at the other side. The number 14 is carved into it. I give Elizabeth a puzzled look.
'Why fourteen?' I ask eagerly,
'That was his age. He was 14 when he died. Maggie was 10, Astra was 12, Samantha and Alexia were 13 and Darren and Laya were 15. These are the bodies of the kids that died at the hands of that room. Some of the children here are 5 and 6 but the eldest are 17.' She looks across at the rows and rows of seemingly infinite dead children. Some of the graves are newer than the ones from Elizabeth and Eric's time which mean it has been happening recently.
'How come all these missing kids aren't reported. Surely we'd receive thousands of missing kid reports.' I crumple my face. In the whole world this many people couldn't have gone missing so recently it just didn't make sense.
'People file them as different things I guess. You must label them as runaways or murders, and people from across the globe are sent. You would only have one or two filed in and another place will have another couple. Everyone is so spread out that no one notices.' She sighs. I can't believe what I am seeing. How many people have been claimed by that room? How many people have died there? These questions spin round my head but I just follow Elizabeth absent minded.

She leads me out of the hidden room and back to the place that we fell from. She takes us through a hidden stair case and up to the surface, I count 5,432 large stairs. When reach the surface my legs are killing me and my breaths are rasped. I clench at my burning muscles and rub them down, trying impatiently to soothe them. I get the feeling that the way down was better than the way up, no matter how scared I was. The moon shines above us and I realise that it has changed from early afternoon to night whilst we have been gone. Elizabeth looks knackered and I can't believe she made it back up, she is 57 after all.
'What now Elizabeth?' I ask, breathing heavily between words,
'Back to the car. I have more to tell you.' She mutters and I find myself following her to the car and sitting once again in the passenger seat. Elizabeth looks at me sadly, dreading what she is about to say. 'This is what happened to Alexia...'