We went inside. It was dark and dusty. There was a strange smell spread over the whole place. There were a lot of spider webs too. There was a short staircase at the far end. In the hall, there were ragged sofas and several metal vases. It was all deadly silent, not even a mouse stirring. We hadn’t ever surmised that the silent betokened the gravest danger of our lifetime. The floorboards creaked as we walked. All of this scared me even more. There was an uneasy feeling at the pit of my stomach.
“Do we really have to do this?” I said but Madelyn didn’t reply. She didn’t look scared at all. Her eyes were darting around every direction of the house, leaving no corner unnoticed. “Hello? Mr. Wilson? Are you there? .....This way,” she said pointing towards a few cupboards by the wall. Her voice echoed loudly. There was no reply. It seemed like nobody was there. I reluctantly followed.
At the far end of the hall, by the row of cupboards, by our feet was a rectangular opening in the wall. She bent down and pushed her hand into the opening and forced it upwards. With a loud cracking sound, it was pushed upwards. It gave way to a staircase. “Is that a kind of trapdoor? The case deepens,” she stated “Be ready.” It was even darker ahead. It seemingly led to nothing. It was just like the staircase in one of my nightmares. Without much thought we headed downstairs into the darkness. My heart was hammering wildly against my ribs. Any moment now, we were almost at the last step. Only God knew what we were about to confront. There was a door at the last step which gave way to one of the most disturbing torture rooms.
“How mephitic is this!” Madelyn exclaimed. There was a very foul-smell spread all over the place. It was still very dark and we couldn’t see anything. I turned on the flashlight on my phone and so did she. “There’s got to be a light switch for do think there’s a bulb here. Look for it,” she commanded. I followed and pressed my hand against the wall in order to find one. And I did. It was a single switch hanging at the end of a wire. The moments that followed were undoubtedly the most horrible moments Madelyn had ever experienced or would ever experience.
When the whole room was illuminated with a dim yellow light, it looked completely like ‘The Red Room’ one would have only read of. It was a small room stained wholly with blood- the walls, the floor, even the doorknob on the door we entered through and every single object in sight. As for me, it was heart-rending, my head throbbed like crazy and I began feeling nauseous. A great wave of nostalgia and pain flooded me and my whole body lurched forward. But considering the fact that Peter Wilson was a butcher and the tale of Laurel’s abuse was true, it wasn’t shocking on the whole. I somehow knew that Laurel was telling the truth but I kept denying it due to the state I was in at the moment, the state I already knew I would be in.
“Horrendous! Is this a movie scene?” exclaimed Madelyn. I could see dread slowly occupying every corner of her face, she was scared and disgusted. We walked ahead. There were handcuffs, iron chains, shackles, knives and whatnot scattered on the floor, all old and bloody. Each look at those things stirred up dread inside me, with every passing moment.
There was a small table by my side and there was something on it. I picked it up. It was a card- a business card belonging to Peter Wilson with his name, the name of trade he was involved in, in Shellton and the address beneath his picture. “Look,” I said. Madelyn scrutinized the card carefully. He looked as sinister in the picture as he really was.
Suddenly Madelyn started sniffing. “Isn’t that the smell of formalin?” she said out of the blue. That was the first time I really paid attention to the smell. I had assumed it to be the smell of blood but she was right. It undoubtedly was the smell of formalin. I knew because I had accompanied her to a number of autopsies and she always took me to the laboratory insisting that there were several things that ought to be known to me. “Should we go ahead? I think the smell is coming from somewhere near,” she said.
We did that and found a cupboard. The smell was coming from behind it. We inched closer to it and when we turned to face its behind, we saw a scene that would certainly haunt me for the rest of my life. A chill ran down my spine. A high-pitched scream got stuck in my throat, that’s how haunting the mere sight of it all was. “Is t-that a c-corpse?” I stuttered. Madelyn gulped. She put a hand over her mouth. She was too stunned to speak. By all that I figured I was right.
The card was still in my hand. I looked at the picture again and again and matched it with the face of the deceased. There lay the corpse of Peter Wilson in a sitting position, behind the cupboard. The legs and hands had decayed but the face was still intact due to the effect of formalin. “Carmen, it’s no time to be figuring out what happened or what we saw. Let’s just quickly take some pictures and then we are leaving immediately,” she beseeched. I fumbled with my phone.
“I knew you would come,” said a voice from behind. It was soft yet dangerous at the same time. I was paralyzed with fear. I was too stunned to even let out a scream. I wanted to cry, run away but I all I could do was to stand rooted to the spot. It was all too overwhelming. I knew that voice, I knew that voice too well. I dared not turn. I couldn’t face it. Slight footsteps were approaching me. I couldn’t even see what Madelyn’s reaction was because I was falling apart. Before I could do anything, with an excruciating pain in my head, I collapsed.
YOU ARE READING
MAZE OF FATES
Mystery / Thriller{COMPLETED} What would you do if you were once again confronted by the immense darkness and pain which had held you hostage in the past? Will you throw yourselves into their hands and let them consume you bit by bit or will you defeat them with br...
