Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-10789912-20160107091137

Into the Hellmouth
Turning around, Michael put one hand on the lever-mechanism on the door. Pulling it towards himself, Natalie could hear the locking mechanism sliding around and opening.

"Effective locking mechanism. Closed it behind me to prevent any aggressive interruptions."

Natalie didn't want to think about what was down here that forced even this seemingly seasoned man to take precautions, even for a few fast minutes.

When the door's lock was completely finished, he pressed on the door, swinging it open. The door eventually hit a wall to the right, when it faced directly forward.

"So, we're at the corner of a hallway or passageway..."

"Don't even bother attempting to figure out a way out of here from memory. Hell, I'm willing to bet the layout is severely different from when I entered just under an hour ago. Took me a bit to find you. You certainly realized on your second trip here that it was different and didn't make sense."

"Well, if the door locks from the inside, how did your friend even manage to lock me in here without getting stuck?"

Michael fully smiled this time, even giggling with it.

"You really don't understand where you are. You have a lot to learn."

Beyond him was the dark. Almost completely pitch-black, it was impossible to see more than five feet in front of his face. Switching on the flashlight on his shoulder, it provided a few feet of light.

The air was frigid, and smelled of wet stone. Michael pulled his hood up over his head before pressing on into the hallway, signalling for her to follow him.

They paced their footsteps and made sure not to walk flat-footed. If there was one thing they didn't need, it was excess sound echoing through the halls. Creeping through the darkness, Natalie couldn't help but at least try to make up her surroundings.

She looked around for a good thirty seconds before Michael came to a hard stop, causing her to accidentally walk into him from behind.

"And here comes the fun part," he said. "The fucker changed the path, just like he does anytime someone's here. We're going to have to find a way out the same way you did before."

"Searching aimlessly?" she said, looking around Michael at what his flashlight was showing.

"Precisely."

What she say shocked her with horrific memories. Four rotten wooden doors. Two on each side. Dead end straight forward.

"These doors!" she said, attempting to keep herself quiet. "They were in the hallway the trap door led too!"

"Similar layout, most likely."

He didn't wait to start searching. Taking the attachable flashlight off of his shoulder, he held it in his left hand. In his right, he armed himself with his machete. As it slid out of its sheath, Natalie couldn't help but get shivers.

He scanned around the door's frame with the flashlight, before centering the light. Pushing on the door with his machete-equipped hand, he used the light around the room. Natalie watched with a keen eye.

To the left there was an old, torn up green couch with wood sticking up from the top, a rotted circular table with empty pill bottles laying over it, and some split pipes sticking out from the wall to the right of the door.

"I've been here before. This exact room, I mean."

"This place changes whenever Enki wants it too. Same rooms and hallways, always in a different order. Only other people to have come down here never got out." he responded, turning around and walking towards the door across from him.

"Have you been her before as well?"

"I spent a lot of time here. You really have to admire the architecture, as far as stability goes, don't you?"

"It's a hellhole!" she quietly responded.

"Actually, I've nicknamed it Hellmouth."

Looking around this door frame with the light, he again apparently spotted nothing out of the ordinary. Opening the door, there was only darkness. He aimed at the corners, revealing walls of concrete that stretched forward into an abyss.

"Another hallway?"

Tilting the flashlight into the darkness, he looked at Natalie and nodded his head, directing her to look behind them. She could see a faint light coming from the end of the hallway.

"But how? There was no door on that end of the hallway, was there?"

"There is now." Michael added, going to the door to his right.

Scanning the door frame, he came to a sudden stop. Throwing his arm up to stop Natalie from advancing, he calmly spoke about what he saw.

"Small cast-iron notch. Tilts down from the ceiling, over to the other door. The same shade as the cement around it. Designed to shoot a poisoned spike once the door opposite of it was opened."

Natalie looked at the door, then back over towards the trap.

"We don't have much of a choice. We have to go through one of the doors." Michael continued, reattaching his flashlight to his right shoulder.

"One's boobytrapped to shoot at us when we open it, and the other is possibly just as dangerous."

"Then we're at an understanding, that no matter what choice we make, we're still taking a risk."

Natalie approached Michael, standing right behind him.

"At your lead."

"Same process as before. You stay behind me. Walk quietly. Listen to everything I say."

She nodded to him. Opening the door, he revealed yet another hallway. Looking down the hallway they had already traveled down, Natalie couldn't see the flashlight. This was a new passageway. Along the walls, on both the left and right side, were lines cut into the walls about three and a half feet off of the ground. Michael rubbed his right index finger along the line as they walked forward.

They pressed on together. The passageway only got colder and colder as they walked. The air was a lot ticker here, and there was no end in sight. The very faint footsteps they couldn't fully muffle were the only sounds to meet their ears, excluding the two of them attempting to regulate their breath.

If Natalie didn't know better, she'd think her blood was turning into a jagged stone inside of her veins. Her movements became rugged, her muscles tense, and her skin started to hurt. That's when Michael felt some resistance on his right ankle as he stepped forward- that of a wire. The wire gave out, breaking and falling. He nearly stumbled over it, but stopped himself with his other foot.

"There it is..." she could hardly hear him mumble to himself.

Using his left hand, he had three fingers out. Putting one away each second, there was a light click from inside the walls when all of his fingers were gone. In front of them by about fifteen feet, they could see thick steel cable shoot from the left wall to the right, before locking into place.

Turning around and jumping in one motion, Michael tackled Natalie to the ground. Just as they hit the hard and unforgiving floor, the cable shot past them at incredible speeds, all the way to the entrance of the hallway itself. When its travel stopped, the wire was let go by the right wall, where it was sucked back into the left.

"Crisis averted. No one's cut in half from the stomach." Michael joked, laying on the ground.

"My guts thank you." Natalie joked back.

Before they could even stand, a ear drum shredding roar came from the end of the hallway. Sounding like steam rushing out of a melting kettle, Natalie covered her ears. Michael didn't. He was all too familiar with this roar. Grabbing her had and jumping on his feet before his heart could finish the beat it was on, he pulled her out of the room and began sprinting for an exit.

"What was that?!" Natalie asked, sprinting with him.

"Baby's back!"

They reached the entrance much faster than they originally walked away from it. Thankfully, it was still open. They could hear the sound of heavy feet smashing into the floor, four feet in total. It was catching up- and fast.

When they passed through the door, there was no stopping. Michael rammed into the door across from them, maintaining his momentum. As they continued their sprint into yet another dark hallway, they could hear the boobytrap shoot a pike at them, which was powerful enough to stick into the stone just inches away from Natalie.

The rumbling of the beast behind them only became more powerful, though Michael could distinctly hear four running feet become two, as the beast supposedly began sprinting on two legs as well. He hear hear the ceiling and both walls being chipped away as the creature's size apparently tore through the slightly too small running space. The flashlight was shaking too violently from the sprinting to make out exact shapes.

In the chaos, he could see two things. The end of the hallway, and a large square hole in the ground. There were no second thoughts. Going from a full sprint to a free-fall jump, the pair both fell into the seemingly endless abyss below. The sprinting of the chasing creature stopped. It did not follow. 