The Light Within the Abyss

“We were told to investigate the university, to find out what the source of the noise was. Something along the lines of hearing screams coming from the left wing of the historical/ scientific hall. The janitor had placed the call around midnight, telling the operator that he had seen a group of what looked like students going in. Not too long after, he heard screaming so unnerving that it made him run to the other side of the wing to call 911.

I had been drinking coffee with my partner Brian, and two other police officers at the local 24-hour coffee shop. We all took the call and started making our way there. Officer Brian was saying, on the way there, that it was probably just a bunch of kids being assholes. I kept my tongue and kept on driving. Something in my gut at the time felt like there was something off, but I decided not to say anything to Brian, because if I was wrong I would never hear the end of it.

When we got there we could not see any lights coming from the wing, it was pure darkness in there. We all grabbed our flashlights from our cruisers, I made a note to grab my tactical knife from the glove compartment in case of anything. Most would have called me paranoid, I preferred being prepared. We then started making our way into the University Main Hall; at the entrance of the Main Hall stood the janitor, who I could only assumed called 911.

He had been shaking terribly, as though an earthquake was happening just where he stood. His eyes were bouncing in every direction, looking with such fear in them, that it seemed he was expecting to be attacked at any moment. I asked him what he heard that made him so shaken. He proceeded to tell us that he saw five hooded, student-looking people heading into the left wing Research Hall. Not too long after, he heard what he thought was chanting. When he had got closer to the entrance of the wing, he told us how he then heard a scream so shrill and high pitched, it felt like razor blades were cutting through his ear drums.

He then told us that that is when he ran to the other wing and called it in, stating he was too scared to even think of checking what was going on inside, if that were the kinds of noises coming from within. We then told him to wait outside for us, until we returned. The other two officers, Maya and Donald, were talking to each other about what plans they had after their shift. At the time they thought this call was just going to be another typical noise complaint, saying what Brian had said on the drive here, of it being just a bunch of kids being assholes. God, I wish I could go back and tell them different.

We made our way down the main hall, until we came to the entrance of the left wing Research Hall. I took charge, and proceeded into the hall first. The entire hall was pitch black, as though this part of the building had never seen light in it's entire existence. The moment you walked in, you could feel the temperature drop immediately, with my flashlight I could see my breath in front of me. At that time I should have figured something abnormal was happening, but in reality why would anyone guess that at first. The four of us then began to walk onward into the abyss.

We used our flashlights, but for some reason they were almost useless in the impending darkness. As we made our way through we tended to bump into things. A table could have been two feet ahead of you, and you would not even had noticed, until your knee smacked against it. After a while our eyes did eventually adjust to it, not helping much, but it had been better than nothing. What else was odd, was how quiet the place was. It felt like a never ending sound proof room. Even when Brian had first said he thought he saw something on the left, the noise felt like it was coming through a muffled filter. Thankfully at the time it was easier to concentrate so the three of us were able to follow him. Brian flank left as Maya and I came on his right. Donald covered our backs, as Brian led us to where he thought he saw movement.

We proceeded with extreme caution, not knowing what may be lurking in the darkened hallway. What I assume now was a side hallway, that we had entered, due to the shorter length and the space between the walls, making it difficult to cover all possible blind spots. Brian ended up leading in front with Maya on his right, I was in the middle, and Donald covered our backs. It wasn’t until we got to the end of the sub hallway that we finally saw what Brian was first following.

In what looked like the corner of the hallway was someone sitting down on the ground, with their hands on their face, almost like seeing a child being punished in the corner, crying. As we got closer we could tell it looked to be a man, who was in fact weeping. I could hear Brian’s muffled voice calling out to the man, asking him if he was alright. Even though he was hard of hearing, I could still hear a sense of fear in his voice; because deep down, we all knew something about this man wasn’t right. Slowly, Brian inched towards the man, moving a little ahead of Maya, and only being a few feet from the weeping man.

This time Brian spoke more assertively to the man, asking him if he was alright, and if he had seen anything that happened here. The man then stopped shaking from his sobbing, and moved his hands from his face. We still could not see his face at the time, but we all began to hear a low rumbling laughter coming from the man. It had sent shivers down my spine. Not because he was laughing, but for the fact that I could hear it so clear, as though he was right beside me. Every cell in my body screamed “run!” but I managed to stand my ground. I had my gun steady in hand, and was ready if needed. Maya attempted to do the same, but I could see the whites of her eyes whole, as though staring at two trembling moons.

I could hear Donald trying to ask us what was going on, as he was still focused on our six. I couldn’t see what Brian was doing from where I stood. He was standing his ground, it being out of fear or courage, I would never know. The laughing man begun to stand up slowly, still facing away from us, and looking at the wall. I then noticed he was wearing something similar to a robe, the same kind the janitor described to us when we had first arrived at the university. I lifted my gun and aimed it at the man, Maya had slowly followed suit. Brian just stood there, not moving a single muscle. The man began to turn around towards us, his head looking down with his arms at his side. With where I was positioned, I couldn’t get a good vantage point of the man, in case he tried anything. I tried to tell Brian to move, but I doubt he could hear me over the man’s laughter.

The man then started to lift his head towards us, and at that moment is when I knew what we were up against. What I saw of that man’s face still sits with me at night as I try to sleep. There were streams of blood coursing down the man’s cheeks, coming from the dark red holes where his eyes use to be. The holes had looked as though they were chewed apart by a starving animal. Rips and tears of the flesh all around them, strings of small wires dangling down his face. The cheek bones slightly sticking out where the skin use to be.

Where his mouth was suppose to be, was a large blue eye protruding out, looking around at us. It squinted, from the light coming from our flashlights, like a normal eye would. Maya and I stepped back startled, knocking into Donald slightly, enough to have him turn around silently and scream in fear of what we were witnessing.

That is when I noticed as well, I could still hear the man’s laughter. It was loud, as though he was doing it right in my ear. I also noticed Brian had not moved when we did. He still just stood there with his gun down, looking mesmerized by the thing in front of him. The creature in the robes then lifted his arms, reaching out to Brian, as if it were in need of help. When it did, it put it’s hands up with the palms facing toward Brian.

On the palms of this things hands were two mouths with rows of sharp, jagged teeth. They were smiling, bursting out with the laughter that cursed our ears. I tried to go for my gun, but I could not lift my arms. I felt this tremendous feeling of fear and curiosity wash over me, as the creature got closer to my partner. I could see Maya was confused, probably trying to wrap her mind around what she was seeing. Donald was beside, me at this point, and I could see from the corner of my eye he was mouthing curse words, as he too was trying to understand what he was looking at. I looked back to Brian, watching as he did nothing, while the creature got closer to him.

I went to grab him to pull him from what ever shock state he was in, but I saw as the eye where the creatures mouth should have been, see me making a move towards Brian. It then moved one of its arms towards us, and the mouth on it began to scream so loud and high pitched it had made the three of us fall to the floor. Withering in pain, we tried to cover our ears. I could see through one eye, as I was wincing from the pain, that the creatures other hand placed itself around Brian’s throat. It then pulled back quickly, leaving a massive bleeding hole where his Adams apple use to be. His throat pumped blood furiously, spraying all over the creature that wouldn’t stop laughing. It then used both of its hands and grabbed Brian, as he collapsed to the floor. The shrieking stopped and was replaced with the sounds of ripping and slurping.

The sounds of bones cracking under the sheer force of the creatures teeth echoed in our ears. I knew there was nothing we could do at that point to save Brian. So I grabbed Maya from off the ground, and pushed Donald forward, as he was getting on to his feet. We ran as fast as we could, leaving my partner behind with that creature in the darkness. In all my years as a police officer I had never ran in such fear as I did that night. I have been in shootouts with drug cartels, I have seen fellow officers shot, stabbed, and bludgeoned to a pulp before. Even after all of that, I can say none of those times can ever amount to the horrors I witnessed that night. The death of my partner Brian, being devoured by that… thing, was only the beginning.

We ran for what felt like forever in that darkness, but truth be told I had no idea where we were in the research hall, until we finally had fallen from exhaustion. We know we couldn’t find a way out of there. We didn’t know which way was left or right. Though it was hard to get a sense of where we were, when none of us could get our heads straight. Maya was curled into the fetal position, shaking terribly as she took heavy breaths. Donald was pacing back and forth, cursing under his breath. It was hard to hear exactly what he was saying, because all the noise became muffled once again. I was sitting on the ground between the two, resting my back up against what felt like was a cabinet of some sort. I was trying to collect my thoughts, thinking about what I had just seen. Trying to make sense of things and making sure I wasn’t going crazy. After what felt like eternity, Donald stopped pacing around and sat down next to me.

We began to discuss on a way to get out of there. Our flashlights were close to useless, and we did not think to get a lay out of the wing before we had entered. Luckily, Maya had stopped trembling, and slowly began to collect herself. She was probably feeling reassured that we were trying to figure a way out of there, even if the options seemed hopeless. The three of us eventually all agreed we would begin heading to what we thought was south. It being the way we had came.

As we began our way back to what we had hoped was salvation and freedom from this messed up hell, we heard what could have been a cry for help. At the time Donald was leading front, with Maya taking middle and I watching our six. When we heard this sad lonely whimper of a cry for help, Donald immediately looked back to us and mouthed Brian’s name with excitement and hope across his face. Before Maya or I could say anything to him, Donald starting chasing the source of the noise. Maya looked back at me with worry in her eyes. It was then that I noticed what caused her to look that way. The cry for help was loud and clear like the creatures laughter.

We both began to run after Donald, screaming his name as loud as we could in the muffled void. I could feel something heavy pushing against my chest, feeling as though something was trying to slow me down. Trying to drag me back into the void behind me like a sirens call to the endless sea. At the time I waved it off as fear. Fear that Donald will be devoured by that creature just like Brian had been. It wasn’t until we heard a different, more muffled, cry for help, that I realized my fear was to become a reality.

When we came upon Donald, we had found him on the ground, almost stepping on him when we did. He was reaching out to us sobbing. His hands were shaking as he tried to claw his way to us. Maya went to grab him when I flashed my light on him to see what had snagged him. There were hands wrapped around his ankles. I felt a cold shiver run down my spine when I saw them, not knowing whose they were. I lifted my light more towards the source of the hands that pinned Donald to the ground. What had had him was what looked like a person at first, that was looking down at Donald while it dragged him closer. As I lifted my light, I saw on the back of him what looked to be like a growth, as it came to focus though I realized it was a second head morphing out from the nose up.

The second head had its eyes set on me, looking at me with such hunger in it’s eyes, as if I were its next meal. If given the chance I probably would have been. It then began to reach an unexpected third arm out to me. I stood my place, curious now on what the hell I had been looking at. It had both its arms still grabbing onto Donald, with this arm coming out of its back, trying to make a grab for me. I then manage to see that it was holding itself up with two different sets of legs, similar to how a spider would. Now that I had thought about it, the third arm had looked different from the two that had Donald’s legs. It was then that a fourth arm somehow shot out of the side of the third arm, almost like a branch on a tree, and came directly at me.

I jumped back, falling onto my rear and I scuttled back towards Maya, almost dropping my light. It was then that I heard Maya's muffled cry that I snapped back to the situation at hand. I looked down to where she was, trying to pull Donald back with one hand, and using the other to support herself on the ground. I went to go help her when I noticed something wrong with Donald. His hand had stopped shaking and he had stopped crying for help. I put my light back to where the hands had been on his ankles and saw that they were gone. All there was left were the wrists of the spider like creature and Donald’s ankles melted into one. This thing was slowly slithering itself up Donald’s legs, similar to how a python would eat its prey. Except it wasn’t eating Donald, it was making him join its limb, fluid spider like body. I began to panic now and turn back to Maya to tell her it was too late for him. At the time I had thought she was still trying to save her partner from becoming part of that thing. When then I realized, as I flashed my light onto her, that the hands that had reached out to me were now morphing through Donald’s and grabbing her hand.

She looked at me with fear washed across her face, not for her partner any longer, but for the fact she knew she might be next. Where it had grabbed her was by the root of her hand, almost on the wrist. I could see more closely that the morphing had only just begun. Without even giving a moment to think, I pulled out my tactical knife I had grabbed from the car and looked at Maya as I mouthed the words “I’m sorry." Before she could even register what I was about to do, I got between her and Donald brought my knife swinging down, severing her hand and making the creature lose its grip on her.

Even though the sounds were muffled I could still hear her screaming, as she held her bloody stump where her hand use to be. I quickly cut a hole in my sleeve and ripped it off, wrapping it around her bleeding wrist. I began to then drag her away as fast as I could with my flashlight in my mouth. I looked towards where Donald was one last time. The creature and him were almost one now, faces melted together with its hand still reaching out to us for help. Except now the fingers blended together, extending its shriveled reach to us. I looked away as I then got Maya to her feet, putting her around my shoulders and began to hobble further into darkness.

We didn’t hear the cries for help anymore, as we made our way deeper into the unknown. At this point we thought we had escaped anything that was following us. Though when you walked into a never ending cast of abyss, one does not know what is lurking around you. Maya at this point was panting and sweating as we hobbled along. I put her down on the ground, so that she could get some rest. I myself felt exhaustion come over me finally after all that has happened.

As I placed myself beside Maya, I checked to see if the torn sleeve was holding tight. It was held secured, but the blood was pooling out ever so slowly. Eventually, I knew she would need real medical attention or she would die. I could tell she knew what I was thinking, just from the look on my face. She knew she didn’t have long if we didn’t find a way out soon. The problem was neither of us knew which way to go. Going back the way we came wasn’t possible due to the spider like creature that got Donald. We knew somewhere the thing that got Brian was skulking the hallway, laughing its way to us.

All that left us was to keep going forward. I checked on Maya to see if she was fit to move, but I then noticed how the blood was now seeping through the sleeve and streaming down her forearm. She was pale from blood loss, her breathing sounding like an effort every time. I tried to move her but her weight had become solid, feeling like I was trying to lift a resisting boulder. She looked at me and mouthed the words to just leave her there. At that point of how weak she was, her words couldn’t even carry through the muffled barrier.

I shook my head at her, I wasn’t going to lose another officer tonight. When I went to grab her in the attempt to carry her, I felt something wet land on my shoulder. I froze, fear once again taking over me. Maya saw the look on my face as my eyes looked up and raised her flashlight slowly, towards where the liquid was coming from. When she did, we both saw what looked like an exposed rib cage, with the insides hanging out. Before I could lift my gun to it, it jumped down between Maya and I, causing me to fly backwards from the impact. Instantly I sat up with gun and light on the torso that fell. Though now I could see it fully that it had legs and arms like any man. It turned my way and I assumed was looking at me. I say that because what I saw was that the skin of the torso had been split down the middle and lifted over the head and shoulders similar to a veil.

All that could be seen of the face was a row of pointed teeth, and two slits above that had to be the nose. The rest of the face was hidden behind the inside out torso flesh, as though it was a tightly worn mask. This time I didn’t hesitate, I took a shot right where its heart would be. The creature stepped back from impact, but did not collapse to the ground. Instead, it straightened itself up with a massive bullet wound in it’s exposed chest and began walking towards me.

I panicked, crawling backwards on my hands and feet until I came up against what I guessed was a wall. In the fear, I had dropped my gun and light and now could only see the haunting shadowed figure making its way to me from Mayas light. Soon it was just leering over me, standing completely still in front of me as though it was savoring the moment. As it leaned in to possibly finish the job, I saw gun shot flashes, one after another happening behind the monster. The beast jerked every time it withstood the bullets hitting it.

I looked around it and could just barely make out Maya supporting her gun on her limp arm that was held up by her knee. The creature turned around and with quick speed, pounced on to Maya. I could see from where my flashlight was casting towards her, the beast had begun to rip her apart. It swung wildly, clawing at her as though a gorilla would. I wish I could say there was something I could have done to help her. Unfortunately, the second that thing was on her she was already gone. So I did what I could do with the time I was given while the beast devoured my friend. I grabbed my flashlight and ran.

I ran as fast as I could. I ran until my lungs became lead and my legs became numb. I ran for what felt like miles down the dark beaten path. At this point I did not care which way I was going. I did not care what it lead me to. All I cared about was running until I couldn’t run any longer. That’s when it had finally hit me, I wasn’t in the hallway anymore. I doubt I was even in the university anymore.

For the length of time and distance I had ran there was no way I did not reach the end of the hallway. I collapsed down to my knees, and began to pound the darkness with my fist, screaming into the endless void that had swallowed me whole. I screamed until my throat became raw, I beat my fist until they were bruised and bloody. All for the fact that I knew anything I did was pointless. That’s when I saw her.

The only true light to be seen in the never ending abyss. Slowly she walked her way to me in the most seductive way. As though I was a lover waiting to be swayed by her ways. In what could even be conceived as reality at that point, it was more like a moth mesmerized by an oncoming flame. She glowed of pure white blinding light that radiated from every inch of her body. Her body itself looked as though of pure see through spider webs, tightly woven together.

She didn’t have any hair like a human would, but small strands of light coursing down the shape of her head. Her eyes had a piercing but also comforting gaze to them, similar to the eyes of a mother. Her lips made of the same pure white vines that held her body together, but had a hint of red that stuck out like the shine from a ruby when light hit it. I was entranced by this being that I didn’t even notice that it was now standing in front of me.

It looked down at me, with what looked like a smile on its face. I could feel tears streaming down my face, not just from staring directly into this source of light, but for the fact that looking at such beauty wiped all my worries away. The creature raised its tendrils made hand to me and planted its index finger directly on to my forehead. Then all feelings, all thoughts just washed away into a sea of nothingness. I was in pure ecstasy, feeling absolute bliss. The thoughts of partner and colleagues dying by the hands of those monsters just disappeared.

The next thing I knew, I was on my knees in an empty university research hall. The lights were on and I was alone. There was no pure being of light comforting me. There we no endless void surrounding me. I looked around me and what I saw were the remains of my colleagues and four robed civilians, all laid out around me, ripped to pieces. I looked down on myself and I realized I was covered in, what I know now was. their blood. That’s how they found me. Covered in blood on my knees in a pool of corpses. Everything I have told you is the truth. My truth anyways, but from the look on your face I know I didn’t convince you otherwise.

I am just glad I was able to tell someone the truth before they send me away.

"Speaking of which, where am I headed, doctor?” The doctor continued to write on his notepad a moment longer before addressing the now ex-officer Martin.

“Mekar Asylum I’m afraid. Though I know they will try their best to help you Martin,” the doctor said, as he nodded to the security behind Martin to now escort him away and bring him to his new life.