The Church Basement

[Indigetti]

So i've been doing a bit of reading on Null Winter's excellent posts "Dejan's Journal Entries"(go and check them out if you haven't already read them) and they were extremely inspiring. So there i was, sitting in my chair, browsing the forums, and then i thought to myself "you know what... screw it. Lets make a Darkwood Narative!". So without further ado, let us proceed.



In my hand, I held a rusty metal combination lock. I'd been fiddling with different combinations on the lock for a few minutes so far, with no luck. The lock remained firm, standing between me, and my destination, a small cellar leading into the basement of a collapsed abandoned church. After many frustrated attempts at forcing the lock I eventually stood up, and began to scan the room for any hint of a combination.

"9072". I quickly turn around to examine the source of the noise. It's a twitchy old man with a faded grey beard and tattered clothes. He had been so camoflaged by all the dirt and grime in the air, that I didn't even see him when I walked in. His voice was raspy and choked, and he leaned up againsed the podium. He spoke a second time. "9027" he rasped. Was this the combination to the lock? I walked back to the trap door and began to put in the set of digits the man had given me. With a soft click, the lock slid from the door and onto the ground. "And kiss them for me..." The old man choked, settling back into his pile of dust and decaying wood. I pondered little what the man had said, and proceeded to open the wooden doors to the cellar.

The first thing i noticed was the smell. The greasy smell of saturated, rotten meat overwhelmed my sences. I choked on it, struggling to contain the wild dog meat I had eaten earlier. I recognized this smell as soon as it reached my nose. It was the decaying smell of Chompers. I took a step back and placed my hand on the small semi-automatic pistol strapped to my waist. I watched and waited for any sign of assault to come from the cellar, while all the while being overwhelmed by that putrid smell. It was a solid 30 seconds of waiting, before I finially eased up and approached the entrance again. I could honestly say, that I did not want to enter that cellar, after imagining what horrible nightmares awaited me in the basement. But I had been sent here by wolf, and I knew how he got when he didn't get what he wanted. After pondering the thought of him filling me with a few rounds when I went to him empty handed, I decided to enter the cellar. I prepared my pistol, held my breath, and plunged down into the unknown depths below.

If I had thought the smell was bad before, it was nothing compared to now. I leaned on the chilled stone wall, gagging and rasping, struggling to keep my stomach contents. Regaining my sences, I scanned the room for chompers. I didn't catch any sign of them, but the smell was unmistakably the odor of those mutilated creatures. I pulled my thick leather coat over my nose, hoping to block out the smell. It helped little, but it was better than nothing. With one hand shielding my nose and the other containing my firearm, I proceeded into the dark depths of the cellar.

It soon became apperant that I would need a light source if I wanted to continue. I removed my hand from my nose, once again overwhelmed by the smell, and produced a small flashlight. The light revealed cheap stone walls, rotting wooden supports, and collapsed entryways. Wolf had sent me here for a small key, so I would need to keep my eyes sharp if I wanted to find it. I entered an expansive room with soiled white bedding scattered about, plagued with mildew and dried blood. Couches and dead lamps sat by the walls and in the corners. Broken bottles and rotten food littered the floor. My flashlight revealed thick dust particules in the air. The sound of flies was common and constant. As I proceeded through the room, I saw something stir in the corner. I pointing my light and gun directly at the source of the movement. Upon close examination, it was the bedsheet that were moving. It was then that I realized that all the bedsheets in the room were moving. Something was underneath them. The awnser was clear. Chompers.

I backed up againsed a large stone pillar and clapped my hand over my mouth. This room was filled with decaying, withering, chompers. Rats ate away at their bodies as they twitched and moaned. They must have been dormant, because if they weren't, I would already be a mutilated chunk of bloody meat. I began to proceed foreward again, this time much more silent and cautious. I heard a chomper next to me, gurgling beneath the the bedsheets, almost as if it was trying to speak. I knew that it wasn't going to have any luck, as chomper's throat cavities were completely decimated. I proceed to explore the humid suffocating hallways of the cellar.

I finially entered what seemed like the final room. It was the largest of them all, and was similar to the first. Withering chompers sat underneath soiled bedsheets just like the first room. The decor and furniture was the same was well. I began to explore the room, silently opening closets and boxes, searching for that key. After scanning the room for a while, I had become accustomed to the smell, but I hadn't relaxed even a little. The sound of the chompers gurgling beneath the bedsheets had kept me on edge the whole time. While scanning a toppled bookshelf for the third time, a rust piece of wire caught my eye. I pulled it out of the mess of decaying books and trash, and examined it closely under the light of my flashlight. It was a disoriented key, covered in rust and grime. I had finially found what I had been looking for, and I could have yelled from excitement. Of course I didn't though. The key had a few bends and creases though, nothing Piotrek couldn't fix. I stuffed it in my pocket, and started for the entrance.

Something caught my eye though. A red metal object buried in the trash next to the doorway. It sat on top of a decaying dresser, looking just as grimy as everything else in the room. It was a small tape player, about the size of a shoe. I picked it up to examine it closer. As soon as I lifted it up off the ground, it began to blare loud classical music. I jumped so ubruptly, I dropped it on the ground creating an even louder shatter of metal and electronics. Dust erupted off the floor, and the sound of the tape player breaking echoed off the walls of the cellar.

A bedsheet only a few feet away from me, began to wither and convulse. Angry, short, bursts of gurgly roars began to erupt from the chomper beneath them. It shot up, throwing rats and debree all around the room. The bedsheet slid off, revealing the revolting creature beneath. It's skin was a sickly greyish-green color, and it was caked in dried blood and pus. A small cavity ran from the top of it's head down to the pelvis. The creature stood up and began to convulse. Greasy liquid was flung around the room, as the cavity split open, revealing rows of slimy, crude teeth. It puked out an aggressive roar, and turned to face me. I quickly raised my pistol, aimed, and fired three quick sucessive shots and the beast. It let out a cry of pain, and fell to the ground. Chompers around the room began to convulse and wake up, throwing off their bedsheets. Fear and panic began to grow inside me, and I realized my situation. My legs operated by themselves, and I ran for the hallway.

My flashlight bobbed up and down, and dust swirled around me, and I ran as fast as I could towards the entrance. I could hear Chompers all throughout the cellar beginning to wake up. The sound of my gun had obvously waken them all up, and they were aware of my presence. I could hear them in pursuit, directly behind me. The entrance was only through the next room. Escape was so close. Adrenaline was flowing through me as I sprinted throught the chasms. I could hear them getting closer and closer behind me. Pain erupted accrossed my forehead as I ran strait into a low-hanging beam. Falling to the ground, with vision blurry and head burning, I struggled to gain back my sences. The sound of hungry roars were closing in on me from all sides. I shot up, running blindly through the darkness, my flashlight laying on the floor where I had fallen. I clamped my hand over my nose to stop the gushing flow of blood. Hungry jaws clamping down on my leg, causing me to faceplant once more onto the cold stone floor. More bites began to close down on my arms, legs, back... I fired shots from my gun randomly, hopelessly to drive them off. Muscle began to tear, bones began to crack, and flood began to spray. The last thing I experienced, was the feeling of my legs being torn from my torso.



*DAY 13*

[Null Winter]

Oh, goody. I have actual competition for once.

[Indigetti]

I am in no way, looking for competition. Your literature is excellent, and i have nothing againsed it. Keep doing what your doing, if your able to.

[Null Winter]

I shall continue to harvest the skulls of other writers to be used in the construction of totems, then.

[Indigetti]

...