The black abyss was now spilling over the balcony and surging towards them. Without a moment to lose, the two women were blitzing down the utter dark. There were no lights or sources of guidance this time, but they didn’t dare to slow down. Their only focus was keeping one foot forward, away from the looming threat that lurked and hissed and scurried just behind them; stopping now even in brief indecision could mean a painful end. Seetha took the lead, her hand stretched out to feel for the wall of the passage; she hurried along, battling against the crippling fear of stumbling and falling. Jacq hug tightly to Seetha’s presence like two peas in a pod, mimicking her movements and pushing aside the same fear with determination.
“This way!” Seetha cried. The path was littered with rubble and debris, but there were no turns to confuse their pursuers. Every now and then, they could hear them scurrying above them, from the low ceiling. Their footfalls were getting louder and closer.
“Shit! They’re coming from everywhere!” Jacq exclaimed.
Suddenly, Seetha tripped on a loose tile and fell to the ground.
A sound of helpless terror filled Jacq’s throat. “Seetha! Get up!” she shouted, pulling her friend to her feet and pushing her forward. “Go, go!”
But even as she pushed herself forward, something emerged from the shadow and pulled her back.
“Jacq!” Seetha looked back helplessly.
Jacq instinctively flailed her arms back to defend herself, but her foot slipped on a small pool of water and she stumbled forward. A dozen of the bastards latched onto her back, biting and scratching her with vitriol fanaticism. Her pace turned into a clumsy run as she winced sharply at the assault but kept running—in spite of the agony and fear—she knew she couldn’t stop. Now screaming in pain, she slammed herself against the stonewall several times as she ran, hoping to shake the creatures off or crush them. Again she slammed herself against the wall, and like heavy stones the black vermin went flying off of her body and hitting the ground. But one or two of the bastards still held on by the fringes of her skin.
She suddenly saw Seetha disappearing through a doorway on one side of the passage… light! Her senses were her only saving grace as she pushed off the staggering pain and followed Seetha through the door.
Jacq dived through the doorway and rolled in the light casted by the small shaft above, while Seetha pushed herself against the heavy door with all of her might and slammed it shut. Only once the iron bar was fastened securely across the door did she quickly attend to Jacq; her bare shoulders and lower back were stinging with the bloodied, sickled cuts similar to those of the bodies they had found. The rats that clung to her were thrown off and now burning, alive, where they writhed in the light.
“Jacq, are you al—Oh no! They’re coming out of the walls!” Seetha gasped.
Jacq jerked her head up and saw that above and around the archway, the black sea was now pouring through the many cracks and crevices as though the walls were a breaking dam. How the Barbarian’s heart was pounding; and seeing that there would be no salvation in the tiny spotlight she ran after Seetha, who had just pulled her up, and was now legging it down yet another passage. Jacq finally caught up with her, and they ran side by side over the ruins.
The door had bought them both a few precious yards of running distance, but it didn't look as if they could keep it up much longer. Seetha was already getting weary by her labored breathing, and the pain on Jacq’s back was rendering her lame, and though they knew they were going in more or less the right direction, neither knew how far it was to the exit. But soon, there came the sound of the black sea gathering itself into another wave.
“Keep running!” Seetha shouted between gasps of air.
“Crapper snappers, those things are fast!” Jacq huffed.
When it seemed that the darkness couldn’t possibly end, the passage opened into a larger interior dimly lit by natural light, but not from torches. Without knowing it at first, they were standing in the far end of a long aisle of an underground chapel. Seetha and Jacq slowed their pace, panting heavily as they took in their surroundings. They didn’t pause long, but edged uneasily down the aisle, knowing that it wouldn't be long before the rats caught up to them.
The sunlight shining through the inlaid skylight of stained glass was unmistakable; revealing that the surface was only a few feet above them now. They casted a splash of spectrum that flickered and glowed like eerie but colorful apparitions, revealing intricate designs of gargoyles and devils etched into the stoneworks above a stone altar, where there laid such a horror as would have overwhelmed Jacq and Seetha had they not already been hyperventilating. Atop the altar, and around its nearly square opening in the tiled floor, was a grim array of human bones. The ones which retained their collocation as complete skeletons showed attitudes of agony, and over every inch of them all were gnawing marks, leaving little mystery to the cause of their demise. The air above the skeletal grave was heavy with the scent of mold and blood that had long lost its freshness, but still lingered with a bubonic aftertaste. The sound of the wind running throughout the chamber was a sighing echo, not unlike a ghostly choir of monks chanting a macabre hymn to finalize the scene.
“What… what is this place?” shuddered Seetha, her eyes scanning the chapel for any sign of an exit.
Jacq shook her head. “I don’t know, but we need to find a way out of here.” She looked around frantically. “There!” she exclaimed. “By the altar! We can climb up those stairs and use the ropes on the bell to rappel down the tower!”
But Seetha hesitated: “Wait! That’s it?! How do you even know that’s a bell tower?”
“Well, we can discuss about my intelligence checks in the afterlife, or we can shut up and just keep moving!”
Seetha complied begrudgingly, following Jacq around the hellishly littered offerings through the ascending arched passage and ran up the wide spiral staircase towards the reputed bell tower. There was a lot to notice, though the two women took in little of it in during their race to the top. There were four great windows across from one another within the tower; having lost their stain-glasses tints to time and weather, they allowed the dim sunlight to shine through, unfiltered, into the tower. Its interior was white-walled, delicately carved as if out of the trunk of a thick wax candle, and right in the center of the its base, that which the ascending stairs rounded, chains hung down a great shaft that had sunk into the ground. Out of it came a familiar face, riding on their treasure, while he held securely onto the ascending chains.
“That’s the chamber down there!” exclaimed Seetha. “We’re right on top of it!”
“Well, well, well,” the brigand drawled as he eyed the two women. “Am I in heaven already?”
“In your dreams!” Jacq sneered at him. Even as she spoke they heard again the pursuing rats back down in the chapel, intensifying with every step they took. The tower quaked and the chains around the treasure quivered.
The brigand dropped his smug demeanor and held on tightly. “For the love of the Mother, don’t jinx us now!” he cried in dismay.
“Don't slow down now, we're almost there!” Seetha called out as she hurried up the steps. But before she could reach the top, she abruptly stopped and nearly lost her balance at the edge. Jacq caught up to her and saw why she had stopped: there were no more stairs. A crumbling twenty-foot gap separated them from the summit, too far and high for them to jump across.
But then the black sea caught up to them. The dark, writhing wave had reached the elegant staircase; now they began swirling ‘round and around like a whirlpool that belied a cluttered mass of gnarled and twisted bodies clawing their way towards the two women, and their unlikely companion, in their frenzied hunt for flesh. The shrill, grating sound of their chittering quickly filled the tower and quaked the very grounds of the ruins.
Seetha froze, unsure of what to do next. “Now what?!”
Only one idea dawned upon the Barbarian: “Jump!”
Without waiting for consent, Jacq grabbed Seetha’s hand and they leapt towards the golden statue together, which was thankfully a shorter distance from the stairs. Seetha let out a small scream as they landed awkwardly on their treasure. The brigand, taken aback by their sudden leap, almost lost his balance. Hanging in the middle now, over the shaft, the three weary souls seemed out of harm’s reach. Until.
“Oi!” the brigand suddenly shouted. “Oi shite, look there! There!”
He was pointing frantically at the treasure chamber down below. The scream came again; carrying a sense of desperation and agony, each note gripping their hearts and squeezing them until they could hardly breathe. The encircling tide of black bodies suddenly dropped into the mouth of the shaft following that ghastly scream, but they didn’t fall through. Enveloping the entire bottom, they churned and rose back up to the threshold of the tower, until they met the edge of the pale light. But they did not stop.
Jacq and Seetha had only just caught their breathes, and now they were literally snatched from them by what they saw. Even as they began to charr and smoke, bubbling and splashing with the boiling vehemence of a witch’s cauldron on a dark sabbath, the rat’s volition seemed to be compelled by the command of some primal power that was too angry to be bothered with pain. A power that was effectuating its suicidal ascension, a power that only wished to feel the two women and the man ripped apart, before throwing their bodies into its festering, gormandizing bowels of the countless dead. Rocked by the surging motion of the black sea, the thick chains, which were anchored to the pulley in the ceiling, was now losing its traction.
“Swing, guys!” Seetha shouted.
“What?” said the brigand, surprised.
“Swing!” she repeated, pointing to the closest window. “Like a pendulum. Come on!”
He hesitated, eyeing the distance between them with unease. They had no idea how far down it was or if there was any safe place to land outside. It was a risky move, but he couldn’t see any other option. They each grabbed onto the chains, feeling them sway beneath their weight. Feet planted on the statue, they rocked themselves back and forth. Back and forth. It was slow going, but they were gaining momentum. Jacq reached one hand out as they swung near the side of the tower and pushed off, propelling them further over the gap. The brigand also reached out, trying to grab hold of the decaying window frame, but his fingers just missed by a few inches. The black sea was getting higher and higher. The piercing resonance of them was near deafening.
“This isn't good!” cried the brigand.
“Harder, Jacq!” Seetha yelled over the rats. “Harder!”
The Barbarian risked losing balance and stuck one foot out, pushing off with such force that it caused the already crumbling stucco to break apart even more. But it did the trick. They went flying out the window and down the tower. The plan was working.
But it worked too well.
As they plummeted through the grey sky, Seetha and Jacq released the chains and held on tight to each other, their screams merging with the rushing wind that whipped their hair into a frenzy. Panic welled up inside Jacq as she realized, in hindsight, they had taken this leap without knowing what awaited them at the bottom. The brigand, still clinging to the chains and the treasure, swung wildly, desperately trying to grab onto something solid. But the velocity of their descent was too great, and he couldn’t reach anything.
As the ground below seemed to come closer with each passing second, the two Adventurers braced themselves for the impact that was sure to follow. Suddenly, they crashed through the wooden roof of a dilapidated barn, shattering wooden beams and sending debris flying everywhere. The wind was knocked out of the redoubtable Barbarian as her body slammed onto a bed of hay, and the Sword Dancer landed on a hanging canvas that broke her fall before she slid off and hit a stack of wool. Dust and rubble filled the air as Seetha and Jacq laid motionless amidst the wreckage.
The vermin tide, unrelenting even in defeat, brimmed near the open window that its prey had escaped through by a knife’s edge. It was on the brink of spilling over when, suddenly, the bell tower collapsed on itself, sending chunks of stone and splintered wood flying in all directions. The deafening roar of the tumbling crash drowned out the screeching swarm as they were buried back in their lair. Overhead, the sky filled with a rain of debris, dust, and broken glass. Once the dust settled, the stratus of clouds departed southwards and the sky was opened, high and blue. A golden sunlight gleamed over the gray woodlands. The shadows of the ruins dissipated.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
Seetha was the first to come to her senses. She laid there for a moment, dazed and disoriented, before struggling to sit up. Her head was spinning, and in spite of her cushioned fall, the aches and bruises were starting to form all over her body. She slowly slid off of the stack of wool and and landed on her knees, her back illuminated by a stream of light coming through the shattered roof. Her chest heaved as she knelt there, her limbs feeling lifeless against the ground. From the deep below, she could sense a muffled howling rising up for a moment, and she felt something big, something furious, pummeling the cavernous walls with a resonating tremor that followed. Trembling, she just stared down at the solid earth beneath her.
Jacq groaned, pushing herself up from the pile of straw with trembling hands as she looked around for Seetha and the brigand. Once she saw that her friend was safe and alive, the Barbarian fell back on her backside and remained still, nostrils picking up the familiar smell of burning rats outside as they screeched and thrashed themselves against the barn wall. The silence that finally followed was a sweet reprieve to her sore ears. As the wind picked up, it carried the foul smell away, leaving behind the fresh, earthly scent of the sunlit overland. The gentle wind caressed the Barbarian's face, cool and soothing against the heat of her exertion. She felt the tension in her strained muscles slowly relax. Serenity at last wholly overcame her; the serenity of being alive to live and fight another day. The ethereal screaming faded. After a while, she struggled up to her feet.
The brigand was nowhere to be seen, but that was a bridge to be crossed later. For now, she trudged over to the Sword Dancer who was uncorking their hidden emergency flask of the “good stuff” that they withheld for such circumstances. Half the liquor spilled onto the dusty floor as she threw her head back without even realizing Jacq’s presence, until she felt a hand on her arm.
“You alright?” Jacq croaked with a wry smile.
The Isyrian looked up at the Rüzgârian with glassy eyes. “I... I think so,” she whispered, her voice hoarse from their harrowing experience. “That was too close.” She held onto the Barbarian to support her wobbling legs, and the two of them stumbled outside together. Gradually, the warmth of the sun spread all over Seetha’s chilled body. The liquor did as it was intended: calming her breath and stilling her quivering lips, but somehow she felt even better knowing that her companion, her childhood friend, made it out as well. It was almost as if Jacq’s warm camaraderie, in spite of her occasional oddities, had renewed her strength.
“Oi, you two! Look at this!” From somewhere beyond the barn, a husky voice called out to the two women. On shaky legs, they followed it around the corner, past the stables, down a small flight of steps set between two retaining walls, and down to a small courtyard near the cemetery.
There he was: the brigand with their hard-won treasure. He was lathed in sweat, his sheath was without a weapon, his leather outfit scuffed from shoulder to abdomen, and his chaffed arm stilled lassoed with the chain. But his focus wasn’t on the golden statue at his feet at all, but on what he was pointing. The two women whirled about and looked.
“Crapper snappers, are you jesting me right now?!” Seetha exclaimed in frustration. Inscribed, on the northern wall of the chapel, in large lettering chiseled in common of an antediluvian mode but still eligible, was a warning. It said: Magna Mater lies here. Enter Not! For whoso-ever passeth in do not passeth out!
Jacq chimed in with a scoff, “Thanks for the heads-up on the other side, fellas.”
