Underground - Prologue

A mixture of light bulbs and torch flames threw distorted shadows onto the walls of the narrow staircase. Grey figures twisted and humped as a cluster of five continued to descend slowly down the stairwell’s decrepit steps. Each carrying an inflated knapsack, the group kept close to each other as they cautiously inched down deeper into the ground.

 

It had been more than a week since the team first embarked from “civilization” - it was not the most urban settlement, considering that it was a tiny village still living half primitively. The five have forgotten the date half way into their journey and have completely lost track of time when they discovered the crumbling entrance to the ancient ruins.

 

The group did stop to admire the exotic carvings sprawling around every corner in the maze; in fact, after passing through the first corridor of this monstrous labyrinth, they rarely rested aside from reenergizing. The five have come to understand in the early stages of their “career” that these texts were valueless unless they were chipped off from the walls. Investigation was for the archaeologists, not them.

 

Usually, people like these were too inert to decipher the words off every face of an infrastructure; however, this expedition was different. After disinterring the identity of the underground palace’s owner from inscriptions by the entrance, the five were too excited to stop for more stories on the deceased’s fantastic accomplishments.

 

They were too agitated to even glance at the delicate artifacts in the halls and antechambers. The final reward to their odyssey seemed to hold a price unparalleled by any gold inlayed jade antiquity.

 

“Liang, we gettin’ close?” The second in line, a robust middle-aged man, broke the silence. His voice, though tuned down to a whisper, bounced off the walls of the confined space and returned as ghostly echoes.

 

“We should reach the final passage before the main chamber… right after these stairs.” Liang, a young male perhaps only in his early twenties, moved a burning torch closer to the rough sketch in his hands before answering the man in front. The light from the scorching flame flashed off the thick pair of glasses sitting on his nose.

 

“Hey boy, watch da flame!” The male around Liang’s age followed close behind, hissing fiercely at the thinning space between the torch and the map, “If ya burn that, I’ll rip ya inta pieces ya see!”

 

“Shut up San!” A smack resounded in the corridor as the crude youth, apparently San, flinched at the pain of a fist plummeting onto the back of his head. The owner of the fist was an elderly man. The wan figure seemed incapable of supporting the towering luggage crushing down on him; but the senior was well capable of carrying another package two times the weight of his current load.

 

Liang smirked smugly at San and addressed the middle-aged member, “Don't worry Mr. Yu, we should be at the end of these stairs really - ” Liang froze in midsentence and stared back in horror

 

A chilling, elongated whistle resonated from higher up in the stairwell.

 

The group froze in their steps and simultaneously looked back into the darkness with terrified eyes.

 

“Whew - ” The whistle came again, clearly closer than it was before. A faint sulphuric smell began emanating from behind.

 

“Run.”

 

The command was enunciated by the youngest member currently at the head of the line. Immediately, the rest of the team snapped back into focus. With no sign of the cautiousness and composure from a moment ago, the five stampeded down the stairs in chaos.

 

“Whew - Whew - Whew -” The noise seemed excited by the tumult below; the whistles became shorter and more frequent upon sensing the racket created by the group’s desperate escape. The odour strengthened and was evident enough for detection.

 

A cruel joke was prepared for the team. The race that had no sign of even slowing immediately screeched to a halted upon reaching the last flight of steps. A wall - a slap in the face - stared back at them in the place of a passage leading to survival.

 

Yu cursed loudly before spinning to face Liang, who looked awfully perplexed and pale as marble. The whistling sound was closing in on the team at a terrifying speed, and the stench was dense enough to suffocate those who dared to take a deep breathe.

 

“What have you done?!” The large man grabbed the student by the collar and hollered, “Where the hell did you lead us?!” Yu’s face flushed with anger as he sputtered out more curses before throwing Liang onto the ground.

 

“Calm down.” The young boy who headed the run grabbed Yu’s fist before they soared onto Liang, who was already shaking and curled into a ball, “There is a path. Hurry.”

 

Without another word, the youth skipped down the last few steps and ran straight at the right wall of the staircase. And he magically disappeared.

 

Liang stood up rubbing his vocal cords, pushed past the others who were stupefied by the sight, and followed the young boy. The rest immediately revived from shock, and though still confused, scrambled down the stairs. An obstinate wall which stood there a moment ago was replaced by a shadowed corridor stretching horizontally into the distance.

 

“Whew - ” This whistle was once more elongated, blown right down their necks.

 

It sent them bolting down the right side of the corridor and soon into a large, damp chamber with nothing but the two who ran ahead. This room definitely did not hold the treasure the team was looking for; and it, which the three conveniently noticed, was also a dead end.

 

Much to the team’s relief, the whistling seemed to have stopped. Already adept from past ventures, the group revived from the fright in a diminutive amount of time. The five were soon up and probing around for possible exits and inscriptions indicating their position in the maze-like structure.

 

“Eh grandpa,” San shouted to the elderly man across the room, who was apparently his grandfather, “There’re no paths or characters ’ere! No point stayin’ ’ere!”

 

“San’s right,” The elder turned to the centre of the room, “Let’s go back the way we"”

 

A cold hand landed on his arm and halted the old man in mid-sentence. Looking up, he saw Yu’s face paled to a cadaverous white. The middle-aged man’s eyes were opened so big they threatened to fall out, and his mouth quivered in attempt to form words. Feeling that speaking was not successful, Yu forced up his other arm that was in spasm and pointed towards the entrance to the chamber they were poking at.

 

Slowly turning on his heels, the elderly man focused his keen vision at the doorway.

 

Illuminated by the peripheral light dancing from the torches and lamps, a silhouette of a crouching man-like creature blocked the entrance to the stone room. The figure was fuzzy from the limited source of light, but its skin was moist, donning an angrily dark crimson under the gaze of the lamps. The only clear features were its eyes " they were a pair of blank white marbles reflecting the torch light, aimed straight at the old man.

 

The thick odour of sulphur, and perhaps more the feeling of despair, suffocated the team when the creature finally exhaled an elongated, nonhuman sigh.

 

“Wheeeew - ”