The Hollowed Eye Man

Chapter 18: Heart Of The Beast

We held our embrace for as long as we could until we finally calmed down, and my heart rate returned to a regular pace as I stopped panting for air. We were now trapped in this windowless shack with a dying phone battery and a pistol with limited ammunition. Now standing in the shacks entrance hallway, there was only two other rooms, one was on the left and the other on the right. The left side room had the appearance of some sort of living room while the other was a fully furnished kitchen.

"We should stick together," I said interrupting the silence as I grabbed her hand.

"Obviously. I'm not wandering around here by myself." She retorted as we walked into the left room.

Flashing the light inside, it quickly illuminated, while beside me Sophie searched the walls and managed to find a switch. I followed her with the flashlight as she looked at me and got her finger ready.

"Let there be light." She joked trying to relieve some tension and finally flipped the switch.

I didn't hold out hope as she flipped the light switch but miraculously the living room in the cabin illuminated. The single light mounted to the roof flickered for a moment before starting to glow brightly. Even though the old incandescent bulb only illuminated the room so much, that was all we needed as moths came out of nowhere and started to flirt with the burning glow. While they did this, their silhouettes shined on the walls making the atmosphere of the room a little more frightening.

We didn't spend to much time looking at the spectacle before we started scavenging around the room for any bit of evidence that could lead us to the reason that told us why we were here. The room itself had a simple layout. There was an old couch that looked like it was pushing fifty years, a small tv that was decades behind current models and a bookcase filled with tattered and worn scriptures. Although taking a closer look at the bookshelves, there wasn't much to look through.

A significant portion of the spines on the books were faded but they all in one way or another discussed dark magic or witchcraft. Even the Necronomicon found residence on the shelf, and it was the still the newest book out of the rest. We were both thinking the same thing as Sophie reached out and grabbed one of the old books while I pulled on the Necronomicon. However, as I did that, the sound of something clicking echoed out. It was subtle but it was there, as even Sophie seemed to notice it. Looking over at me, she watched as I held the book in my hands.

"What was that?" She asked with curiosity, and before I could answer, something else started to happen.

It was like a mechanism released, and an eerie creaking started in the middle of the room. The two of us now looked over our shoulders to where the noise was coming from and watched as the carpet in the middle of the room started to rise. Sophie prepared the gun for whatever it might be, as a terrible creaking continued to echo out from it.

"It has to be a trap door," I said out loud causing an immediate response from Sophie.

She lowered the gun for a moment, as we watched the trapdoor hit it's ninety-degree point before it Jostled back and forth and locked itself into place. We waited for a second to see if anything was going to step out but it just remained flat. Looking at Sophie, she waved the gun toward it as if telling me to check the blanket. I hesitated for a minute as I looked over at her.

"Are you sure about this?" I tried not to sounds scared except my voice cracked suddenly.

"I'm sure, Let's end this." She whispered back coldly.

Her words gave me no other choice. I had to act now since my curiosity now felt like a raging fire as all these questions seemed to be concluding. Pulling the carpet off of what we still believed was a trapdoor, I waited in anticipation for something to pop out except that wasn't the case, instead, it was just a pit. On the pit wall, a ladder that only went so far down descended to what appeared to be a rock like staircase that vanished into the shadows.