Nocturnal Eternity

Chapter 4: Dark Lords

I stepped down the stairs to the basement of the store. Before I could take out my phone for the flashlight, I felt my heart leap as I fell down the stairs.

As I got up, groaning, I heard a bag make a thud in the distance. I got up and whispered "Lumos!" as I turned on my phone's flashlight. I walked ahead and saw shelves filled with various items, like food, drinks and broomsticks, for some reason.

As I went on, I saw two desks aligned together. When I went nearer and squinted, I realized it had different types of cards with photos of people and what looked like information about them. And on the wall behind the tables, engraved in big, bold and black letters were the words "Dark Lords". One thing was clear: The words were not written with any kind of ink. It was almost like someone had used a blade to engrave the words but they had a kind of glow to them which made me read it clearly.

"What are you doing here?" A voice sprung from behind me.

This startled me so much that I lost my balance and nearly toppled over a shelf. When I looked over, I saw Luke, narrowing his eyes at me.

He gritted his teeth, "What the hell is wrong with you, going into a random basement? And what the hell was that thud that nearly gave me a heart attack?"

"Look at this." I pointed at the table.

Luke looked at the wall and the table, not with fear but worry.

I picked up a card. It said 'LUPA, THE SHE WOLF AND LEADER OF THE WEREWOLVES. LUPA TEAMED UP WITH THE HUMANS TO DEFEAT HER NEMESIS, THE VAMPIRES.'

As absolutely nothing made sense to me, I picked up another card which read, 'LORD CASPIAN BLACKWOOD, KING OF THE VAMPIRES. LORD CASPIAN DIED TO THE COMBINED POWERS OF WEREWOLVES AND HUMANS IN THE GREATEST GLADIATOR MATCH IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.'

A few other cards contained creatures like Hobgoblins, Syrens and a bunch of other stuff.

"Does any of this make sense to you?" I asked Luke, whose hands were shaking.

Luke seemed dazed. Then he blinked and shook his head, "Nah. It seems like the owner of this store really liked mystical creatures. Who knows, maybe he used his freetime to play games like Mythomagic."

I looked at another picture, one which contained a black and white scroll which looked eerily familiar to me. After looking at it for half a minute, I realized it was the scroll that Luke had. Written below the scroll was 'THE SCROLL OF DESTINY.' with no description.

"Hey, doesn't this look like your family heirloom?" I asked him.

"Yeah, no. Tons of scrolls look like that." Luke lied.

"Oh, come on. We have to-" Suddenly everything went black. I felt my head hit something. Cold whispers spoke in my head, "Cave of Horror. Cave of Horror."

Then, an even colder voice, a voice as cold and sharp as a fork running over a plate, crooned, "Find. Answers. Cave. Horror. Death. Failure." I heard a distant being howling in a voice so cold it sent shivers down my spine.

"Walker? Walker!" Luke called out.

"What..What happened?"

"You just fell back and started muttering. Then you started howling!"

"Howling?"

"Like a banshee!" Luke sounded really worried.

I saw Olivera approaching me. I rubbed my head and winced.

"Yeah, you hit your head pretty bad. You okay?"

"Yeah... I'm fine. Listen. Do you know a place called The Cave of Horror?" I asked him, as we climbed back up to the store.

Luke stopped abruptly. "What did you say?"

"So it rings a bell, The Cave?" I guessed.

"We don't talk about that place." Luke barked.

"Woah, why?" I asked him, wondering why he barked.

"It's a scary place." Luke replied, taking the bags of food he dropped.

"Yeah, I got that from the name. What is the place about?" I asked impatiently.

"It's said anyone who goes in there never returns. Whoever DOES return goes insane. From the bits that the people have gathered from the survivors, it says that that place is filled with illusions, scary ones at that." Luke shuddered and nearly dropped the tofu.

I rolled my eyes, "So it's as fake as the disappearances in Romania the media has been shoving in our face."

"Those disappearances are real! All those people went exploring in a cave in romania and NEVER returned. Say that it's fake to the people who lost their family to that cave!"

"I can't, even if I wanted to." Luke gasped. I apologised, "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that. Look, we HAVE to find out what happened in September. I hardly doubt that we just randomly skipped a month. Something happened in September and we have to find out what that is. And from what I know, The Cave of Horror has answers."

"And how can you possibly know that?" Luke asked suspiciously.

I hesitated. Then I lied, "Just a hunch."

"We can't risk insanity over a hunch! Was it something you were experiencing when you passed out?"

"We have to risk insanity or there's no point to this trip. And what else do you suggest we do?"

Luke muttered something about having no idea but still not wanting insanity.

"Look. We'll decide what to do when we reach the cave. We know where to start now. Where is this cave?"

"I mean, it's located in an island in the middle of nowhere in the Dead Sea!" Luke exclaimed.

"The dead sea?" I asked, bewildered.

"It's a no-go, unless....."

"Unless?"

"We fly. There's an airport nearby, there has to be a few private jets. If we use it, we can get to the dead sea in 10-15 hours. But..Are you sure we have to go there?"

"Yes. It's the question for humanity. And you can fly??"

"Well... I'm not Superman. But I can fly a plane. Long story but my grandfather was a pilot. Then I became a pilot. Then I got fired."

"Fired? Why?"

"For...reasons." Luke smiled. "And how is it a question for humanity? Only our neighborhood is missing."

"Can never be sure."

"Still" Luke looked worried, "Going to the Cave of Horror is mental suicide."

"Great." I said. "Didn't know it was a Tuesday."

"It's actually a Thursday. And I'm serious, Walker."

"Hello, Serious. I'm Alex Walker." I said, laughing.

"ALEX! That place made people insane!"

My smile fading, I replied, "We have to go. That place legitimately has answers. Look," I added, looking at his unconvinced expression, "We'll talk about this on the way. Can we please go now?"

Reluctantly, he agreed.

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