P-Catacombs Chapter 34

Read Table of Content | +Kyla Scurchio
======================================================================= When I at last hit the bottom steps I was thrown back into darkness. Remembering the Keeper’s candle I had snagged I pulled it out to light it. The flame was unusually bright but I expected it was just because any type of light would be brighter than usual in the darkness. Only as I used the candle, I noticed other things about it. Like how it wouldn’t light every hallway; the flame would go black. I felt like somehow the candle knew I was lost and was leading me to a place I would want to be.
Because I had no particular destination I let the candle guide me. Only taking the paths it lit up and avoiding the darker, threatening passages. Deeper and deeper into the depths of the catacombs the light guided me. I probably walked miles. Tunnels and passages crisscrossed in every direction and I
took my time, marking my path on a map in my journal. I felt I was moving in a general northwestern direction. I wondered how long I had before the candle would burn out.
After a few hours of walking I managed to sketch in two new mice. I found a lone mouse that was just bone. It carried just a sword, chipped at the end and a shield and helmet. Clearly used in battles, probably only in the hundreds. I had watched it for a time as it stumbled its way around scavenging for food or whatever else. Alone it wasn’t much of a threat. The next one I had seen about made me sick. An ooze mouse I called it. It looked like a large glob of snot sliding through a side passage. It never came down my own path and I was grateful for that. I had no way to clean up.
I took a break when I reached the end of my passage. My candle had led me to a dead end it appeared and I figured I had to back track. The hall veered left, but I couldn’t see down it. The flame turned black and no light came off of it. I regretted not having a regular candle to guide me into the darkness beyond. I rested my head against the stone wall. I heard water dripping in the distance; I was probably close to the river by now. I heard the scuffle of mice down various passages and I tried to pinpoint what type of mouse it was by just sound but to no prevail.
After a few minutes I decided I better get moving. It was never good to sit at the end of a dark passage for too long, you would start to look like easy prey to bigger beasts. As I got up I heard a distant squeak from the dark passage, followed by a few clicks and a lot of scurrying. When I went to take a step forward I was snapped back against the wall. I looked down to find a white sticky something attached to my arms; much like a spider’s web. I went to brush it off but it just stuck to my other hand.
I had a huge fear of spiders so to be trapped in a web like substance sent waves of panic through me. My brain kept telling me to bolt but I couldn’t yank free. I became acutely aware of the sound of scuffling feet. The squeaks seemed to have doubled in the matter of seconds. The sounds came from all over. The echo confused me; the sound was coming from above, but also below. More scuffling and now it was definitely closer. I yanked my arm one more time and finally felt the web like stuff break.
It didn’t matter, I was too late. It dropped from the ceiling and stared at me. My heart thundered beneath my chest. My mouth had gone dry, and hundreds of signals shot through my brain; the biggest one being “RUN!” I stumbled back away from the mouse. The ears told me quite clearly this was no real spider, but just the same I didn’t like him. The furry body freaked me out, and the legs were just unnatural. I couldn’t breathe.
I turned around to sprint down the passage I had come from but I found myself facing another, smaller spider mouse. When I glanced at the wall I saw dozens more. I was trapped. I felt the scream build up beneath me, but nothing came out of my frozen lips. I told my brain to breath, I told my legs to run but nothing happened, and the mice just advanced. Hundreds of legs moving at once closing me in.
My last thought was of my trap; I yanked it from my pocket and held it up. The bead was all I needed. Hundreds of eyes gazed upon the blue mist that flowed off of it. I watched the mice sway. I felt the power of the bead as well but the adrenaline in me kept me standing. The trap tingled as I touched it and it was hard to hold on too. My muscles began to feel like rubber, but I stood firm holding out the bead until the spiders dropped one by one.
I ran down the passage that had been dark before using the trap as a beacon of light until I reached the end of it. My keeper’s candle then shot out yellow light and I knew I would be able to move forward once more. I pocketed the trap glad that it would work later when I needed to hunt. When I held out the candle in front of me I found not another passage, but instead another set of steps. I didn’t hesitate and took them two at a time, desperate to put distance between myself and the spider mice.
When I reached the top two doors opened up into a shadowy clearing, and the moment I stepped into it the candle whooshed out. There were tombstones on either side of me surrounded by tall gangly trees, all of which were long dead. And in the middle of the clearing stood a table, and it was surrounded by walls on three sides. As I stared at the table that was so obviously covered in runes I took in the mice that were around it.
“Welcome Plankrun, we’ve been expecting you.” The Acolytes took a step towards me and I gripped the trap in my pocket tight, hoping, but knowing it would be useless against them.