(T/N) stood frozen on the sidewalk. He looked at his phone: 22:58. His heart hammered in his chest.
23:00.
Just as the clock struck the hour, (T/N) felt a chill. He looked up. There were no cars. Chloe simply appeared. She slipped out of the darkness of her house, gliding silently toward the sidewalk, like a shadow.
She was wearing dark clothes. In the night, she looked more like a silhouette than his classmate.
— Chloe: You're punctual, (T/N). I like that.
Her voice was barely a whisper.
— (T/N): I'm ready.
Chloe nodded, her face a mask.
— Chloe: Follow me. Stay close to me.
(T/N) hesitated, but nodded. He wasn't going to disobey so soon.
Chloe turned and began to walk. (T/N) had to hurry to catch up. They left the houses behind and entered the old side streets, heading toward the center.
The only sound was the brush of their footsteps on the ground. Chloe walked with a strange calmness.
They walked toward an old park, right next to the train tracks. The park ended at a tall wall.
Chloe approached a dense bush next to the wall. She crouched down.
— Chloe: Here.
She pulled aside some branches and an old wooden board, on which several warnings were written, such as: "entry forbidden" or "road to hell." There was a gap, just enough for a person to crawl through.
The air that rushed out of the hole was cold and smelled of old metal and damp earth. The tunnel.
— Chloe: Past this wall, you're already in the subway. Follow the rails. It's easy.
Chloe turned on a small, very powerful flashlight.
— Chloe: Go in.
(T/N) swallowed. He looked around. They were alone. The deal was real.
He leaned down, got on his knees, and crawled into the gap. He felt the cold earth on his hands.
Chloe entered right behind him. The tunnel soon opened into a larger, very dark space. They were between the wall and the subway.
— Chloe: Now, we just walk.
Chloe took the lead, moving without fear. (T/N) followed her closely.
In a few minutes, the tunnel ended. He saw rusty train rails, submerged in total darkness. In the distance, the faint sound of the sleeping city could barely be heard.
They were inside. And (T/N) felt that, in this place, his life no longer belonged to him.
Chloe didn't wait for (T/N) to get used to the darkness. The slender beam of her flashlight was their only window into the total blackness, moving over the rusted rails and damp floor.
— Chloe: Don't break your stride. And turn on your flashlight.
(T/N) obeyed. The silence was oppressive, much heavier than the noise of the street. He felt the dampness, the cold, and he could smell the mold, old metal, and, subtly, the smell of sewage.
They walked along the abandoned rails. (T/N) noticed something: Chloe moved as if she knew every inch of the way.
— (T/N): Chloe... have you been here before? —The question came out as a broken whisper.
Chloe stopped. Her flashlight beam flickered. She did not turn around.
— Chloe: Yes. —Her voice was so cold it hurt (T/N), a clear warning—. I was here when this place hadn't been closed off.
She took a step and continued walking, leaving (T/N) feeling paralyzed. He kept going, knowing the journey was much deeper and more dangerous than he had imagined.
They reached an abandoned platform. The lights were broken, the benches overturned. The station was immense. Chloe turned off her flashlight. The darkness became absolute.
— Chloe: Feel this, (T/N).
(T/N) saw nothing, but felt a terrifying presence lurking around the station.
Chloe turned the light back on. She was standing there, with an expression of fascination that contrasted with the misery of the place.
— Chloe: This is where most people have disappeared, according to reports. When they reached this point, they heard whispers urging them to go further and further into the deepest sections of the subway. Do you feel those people are near?
(T/N) clenched his fists. He felt fear of this place and of Chloe.
— Chloe: You wanted answers, didn't you? Keep looking. The answer is beyond these sections.
Chloe began to walk toward the tunnel on the opposite side of the platform.
The new tunnel was narrower and quieter. A few steps in, Chloe's flashlight beam stopped on the walls.
The wall didn't have normal graffiti, but paintings made with something that looked like dried blood. They were crude and chilling drawings.
The figures were skinny creatures, with long limbs and deformed heads, all colored red. And the most unsettling thing was that they were worshiping a figure in the center.
The focus of the painting was a human figure with an obese and grotesque body, also stained red. He seemed to be the leader, and the creatures bowed before him with gestures of submission.
— (T/N): What is that? —he managed to whisper.
— Chloe: It's what I found.
The light moved. The paintings stretched out, showing the central figure in various scenes, always receiving the adoration of the other red forms, sometimes raising a hand over figures that looked like normal, submissive humans.
(T/N) felt nauseated.
— (T/N): Who would draw this?
— Chloe: People who got trapped here and never knew how to get back to the surface, maybe.
Chloe kept walking, and soon the paintings were left behind. The darkness became absolute, and silence returned.
The tunnel began to fill with trash. But it wasn't just any trash.
— Chloe: Look at the floor.
The floor was covered with destroyed objects: old backpacks with the straps torn off, broken cell phones, wet and illegible notebooks, and torn clothes.
(T/N) stopped in front of a familiar backpack, ripped and covered in mold. It was the kind of backpack they used at school.
— (T/N): They... stayed here.
Chloe approached and softly kicked a nearby athletic shoe.
— Chloe: Those who reach this point do not return to the light. This place claims them.
Chloe's flashlight beam pointed toward the end of the tunnel. The path stretched further and further.
— Chloe: We are halfway there. Turn on your flashlight, (T/N). I want you to see what was waiting for you if you tried to enter without me.
Suddenly, Chloe illuminated a corner of the tunnel riddled with human remains.
Autor:
I still have no idea what I'm writing, nor if I will continue with this story.