Discovering Ashes 13

In the distance, I could hear someone talking. Echoes made it hard to tell just where it was coming from, be it above me, below, or any direction in between. One thing was certain, though; it wasn't Dex's voice. The thought crossed my mind that maybe it was one of the other officers who'd had the same "bright" idea I'd had, but if it were, shouldn't I have seen some kind of light other than my own? Besides that, it didn't sound like any officer I'd known! Hell, what kind of officer just started talking to themselves anyhow?!

Still, there was always a chance.

"Hello?" I called out into the darkness. I didn't dare move an inch from what little light was coming from busted windows on the floor above me.

For a while it was completely silent. For some reason, the silence was even more terrifying than it should've been. Normally I find the quiet to be nice and relaxing but now? Now it was like my worst enemy or a nightmare come to life or some bullshit like that.

"Hey, if anyone's down here, lemme know, alright?"

Still no answer. I mumbled a few choice words, trying to calm myself down. I still had a job to do, even if I didn't exactly find the situation I was in to be 'fun' or 'safe' or anything you might remotely call 'good'. Sometimes, I hated being a Cop.

"No sense just stickin' around, eh Jackie Boy?" I mumbled as I took my first steps into the complete blackness. The light from my flashlight cast way too many shadows for my liking, and in the corner of my eye, I swore I saw something move every time I looked away. My heart started racing while my imagination started to go wild! I started to think back to my High School days, in American Lit, when we would read all sorts of stories that would keep me up at night. Was it ironic or just stupid that the only one that ever gave me any comfort was Mask of the Red Death? Hell if I know. All I knew right then was all the stories came rushing back into my head, and I could've sworn I heard voices saying things that just sounded alien!

I shook my head once, trying to clear it. Lucky for me it was enough to get me to keep moving through the pitch black hole I was in. I must've spent a good half hour down there just searching every nook and cranny I could find for anyone who might fit the description of 'fucking insane'. I found it a bit funny, since the fact that I was down there by myself was, to me at least, just that.

What I didn't expect to find, though, was a hole in a brick wall. It looked ancient, like it had always been there, before the train station had ever been thought of! But on the other side, I saw a light in the distance. Not too far off, but enough so that it didn't really make much of a difference in the basement I was in.