Short note before the story. Like always, all character are above the legal age. This part of the story is a little more, abstract in nature but I hope I kept the good flow between the story, exploration and sex scenes. Hope you enjoy the story!
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I felt like I was falling for a while, I'm pretty sure I did pass out at some point. When I opened my eyes, I saw darkness. My first thought was that of Elaine and then about the rising walls of this cursed place. I quickly shot up and looked around, unfortunately all there was around me was a thick darkness. My very soul in my body felt the cold shiver as I started to wonder, did I die? No, of course not, how could I. I was swooped away by something, wait, someone?
"Tanlia?" I said with the echo answering me immediately. The silence after my own voice was deafening. I said her name again, wanting the moth woman to appear once again being answered by the overwhelming silence. I checked for my glasses and they were still on my nose. Then I reached into my pocket, remembering my phone. Fortunately for me it was intact and I quickly turned the build in flashlight, the white light shone across the dusty black floor. I looked around, trying to paint the picture of the place I was in. What once was an open room now felt like a forest of obsidian tall walls, with no rhyme or reason they were around me, metres away and yet it felt suffocating. Behind me there stood a wall, long in both ways, probably the wall that separated me from Oliver and Elaine. My heart aches to see Elaine once again, to see her calmed and relaxed smile. It was as much for her own well being as it was for me, wanting to find comfort in my lover.
The imaginary words of horror I once thought in my childish mind, appeared in the basements and forests at night, now became reality around me. The situation I was in felt hopeless but I knew there should be a way out though the double door labyrinth that was the first room connected to this once empty place. But before I took the first step I recognised the simple cloth bag at my feet, the one that Oliver had when we all entered this place. He must have lost it and Tanlia probably took it with her in the heat of the moment or perhaps he wanted me to have it. The bag was not too heavy and looking inside I recognised the shapes of two books and a small wooden box, not bigger than my own hand. As well as those I also found a few glass veils, wrapped in a thin rope, with some unknown liquid inside. I felt a pinch of absurdity in my guts. I suppose it was his gear that helped with paranormal entities and now with the bag on my shoulder I felt like a real ghost hunter. I suppose finding humour in such a dire situation was a sign that I was still holding to my sane mind.
I chose to walk forward and my plan was simple: find the wall and follow it till I find the door leading out of this place or into it. Even if I found an exit I wouldn't want to leave behind my companions so I hope I could find them first. My flashlight gave me barely any help but it was enough to see where I was going and to avoid all the rocks and larger parts of the walls on the floor. The sound of the rocks falling and my steps was the only sound I could hear for a while and then the monotony of it was interrupted by another set of steps. I quickly turned off my phone flashlight and crouched down, trying to pinpoint the direction where the sound came. I didn't need to wait long when I heard another sound, a gasp of confusion and then after seconds of silence that felt like minutes... a soft snicker like giggle, similar to the insect sounds of Tanlia. Was it her, or maybe a new way of this place to mess my mind? My eyes couldn't see in the darkness so I was left with just my ears as my guide, but my caution was recognized by Tanlia.
"Milo. It is me. I forgot you cannot see in the dark." Melodic undertones of her voice put quite a pleasant accent on the end of the sentence. I reluctantly stood up and took my phone out, hovering my finger on the flashlight button.
"Is it you? How can I trust you?"
"Oliver's bag is on your shoulders. We came here with him and Elaine. I saved you and then went on recon." She said with her unnatural accent but clearly with care. I pressed the button on my phone screen and the light shone before me. It was indeed her, white robes made of her fluffy wings and curious big golden eyes looked at me. Her thin smile was reassuring.
"You are cautious. Oliver was right about you." She walked closer to me and her tall body towered above me, her quite slim body, or rather average if I could imagine her with more human height, made her look quite scary. Not opposing, not aggressive like the lion monster I knew roam those wretched obsidian halls, but malicious, mysterious. If she wore a hood over her white hair and two pointy antennas leaning back, she would come across like a cult member, probably wanting to sacrifice me to some older god.
But now Tanlia was my only friend in the moment and for sure my only protection, knowing well my own skills.
"Come." She said turning back. "I found an exit. Unfortunately, deeper into this place. I couldn't find a way to reach Oliver and Elaine. I'm sorry."
"Please don't be. Let's just go." Elaine led me to the tall opening, a door of some sort leading us both into a corridor. Like everything here the walls were smooth and black, shiny in the light of my flashlight. The large doorway had double doors in them, both smooth and black.
The next room we ventured into was as tall as one before but this room was much more inviting. In the middle of the room high in the air was some sort of a stone, blue and unevenly cut, something which I was sure of worked as this place version of chandelier as it softly lightened up the room with cold blue light. For a second I thought about Tanlia and her moth-like appearance, and curiously imagined her flying to that light but in reality she didn't even look up, just carefully scanned the room like a sentry.
Doing the same I recognized what looked like a long table with two long benches on both sides, all made of the same black material as walls. On the sides, behind the benches as well on the end of the table, the floor was lowered and in the shape of a turned upside down triangle. My imagination filled the blanks and I could see the indescribable scene of what could happen here. Monsters of all shapes and likeness enjoying themself with the food on the table, the bodies of man and other monstrum before them, open as they all reached with their deadly claws into them, the carefully cut floor behind them filled with blood and chunks after they were done.
Those images flashed in my mind and for a moment I felt like I was there in the past, but it felt wrong. Corrupted like memories haunted my imagination, dimming my logical thinking as I felt strong emotions of disgust. Fortunately Tanlia's voice let me grasp the reality around me.
"Echo. Do not let it blind you. This place wants us to get confused or mad." I was glad to have her with me and her knowledge to lead us, and if I could I would note it. I wanted to ask how she knows those things, does she see those things too? But my question was cut short before I even started as I heard the loud wet noise, like a metal padded boot squashing a balloon with water. My moth companion heard it as well as we both turned at the doorway on the opposite side of the room. Once again my childish mind returned screaming at me to run as my eyes slowly recognized the long and thin six legs of the spider, attached to a big blob of blackness, faceless with only one long tube in front, probably its mouth. It was large. With how far we stood and how big it was I would say without a doubt it was the size of a large dog. And it wasn't alone. My heart stopped as four more of the nightmarish creatures quickly ran into the room, disappearing within the dim shadows.
The next monster that entered the place was familiar to me. Golden hair of the lion-like monster lady was the first thing I recognized and then her wild voice, screaming. The spiders were attacking her and she was attacking them.
"Run. Follow me." Tanlia aggressively said and turned around and I was closely behind. We didn't run the way we came from but to our left. The sound of what I could describe as nails hitting the rocks echoed from my sides, the monstrous spiders slowly approached us as we ran. As we almost reached the doorway, to my right I felt a wet warm liquid hit my arm and then it became solid, a spider rope like web, in the blue light of the stone chandelier the web looked like a sick hand of a corpse. How surprised I was when the first woman to reach me was not Tanlia but the lion monster. Her claws cut the web like it was nothing and then she punched the spider creature, sending it away. When she looked back at me I saw her eyes were different than the last time. They were almost green. And much more human.
I couldn't think about it now as I ran to Tanlia. We reached the doorway and quickly started to try to move the black doors. I looked at the monster girl who once wanted to kill me, now saved my life, and she fought the spiders like it was nothing. Was she keeping them from us or was the spiders the one escaping her? My confusion needed to wait as the doors started to move, with all I had and with Tanlia above me, we closed the doors.
"Give me the box, from the bag, now!" Insect voice of hers sound was dangerous but it was the heat of the moment, and I knew we needed to hurry even if the lion lady kept those spiders at bay. I reached into the bag and took out the only wooden box there was. My moth friend kept leading on the door, her higher pair of arms were widely stretched and she took the box from me with her lower pair. In the nearly complete darkness I could faintly see her body for the first time. Her coat of wings were wide open and her feminine body was similar to a human woman but most of her skin was under the white coat of fur, with some little spots on her hips and upper stomach that were dark and shiny, probably covered in a chitin like shell, just like real insects.
