Silence Falls

“Oh man, I changed my mind, I'm not doing this shit again!” Bam blanched at the sight of the chapel's elevator and prepared to retrace his steps towards the center of the forsaken room that felt much safer. The group had all reached that problematic point in their journey where their last elevator ride was anything, but dependable. The memories started reflecting back, making even Bert and Cris hesitate.

Otep was composed as she advanced inside the moment the creepy doors magically slid open without control, Connor casually following close on her heels. Twisting to face them, Otep snapped at them, her eyes still seeming a bit obscure again just like before in the hallway of Solitary Confinement when she recalled Hermanni imprisoned below the chapel. “C'mon you guys, stop being a bunch of babies and let's get on with this! We don't have time before the staff catches up to us!”

“Fuck no, that fucking thing is a goddamn death trap!” Bam fervidly revolted. Connor, who had never been in the elevator before, took in the appalling expressions on the three male faces. Fright is what he could see which means they must have had a dreadful involvement within the unstable elevator, or perhaps another deplorable one in the past. Scrutinizing it more sharply, one would think that Otep, and he should be just as petrified of it too by the state of it. The thing was distinctly ancient and had several degenerating holes in it of varied sizes, but for some unusual reason they weren't alarmed in very least. Otep must have cruised in it before too in the past to learn of the patient locked up beneath the chapel, but undoubtedly it hadn't been an troublesome ride then. Since being apprehended in Solitary Confinement for as long as he had been, Connor didn't fear death anymore, so perhaps that's why he was presently indifferent to the cautioning state of the decrepit elevator.

“Fine, you guys can just stay here then, and fend off any more of those creatures or meatheads that enter the chapel while Connor and I fetch the dude below. Are y'all good with that plan instead?” Otep detailed her new strategy in hopes that they could just get moving today, not tomorrow. But all three faces instantaneously went pale at her resolution, and wildly glimpsed over their shoulders as if there were guards stationed behind them.

It was now up to them to contend what they wanted to do, stay or go, get pummeled and imprisoned, or succumb in a crashing elevator. Sadly, they didn't have time to come up with an answer, because an restless Connor, who didn't want to hang around and get locked up again, stomped out of the elevator to capture Cris and Bert by the front of their shirts. “Time's up! Get your asses in here!” With a vigor tougher than the both of them combined, he lugged them into the elevator with him, Bam cussing behind them as he accompanied.

“We ready now?” Otep asked the group, getting unsettled nods from three of them before the elevator started to power up and rattle very slightly before gradually descending back down below the Chapel. Bam, Cris and Bert all held on for dear life to whatever chunk of the holders along the sides of the wall hadn't dismantled, their knees bent in preparation for a long plunge down while Connor and Otep watched them with odd looks in their eyes. It's peculiar, one would think they too would be just as fearful that they were going to die tonight by an unstable elevator disaster, but perhaps one could say they had kissed death many times residing underground, and so death by elevator was nothing in similarity. Everyday they woke up in this subterranean hell that was pretty much killing them each day with a mixture of unidentified pills.

The elevator ride didn't take that long to get them to their destination. The small sharp ding burst through the paranoid macabre speculations of Bam, Cris and Bert upon their landing, who opened their eyes to consider the lower floor. The hallway looked exactly the same as they left it, they thought at first...except for the long depart dangling light bulbs that presumably used to illuminate down the hallway in the past were actually functioning this time around. Another strange manifestation. Before anyone could criticize the performing power, or so much as point a finger to their section adjoining down the center of the ceiling, Otep flew out of the elevator and started sprinting to the only door they were ever able to open. Distressed for her safety considering that the lights could have been turned on by a staff member still present down here, Bert immediately charged after her with the others pursuing close behind, just as bothered that she might get harmed too. “OTEP, WAIT!” Bert hailed after her, but Otep was temporarily deaf to listen until she finally reached the door. Then came to stop only to turn around as if she'd just heard him call out to her. They caught up to her in seconds, somewhat breathless. Bam crossed his arms over his chest to appear intimidating to her as he sternly snapped at her. “Jesus Otep, would you sit the fuck still for once!? We don't know what the fuck could be down here waiting to get the jump on us!” Otep crossed her arms back with sass and dipped her head to the side with a look that threatened to clash back if he opened his mouth again and tried to talk to her as if he was her daddy.

Cris stepped in between them the keep a strife from developing as he tenderly expressed to Otep with the prowess of having toiled past her steadfast defenses when she was being insolent in the past. “Wait, Otep, I'm afraid Bam is speaking reasonably here. We don't know if any of the staff is down here expecting us.”

“Cris, chill out. Trust me, we're the only ones down here.” Otep consoled them, waving an arm through the lengthy uninhabited hallway and impervious soldered doors.

She had a very good point there. If anyone else was down there with them they would have to be in open view, they wouldn't have any places to hide. Still, Bert felt like he had to keep them fixated on the mission, and 100% receptive to their surroundings and the probabilities prowling within each one just in case. “And you're probably right about that, Otep. At the time being, we are obviously the only humans down here. But you gotta consider the possibility that anyone else could have come down here in the last few days. Look at the hallway lights.” He advised, pointing out the light bulbs above them. “They're on. The last time we came down here, we had to use flashlights in order see. But tonight we don't? Doesn't that seem remarkable to you, Otep? If no one else came down here after us the first time, then why would the lights magically have power all of a sudden? Who turned them on?”

While the others tried to figure out that conundrum, Connor's green eyes were drawn towards the door Otep led them too. Scouring the stable metal architecture that was presumed a door, he discontinued their deliberation and gestured to the door. “Hold on a minute, what's behind door number one over here?”

Everyone's head turned to the door, citing that behind it was a patient in need of their recovery. “Right, um...” Preferring to debate the unusual phenomena that had been binding their whole campaign thus far once again another time, Bert stepped forward to seize a grip of the long handle bar that was meant to slink the large door open. “Guys, would you mind helping me open the door? We gotta check and see if this kid is even still alive in there.”

Cris, Bam and Connor got in position in that order to help tow the door open on the count of three. With all their might, the loud door howled open with the high-pitched sound of metal on metal. The door was a lot easier to open the second time around perhaps because of Connor's added durability, or because the worst of the resistance had already been breached the first time.

In the darkness within the room, a solitary dark figure spun and smiled towards the slither of light snaking further and sprouting wider as the entryway to his cell expanded.

The door was already halfway open when Otep hollered an order to cease. “Hold on minute, guys. If he's dead in there, there's no point in opening the door all the way, and using up your strengths.Catch a breather, and let me peek inside just to be sure.” Thankful for the break, the boys all let go, and slanted against the door to steady their breaths. Placing her hands on the doorway, Otep leaned through the crack in the door, and squinted into the darkness. “Hello? Hermanni, are you still there?”

The light in the hallway trickled in behind her, unveiling a figure resting on the floor in the dulling perimeters of the illumination. The boys idly converged behind her to snoop over Otep's shoulder too, inspecting for the same hint of life. Still right where they left him a few days before when they last saw him was Hermanni, a grin on his face, his white clothes disheveled with filth, and blood, the same blood-stained cross depicted on his chest when they first found him. His pale white skin seemed to glow in the dark, his ebony silky hair reflected the light right back, his eyes a minor luminescent blue and green. He looked so...ethereal. When Hermanni spoke it sounded warm to the touch, and hopeful. His smile was genuine on his perfected face. “Hello, friends.”

As if by just the mere tone of his voice, Hermanni monitored all of their strained, terrified faces ease into one of alleviation before their bodies began to activate to his silent command. They all abruptly jolted, reacting as if their breaths had been stripped for a minute as more manifestations emanated. Their heartbeats skipped a beat in harmony with the person next to them, their hands perspiring with sweat, their mouths bereft of any moisture only to receive it in the next second in plethora, and their skin pinked with color and a fiery heat. Overs years and years Hermanni had gotten used to these lengthy feedback others go through every time they're around him, he's mastered the perseverance that is mandatory along with it. It was only this time when his hearing picked up an improper noise that forewarned him that something was occurring, that he compelled them all to restore prematurely with a snap of his fingers.

The group was brought back to a reality they didn't recall escaping from in the first place. As minutes passed of them standing there in awkward peace, Cris began to hypothesize on why they hadn't evacuated yet in drastic times such as tonight's mission. Scratching the back of his head, he queried the others with confusion in his voice. “Uh, guys, shouldn't we be getting out of here?”

Bam nodded along with the others, a bewilder look on his face. He was just absorbed by this warm euphoric pleasure just a second ago, but now...?

Bert probed behind them, and down the hall. No had followed them yet. Sighing with comfort, Bert looked to the others, his eyes idling on Hermanni. That dream from the night before came back to him. He had done what the young man requested of him, he set him free. The other part of the deal was for the 'magical' Hermanni to free them in return. But of course, that was all just a dream. “We gotta get out of this damned basement, you guys, and now. This place is just a dead end cemetery with all our headstones already arranged. If they catch us down here, we won't have a fighting chance.” Everyone went blanched at his point and nodded swiftly. Hermanni smiled tenderly at the influence Bert exhibited and tiled his head to the side as he assessed him. A few strands of black hair tumbled over his eyes that began to brighten anew in preparation for the battle ahead.