Chapter 8: Chapter 8- The L Shaped Shrine

(Trigger Warnings: Horror/Bizarre Imagery, Gore)

“Underground? Don’t tell me you mean through a sewer drain… the last thing I need Is to be surrounded by literal shit again.” I said getting off the van’s seat making my way to the gun rack.

“Nope, we’re going through the storm drain. Someone blasted a hole through a while ago but no one even noticed it was broken. I’ve gone in and out of there multiple times and no one has even noticed.” Bugboy said nodding after finishing his last sentence with his arms shrugged.

“And why would you need to go in and out of the hospital? Are you stealing from the sick and needy? Sounds a bit messed up kid, even for me.” I said cocking a pistol off the rack.

It may have been the apocalypse but guns were still widely available in many different forms. Refurbished guns from the past and new guns made of pipes, wood, and bolts. I always preferred original guns better since unlike the ones made of wood and pipes they had more class. Much more refined and balanced and felt great in the hands. Cause the last thing you needed was a gun that felt awful to hold while you blasted someone's head off. 

“Well, you wouldn’t get it even if I told you. Just know they have something in there that makes life much better than it was before. Those Vials I need are cheap to manufacture but those fuckers charge so much upfront leaving me to steal the damn testosterone. But, not like I take the vials all at once. A little at a time where you’d never suspect they were stolen,” Said BugBoy as he lifted himself from his seat and made opened the door to the van.

“No one is harmed and I get the stuff I need. Pretty simple if you think about it. Now come one old man, we ain’t got all night y’know.” Said Bugboy motioning to me to get out of the van.

“Yeah, Yeah, Gimme a second…alright let’s go,” I said grabbing a flashlight right before exiting the van.

In the back of the parking lot, there were not that many cars except ours and three other ones. With that said outside was much cooler than it was during the day to the point where my one jacket wasn’t going to be nearly enough to keep me warm. Even with each breath I took smoke exited my mouth. 

“Alright old man, come this way, be prepared. It smells awful down there.” Said Bugboy opening a sewer lid off revealing a ladder down.

“Ugh…it smells alright. Ew.” I said following Bugboy as he went down the drain.

The deeper we went the more it smelled like mold. And even worse it was starting to get darker meaning this was a job for the good old flashlight. The moment my shoes hit the floor the flashlight clicked on.

CLICK!

At the bottom, there was no water whatsoever but rats, insects, and mold littering the area. The walls were made of cracking bricks which at any moment would cave if there was flooding out here. We may have not been in the desert but this area never rained as much for a storm drain. Or at least I didn’t think it would.

“Well, follow me old man.” Said Bugboy walking down the large circular hall of the storm drain.

The drain felt like it was endless with no way out other than one we had just gone in through. As the mold grew heavier on the wall the more I wanted to vomit from complete disgust. But yet I didn’t because now was not the time to let my guard down if there was something down here with us.

“We getting any closer the smell is starting to get to me,” I said wiping my nose from the smell of the place.

“We should be there about…right…now. There, look up old man. It looks like we found our way in.” Said bugboy pointing upwards at the giant hole in the ceiling. 

“Well that’s nice and dandy but how the hell am I supposed to get up there? I can’t turn into a fly as you can y’know.” I said looking up at the hole in the ceiling.

It looked as if someone was trying to find a way to dig down with brute force since the walls around the hole looked more cracked than the walls on the inside of the drain. All the way at the top was a light to what I could assume was the basement level drain in the building. No sounds came from the top of the drain except the buzzing of flies and us talking down here. But, I can climb anything given the right circumstances but Bugboy must have other plans for us to get up there.

THWIP! 

“Well, looks like you got your rope right there partner.” Said Bugboy tipping an imaginary cowboy hat that didn’t exist.

“Did you just shoot web out of your wrist? Like a large actual spiderweb out of your wrist?” I said looking astonished as to what I had just seen. 

The web was thick, thick enough to be rope. Looking at Bugboy’s wrist a large gaping hole with web excrements slowly disappeared from his wrist. And not only that, his antennas had reappeared on his head. I knew he was a mutant but seeing anyone mutate their body like that and for it to reshape back into human flesh made me want to vomit. Granted someone could shoot a cannonball directly at me leaving me with a chest hole that would heal but still. 

Guess they didn’t call him Bugboy for nothing.

“I indeed did sir, now come on time’s a wasting…” Said Bugboy as he turned into a fly. 

BUZZZZZZZ!

“Lovely, ok, here we…go…ugh…this is really nasty,” I said climbing up to the top of the storage drain on such a nasty slimy and sticky rope.

As the light grew bigger above I could see that the light was coming from the basement of the building. At the top, the drain itself was on its side and barred meaning that someone had to open it from the other side. And low and behold on the other side bugboy sat on his butt looking at me with his head kneeling to the right side.

“Took you long enough, all right Grim my man, gimme a sec.” Said Bugboy opening the barred area with a handle that I hadn’t seen before.

With a simple jump Into place, the basement looked like it wasn’t frequently used meaning there was much dust everywhere. The basement was used for storage as all the racks of items had various instruments and medical equipment on them. Some were used as bookshelves while others were used to store old documents. No matter what they were used for each and everyone one of them was covered in dust and cobwebs. This may have looked like a refurbished building on the outside but on the inside currently, it still felt abandoned. At least this part of the basement did. Even the calendar was old, dating back to December Nineteen Eighty-Nine. 

Even the walls were falling apart, each and every one of them was cracking with its paint falling apart as it chipped away. Its white and green paint felt as if it had never been touched in a while. The light was on but it looked as if no one had replaced the light bulbs in years…but it still worked.

And the worse part about it, it smelled like piss and shit.

“Hey is that your briefcase? Looks awfully important.” Said Bugboy pointing to the large briefcase on the counter of an abandoned table.

“Well it certainly looks like my briefcase, let’s see what’s inside…yep, it certainly is mine,” I said looking at the insides with all its golden coins to spare.

“Whatcha got in there hm old man?” Said Bugboy perching over my shoulder.

“Well, nothing that concerns you I tell you that much.”

CLICK!

“Luckily no one has heard…us…” I said stopping midway through the way back.

“What? What’s wrong grim?” Said Bugboy as he looked right back up at what I was looking at.

“These doors? Those symbols…it can’t be.” I said looking at a different pair of doors than the one that were the entrances to the basements.

The doors looked exactly like the ones I had seen when retrieving Angela. Even with all the same symbols all over it. Knowing what had happened before even if these weren’t the same doors It was best to leave now. But something in me pressed my hand against it. These were demons’ doors, after all, I already knew that nothing good would come from behind them. But yet I felt this urge to open…it.

CLACK!

“Grim what are you…dear god…Grim we need to leave NOW!” Said Bugboy tugging at my arm as he looked at what was inside.

It was the same room. All those people hooked up to the machines in the same hospital garments and the same boney body frames. Only this time I could see what each and every tube led to. One giant vial with a red goop inside it moving and jittering violently. It was like all the tubes connected to the people were supplying food to whatever was inside that giant vial. The vial was as big as a human being yet all it contained was that violent moving goop.

But by the time the doors had opened, it was too late. Multiple demons with various heads of animals like serpents, goats, and falcons stared down at me and Bugboy with anger. Their bodies were a hulking mass to the point where they looked like they could reach the high ceiling of this room. Each of them was muscular with tails that stretched onto the floor. Their bodies made of black fur with goat-like hooves for feet. 

And one thing was apparent.

They weren’t expecting company…nor wanted it.

But yet as we tried to exit from the door they slammed as if some unseen force had moved them. Telekinetic power was the only thing I could think of meaning that one or all of them had to be at least…level three.

“Well, well, well, looks like we got ourselves someone who can open demonically sealed doors. And a lone mortal who cannot. Kill the old man and get the one with antennas, the last thing we need is an old man in the way.” Said the demon with the serpent’s head as many others followed their orders.

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Did they think Bugboy was the one who opened the door? Then again I just looked like an old man and Bugboy looked bright and vibrant so in their eyes there was no way I could open the door. But they were sorely mistaken. 

“Kid, whatever you do, aim for the eyes. Slash them if you can, that’s their weak spot.” I said yanking out my knife and pistol as three demons came our way.

“What? How would that…?” Said Bugboy as he made his arm into that of a mantis.

“JUST DO WHAT I SAY!” I yelled at Bugboy as he looked at me with confusion.

“Yessir!” Said Bugboy nodding as he had just gotten the memo.

Yet the moment Bugboy nodded a demon with the head of a goat appeared summing a pitchfork of black flames ready to stab one of us. With a quick movement, each of us got out of the way as the ends of the pitchfork nearly hit us. 

With a quick jump on top of one of the machines and an even quicker jump onto the demon my knife met their left eye with a furiosity. As their eye bled with blood so did their eye began to glow a flashing yellow color as white smoke came out of them.

“ARGH! You damn Human!” Said the demon as he tried to swipe me off his face but was only met with bullets to the other eye.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

“ARGH! My eyes…My EYYYYYYYYEEEEESSSSS!”

Oh, that’s right…I forgot they explode…

BOOM!

SLAM!

As the room erupted into the fire I could see the machines and bodies of everyone littered the floor, ceiling, and walls mutilated. Many of them woke up from their imprisonment screaming as many were bleeding out and missing limbs. Many were even crushed by the machines. Many of the other demons turned and looked at the huge mess and began trying to fix anything they could but each where met with the crumbling reality that they couldn’t. 

And where was I? Simple, I had just slammed into the giant tube holding that raging goop. The damn glass I had broken impaled me to It making the sensation feel cold as the blood gushed out of my body slowly.

“Grim! Are you alright?” Said Bugboy having just appeared by my side checking if there was anything he could do to help me.

But even he knew he couldn’t.

“Kid…I…ERGH!…I’ll be fine…just get out of here!” I said trying to yank off the piece of glass that had impaled me.

Yet as I did I could see the violently moving goop covering me like a blanket. Only this blanket began to grip onto me as if it was a vacuum. I could feel it pulsating as it made its way from my chest all the way to my face. 

And for a moment I was in the nasty basement room where they did god knows what to those people and in the next…I was in a blank space.

There was nothing around except the color white. The space felt infinite the more I turned my head. It was like the world had disappeared and left me behind.

“Kid? Anyone? Is this heaven or hell? What is this place?” I said walking forward only to see more or less the same white space.

I could breathe, I could see and I could feel everything meaning I had to be alive. But right now I was nowhere. It felt like the entire space was infinite yet compact.

“HEY! Is anyone there!?! Look if this Is hell at least tell me it is before sending me…here…what is that?” I said looking forward at a strangely shaped rock that had just appeared out of thin air.

Only it had the texture of a rock but had been carved in the shape of an L. In this rock-shaped L was a single candle that was lit but yet didn’t move as there was no wind here from what I could only assume. It was like some sort of shrine you prayed to. 

This place and whatever this shrine was in front of me was beyond my comprehension. But in a strange way, I kept moving towards it like I was some kind of magnetic attracting itself to whatever the hell this thing was. My body moved on its own with my mind going blank as my hand moved its way to the candle. With my hand over the lit wick of the candle, I could only think to do was do one thing.

To crush the light.

To which I did.

And I wish I never did that.

“AHHHHHHHHHH! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! I CAN HEAR IT ALL! I CAN HEAR ALL OF IT! MAKE IT FUCKING STOP!”

It was like I was feeling all my essence being rearranged piece by piece, molecule by molecule and atom by atom. I wanted to die. I wanted to all end as I could feel and hear what felt like an infinite amount of living beings screaming and dying at the same time. But I couldn’t move or make it stop. All I could do was scream as I felt like I was being ripped apart and put back together over and over.

And then a voice appeared to me.

It was the shrine.

It had to be.

Nothing could sound like a single voice made up of an infinite amount of people talking.

“Do you wish for all this pain to end?” It said to me as I got on my knees.

“YES! MAKE IT FUCKING STOP!” I proclaimed as I could see myself in every infinite possibility that ever could exist in this universe.

“Then pray to me. Worship me in your final moments. Call out to me.” It said as I got into a praying position.

“But WHAT is your name!?!” I proclaimed feeling infinite amounts of deaths and rebirths at the same time.

“You already know it, my child. SO SAY IT!”

“LUOS! LUOOOOSSSSSSS! LUUUUOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSS! I WORSHIP YOU AS THE ONE ABOVE ALL! ABOVE FUCKING ALL!” I proclaimed as I was overloaded with images of what infinity looked and felt like.

“Very well…I shall grant you what you need. Do not disappoint me. But I already know you won’t…Be gone.” 

For a moment I could feel everything.

And then I felt nothing.

And yet as soon as my eyes opened I had returned back to the disgusting basement. Bugboy fought as much as he could only to be met with him being slammed across the wall by a demon’s telekinetic power.

Yet as I got back up I felt as if I wasn’t in my body, But rather someone…no…something else’s is.

As I thought to move forward and slam into the demon within a millisecond the demon flew through multiple walls. I stood their fists raised but fists were not that of my own but rather that of the beast. The skin looked as if was rough leather with sharp claws at the end of each finger. Strange lines layering my skin with a blue glowing light on the front of my hand on a purple pattern. But yet that wasn’t the strangest part. My vision had a red tint and I was taller than most of the demons. 

What happened to me? 

What the hell happened to me?!?

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