A Serenade for the Innocent - 126 A Prayer Amid the Darkness and Bleakness

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the policeman managed to cut a portion of his meat and stuck it towards the now bigger hole at the lower side of the black door standing before us. You know what, I still don’t get why he used his zipper as a knife. It’s so stupid; I just can’t help laughing at him while he does it.

Nevertheless, the door opened, and we finally saw what lies within the third area. So far, there’s no sudden guy who jumped out of nowhere to surprise us, and there’s also no relevant deaths happening to my team. This time, we ought to change that somehow.

When the policeman gently pushed the black door of the third area opens slightly, we first whiffed a pungent smell coming from inside of the room. It smelled like a mixture of feces, bile, rotten flesh, and decomposing fruits spewing out of the seemingly dark room. The salesman quickly coughed while frowning as he pushed the door open some more. The nurse then gasped loudly while pinching her nose as tightly as she could after seeing the state of the next area. The silver man moved his head around as he tightly clutched his hand on my cassock to properly look at how rundown the place was.

The third area is a dimly-lit small room made out of nothing but wood planks. There’s a small bulb on the low ceiling, spewing weak orange light all around the moldy room. One could see that the water continually dripped on the wooden surroundings that it has now turned into black along with white molds on the corners. Since the floor is placed in an awfully messy way, we can see a few thin spaces between the planks. From within the holes on the floor, we can see what looked like an endless pit leading to somewhere beneath that I can only presume is hell itself. Some water droplets then fell on the only table in the center of the room, which is also wooden. It looked as if the orange light bulb above was only placed there to highlight whatever is above the table. There, we can clearly see what seemed like rotten steaks placed on dusty plates, a basket filled with blackened fruit, and a pitcher filled with what looked like a dark-green liquid. The table itself is so large, but there are still so many different meals on it, but they’re all so terribly-looking now that I couldn’t possibly see what they were. It seems like there seems to be a banquet that was held here from a long, long time ago, but no one ate anything, and they all just left here to rot and decompose. Countless flies are running all over the table, flying around to take a bit of taste of the ghastly meal before us. Below the table lies what looked like three layers of rectangular-shaped carpet that had now turned black and mossy.

“Ugh… fuck… it smells like shit in here!” The policeman said as he slowly went inside the room with a frown. The floor then creaked, but he didn’t seem to mind it much while looking around the cramped space around him.

“I’m sure you know exactly what the smells like.” The salesman said with a lighthearted chuckle, but the policeman didn’t seem to hear it because he didn’t lash out like a damn psycho again.

“It looks like there’s a party here.” The nurse said with a disgusted look on her face. She then went inside the room but quickly took a step back and moved towards the metal corridor again just after a few seconds of staying inside. “I feel like that floor would kill me if I stay a few more seconds in there!”

“Have you been here before, father?” The silver man said as he walked beside me while clutching on my arm. We then both went inside the room easily together as I walked towards the table with ease.

“Yes, indeed, I’ve been here with my friends, but when we came here, nothing really happened, so I guess, if we move very, very lightly, we wouldn’t be able to destroy this room into pieces,” I said as I caressed my finger on the surface of the table before lifting it to see a large amount of dust hugging my skin. “Come inside, Miss Nurse. As long as you don’t bounce around all over the place, nothing will happen to you here. Hmm… Well… It does smell awful here, so that might turn you off a bit.” I said with a gentle smile as I extended my hands towards the nurse.

She then gripped my hand tightly as she took a few more steps forward until she’s already inside. “Well, it is still pretty rundown.”

“Friends,” I said as I moved my gaze towards the people around me. “Since this is a relatively safe room, albeit smelly, I still would like to use this quiet time we have together to pray for our fallen friend who left us too early in this world. What do you say?”

“Well, I say that the man has lived through so much suffering already that he pretty much deserves the peace he got in those giant metal blades.” The salesman uttered while placing the lower half of his place beneath the collar of his shirt, which made his voice sound muffled. “Why not? As long as you wouldn’t pray for an hour.”

“I agree. As much as I hate the smell of this place, it doesn’t look as awful as the other ones. I also think we should pray for the soul of our dearly departed friend.” The nurses said as she nodded her head gently while looking at me. Hmph. For all I know, she only agrees to it, so she could rid her soul of the guilt she feels for leaving that disgusting man’s body rotting in there. Oh well, shortly after this, my mom will call the Janitor to clean our mess anyway.

“Heck, why not?” The policeman said as he slowly dipped his bottom towards the floor; he then continued while sitting on the damp floor of the wooden area. “It could be a great way to rest before we head towards the next bullshit this place will hurl at us. Go on! Do what you must, priest.” He uttered with a dismissive tone as he waved his hand at me like I’m some kind of dog that he has to shoo away.

The silver man remained silent, probably so he wouldn’t be associated any further with the bloodied stranger who died earlier. Nevertheless, when I looked down at him to look at his face, I saw that he gave a nod of approval to what I suggested.

“Well then…” I then slowly bent my body downwards to tap on the floor lightly before doing a sign of the cross; of course, it is needless to say that I did the one we use in Orthodox Christianity. I then clasped my hands firmly as I closed my eyes while raising my head into the ceiling. Well, I said that I will be praying, but in truth, I wish to send a distress message to my mother. “Dear Lord in heaven who’s listening to Your children right now,” I said, which sounded a bit weird, but I had to make my mother know that these words are directed towards her. “We hope that You will safely let Your child who left our world earlier to have a space in your kingdom in heaven.” Mom, please come and take that body away from here now, so we can see if he’s really telling the truth that he had been hiding here for years or if he’s just a spy from our competitors. “More than anything, Lord, we thank You for giving us the chance to live another day, Lord, so we hope that our journey moving forward will not be filled with uncertainties anymore, Lord.” Mom, I swear, if I see another thing that will ruin my plan, I will have a harsh conversation with you as to how I will forever sever ties with the family once I escape this place. “Lord…” I said, finally going towards the main point of my ‘prayer.’ “We hope that you can finally send in all of your blessings towards us.” Send them in, mom. Do it. “Amen.”

And slowly, as I opened my eyes, I felt as if time had slowed into a halt as we saw the table in the center of the room up into the ceiling, breaking the bulb into pieces. Since the door leading to the second door is still open, the light spewing out of the corridor made us see something that resembled a sharp knife had started to tore through the thick layers of carpet. Then, four pale hands began to emerge from the crack and tore the rug further into pieces. We saw the four hands ascend from beneath the carpet, unraveling the pitch black, hairy and wrinkly arm where the pale hands are connected.

After a while, more arms started to emerge from the crack as we heard a gurgling sound coming from underneath the wooden floor of the area. It sounded like water being gurgled on your throat, but the sound of hissing also accompanied it, which creates a sort of symphony of feral sounds that echoed further from the other side of the floor.

Accompanying these animalistic growls, we could also hear countless tapping all over the floor of what seemed like the sound of countless nails tapping on the surface of the wood.

The policeman wanted to stand up, but his feet wobbled like it forgot how to be a solid matter. Thus, he fell even harder on the floor, and it almost broke the plank underneath him. He then shrieked and crawled as far away as possible from the arms waving all over underneath the torn carpet as a wave of regret and fear crept upon his sweaty and distorted scowl.

The silver man then gripped my hand even tighter after seeing the state that the policeman is currently in while shaking beside me. As the hands pounded hard on the wooden floor while scratching the surface of the ground lightly with its blackened nails, the man beside me spurted out a high-pitched shriek, which did not at all ring well along with the grating noises beneath our feet. The silver man gasped as hard as he can as try his hardest to remain standing without shedding a tear.

The salesman was the one who’s the farthest away from us as he looked as the randomly fidgeting hands spewing out of the torn carpet like a trembling bouquet of flowers. The burly gentleman then tried his hardest to stay as far as he could from the hands, but at best, he could only move a few inches away from it as he retreated into a corner of the room. His wrinkled face looked like it’s melting as the grease on it fall into his chin as a waterfall-like gush of sweat drip down from his forehead,

The nurse then screamed by the time the hands started grabbing the planks on the floor. It seemed like the creature underneath us was pushing itself up like it’s carrying the weight of four men. In a panic, the nurse, who’s standing closest to the door leading to the metallic corridor, suddenly dashed towards it in an effort to escape. However, the door itself closed with a loud bang before she could reach it, enveloping the room in endless darkness.

And just like that, my companions were further reminded that…

There is no such thing as a safe haven in this damned place.