rapture
Entering the lighthouse, I soon realized that it was indeed an entrance, because as I walked forward, lights ahead turned on, to reveal not only a banner ("No Gods, No Kings, Only Man") but a small slate with a quote on it, describing what seemed to be a new world… As I continued to walk, the overhead lights seemed to sense my steps, and turned on with me. Upon closer inspection, I was able to see that the lighthouse's insides had about three curving flights of steps that circled around the center, where a small elevator-like chamber stood. Without any other choice I climbed to the bottom and went inside, pulling hard on the only thing that'd budge, a rusty lever across from the entrance to the elevator. As soon as I pushed it down, the glass door swung shut and trapped me inside the squalid chamber… with only about a foot around me to move, I had to stand, peering out the door as the elevator sunk, and it sure did sink fast. Minutes passed slowly, and by the time I saw any light out the glass door, I knew that I must've been near the bottom of the sea, and sure enough I was. But, before I could see a thing, a small metal sheet slid in front of the glass and a cloth sat on top if it. Unsure what to do, suddenly a projector, which I hadn't seen before this, shot out light from behind me, and started to display a choppy image, and then a voice rang through-
"I am Andrew Ryan, and I am here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No', says the man in Washington, 'it belongs to the poor.' 'No', says the man in the Vatican, 'it belongs to God.''No,' says the man in Moscow, 'it belongs to everyone.' I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture." And at that moment, the sheet slid up, to reveal a beautiful cosmopolitan city, with flashing lights, and casinos littered throughout it, a New York in the sea. But that wasn't where the words stopped rattling off the speakers...
" A city where the artist would not fear the censor,where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality,where the great would not be constrained by the small. And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city, as well."
And there I was, a lonely man who never had any purpose, on a flight back home after a peaceful visit to his family, about to face the city at the bottom of everything. A deep static sound rumbled throughout the elevator, at first I thought it was the projector still, but then noticed a small service radio sitting on a ledge to the left of the door. Confused, I strained my ears to hear clearer- and the sound of two voices chattering amongst themselves entered my ears. One seemed to be talking about some unusual things, something about a bathysphere, whatever that was…
I couldn't understand about half of their words, but I was able to hear enough to discern that they were speaking of some new visitor from "the surface" and then one sounded in trouble, but it was hard to tell. At that moment, the elevator, which had still been moving, even without any sort of shaft for it to go down, was entering into a series of rings which led, it seemed, into the city itself.
Soon I found myself going into the building with the rings, and then suddenly the elevator fell to the ground, and crashed on its side, trapping me inside… Calming down, I gazed out the glass door to see a young man, and by the way he was moving, he was scared; and by the way he was talking, I could see that he was one of the men who was on the radio. I stood as still as I possibly could, hoping not to disrupt whatever was happening- and then I saw it. Disgusting, grotesque, and feral, a contorted creature with hook-hands approached the now trembling man- Johnny, as I was able to tell from the words on the radio- beckoning him to fight… Just as I thought the creature was about to turn away, he pounced, yes pounced, onto Johnny, and tore through his insides like a horrible monster. At first he just stood there moaning, and then the creature jumped back, and then sprang forward again with twice as much force, completely mutilating what remained of Johnny, who at that moment fell to the ground- certainly dead.
At this moment, I came to the complete conclusion that I was surely trapped, and I was glad, because the last thing I wanted to do was approach this beast… But, as if it could read my mind, it cried twisted words, which were difficult to understand, but I swear were talking about me- and they must've because it proceeded to pounce onto my elevator, and started to tear through the top relentlessly. Frightened, unarmed, and in this strange new world, I tried to shake myself awake as I heard a rough voice over the radio.