"This is ridiculous."

"Just follow me, would you?"

Rask's face is contorted into a mask of annoyance, and with good reason. He's been woken up in the middle of the night by possibly insane (I don't think I've ruled this out) fox, and then forced to wander around an abandoned church at dawn.

"Lander, y'know I like you, but cut this out," he whines, stepping over a dismantled pew. "This whole "haunted house" act is bollocks. Yeh, we've had a rough go of it, but things happen!"

"Yes," I respond, pushing clutter out of the way. "Things happen for a reason. Something is behind this."

"Would it kill you just to take things at face value for once?" Rask complains in an exasperated voice. I shoot him a look, but the sable ferret only shrugs. "Anizev's probably wond'ring where we sodded off to."

"Should've brought her, too," I mumble.

"Anizev has nothing to do with this," Rask insists. He sidles past an overturned altar and kicks a rock out of the way.

"This has to do with all of us," I say. "Just... Quit the complaining and help me open this door."

There's a door at the northeast end of the chapel that presumably leads to the church's storage and a staircase to the undercroft; though I'm not well informed about these places. I remember going to a church maybe twice as a child, and both times I was too young to remember anything that happened. It wouldn't have mattered anyway; I'm not desirable. No religion, no love, could save a wretch like me.

"Some staircase," Rask grunts. "Doesn't matter where it leads to. Eh, does it matter where it leads to?" He adds the last bit at the end with a sideways glance in my direction.

"As a matter of fact, it does."

"Sure. What makes y'think I wouldn't ditch you and leave you in here?"

"Because," I smirk. "You're afraid as well."

"Bollocks, man!" He gives me a shove, eyes glinting for a moment. "I'm not scared."

"I see it in your face," I hiss. With a little more intensity than I had hoped for, and Rask jerks back, unsure of what to make of this.

"Lander, y'r taking this too far."

"Go down the stairs."

"What?"

"Go down the stairs."

The ferret stares at me for a brief moment, then begins descending the staircase. I follow suit, and soon we've reached the bottom of the stairwell. It's dark, dank and airless, and only seems to upset Rask more.

"This is ridiculous," he says again, with significantly less conviction.

"There's a door," I say, pointing at the wooden frame that lay ahead of him. "To the undercroft."

"What, the cellar?" Rask squeaks. "Where they keep the caskets?"

"I don't really know, that's why we're here. I have to know."

I grab a squirming Rask by the collar and push open the withered wooden door, which creaks sorrowfully on its hinges. The room it holds is wide and stonewalled, but doesn't appear to hold anything important.

Rask tumbles in front of me, and we both enter this room. Cold, and somehow hard to breathe in.

Rask makes a weak whining whimper sort of noise. "Er, Lander? There's something on the wall there," he points to something etched in the stone. "I can't really see it through the dark..."

I step carefully towards the stone wall, unable to make out the symbols from a distance. Upon further inspection, that's all they are. Symbols...

Runes.

Something seems to ignite in my brain.

"Get out of here."

"What?"

"We need. To get out," I say between gritted teeth, clutching at my head. Pain sears through me, and my vision gets a bit blurry.

"O-open the d-door out," I stammer. "To the..."

Rask swings open the door so violently I fear it will fly off its hinges. It doesn't, however, and Rask pulls me with him through the doorway for several steps before abruptly stopping.

"Where's the staircase?"

"What do you mean, where's the stai-" I'm cut off by my own gasp. I'm looking at a long, straight, pitch-black hallway.

This isn't the room we entered from.

"Oh, hades!" Rask exclaims. He curses and twists his head to and fro, eyes wide. "Where is our way out?"

"F-forward," I guess. With that, Rask is hauling me through the darkness, me with my eyes shut because of the pounding, throbbing, searing sharp pain wracking my skull right now.

"Why can't I see anything?" Rask complains, slowing down to a halt. "Just where are we?"

"And stop joggin' in place," he adds. "I've stopped movin'."

"So have I," I reply. "It's not the sound of my steps."

"Then who's makin' that noise?"

I squint and all I really catch is Rask's horrified realization.

And up ahead of him, I can see a pair of eyes.

And another.

And another.

"Oh my-" Rask stammers. "S'that a spider?"

"Get back!"

It's almost comedic, in a way, how we run back into the cellar room. Like two frightened children in a nightmare, shrieking and pinching themselves. Begging, "Please, just-

"wake up! I don't know what to do. This 's... Wake up, damn!"

A cacophony of feelings greet me in my reintroduction to the living world. White-hot agony in the head.

"Wwwuh," I stammer, as only I can.

"There was some creature back there and we headed back into the cellar 'n then you passed out," Rask stumbles over his words attempting to get them out.

His voice cracks and his eyes go wide. "What if that thing-" craning his neck back referring to the creature we saw on the other side. "What if it found Anizev?"

"Rask," I groan, propping myself into a sitting position. "Everything is... Everything is going to..."

"Going to what? Going to be alright? Everything is not going to be okay. The only thing I see is the path to madness, Lander!"

"J-just shut up," I do my best to growl in frustration but it comes out as a whimper. "How long was I out for?"

"I don't really know. It's just-"

"It's just what? Listen, you can yell at me for as long as you like once we get out of here. But first, we have to get out of here."

I grit my teeth as I stand up and push past a miserable-looking Rask. I throw my shoulder into the wooden entryway, and wince as it doesn't budge.

"Door's locked," I grunt.

"Whad'ye mean it's locked?"

"As in, the door is locked and cannot be opened."

"But why, though?" Squeaks Rask, who's sounding less and less like a dangerous rebel and more like a frightened child. Wide eyed in the dim cellar, he holds his head. "This ain't right, this ain't right..."

"Just, shove it and help me break the lock."

"Um, Lander?"

"What?" I snap, pounding on the cellar stones with a closed fist. A cold shock comes over me, and I at first think I might have injured myself punching the wall. However, the chill was fast-moving, wet, and starts at my ankles, getting higher and higher.

"We have bigger problems," Rask murmurs.

My blood runs cold.

Water. Icy, abrasive, and suffocating- and it's building up in the cellar at a rapid pace, now up to my knees. As it reaches my pelvis, some deranged, off- its-rocker corner of my mind thinks, "so this is where they keep all of the holy water?"

Rask yelps and brushes past me, flailing at the door attempting to get out. I look down and the water's up to my sternum. I can't even see my legs in the water anymore, as if this was quicksand.

I can't see the bottom.

I throw my shoulder into the door again, struggling, pressing my weight against it. It feels like something on the other side is pushing back. Like it wants us to stay in here. The water's up to my collarbone and rising.

"No!" Rask splutters. The water is up to our shoulders now, and for me it's hard to breathe. Rask is almost howling now. "No!"

And I think, this isn't how I envisioned dying.

I wonder if my mother is watching this. Is she watching over me? Or simply watching?

With one last grunt I push on the door again, screaming out. And in the back of my head I hear a voice, hypnotizing and distracting, soothing and upsetting. It's calling out to me. Congratulating me?

Well done.

The door swings open.

Rask and I tumble through in a mix of limbs and fur and sweat. Both of us drenched and water still pouring out from the damned ocean-cellar. In the distance, I hear a cry of surprise. Anizev, in the chapel, sleepy-eyed but still headed for us in surprise.

"Ssssaaffeee," Rask mumbles. I can only grit my teeth and stare. We shouldn't be here. Here, in the chapel.

That door lead us into the chapel despite us entering from the undercroft.

"What happened?" Anizev asks, eyes narrowed in concern. "Why are you guys all wet? I thought you two had gone on patrol or back to bade or even scavenging, bit then I heard you screaming."

"This place," Rask concludes, still on his side and lying down. "feeds on screams. A symposium conducted by somethin'."

"And that something," I say. "I believe it spoke to me."

good lord did this take an inordinate amount of time to write