The floorboard had seen a fair share of foot traffic over the years; in the last couple of decades they grew less frequent; rot wore away the structure like everything else in the world. Rats filled the space living, and destroyed what was left in the safety of darkness and complete isolation from humans. Until now, while they lay still - the water drips inside the dwellings, seeping into their lair. Power flashes illuminated through the cracks and giant holes in the floor to only be followed by a loud crash, but it's not this that causes their routine to halt in place. Over the thunder a slam comes from somewhere in the decaying building, and after a few minutes their beloved home is ripped open and is left in a cloud of dust; they scatter away from the disturbance that was someone’s foot breaking through the floorboards finally giving way to any weight applied. Once the shock inside the church subsides into silence, the pain from the hooded figure is expressed verbally: ”Shit!”
In a position that was not only painful but awkward as well, the slender leg carefully pulls free, luckily the trousers got most of the impact and was left with a tear down the side of the leg, a gash with it - that wasn’t too good. Ripping the hood away, the long dark hair spills free over the shoulders of a female while she turns her head over to examine the damage she had done to herself. She reached over and picked up the lantern she had dropped while falling through the floor - so her luck had not tipped over or burst into flames. She brought the lantern closer and then tore the fabric more revealing a long scrape down her leg. It didn’t look too bad if she just keeps it clean; not at all deep - might be raw for the next few days.
Her name was Hedy, and most recently alone having gone on a search for more supplies, she lost sight of her camp in the storm and found her way into this once safe haven. She would have to wait until the storm was over before continuing onward, and if not then until dawn. While the lantern was up looking over her wound, her attention went back to the hole she had fallen through and caught the sight of something inside; captured by the firelight then the lightning outside. Reaching down she pulls out a couple of books some so waterlogged they nearly disintegrated in her hand, but several underneath weren’t too bad, the first half of the books had ink bleed but the second half seemed in good condition.
Upon further investigation, realizing it wasn’t just a book but someone’s old journal; entries dated some far back before she was born. She wasn’t exactly a naive or uneducated person, she knew how to read, but nomads believed in curses, and she was no different, the respect was to put it back and leave the dead alone - if the owner of the journal was dead. Maybe they are alive - who knows but they left it here and she was going to respect that. Placing everything back inside she hesitates again, reaching back inside touching the smooth object there, it wraps easily around her hand while pulling it closer to the light she’s stunned by what she sees and hiccups a fright to only drop it back into the hole - at impact the object clunks loudly. Standing quickly Hedy holds the lantern over the hole this time seeing an overview of inside, it was filled with a contraband of weapons; mostly designed to kill the monsters; what she held was a stake it’s pointed edge had dried blood on it - most likely from ‘them’ or even possibly human.
Weirdly she was used to seeing horrors of all kinds throughout her childhood, she was used to this world, and it’s darkness - maybe she got spooked by the fact it was something she wasn’t expecting; sounded like she was getting too comfortable. Now standing observing her surrounding, ahead of her was a stage, and on the floor a cross that had fallen off the wall when that part of the roof gave way - it was a church, and from the outside any resemblance of a church no longer existed and it’s stability probably no longer safe. The storm was beginning to move away and the strikes were less and the thunder growing distant outside the positive charged lightning strikes, perhaps she can continue tonight and home.
Another lightning strike and in the silhouette outside did an image of what looked like someone walking by illuminated inside the church. She wasn’t sure it was the light playing tricks on all the debris and decay of the building, but she didn’t dare take that chance and moved off to the side; putting the lantern wick to the lowest light possible without putting it out and setting it on the floor next to her. Looking out of the once clean stained glass; there was a broken piece she was able to look through. It looked like it was nothing but a piece of siding to a building - maybe this one, whatever the case it had been blown away and lodged into a very dead looking tree, it was swaying back and forth and thought: yeah, that must have been it.Posted 05-08-2021, 12:09 PMThis post was last modified: 05-08-2021, 05:40 PM by Hedy Majors
Running In Dreams
Posted 05-08-2021, 12:09 PM
This post was last modified: 05-08-2021, 05:40 PM by Hedy Majors
