A story I wrote

"Once upon a time, there were four gods that walked the earth, each representing one of the four elements, Fire Water, Earth, Air. Unfortunately, the four gods couldn't remain on earth, so each left fragments of their power on earth for humans to find and use, hidden in the four corners of the earth."

As Madison recounts the legend, I can't help but wonder why we're out here. It's just a legend, but Madison and her friends don't seem to think so. They dragged me out here, to this dark, thin, ominous, and overgrown staircase out in the middle of nowhere in Hasha, Nevada, searching for whatever the supposed gods left behind. The staircase we stand in front of is barely wide enough for a person to walk through it without grazing the walls, yet Madison's friend, Penny, seems to have thought that bringing full-blown climbing gear was a good idea, and I don't have the heart to tell her that we're not going spelunking and that we're going to have to leave most, if not all, of her gear outside. Madison's other friends brought almost nothing else, which I find to be a very bad idea, but I don't question or voice my concerns. If they're willing to die at the bottom of a cavern because they wanted to look for some nonexistent golden idol that would supposedly give them the power of a good, I'm not going to stop them. It's every man for himself down there. After the legend, Madison begins speaking about our objective, find the idol, get out. That's it. I have no intention of actively looking for this idol, but I'll help if I need to. She doesn't specify any rules for safety or keeping the group together, and I assume that I can leave alone if I sense something dangerous. Although, leaving my girlfriend in the bowels of what essentially amounts to a dungeon seems pretty cold-blooded. However, if saving her means risking or losing my own life, I'm not going. Coming here was her mistake, anyways. After Madison's short speech, almost as short as the legend, we're all ready to head down. Madison leads the charge, with most of her friends following, and me intentionally staying behind so I can be the first one out if shit hits the fan. There is plenty of other fish in the sea. We're only a few steps down when Penny finally discovers that she really can't take her gear with her. I accompany her up the two steps back to the surface and come back down with her while the others wait. Although the delay took less than a minute, I feel a sudden urge to run, far away from the crypt. If I voice this, Madison will write it off as an act, aligned with my initial skepticism. Uneasy, I continue, following the group further and further down. Despite us reaching many, many feet underground, and the entrance and sun being completely out of sight, the staircase is still fully lit. My dread hasn't yet subsided, and only continues to grow worse. After a few more steps, I can see Penny beginning to stumble. She's nervous too. Maybe it's the climbing gear, maybe it's the atmosphere. Luckily Madison notices and attempts to comfort her, stating that we're too far down to stop. I don't believe it. Eventually, I hear Madison hit flat ground, and Penny breathes a hefty sigh of relief. So it was the stairs. Despite the lack of space on the stairs, we've reached a landing where we can all stand shoulder to shoulder, with a blue residential door right in front of us. There's no lock, and it doesn't take Madison long to figure out that it's unlocked. Instead of letting us all in now and getting this over with, Madison decides to use this time for a pep talk, which I promptly ignore to open the door. Madison looks lurked, but I can't shake the feeling that there's something big down here, and I want to leave as soon as possible. Maybe gods shouldn't be messed with. We head inside, and I'm shocked at the look of it all. Tiles. Pristine beige tiles line the ceiling to the floor, with a blue line of tiles connecting the walls, and leading my gaze to the three other doors in the room. The room is lit by a set of corporate-looking lights, set in indentations in the ceiling. Looks a bit like my dining room crossed with a public bathroom. There's not enough room for all of us to explore the room, so some people open the other doors and begin to explore. Madison stays behind and scoots up to me, smiling. I can't resist her charm.

"Hot, right?"

I can't give her a dignified response. The most I can manage is a single grunt, which makes me think that I would die if things were to go south for her down here. Madison seems unfazed by my response, or rather, lack thereof, and looks around the room, and into the rooms that were opened up by her friends. I hope they leave the doors open as a trail of sorts.

"Regardless of how good this place looks, it's a little weird right?"

I can't deny her claim. The staircase was thin, uninviting, and dirty, and its entrance was overgrown. This... facility... is completely clean, with no visible blemishes anywhere, and it's made of materials that seem too urban for the complete stone path down here. Assuming we were the first ones to come down here ever, there's no way this place could stay this clean. There's also no way the lights could stay on, right? Having my answer to her question, I open my mouth to answer her question, but I am interrupted by a voice I don't recognize coming from the left door. Slowly, Madison and I approach the door. Madison pretends to brandish a handgun as we approach. It's useless, but it's cute, so I can't complain. I turn the corner first, entering the room before madison. Inside, aside from the same sight, we saw entering the facility, is a woman, dressed in a green police uniform, and surrounded by a green wool shoal. The sight is odd. She doesn't look like she's on duty, but rather like someone pretending to be a police officer. Strange. Madison follows me into the room and begins questioning her, still feigning her sidearm.

"Who are you? Name, age, and identification please."

The "officer" laughs, presenting her badge. It's real alright. Still, the green shoal still throws me off. 

"Alina Fickerson, age 32. Former NVPD officer and current head Sherriff of Hasha, Nevada. You know, I could ask you the same question, as well as what you're doing down here, so let's start with that. What are two kids like you doing in a place like this, especially with it so out of the way?"

The officer catches Madi off guard, and it shows. Of all the very little things that we did to prepare for coming down here, one of the things we didn't prepare to face was law enforcement. One of the many bad decisions that were made in preparation for coming down here. Still, the officer was down here before us, despite the fact that all the doors were closed, and, from the rooms we saw, there was no way this facility could support life. Where did this officer come from? After a few minutes of silence, the officer coughs. We need to hurry up and find an excuse, but we can't leave the officer's gaze without looking suspicious. Hoping Madison will understand, I tell the officer that we're playing hide and seek with a group of friends. The officer looks skeptical, but Madi ensures her that this is the truth. We never specify what is hiding and who is seeking.

"So, you're playing a childhood game in a presumably off-limits area? Sure... Where are the rest of your friends?"

This time, I'm caught off guard. I would have expected a question about everyone else, but it doesn't seem like just telling the officer that they're hiding would help our case. Luckily, Madison continues to fib, and I'm grateful. She's handling this better than I am.

"Well, we decided to come here because it made the game hard, and we gave the hiders way too much time to hide, like, even as we speak, the timer is still counting down. As you should know, the rules of the game necessitate that we do NOT go looking for our friends, because they're still not done hiding. So, if you could hide with us, that would be wonderful!"

Madi's incredibly vague but incredibly specific answer blows me away. There's no way it's not convincing. It's not detailed enough to allow for the officer to poke any holes in our lie, but it's a situation just specific enough that no one could feasibly make it up, yet Madison did. When this is over, I'm fulfilling my promise and giving her what she wants. Unfortunately, the officer is just as prepared as Madison, and we've been caught once again.

"Well, couldn't you make an exception for the LAW? Clearly, this isn't your property, and trespassing is a crime in Nevada. Why would you need to break the law in order to find an exotic location for your game of Hide and Seek?"

Despite the difficult situation the officer has put us in, Madison came prepared, locked, and loaded.

"Where's your warrant? As I seem to recall, this is not your property either, and since you're a FORMER officer of NVPD, as you claim, you aren't protected by state-owned property, which I KNOW this is not. So, let me ask again, where's your warrant?"

Madi... I cannot compete with you. The officer does not respond to Madison's question, and I am sure that we're in the clear. The three of us stand there, as the officer seems to think about what to say, opening her mouth multiple times, yet no sound emerges from her. We got her. Eventually, the officer turns around and begins to walk away. Madison and I don't speak, and we are proven to have made the right move when the officer turns right back around and walks back towards us, smirking. Shit.

"You got me. I don't have a warrant, so I can't bring you in for trespassing, but what I can do is ask you and your friends to leave as soon as possible, and in order to do that, I figured that it would help if I assisted. So, Alina Fickerson, age 32. Former NVPD officer and current head sheriff of Hasha, Nevada at your service."

Fuck. Madi looks panicked, and I can understand why. If this cop finds her friends, and the reason why we're here, we're busted. I think. Madison didn't exactly check if "invading a property the state of Nevada didn't even know existed in order to find the object of a legend that only lasted a few sentences at most" counts as a crime, or as civil disruption. Finding the facility wasn't exactly easy either. Finding Madison's friends won't be any easier, since we don't know how big this place is, or how far they may have traveled. If we're truly dealing with gods, then we have no idea what protections may be in place to keep any random person from wandering their way to the fragment of the god's power, because all gods work like that for some reason. Despite the challenges we face, we have to keep going, and Madi seems to know that, as her frown has all but disappeared, and she's already taken a step in the door opposite the entrance. Relieved, I try to follow her, but she stops me.

"We don't know where anyone is, so why don't we split up? We can search more in a shorter amount of time that way. Officer Fickerson, you take the path left of the entrance. Jon, you'll go right, and I'll go right ahead. We all know what to do, right? Good. Let's go."

With that, Madi steps through the left door and closes it behind her. I wish I could say that was a smart move, but I don't know if it was. Before I step through the door on my side, I look back to the left to see if the officer has already left, and I am surprised to find her doing the same. For a second we don't speak to each other, instead opting to just stare at each other. Eventually, the officer breaks the silence and asks me about Madi.

"She's not very smart, is she? Why would we split up, unless you know something I don't, or don't want me seeing something you've already seen?"

I can't fault her for thinking that, but I do find her arguments a little shaky, pointing out the lack of use in staying together.

"Since there is no reason to believe that there is a threat down here, staying together would only waste time we could potentially save. This isn't some b-grade horror movie, this is a strangely clean and hidden place in the middle of a nowhere town in Nevada. What could possibly happen down here?"

Although the officer seems convinced, somehow, I am not. I shouldn't feel scared of my own words, but I am. I shake the feeling, brushing it off as simply inconvenient wording, and continue into my side, leaving the door open. I can't tell where everyone went, because of the closed doors, so I decide to follow a simple maze-solving strategy and follow the left wall. As I am about to open the left door, I realize that the rooms Madi and I entered had the same layout as the entrance room, and if I assume that most, if not all the rooms in this place are the same, then following the left wall could lead me in circles. As I let go of the door, moving towards the one opposite the door I entered from, I notice my original door and realize that I already had a strategy that could help me eliminate the issue of going in circles while also letting me systematically check the area. By following the left wall, and leaving doors open, I could rule out open doors as places I had already checked or entered, and follow the pattern until I find someone. With the officer and Madison looking at random, I could clear this place, if not quickly, then surely. Emboldened by the idea, I walk back to the left door, and open it, finding a room similar to the one I was expecting, but not the same. While the room seems to have the same theme as the entrance, the layout is completely different. The room extends farther to the right, and there's no door to the left or in front of me. The only door I can see is one to my right, so I open it and enter the next room. To my surprise, one of the doors is already open, even though I know that this is a direction that I have not gone yet. Unfazed, I reach for the door farthest to my left, but I stop myself before I can open it. If I didn't leave that door open, then there's a possibility that I could find someone else through that door, and they could be close. Alternatively, going through an already open door could lead me to the exact problem I'm trying to avoid, circles. Unsure, I decide to take the open door, and walk into the room it leads into. The room is reminiscent of a bathroom, with two urinals right next to each other, and an indent leading to a door leading in the direction opposite mine to the left of the urinals. To the right is a hand dryer, and no door. Where's the sink? I ignore the odd sight and open the only door in the room, continuing further into the facility. Beyond the door is a long hallway, with many doors lining the walls, and a larger, more grand door at the end of it. Although I'm here to find Madison's friends, if I were to find the god's fragment before finding them, I wonder how Madison would react. It's not my promise, but Madison impressed me so much, as she always does, that I can't help but approach the door. I've only made it about five doors down when I hear a scream from my right. I have to leave the idol if it exists. Human life is more important. I follow the scream to the door where I heard it and open it. Another room. Without thinking, I continue forward and open the door right in front of me. A small deviation from my plan is a small sacrifice for someone's life. Opening the door, I find a square room with sides about as long as the hallway. The room looks just as sterile as every other one, with the exception of an unsettling scene just offset from the center. Penny is still, standing deader than a statue, and paler than the color white. In front of her is a body. A body, unidentifiable, and intact. It looks almost asleep, with the exception of the blank face, and the blood pool forming around it. It's fresh. I almost can't approach it, but I steel myself, inching closer. As I approach the cadaver, I notice something that sends a chill through my spine and fills my head with questions I didn't want. Although the clothing the body wears is completely generic, almost grayman-like, there's a small piece of fabric floating in the ever-expanding pool of crimson. It looks like a green scarf. A green that is similar to the shade of the shoal that the officer was wearing. I can't take the sight, but I have to do something. I grab Penny, and although she doesn't react at first, I don't waste time. I take us back to the door that I came from and open it, closing it behind me. It's not until we're in the room that I realize what I did. I closed the door. Fuck. Thankfully, the door back into the hallway is still open, and Penny runs into it, with me following slowly behind. Now I have the chance to investigate the circumstances around that body.

"So, Penny, what was that?"

I try to sound as tender as possible, but she doesn't respond. If she thinks that I think that she did it, she's dead wrong, but I don't dare point that out. She's still pale and looks like she could collapse at any moment. Carefully, I sit her down, and stand up, trying to make sense of what I just saw. Someone was down here, and something didn't want them down here, and the officer... she was down here with them. Was it a search party? Unsure, I sigh, confused. I can't answer a single one of the million questions swimming around my head, but I can do something about my current situation. I want to make sure that Penny's safe, since looking for the mystery idol anymore may actually kill her, so I stand her up and guide her back to the entrance. She tries to close doors on the way, but I stop her. Closing doors would give us a good amount of time between whatever killed that body and us, but it creates a path for us to follow and systematically clear. There's just no way to avoid that room, and whatever did that. Having dropped Penny off at the entrance, I watch as she runs up the stairs, and out of sight. As soon as she's gone, I feel a little fear start to creep in. If I run into that thing, what do I do? I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, and I hope I never find it. Readying myself, I follow my path once again. Luckily, I never doubled back on a room, and I'm able to find the hallway again. I walk back into the room and breathe. If I open the door right in front of me, I'll be back in the room with the body, and I don't know what happens then. Do I keep searching, or do I stop and run away? There's only one way to know, and only one road to get there, and I follow that road. What I find, however, is not the destination I expected. I went from point A to point J. The room is gone, replace by a room identical to the entrance room.

"This can't be. No, no way. Not at all. Nope. I won't accept it."

All I can do is vocalize my scattered thoughts. The room changed. I was here not too long ago, and the room was much larger and marked by a body, but that room is gone now.

"Where is it?"

"Where is it?"

"Where is it?"

All I can do is ask.

"Where is it?"

I keep asking, knowing that none can hear my cries, but I continue anyway.

"Where is it?"

I ask again.

"Where is it?"

I am not given my answer.

"Where is it?"

I am finally given my answer. A roar sounds from many rooms away, answering my questions. It is a cry so horrible I have no choice but to move away. I have to avoid it. Opening the door in front of me, I find the larger room once again. I am almost relieved, but the roaring continues, and I have to move forward once more. As I open doors, the roaring only gets louder, even though I am running from it. Eventually, I somehow find my way back to the hallway. The roaring has stopped now. I can finally breathe. As I walk around the room, looking for an escape from the roar, I hear growls at every side door, matched in pitch with the roar. Where is this thing? There are only two doors left, the one I entered from, and the large, foreboding one opposite that. With only one realistic choice left, I open the large metal door. Although it is difficult, I am able to crack the door open, and it eventually swings open. Behind the door, horrors await, and I cannot move. It has me trapped with its lifeless, eyeless gaze and gaping facial structure. The black and yellow markings around its forest green body remind me of the circuit board of a machine. The green covering its body swims and circles around its figure, mesmerizing and terrifying, like an ocean of death. It emanates the concept of evil everywhere, and the room is filled with an overwhelming sense of gone. I am gone, and I don't even feel it...

...

Since then, the town of Hasha, Nevada has been terrified of what horrors lie beneath.