18 The dark chamber (I)

She stood there looking at the rusty door in front of her. Her palm touched the doorknob and simultaneously, a chilling sensation entered her veins. This is the first door that led to the dark chamber, a place where no one had ever set foot for many years.

"Open it!" There were two men observing her every move, urging her to hurry. Fu Yixiao pushed the door revealing an eerie, long pathway. There were dry leaves and broken branches everywhere, indicating the span of time the place was left unattended. Two rows of street light illuminated the whole area, some were already broken inviting darkness under their hood.

She turned around, looking at the excited faces of those who had schemed against her to the point of no return. Then, she saw two other faces, one in tears and another with a bitter expression. "I'll be back." She said and stepped on the pathway. A squealing sound vibrated in the air as the door closed by itself.

Ah Bi and Ah Bo, a twin assigned to escort Fu Yixiao to the dark chamber felt cold sweat trickled their sides. With each step they felt a weight pressing their chest, robbing their breath away. They observed the girl who was two steps ahead of them, she seemed to be fine with the disturbing vibes oozing from every corner of the place. Her light steps seemed to void of hesitation as she marched forward.

Fu Yixiao surveyed the whole area and there was something that made her feel uneasy. No matter how she tried to reason herself, she felt that the dark chamber held more secret. She looked at the dry leaves and broken branches, then the mossy pathway she walked on as well as the broken street lamp at the roadsides. A frowned appeared on her face. She halted.

"Moved!" The twin felt their pulse-pounding louder and louder when suddenly Fu Yixiao ceased moving. The sudden break intensified the horror planted in their mind. No matter how they yelled at her, she didn't move an inch. "Something is wrong with this place." Hearing the sentence, both men froze as they inched closer to her small frame.

"What do you mean?" Ah Bi asked in fear. His voice was shaky dancing along with his trembling body. "Are you scared?" Fu Yixiao smiled meaningfully as she walked faster. Both men were breathing hard as they tried to follow her fast pace. "Miss Fu, what do you mean earlier?" Ah Bo repeated his twin's unanswered question. "Someone, no, something lives here." Fu Yixiao whispered but enough to reach the twin's ears. As they heard her spoke, they turned around and ran away, not hesitating a moment. In a flash, they were out of Fu Yixiao's sight. The girl smiled and chuckled at their cowardice.

Now that she was alone, Fu Yixiao wanted to confirm her suspicions earlier. She ransacked through all the leaves and branches, then, inspected the street lamps. "This is strange." She mumbled. What she had suspected were all true, the so-called abandoned kind of look was all intentional. Someone had carefully arranged the positions of the dry leaves, broken branches as well as the nonfunctioning street lamps in here. On one look, the whole place appeared like it hadn't been cleaned for years, but on closer look, there wasn't a speck of single dirt in this places, no spiderweb, no dust. Some of the dry leaves were actually fake. Fu Yixiao couldn't help but smile again. This time her eyes were glistening.

She continued walking at a faster speed when she noticed that her eyes were getting darker and darker. The number of street lamps was reduced by a great amount. After walking for ten minutes, she finally saw a log cabin. She was barely able to find the door when the last street lamp broke. Darkness enveloped the whole area, prohibiting visibility. Fu Yixiao took a deep breath before she entered the log cabin.

The situation Inside was similar to the outside, both were pitched black. She leaned against the wall and tasted its texture with her palm. She continued to do the same, trying to find some peculiarity or a hint of anything. After a round of inspection, she found nothing and exhausted, she rested on the floor.

A chain of event replayed in her mind. They were many loopholes in today's event especially the conversation she heard between Director Chin and Secretary Bo to the involvement of an elder in today's case. Fu Yixiao stared at the darkness, embracing them as she sprawled on the floor. Then she realized that there was something wrong with the floor underneath her body. Sitting down, she ran her fingers on the floor surface when she noticed that as she got closer to the edge of the floor, the fine texture she felt before was replaced with a coarse, uneven surfaced. And these surfaces purposed was to masquerade the small, round button she found.

Curious, Fu Yixiao pushed the button down and the whole cabin started shaking. There was an opening on the floor opposite her, revealing a staircase leading underground. A sulphurous glow was cast from a wall lamp located six steps down, enough to aid one's visibility. Fu Yixiao carefully walked down the stair when suddenly it started moving by itself.