The Accident and Resistance

At that time, I would've definitely fallen on the floor if it weren't for Sister Hin holding me.

The abrupt fear gradually faded when we inspected our surroundings and realized that nothing else had changed other than the brightening of the lights.

I didn't know if the moonstones were even supposed to work like that. It made me wonder, just how high-quality were these ancient moonstones embedded in those walls?

Anyway, we figured that the sudden increase in brightness was due to some sort of hidden mechanism installed on the door, as long as no one alive was there and the mechanisms weren't meant to harm or kill us, we didn't mind the odd occurrences like these since we already had enough of unexplainable things happening around us ever since we came here.

After taking some rest, we went back to our kicking procedure. The door didn't budge again. We took another rest and repeated the process.

Half an hour later, the door still wasn't open enough for us to check what was inside.

We continued like that for another half an hour then started to use our arms and shoulders. Another hour passed like that, but now, we were really close to our goal of witnessing the spectacle inside.

Was there a way out? Or was there another creepy corpse there? Our answers were soon answered when Sister Hin's strong shoulder push managed to open the door in one blow.

It seemed as if it was only stuck till that point. When it swung open wide like that, we were stunned to see the spectacle inside, because it was beyond any of our expectations.

It was simultaneously the most ancient and the most futuristic spectacle we had ever witnessed. The floor and the walls of the room were made of some polished stone, same as the tables and the countertop. There were no chairs or stools to sit on, instead, very old charts and parchments were strewn all around. The complicated and convoluted markings on them lead me to assume that they were used for research in their language.

The polished white wall in front of us was garnished with an old rusty rectangular metallic stand, upon which rested various glass equipment like glasses, tubes, beakers, and some very artistic… things.

The first feeling I experienced when I witnessed all that, was disappointment. After all, we were searching for a way out, not some souvenirs to bring back home.

But very quickly, that disappointment was replaced by frustration and… fear.

That fear was reasonable. The place looked as if it was stuck in time, it was too clean, too neat, and by clean and neat, I'm not referring to the arrangement of things but the absence of dust on everything.

It was only possible if someone regularly cleaned that here, but other than us… who could it be? If someone was hiding around, then why? Could it be that they were scared by two little girls?

My mind worked at a very fast pace in panic and began calculating the possibilities, most of them disappointing and horrible.

Sister Hin suddenly whispered in my ear, "A-Are you going to c-continue standing there, or should we run back?"

I jerked my head at her and saw that her face was pale. I wanted to ask her what she was scared of but fear was contagious. Moreover, that she was staring over my shoulders wasn't helping either.

In that foreign place, where Sister Hin was my only source of bravery, something scary enough to make her turn pale from fright was behind me.

What could it be?

How could something appear so suddenly? I was just looking at the empty room after all, how could something or someone appear out of nowhere? I neither had the time or patience, nor the courage to turn around and investigate.

How was I supposed to feel? I, who was 11 years old at the time, felt a chill that made my body shiver like a leaf in a thunderstorm.

To top everything, the lights that had brightened up in the beginning when our kicks had just managed to budge that last door were now as dim as they could be.

The fear was threatening to paralyze my body, but I couldn't afford to give up. Sister Hin suddenly reached out, held my arm, turned around, and started running madly towards the creepy entrance we were trying to avoid since the beginning, as if considering it to be our only lifeline at a time like this.

She was clenching my hand tightly as she ran, sweating profusely. Despite us running as fast as we could, I could still hear both of our heartbeats. We often stumbled as we ran and every time we did, the fear in my heart grew, especially since I didn't know what was behind us.

When we crossed a few of the doors on the cobblestone passage, I couldn't hold back my curiosity and fear anymore and turned around to check if something was chasing us.

There wasn't, but it would be way less creepy if a zombie or a two-headed wolf was there. Instead, I saw two red glowing orbs of light, covered by a dense cloud of mist that had suddenly appeared.

The mist in that dark passage and the presence of those two mysterious orbs that looked like eyes reminded me of the creepy sensation I had felt when I had just entered the cave but this time, it was amplified tenfold.

This… was an unknown creature, that reeked of the same stench we had noticed in some of the rooms and smelled when we had entered the cave.

The mist spread slowly, but it was coming in our direction. My eyes were unknowingly focused on the weird organism in the dark. I was afraid to miss any of its movements, and that… was another minor mistake I still regret making.

The hand holding my palm clenched tighter. Before I could even turn my neck to look in front of me, the most unnatural shriek I had ever heard rang in my ears.

The idea that such an inhuman scream could even come out of my lovely Sis Hin's mouth was in itself harrowing. But since it happened nonetheless, the 'thing' or the situation that caused it definitely wasn't something I was ready for.

As soon as I heard the scream, I instinctively looked in Sister Hin's direction and as a result, was literally paralyzed from fear when I noticed that there was an organism made from that sticky and smelly bluish-black liquid we had seen, perhaps the same as the one chasing us with the only major difference between them being their eyes.

This one had green eye-like orbs while the one chasing us had red ones. It was around 2 meters tall and plump from the liquid. It didn't have a specific shape but moved by jiggling and twisting its entire body. It didn't seem to have any other sensory organ other than those weird orbs and a gaping maw.

I couldn't see what lay inside its 'mouth' since it contained despair-inducing darkness inside.

Unlike the red-eyed jelly monster chasing us from the back, this one didn't have dense mist surrounding it, which was why it appeared even more disgusting.

But even more disturbing than its appearance alone was the fact that it currently held the other arm of Sister Hin in its 'mouth' and wasn't willing to spit it out.

Looking at its size, it could have easily gobbled her up but it seemed to be intent on torturing her as it held her arm in the corner of its 'mouth'.

She was feeling a great amount of pain, perhaps her arm was even melting as I was paralyzed there, thinking of what I could do to help. But my mind seemed to have slowed down. If in usual conditions, it walked, then it was barely crawling now. Fear was threatening to paralyze my senses. I felt this morbid urge to take a deep breath, close my eyes, and give in to helplessness.

But as the other weird organism slowly drew closer, the threat of death suddenly made me hyper-alert.

Sister Hin was trying to pull away from it, but her exhausted strength and vigor weren't enough.

Tears were rolling down her cheeks as she tried to free her arm from the 'mouth' of that thing, but it was slowly digesting it, not refusing to budge from its place. Moreover, as if it was enjoying her shrieks and the despair on her face, it came closer to her and just lay there motionless with her arm inside it.

And as it all happened, the situation changing out of nowhere and the monstrosities coming out, I kept racking my hyper-aware mind, still not knowing what actions should I be taking.

Just as the mist coming from behind me was about to touch me, I lunged forth, taking Sister Hin's other arm, and began pulling.

That was the only strategy I could think of… force. Ever since we came to this damned place, we had been kicking and pushing open various doors. At that time as well, that was the only alternative I could think of that had a chance of working.

Sister Hin desperately tried to push me away, knowing that there was little chance of coming out of this alive. This only fueled my determination to take her back with me.

And it wasn't like she wasn't doing her best to escape as well, just that even after the combined strength of the two of us, we weren't able to make the monster move.

We were, however, able to shift our bodies so that the mist would touch the green-orbed monster first instead of us.

Even as we were pulling away from that monster's mouth, Sister Hin continued to scream, shriek, howl, and cry in pain. I could bet that she wasn't able to see me at the moment since her eyes were bloodshot and blurry with tears.

I didn't know any way to help her ease that pain. Like a numb fisherman in a small boat, stuck in a storm, my rowing was bound to have little impact on the mighty ocean, but it was still the best that I could do.

Just as I was beginning to lose hope of ever escaping, and Sister Hin's nasty cries started becoming soft as well, a very welcome change came abruptly.