October Writing Prompts- Pinterest List by ZellyKatArt
October 25- Lost in the Catacombs
Author’s Note: Things are heating up with Trick-or-treats and Trunk-or-treats, so I will be behind in posting my blogs and short stories. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Hayden laughed as his girlfriend, Julia, clung to his arm. They were taking a tour in an underground catacombs on their honeymoon. They had met another couple, Caleb and Molly, on the tour and were staying close together so they could talk quietly together. The tour guide, an older gentleman with balding gray hair, warned them for the fifth time to stay with the group since they kept lagging behind.
Julia eyed the catacombs and shuddered. “Why did we have to come down here?”
“Babe, you know I’ve always wanted to tour catacombs. You said you’d go with me, so why not on our honeymoon?” Hayden smirked at his new wife as she eyed a dark passage off to their left. “Nothing is going to come out of there, Julia. You’re safe.”
Molly squeezed Julia’s arm to catch her attention. “It’s okay. Nothing freaky happens down here. Caleb and I have been on this tour before.”
“You have? Why have you two come back then if you’ve already been on this tour?” Julia asked when she looked at Molly. She let go of Hayden’s arm, rubbing her own. “Wow, your hands are cold.”
“I know. I have poor circulation sadly,” Molly laughed. “And we just like going into the catacombs. This tour is one of our favorites.” She looked up at Caleb, who smiled down at her and nodded.
“Can you four please keep up with us?” The tour guide had stopped the group again, and they were waiting just around the corner.
Julia grabbed Hayden’s arm and dragged him to catch up with the group. Molly and Caleb rushed after their new friends until they were with the others. They walked behind them, but made sure that this time they kept up with the tour group. The tour guide sighed, and they walked down another narrow staircase, taking them down further underground. When the tour guide stopped them to talk about the water dripping down the wall, Julia glanced behind them when she heard a low growl.
“Hayden, did you hear that?” She glanced at her husband and shivered. “It sounded like a growl.”
Hayden, Caleb, and Molly turned to look behind them, but there was nothing there. There were lights, but they didn’t see anything that would make a growling sound. The four looked at each other, then turned around just as the tour group disappeared from sight around the next corner. The group hurried around the corner, but the group was nowhere to be seen. Molly grabbed Caleb while Julia’s breathing quickened and Hayden tried to calm her down.
“We should head back the way we came,” Caleb said, and they turned back around. They went around the corner and walked down the hallway, looking for the stairs. But the hallway just kept going.
“Did we make a wrong turn somewhere? I thought the stairs were right around here,” Molly said and stopped, staring at the wall. She was getting nervous. “Are we lost?”
Caleb shook his head and ran down, turning a corner. He reappeared and ran back to them. “There’s only more hallway that way and no stairs.”
“We should have stayed with the group,” Julia said in between gasping. “We shouldn’t have looked away. Not we can’t find them.”
Hayden hugged his wife close. “Shhhhh, Julia. We’re going to find them.” He grabbed her hand, and the group hurried back the way they had come. They went around the corner where the group had vanished and stopped. Hayden placed a finger to his lips, then pointed to his ears.
The group stood still, listening for their tour guide’s voice. They waited and listened, but heard nothing. Hayden glanced behind them when he heard whispering. It sounded like the whispering was behind them, next to them, and in front of them suddenly. Julia pressed her ear to the icy wall and listened.
“It sounds like someone is inside the wall,” she said, her eyes filled with fear. She jumped back and rubbed her ear. “It felt like something had grabbed my ear.”
“We’re lost,” Molly said with a sob. “We’re lost.”
“I told you to stay with the group, but you didn’t listen to me.”
The four turned and stared at the tour guide, shocked. He glared at them and the others from the tour stepped out from the walls behind him. He glanced at the others. “They all were like you. They learned their lesson and now they stay with me for our tour.” He looked back at the four. “Years ago, I was new here. I got lost on my first trip down here, too. I was being guided by another tour guide, but we were separated. Since I didn’t know where I was going, I perished down here. Now I lead those who get lost to their doom to wander down here forever.”
Julia and Hayden backed away from the tour group, while Caleb and Molly stared at them in disbelief. The people in front of them shifted and their normal looks melted away until disfigured and grotesque spirits stood in front of the small group. Molly screamed and turned, pushing past Julia and Hayden, disappearing from sight. Julia’s ankle twisted when Molly had pushed her and she fell against the wall. Julia screamed as the wall seemed to grow hot to the touch. Julia pulled her hands away, but the damage was already done and skin ripped off, sticking to the wall.
Hayden tumbled backwards and caught himself on the wall as well. He placed his palms and back against it. The heat melted his skin, clothes, and flesh into the wall itself. He yelled and screamed as he tried to push himself off the wall. His legs gave out on him and he fell to the ground, his skin seared off. Once he sat back against the wall again, it grew hotter until Hayden was consumed. Julia cried as she watched her husband succumb to death, holding her burned hands in front of her.
Caleb watched in horror as Hayden was killed and Julia stood with smoking hands. She turned to look at him and begged him to help her. Caleb shook his head and backed away from her. He stumbled back over a loose rock and fell, but he never hit the ground. The tour guide caught him. Caleb looked up into the man’s vacant, dead eyes and yelled. He tried to break free, but the man only clutched Caleb harder. The others in the tour surrounded the terrified man and, as he screamed, crowded him, grabbing at Caleb. Caleb swatted at their hands as they ripped into his skin. Julia watched in horror as they dropped a dead Caleb.
Julia ran, her hands still in front of her and tears streaming down her cheeks. She tripped a few times but was able to stay on her feet. When she rounded the corner, she found Molly. Molly sat on the ground, arms wrapped around her knees, and her head buried in her knees. “Molly, oh Molly, we have to find a way out of here.” Julia gently touched her friend’s shoulder with the back of her burned hand and hissed from the pain.
Molly didn’t move, so Julia gently nudged her again. This time, Molly fell over and lay on the ground. Her eyes were missing and her mouth was stretched open. Julia screamed and shook her head. She had to get out of there. Julia ran blindly until she finally found the stairs. They seemed to have reappeared after they met up with the deadly tour group. Julia ran up the stairs. When she reached the top, she looked both ways, trying to figure out which way they had come.
Julia heard voices to her right and ran. She was sobbing by the time she reached a different tour group. She screamed and held up her burned hands to the shocked tour guide, a petite woman with long, flowing black hair.
“Please, help me!” Julia cried as she looked at her ruined hands, then at the woman. “Please!”
The woman told her tour to follow her back to the entrance so they could help Julia. A few kind women held onto Julia as they walked back to the front. They left her sitting in the front room where the tour began and the woman took them back on their tour, since another person would help Julia. While she waited for the other person, a woman closer to her 40s with short auburn hair, to retrieve the first aid kit and to call for help, Julia kept looking around, scared that someone would come grab her.
“Julia!”
Julia froze when she heard her name being called. She slowly turned around towards the entrance to the catacombs and screamed. Molly, Caleb, and Hayden grinned at her in their ghostly horrifying death look and reached for her. She screamed again and swatted at them with her burned hands, even though it caused her pain.
When the woman rushed back to see why Julia had been screaming, she found the waiting room empty. Julia was gone!