The elevator rattled to a stop as it halted suddenly.
Raviel's head leaned against the cool, polished stainless steel, which was now stained with filth and blood as Raviel leaned his entire body, pressing it against the wall for support while it trembled from exhaustion and adrenaline.
*DING*
The dented doors slid open. Slow and reluctant as the dents were making it groan as it parted sideways.
He stepped forward.
And froze.
"....This reality or whatever it is, just can't stop showing me some new shit, can it?" He whispered faintly, as the view before him took his breath away.
It was a hall— massive, open and ruined yet strangely beautiful. The massive tinted glass walls lay shattered, and through those open spaces the exposed concrete and metal rods were visible, and thick vines curling up in the cracked space and spreading inside the hall.
The sunlight or whatever the light was pretending to be, made it even more mesmerizing, as it spilled on the floor in soft, trembling hues of violet mixed with orange.
And at the far end of the vast hall stood a single door.
It was clean, untouched with the varnish shining on it's brown wooden exterior.
On the upper part: 396
Raviel's smile faded as he began to walk.
The air here was different. Clean and calming without any hints of the hellish-stink! he had inhaled in the lower floors.
But it didn't feel like peace at all— it was the eerie....calm before the world decides to fall apart.
As he moved closer something caught his eye, a paper fluttering against the floor, trapped beneath the overgrown vine.
He crouched down, pulling it free, it was a torned diary page, yellowed and soft from the moisture and it crinkled around the corners.
On it was a delicate drawing of a flower.
Helichrysum, labelled in a soft cursive handwriting around the crinkled part.
The petals were inked in shades of gold and faint pinkish-red. Despite the blood, the horror and the madness he had seen. He found himself pausing.
"It's.... beautiful", he muttered, as a small smile formed on his face.
The words felt strange in his mouth.
He folded the page gently and carefuly slided it inside his pockets where it wouldn't fall, because the drawing was way too beautiful to be left to rot in this place. And approached the door.
Then —he saw it.
Tiny streak of light leaking out of the keyhole.
Like the soft glow of a candle in a dark room.
He gulped, flexed his fingers on the handle of his knife and crouched slightly.
" Alright...." he muttered under his breath,
"Let's see what's behind this door"
He slowly turned the handle.
The hinges creaked.
He leaned in, peering through the small gap.
— Darkness
Nothing not even a shape....just endless void.
And then—
His entire body was dragged forward as the door opened with a loud thud.
The air vanished.
His vision and the world collapsed.
He was falling, swallowed whole and the next second. Impact!.
Splash!....Splash!
Cold, crushing.
Water everywhere.
Raviel's eyes flew open in shock as he sank deeper and....deeper, still the pressure felt like needles stabbing into his chest like spears. His lungs screamed as they started to being filled with the cold water. He thrashed wildly, bubbles bursting from his mouth in thick white mists.
The world was murky, blurred shapes covered with blue and indigo colours, everything moving in distorted waves.
His status screen flickered violently in front of him, glitching and twisting.
[SYSTEM WARNING: CORRUPTED REPLAY DETECTED]
He tried to scream— to breathe in air in the panic, but only swallowed more water, until his chest started expanding, till the lungs felt like balloons on the verge of decompressing.
His eyes burned and turned bloodshot.
NO....not like this....
The world began to dim, every heartbeat slowing down and drawing him to the abyss.
But he didn't lose consciousness.
Something forced him to stay awake an unseen pull, a cruel will that itself felt like a burning pain that refused to let him lose his senses.
He couldn't belive as he could see even as pain ripped through him. The light distorted into darker blue, twisted then shattered completely into black.
He gasped for air that suddenly rushed in, burning his throat raw. His body convulsed as he coughed, water pouring out from his mouth and nasal passage onto the white marble.
The sound of water splashing echoed around him.
He blinked, vision dimming and then flickering back.
He was lying on the cold floor of what looked like…. a museum.
Tall white pillars, ancient marble sculptures of beings that looked like structures of greek gods in marble lustres, cracked glass cases.The place was eerily.... silent and sterile, yet soaked with a faint scent of dampness.
Raviel groaned, rolling onto his side, coughing violently.
Each breath hurt. His limbs felt like hell.
He tried to stand but his knees buckled. He hit the floor again with a dull thud.
Water pooled around him as he rasped,
"What the…. .hell now"
The only answer was the echo of his own ragged breathing and water pooling throughout the empty marble place.