What the hell happened, Diana? Where’s John?”
“What are doing here? It’s the middle of the night.”
“The nurse said you were still awake. I just came from the demolition site. What happened?”
“You won’t believe me.”
“You blew up a building in the middle of the night! I need some kind of answer. So do the police. They want to arrest you. They think you killed John and blew up the building to hide the body.”
“That’s not what happened.”
“Then tell me what did happen.”
“…”
“I don’t think you killed John. Hell, you’re lucky to be alive.”
“…”
“Marcus said the two of you went on a perimeter check. You reported finding a trespasser. Then you went to check the building for more trespassers. Then you called Marcus one more time to tell him to get away from the building and ten minutes later you blew the building up. You made it out but John’s missing. Did I leave anything out?”
“No.”
“Really? Cause it feels like I’m missing a lot. Like why did you blow up the building? What happened to the trespassers? What happened to John?”
“You won’t believe me.”
“Try me. Please give me something.”
“… Ok, you want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“Ok but remember you asked for it. So, we were walking the perimeter when this guy came running out of the building. John grabbed him and started talking to him while I called Marcus. The guy was hysterical, crying and yelping. Eventually we get him calmed down a little but then started babbling about a hole and his friends and he thinks they’re dead.
“The guy looked mid twenties, maybe a college student. We thought it might be a prank or hazing stunt gone wrong. John told Marcus we were going to check the building for anyone else. When we asked the guy to lead us to his friends, he flipped out again. He tried to run but John grabbed him. John talked the guy down again and got him to tell us where to look. He said they were on the third floor, near the center of the building. John cuffed the guy to a pole-”
“You are not supposed to have handcuffs. Where did John get handcuffs?”
“He bought them himself. Said he wanted to be prepared. Anyways he cuffed the guy and said we’ll be right back. We went inside and checked the second floor. If the guy’s friends fell through the floor they’re going to be on the second floor, right? We didn’t find anything. No bodies, no hole, nothing. We went up to the third floor and towards the center of the floor; there was a hole.”
“A hole? You said there was no hole?”
“There wasn’t one on the second floor but there was one on the third. The hole went down into the earth. The floor was gone, just gone, in a rough circle and there was a hole going down into the earth. Like dirt and rock coming right up to the edge of the hole.”
“I don’t understand.”
“We were on the goddamn third floor but it was like we were looking in a hole dug in the earth. I know you don’t believe me but I swear we found a fucking hole in the ground on the third floor!”
“Shh, don’t yell the nurse is doing me a favor letting me to talk to you but you can’t yell.”
“Sorry, sorry. I just… you have to believe me.”
“… How deep was the hole?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t see the bottom. It was too dark. We walked right up to the edge and just looked down. Our flashlights didn’t reach bottom. Then we started to hear sounds coming from the hole.”
“What kind of sounds?”
“John said it sounded like animals being tortured.”
“What did you hear?”
“It sounded like babies. Babies screaming. Not crying. Screaming. Hundreds of them. John leaned over the edge and something got him.”
“Got him? What do you mean ‘got him’?”
“It was like a tentacle and it had a claw on the end. It shot out of the dark and speared John through the chest and pulled him into the hole. I jumped away from the hole but I could could hear John screaming and the sounds got louder and then John stopped screaming.”
“You’re telling me some kind of monster pulled John down an impossible hole and ate him?”
“I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”
“I.. What happened next?”
“…”
“Come on, you told me this much, you can tell me why you blew up the building.”
“I couldn’t just leave the hole there. I went back down stairs and talked to the guy John had cuffed. He said one of his friends had decoded some sort of spell book. They had drawn a circle with symbols in it and chanted for a few minutes. Then the floor had started to crack and something shot out of the cracks spearing one of his friends. He ran and when he looked back the circle had collapsed. A couple of his friends were still hanging on to the side of the hole but they got speared and pulled down, too.”
“How many?”
“Eight went down the hole. Nine when you count John.”
“You believed him.”
“Of course I believed him. I had seen the hole. I saw John get pulled in. I heard the sounds that thing made.”
“Did he hear the sounds?”
“When we went back he said it was louder. I think it was getting closer. Like it was climbing out. I knew I couldn’t let it out.”
“Why didn’t you call the police?”
“The sound was getting louder. I couldn’t take the chance. I had to seal the hole before it got out…”
“So, you set off the charges on the third floor?”
“I didn’t have time to hook up the other floors.”
“What happened to the guy?”
“I made him help me set up the detonator and hook up the third floor. Then I told him to run. I called Marcus and told him to run. I waited ten minutes and blew up the third floor.”
“And you think that sealed the hole?”
“Right before I blew it up I could hear the sounds from outside the building. You went to the site? Did you hear anything?”
“No.”
“Then I guess it worked. If it didn’t then when you bring the rest down it’ll finish the job.”
“We won’t be finishing the job anytime soon.”
“What?”
“You were right; I don’t believe you. John is still missing. Possibly dead. But now I have an idea of where to start looking. Tomorrow we’ll start digging out the third floor.”
Author’s Note: This my first attempt at horror in a long time. It’s mostly a writing exercise for myself but I hope you liked it too. I would love if people would send feedback on whether you found it scary/creepy or not.
The dialogue only style is also a little bit of an experiment. When I first started brainstorming the story I kept envisioning it as a conversation. Once I started writing it seemed natural for it to be only dialogue.
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