"Are you sure about this?" my companion Ryan breathed out, the fire from his torch casting shadows across his face and making the fear written plainly on his features look much more daunted.
It had been only a few days after the first uncovering of the abandoned temple my team had been working on for months-- months of backbreaking labor, cold, and the mental strain of cracking the code of the location of its entrance from the pages of an old journal my grandfather had possessed ever since way before my time.
Before he passed away, he had dedicated his whole life to finding the entrance to this temple, which many texts suggest to belong to an ancient people called the Kashnir: an advanced civilization of men and women who worshiped gods of death, cruelty, and wealth.
Its main chamber-- which my grandfather pointed out in one of his many journal entries-- house unimaginable artifacts and treasure, offerings made by the people thousands of years ago. One artifact, in particular, had piqued my interest, taken from legends surrounding the mysterious people of Kashnir: a mysterious idol said to bring fortune and good harvest.
My grandfather's last wish was for me to find it.
With the promise I gad made to him at his deathbed set in my mind, there was no turning back now.
"Yes, I'm sure," I said firmly, bringing my torch even higher to light the dark corridor which was set in front of us. A few things scuttled and slithered out of sight as I did so, shying away from the light.
I shuddered.
"Let's go."
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
Time, it seemed, was irrelevant inside the Kashnir Temple.
The deeper we went into the mountain, the slower the hands of our watches seemed to move until it finally came to a complete stop after a few hours of walking and retracing our steps whenever we would come across an empty room or a dead end.
Although we had not encountered any creatures or typical Tomb-Raider-style booby traps (much to Ryan's relief), slow footsteps would echo behind us every once in a while, the sound bouncing across the walls for an amount of time before we would decide to look back.
It was always right then that the footsteps would stop.
Nothing was ever there.
I didn't know if it has been minutes or hours or days after our watches had stopped that we finally came across a large door which spanned from the ceiling to the floor. Upon closer inspection, we noticed some strange engravings on the door which depicted scenes of harvest and worship, fortune and victory, misfortune and death.
So, so much death.
I traced my fingers over all of them, transfixed.
How is it that a people who were depicted to be so full of wealth and good fortune choose to worship gods of the opposite?
"Um," Ryan squeaked beside me, his voice laced with fear. "[Y/N]?"
I whipped my head to look at him, annoyed as I let my hand fall to my side. "What is it?" I asked and the world seemed to still as I heard it.
Footsteps--
slow,
loud,
and
getting closer.
Back then, they always seemed to keep a constant distance, the sound far enough not to bring about an intense fear but...
...always present,
always lurking.
Now, it seemed to be coming for us.
Unfreezing myself, I grabbed at whatever groves my hand could find, our last torch so dim to the point that the many shadows it cast only made it harder to see much of anything. My colleague rushed to the other side of the door, clawing and slapping at whatever he could reach as the footsteps behind us got even closer,
and closer,
and closer.
By some miracle, a distant click resonated somewhere deep within the temple and the door slowly slid to the side, a mass of groans and churning rock as a thousand year old door opened for the first time after so many years of neglect.
We rushed in and the door turned to close itself once more as soon as we were safely inside, giving me a last glimpse of our abandoned torch on the other side before completely cloaking us in darkness.
"Ryan?" I called out, my voice raising an octave higher as I spun around with my arms out, trying to get a feel of where my companion might be at. It was only this time that the fear Ryan had felt during the start of our exploration had finally crawled into my skin and burrowed itself deep within my bones.
"Ryan?" I called out again and this time, a sob overtook my voice.
We were lost-- and probably trapped-- within a chamber of an unknown temple carved deep within a mountain; no ventilation, no light, and worse...
...no way out.
As if on cue, a warm breath tickled my ear and I whirled to that direction, my blood pumping furiously through my veins.
"Ryan?" I called out weakly. "Is that you?"
No response.
I was alone.
Squinting, I tried to look for a source of light-- anything-- I could maybe use to get out of this damned temple. My eyes had adjusted slightly to the darkness after a while, and I could make out a few outlines and shapes that occupied the chamber.
Suddenly, out of the corner of my vision, I spotted the small, weak glint of metal.
The idol, I thought to myself, and a new surge of hope ran through me as I blindly stumbled towards its location.
Nevermind the fact that there was absolutely no light to have caused the glint.
Nevermind the fact that it seemed to float in the air, while all the other artifacts were placed on what you assumed are pedestals or probably within the chest-like figures you could almost see scattered around the room.
And nevermind the fact that a strange, dark, claw-like hand seemed to reach out behind it from a different sort of darkness, beckoning you to come closer.
All that mattered was the idol.
The idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol the idol.
And that was the last thought in your mind as you stepped closer and closer to the artifact, your mind empty except for that single thing as a twisted and feral face bared its dark and broken teeth at you from the shadows in a grin, everything fading into complete darkness as you were broken and torn and made into everything but.
■■■■■
Somewhere deep within the Himalayas, the entrance of an abandoned temple sealed itself once more and the idol settled itself within its safety, dormant for a thousand more years until another sacrifice would again stumble into its keeper's grasp, their soul ready for harvest.
•••••
o wow that was long lmao
hope ya'll enjoyed it!
