Light The Halls

The brothers stood at the bottom of the long staircase and looked around the entrance foyer heading into the first of many pitch-dark hallways into the catacombs. The two young mage scholars, in their second year at the Mage University, were instructed to relight the halls. The once lit passageways died of their lights with the passing of the incredibly old wizard librarian. “The light stays as long as the caster lives,” the professor of cantrips said as he handed the brothers, Dante and Francis Calco, a large sack of everlasting glass lights. “Okay, why again haven’t you lit the halls yet Dante?” Francis asked, while standing as close to the only available light emanating from the open door at the top of the stairs. “I came here yesterday, I heard something; and I freaked out.” Dante took a deep breath and looked at his brother. “That is why I brought you. You are learning battle spells. If something is down here, I need your help.” Dante said while his sweat palmed hands reached into his bag for a glass light sphere. “You couldn’t ask a real battle mage to help?” Francis responded worriedly clasping onto his marigold good luck charm. “Just come with me.” Dante sharply answered back.

With their hard rubber soles, they walked as quietly as possible to the center of the large foyer where faint light ended, and almost complete darkness began. Francis stood close to his brother. “Shh, did you hear that?” He asked while trying to concentrate on preparing a fireball spell in his head. Dante stopped and turned his head to the first hall entrance into the catacombs. The winding and pitch-black tunnels and catacombs underneath the large campus have been scarcely used since the one-hundred-year war. Built by the eastern dwarves of Applacia, the once safe tunnel system complete with ornate and high living accomodations, now lay filthy, dark, and riddled with the rumors of haunted halls.

At that moment, Dante and Francis both heard a noise coming from the corridors. The very faint sound of something wet, like a damp cloth lightly hitting skin. Then they both heard soft crunches, and tiny scurries of bugs. Dante lifted a glass sphere to his mouth; his heart began to race. He did not know what he would be revealing at this point. He whispered a command phrase to the ball, and it began to slowly build up in illumination. With a command, he sent the first ball to a darkened corner of the foyer. The ball quickly flew to a spot where the previous glass light once lay. As the ball left his hands, it grew in brightness and thus revealing the grand circular table with ruins carved into the outer sides. The table had a visible thick layer of dust on it. The chairs, each one the same, stood pushed in almost perfectly in space between each one. On the wall was a painted mural of an intense battle scene with the words, “Always Remember,” written in different languages. Shelves also lined the walls with books, which have not been touched in decades.

Dante reached in his bag and lit another glass ball and sent it to the other corner, giving enough direct light to see perfectly all across the foyer, the hallway entrance however, still had an eerie thick darkness. If the two brothers were in a better position to look down the hallway while the room was being lit, they would have noticed an image of a hunched over man slowly walk away into the darkness.

The two brothers stopped in silence to hear any more sounds coming from the blackness. The newly lit glass spheres emitted a slight hum as they glowed bright, making it difficult for them to distinguish anything beyond the hum. They both slowly made their way to the ten feet wide by twelve feet tall hall entrance. Francis looked at the dark ground six feet in front of them. “Is…is the floor moving?” Dante took out an everlasting glass ball and whispered the command word to it. It slowly grew in brightness and shortly after, he sent the ball to the far corner of this sixty-foot hallway. As the ball began to travel, a layer of roaches, scurried down the hall trying to outrun the floating light. Centipedes and millipedes crawled over each other also seeking the darkness again. The ball made it halfway when the two brothers started to make out the figure of a man standing with its back to Dante and Francis. The incredible amount of bugs made it to the man and some began crawling up his leg. The light slowly made its way to the figure, revealing his nakedness. He had a slight hunch with scars across his back. His hair was long, oily, and falling out in clumps. His skin gray and dead. The two brothers were frozen with fright. Dante and Francis began to hear something strange again, like a wet cloth slapping against skin. The hallway now lay brightly lit and the light reached the two young scholars. The man violently shook then stood perfectly still again. Dante and Francis both blinked at the same time, when they raised their eyelids simultaneously to open their eyes, the man now faced them. What the two brothers saw before them was a hideous sight. Francis started to become scared sick. His nausea hits him hard. Before them, still at the end of the hall was a castrated man, the scar was slightly open, and leaked black ooze. Its arms dangled at its side. The man’s face was no more. A concave shell of his skull and tongue was the only thing remaining from his head. The hole stopped at his hair line, where roaches and millipedes began to fall into the gaping hole. Its tongue slapped on the bottom half of its partly missing jaw. Scars and puncture holes were visible on his torso and legs.

The two brothers, still frozen, did not even want to breathe. They feared any sound would provoke something from this evil in front of them. Suddenly, a voice could be heard from the top of the stairs. “How’s it going down there boys?” A man’s voice yelled out. With the sudden shock of hearing the voice call out, the hideous man started to run towards the two brothers. Its head flopping from side to side, its knees popped as it began its sprint. His arms reached out.

Dante turned to run, pulling his brother by his sleeve to follow him. Francis stood frozen still. The man came within fifteen feet of the two when Francis quickly extended his arm and index finger sending a small fireball to his attacker. The baseball sized ball quickly reached its target and exploded on contact sending the advancing monster ten feet back. The searing of bugs was heard as it landed on its back. It flayed around on the floor and spun around to get up. It spun its head completely around, facing Francis as the rest of its body faced away. It twitched and spazzed as it walked away to the end of the hallway.

With the sound of the blast, a professor ran down the stairs and once she got halfway down, she witnessed the ghoul spin its head and walk away. “Francis! Dante! Come to me!” Professor Evy commanded as she sent a smaller, condescend fireball down the hallway. It hit with precision as it flew swiftly past Francis and dove to a perfect angle to hit the hideous man in its open concave head. The blast was contained within its head and it fell limp, bending backwards and somehow staying in a bent position. The swarm of bugs that surrounded its body fell off and hurried away into whatever darkness they could find.

The ghoul stayed in its eerie bent position, perfectly still. Professor Evy instructed Dante and Francis to run upstairs immediately and find her colleague Kaitlyn Sommers. Luckily, she was already rushing into the library as Francis and Dante were exiting the door from the stairs.

“How many are down there boys?” Kaitlyn asked as she passed them preparing to bless a medallion around her neck.

“Only one, we think Professor Evy killed it.” Dante responded, speaking between his heavy panting.

“It’s not dead just yet.” She said while walking towards the door.

Kaitlyn Sommers, the spiritual leader of the university; a knowledgeable mage of all religious sects, felt this evil presence from her study halls two wings away. She gathered her holy artifacts to draw out the evil or even possibly a demon from the poor soul. She moved close to Evy and slowly made her way past her to the bent backwards, now headless man. “Evy, please stay close, in case you need to blast it again.” She calmly and quietly requested. Evy stepped to her side and prepared an even smaller fireball, one she could quickly fire out with great accuracy to help her best friend and colleague Kaitlyn.

With each step forward, the ghoul twitched, sending rogue roaches and millipedes off parts of its body. Once Kaitlyn got close enough to start the holy incantation, the monster of a man swiftly stood erect from its bent position, and like a snake stood straight. It turned to sprint towards the two women but was met with a small glowing green force emanating from Kaitlyn’s medallion. The force stopped the advancing ghoul in mid stride, and it began to seize violently. “By the gods of good, whoever may be listening, I ask that you banish this foul creature into the abyss!” Kaitlyn screamed over the loud hum of the glowing force upon the creature. “Cast out this evil!” She screamed again. Just then, butterflies and marigolds began to emerge from the medallion. Hundreds of different butterflies flew onto the creature, once every inch of the creature was covered by their wings, they shined a beautiful low glow of green and blue. Orange vibrant marigolds surrounded each butterfly in a whimsical dance. The creature began to disappear, leaving behind hovering butterflies and the flowers of orange beauty. The beautiful display slowly dissipated as they began to fade away; along with the green glow from the medallion. As the last butterfly disappeared, a pair of red eyes rose from the floor. A six-foot figure of pure darkness rose from the floor and roared a terrifying roar onto the two women. It spun around and floated very quickly back into the halls and into the darkness. Kaitlyn stood in complete shock and horror. Evy ran close to her friend.

“Kait, what the hell was that?” Evy asked as she tried pulling her friend away from the hall’s corner.

“I don’t know, but that was an intense evil presence. We need to consult with the dean and the mage council with all haste.” Kaitlyn responded; her eyes still wide open.

Dante and Francis stood behind with their mouth agape. They just witnessed the blessing and exorcism of a demonic creature. Kaitlyn and Evy escorted the two young men up and out of the beginning portion of the catacombs and old halls. The now lit room lay as the first and only point of entry into the darkness; a darkness that Kaitlyn and Evy both knew had to be dealt with.