Echoes From the Abyss: Chapter Two
The horror series where YOU decide what happens next!
Welcome to Echoes of the Abyss, a new experimental mini-series on the Writer’s Journey where you, the reader, will decide what happens next in the story.
You’ll find a poll at the end of this chapter, with two options. Cast your vote, and check back soon for Chapter 3 to see how the story progresses!
The hotel, and by extension rest, could wait. I had a lead and I needed to follow it, despite every part of me screaming at the thought of setting foot in that hardware store again.
I left the beach behind and made my way down the deserted sidewalks leading into the town’s main square. The damnable fog hung in the air like a bad memory, and every time I looked down at the streets, all I could picture was how they used to run red with blood.
I would have given anything to forget what happened here. If she hadn’t covered her tracks so well, it would have ended back then, but here we are.
My phone buzzed in my coat pocket. I pulled it out as I passed the first person I had seen since meeting the sheriff on the beach. The woman had wild eyes that darted about with frantic suspicion.
She pushed a grocery store cart overflowing with a random assortment of blankets, empty bottles, and a few eerie dolls that stared at me with hollow eyes.
We both regarded each other with shock and confusion. I could tell by the look in her eyes that the woman’s mind was long gone.
I suppose not everyone had the luxury of forgetting.
The woman went on her way without a word. I answered the phone and placed it to my ear as I saw the hardware store parking lot emerge from the fog on my left.
“This is Agent Philips.”
“Hey, it’s Michael. Just wanted to check in on you,” the voice on the phone said.
“I’ve got a lead, but it’s not much,” I replied.
Michael sighed. “I’m sorry they sent you back there. I know it can’t be easy.”
“Have you read the file?” I asked.
Michael paused. “Yeah. Yeah, I read it.”
“Then you know what you just said is the understatement of the century.”
“You’re right, I’m sorry. Sometimes I think we Wardens forget to be human after a while, you know?”
Sometimes I wish I could forget to be human. It would make all of this a lot easier.
“It’s fine. I’m fine,” I said.
“You can talk to me, you know that, right?” Michael asked.
“Yeah, I just…”
My mental defenses dropped for just a moment. The visions started flooding in, almost too fast for me to comprehend them. All I got were fragments, sharp like splinters, stabbing into my mind.
Blood in the streets.
Screaming.
Begging for mercy.
Suffering feeds the ritual.
Acid upon the veil.
Dissolving flesh and bone.
The door cracks open.
I gripped my head and held the phone away from me as I clenched my jaw, trying to force the thoughts out of my head. Silence returned. I put the phone back on my ear as I felt cold sweat accumulating across my face.
“I’m sorry, Michael, I just wouldn’t know where to start,” I said.
“Well, I’m here if you need anything.”
“Thanks. I’ll call you when I know more,” I said, hanging up the call.
I stopped at the edge of the parking lot. Winters Hardware Supply was the largest store in Wilmont. The building used to be a supermarket, but the owner managed to fill up the space with everything a small coastal town could need and then some.
People in Wilmont loved their projects almost as much as they loved fishing and boating. Winters Hardware Supply had it all.
It was also ground zero for the first ritual years go. The one that failed.
I took one step into the parking lot and felt another barrage of visions. The world around me flickered like a bad television signal. The empty parking lot flickered, showing an alternate version where it was lined with people in chains.
Metal cuffs dangled from their arms and legs. Most of them were naked, but a few still wore tattered clothes. They stood in a single-file line as masked figures paced up and down the parking lot.
They carried cattle prods in their hands with tips that sparked like lightning. A warning to anyone who would try to escape.
The front doors of the hardware store opened briefly as each person was sent inside. They went willingly.
I blinked rapidly and shook my head. The vision had faded, and I was back in the empty parking lot.
You made that place your slaughterhouse. A temple devoted to suffering in all its forms.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I had to ground myself in the moment.
Otherwise, the demons of the past would drag me back.
The automatic doors slid open as I approached. I half-expected to hear the screams that once echoed through its walls, but instead I heard an instrumental cover of a popular pop song coming from the speakers.
The moment I stepped through the threshold was like holding my head under water. The blood, body parts, and slime-covered tentacles that had once decorated the walls of that place were gone, but the stains they left behind were still as vibrant as ever.
Those memories rang through the air like a scar on time, and I was powerless to resist it.
Fill my cup with your blood.
They have no choice but to obey.
Gnashing teeth, cracking bone.
The squelch of organs.
Bodies on bodies on bodies.
Souls devoured, one by one.
All that pain.
With nowhere to go.
It’s not working.
Live to fight another day.
I fell against one of the displays near the entrance of the store. My hands reached out to stop my fall. The shelving shook, creating a rainfall of gift cards to local chains and restaurants on the nearby stretch of highway.
I struggled to breathe. The memories hit me in the gut and knocked the wind out of me. My vision wavered, but I pulled myself back on to my feet.
A man came barreling around the corner, moving as fast as his tired knees would allow. He smiled through the deep creases in his face.
“Hey there, you okay? I’m sorry, these damn displays can sneak up on people,” he said, picking up some of the fallen gift cards.
“It’s fine, I’m sorry, I’m not sure what came over me,” I said.
The old him would have understood. The one from before.
I looked over at Franklin Winters as he reached out and laid a hand on my shoulder. I knew he was just being nice, but the contact send another assault to my senses.
Stomach’s uneasy.
Lost without her.
The memories are fading.
Instincts still sharp.
Something isn’t right.
The air feels heavy.
The thing on the beach.
It’s not supposed to be here.
I know it.
They know it.
I finally steadied myself and processed what I had just heard and seen in my mind’s eye. Franklin Winters was remarkably astute for a man of his age. His thoughts were laser-focused on what he experienced the night before.
He found something on the beach?
I reached into my pocket and pretended to pull out my badge again.
“Mr. Winters, my name is Agent Philips,” I said, extending my hand.
Franklin’s eyes narrowed as he looked at my palm. He let out a chuckle.
“I know who you are! We’ve met before. Not sure why you’re showing me your hand, though. Seems like you lost your badge.”
What the hell?
I frantically tapped my coat pockets and shrugged as I felt my face turning red with embarrassment.
“Oh wow, I must have fallen harder than I thought. Well, I’m glad you remember me,” I said, trying to hide my confusion.
Why the hell didn’t the glamour work on him?
Franklin nodded as he slid the last of the fallen gift cards back on to the shelving.
“I remember when you weren’t even tall enough to reach these gift cards, let alone big enough to knock them over,” he said with a chuckle.
He remembers me growing up here?
“It seems like your memory is still sharp,” I said.
Franklin shrugged. “Some of it is, yeah, but there’s gaps as well. Whole years where it’s all blank. Doctor said it was some kind of trauma, but I don’t know. This town has become less and less itself over the years, you know?”
You can say that again.
“Well, it’s good to see you again! The sheriff told me you saw something strange last night before the mass disappearance?” I asked.
Franklin nodded. “Yeah, and I found something too, but I didn’t tell him that. That sheriff from out of town thinks he can waltz in and make demands. Not here. Not in my Wilmont. You, though? I trust you. Come on, it’s back this way.”
I followed Franklin through the store, trying my best to keep my breathing steady as flashes of memories tried to burrow into my skull.
She was so close the first time. That’s why she’s back. You know that, right?
Franklin led me into the back of the store, through stacks of boxes and inventory, and then finally into an office tucked into the back corner.
Sitting on the desk inside, amidst piles of coffee-stained papers, was a metal crate. The same kind you would use for a puppy or a kitten, only the thing inside was neither.
It looked the unholy union of an octopus and a tick. It had a round, slimy body and a bulbous head that shimmered in the glow of the fluorescent bulbs above. It’s mouth was a pair of sharp mandibles, with a cluster of tentacles between them.
All-in-all, it was only about the size of a grapefruit, but that’s because it wasn’t fully grown.
“Ugly motherfucker, isn’t it?” Franklin asked.
You have no idea.
“Where did you find this?” I asked, approaching the cage slowly.
“Well, it’s the strangest thing. I woke up in the middle of night hearing music. I kept trying to find out where it was coming from, so I followed it. You’re not going to believe where it was coming from,” Franklin said.
“Let me guess: it was coming from the beach?” I asked.
Franklin snapped his fingers. “Yeah, that’s right! Man, you sure are good at what you do. Anyway, when I got to the beach and saw all the footsteps, I decided to get the hell out of there. I know better than to mess with the stranger parts of Wilmont. When I was leaving, I found this thing on the ground.”
The thing in the cage pulsated slowly like it was sleeping, but I knew it wasn’t just sleeping.
It was biding its time.
Franklin walked past me and pointed to the cage.
“It hasn’t moved or done anything since I brought here. You want me to open the cage?” he asked.
If he does that, it’s going to wake up. It knows you’re here.
I looked at the thing in the cage and back to Franklin. If I let him open the cage, it would strike and attach itself to the first living thing it could find.
It wants you because it came from her.
If I let it attach itself to Franklin, it would take over his body and mind before using him to report back to her.
I could follow him.
But if I did that, Franklin Winters would be gone. Devoured. A fate worse than death.
How far are you willing to go to find answers?
The right thing to do would be to kill the damn thing, but then I would be back to square one.
Franklin doesn’t deserve this.
No one deserves any of this.
I stared at the thing in the cage as the fluorescent bulbs above us filled the silence with their humming.
What Happens Next is up to you!
Should Agent Philips let the thing from the beach attach itself to Franklin so she can follow it back to its master?
Or, will you instead find another way to get the answers you seek, one that doesn’t require such a sacrifice?
Remember, both decisions will have consequences. Cast your vote below.
Thanks for Reading! Here’s Your Musical Pairing
Listen to this after reading. Like pairing a glass of wine with dinner.
Oh my gosh this is such a hard choice 😭
But SUCH a good story and honestly the choices are really hard this time around!
Love the slow parsing out of the lore drops.