Embrace The Fear

"Arthur, are you there?" Lawrence's voice echoed through the flickering tunnel before him. No rescue was coming, no reinforcements. Lawrence was alone.

He clutched at the knife on his belt. Magic coursed through his fingertips, imbuing the blade with a soft glow, illuminating the dark, hungry tunnel. Arthur should have been back hours ago. They were partners. They had been serving the Wells and Constantine Organization for two years together. They were not supposed to make stupid decisions like scouting ahead, especially when they had limited briefing.

Lawrence shuffled down the hall. The lights flickered in step. The walls hummed with anticipation. Their surfaces shifted and contoured into visages of his mother.

"Dinner is ready, honey! Did you forget your keys again? What time will you be home for the holidays?"

She had been dead for some years now. Now she manifested in the cracked concrete walls.

Lawrence held his rosary close to his chest. He was almost to the end of this forsaken tunnel.

Then the faces faded. The lights ceased their flickering. The tunnel was dark, except for the faint glow of Lawrence's knife.

The glow met Arthur's face. Arthur looked well, healthy, and in good shape. However, he seemed fixated on a particular spot in the wall. Lawrence peered into the small alcove.

It was his mother. She was being torn to pieces by thousands of hungry faces, one after another, churning her bones into the cement.

Arthur laughed. "Who do you see down that tunnel?"
"My mother," Lawrence replied.

Arthur's face turned to Lawrence, his expression that of a dead man.
"I see my boy down there. I just saw him yesterday. Ya know, the brief said this thing plays with you, mimics those you love, torments you with the dead."

Arthur collapsed onto the floor. "It took my son."

Arthur walked into the wall as Lawrence watched the stony faces tear him limb from limb, spraying viscera across the floor.

Arthur's face joined the wall that day, as for Lawrence, well it was back to the bar after work to forget another name and get ready meet his new colleague in the morning.