Metronome

Ooky Spooky

Lars worked on the lock and threw the cage door open. Lucas wasn't moving. He grabbed the man and turned him over.

"Oh my God," Lars backed away, his face pale. A soft clatter of metal on concrete sounded as a jagged piece of shrapnel fell from Lucas's cold, lifeless hands. He was covered in blood, his own hands soaked in it, his throat messily slit. Lars couldn't process what he was seeing. "He...he...he killed himself," He choked. Lucas, knowing that the cult had something undoubtedly insidious planned for him, and not knowing that he would be rescued, clearly took the only way out he could find.

Ooky Spooky

Well, they had a 50/50 chance, may as well go with instinct. Lars followed her, shining his light over her shoulder. They walked in the darkness for what felt like miles before there was a light that dimly shone ahead of them. Lars turned his phone light off and put it away. He pressed against the wall to stay out of sight as they approached. They came upon a large, dug out portion of the tunnel, with bulldozers and other construction equipment sitting idle. They where digging into the side of the subway tunnels. Perhaps this was the cause of the tremors? But why?

"We can't kill him." A voice startled them, and Lars grabbed Evie to pull her behind a nearby backhoe. Two men were standing by the source of the light: a construction lamp with a very long extension cord. "If he dies, we're back at square one. But, with him contained, we can finally press on with the final step."

"You think it will work?" The other man asked.

"I'm sure of it." The first man took out a pair of keys and unlocked a door that lead into what looked like some sort of station. Once it closed, Lars darted after them. He took out his paperclip once more.

"They know where Lucas is," He said as he picked the lock and quietly opened the door. This section of the subway was much better lit. The linoleum tile and black, white walls gave it a weird, jarring feel compared to the tunnels. The two men were gone, but one of them, who was clearly a heavy smoker, left a distinct smell of old cigarettes behind him. They followed the stench down several halls until it faded, leaving them with a choice. There where two doors, both windowless.

50/50 chance.

Lars began toying with the lock on the door to the left until he got it open. He wasn't prepared for what they would find inside. Cages. It looked like an animal shelter, but these cages were far too big for any cat or dog. They lined the room, and in the middle, a metal table shined in the fluorescent light. The tile around it was stained suspiciously red. Lars felt sick; this was too much.

"This is where they must..." His voice trailed off. One of the cages had a lump laying in the bottom of it. "Lucas?"

Ooky Spooky

🕷🕷🕸🕷🕸🕷🕷🕷🕸🕸🕷🕷🕷

Ooky Spooky

They eventually did come across one of the small concrete buildings that housed a shaft. Lars produced a paperclip from his pocket to pick the lock, which begged the question where a priest learned to pick locks. Inside was pitch, black darkness. The light of day only shone down so far, landing on a rusty ladder and cobwebs.

"This hasn't been used in a while," He said. That was quite the understatement. "I hope you don't mind spiders. I'll go first."

Luckily, most of the cobwebs stuck to Lars as he climbed onto the hell ladder that lead into the depths of the Earth. The further down they went, the more the daylight was strangled and choked by the dreadful, inky blackness. When they finally reached the bottom, they found themselves in a large, empty subway tunnel. Lars took his phone out and turned on the flashlight to begin picking the spiderwebs, hopefully free of spiders, off.

"Which way do you think?"

Ooky Spooky

"Probably some not very nice things, if I had to guess," Lars said as he headed down the stairs and back towards the van. He, too, didn't want to dwell on the idea. While him and Lucas weren't particularly close, he'd grown attached to the odd little person. The idea of him being tortured by some demon gang made his blood boil.

Lars drove them to the center X using the map. The whole neighborhood looked pretty sketchy, honestly. He was looking for something with human lookouts. Even demon cultists wouldn't be dumb enough to use demons in their own base. The beasts were untamable, and weren't particularly known to show self restraint in their murderous tendencies.

"They have to be underground...those tremors are coming from something, right?" After a driving around a couple blocks, they happened upon an old, abandoned subway station. This had to be it....or, least, it seemed to make sense. Underground, super spooky, it screamed demon cult hideout. Lars parked a couple blocks away and insisted they walk. It would draw less attention to themselves.

"There should be ventilation shafts around it," He said, "We can climb down through one. Surely they don't have every entranced guarded..."

Ooky Spooky

"Lucas was the backup," Lars said. "It's not exactly like we have a demon hunting fan club following us around. It's always just been the three of us." He grabbed his keys and folded up the map.

"We'll come up with something."

Ooky Spooky

Everyone involved is def gonna need a live therapist

Ooky Spooky

My soul will never be cleansed of the terrible things I'm about to do to these poor characters >:D

Ooky Spooky

While she went to find a map, Lars flicked through his phone, reading old news reports. "Lucas was obsessed with these earthquakes," he said as he began marking X's on each location of a tremor. "He had to have thought they meant something."

The X's gradually formed a circle around an infamously unsafe neighborhood. Lars finally drew one last X directly in the middle. "It's got to be around there," he said, looking up a nearby address. "We just have to drive out there and look for something that screams 'hidden demon cult headquarters'."

Ooky Spooky

Lars could feel his stomach sinking. He already knew it wouldn't be there. This had gotten massively out of hand. He drove as fast as traffic would allow to Evie's apartment, and hauled ass up the stairs.

When they burst into the living room, sure enough, the chest was gone. "This is bad. This is really bad," Lars began to pace. They had no idea where the demon or Lucas had been taken. He wondered if Isaac would know...but he was being laid over in North Carolina, and they didn't have time to waste.

Then, an idea struck him. The tremors. "Evie, do you have a map I could use?"