Serpent's Deceit (Prologue)

 

After entering the passcode to the glowing panel, the automatic door opens silently. The inside is pitch black. It almost looks like the mouth of some horrendous monster ready to devour the two humans standing before the door. The first human, an old lady who opens the door, doesn't seem to mind the darkness as she rolls her wheelchair inside as soon as the door opens. It is as if she is used to it. She should be. It's her house after all. The house looks so normal from the outside, almost dull, nothing out of the ordinary to catch the eye. Who would have thought such a dark dungeon cum safe is underneath the house?

The second human, a young woman, hesitates. Her hesitation and doubt are natural. She is not exactly on good terms with the old lady. She won't even be surprised if that lady kills her and dumps her body here. But that probably is not why she brought her here. The lady is a pro at killing people, so she has better ways to get rid of a body than keeping it in her own basement. However, what is making the young woman hesitate is that she might tie her up here and torture her. On top of that, she is claustrophobic.

The old lady has stopped on her track and turned to her. One of her perfectly sculpted eyebrows pulls upwards in a silent question, “Why is she wasting time now?” Either this or the thought that she doesn't want to turn back now that she has come so far, the young lady decides to move past the door. As she has feared, the door shuts silently behind them. Praying to God, she keeps following the lady.

The darkness stays the same even when they are walking through it. It's hard to tell whether their eyes have adjusted to it because they still can't see anything beyond one step. Well, at least the young woman doesn't. She is following the very low sound of the wheels of her predecessor. In the outside world, this sound is never heard. But in this soundless and lifeless dungeon, it is very much audible.

Around ten steps later, the sound stops, and so does the young woman. They have reached…. somewhere. She still can't see anything. Her heart is beating faster now. She tries not to think that they are underground and there is no ventilation system here. She tries her best to calm her heart and divert her mind elsewhere. But the constant earthy smell and the void of noise except for her own footsteps, the old lady’s wheeling, and their breathing are making it difficult for her. 

After a few seconds, she hears a faint noise. And then faint light starts flickering before their eyes. They are spots at first and within seconds, the spots start taking a pattern. When it's finished, the pattern looks like, well, it actually is Metatron’s cube, one of the common things she uses almost on a daily basis. The pattern with a yellowish neon light is casting an eerie glow over them.

The young woman finds the old lady a few feet ahead, almost below the floating pattern with a touchpad similar to the sliding door earlier before her. She's entering another code here.

The pattern suddenly glows red making the young woman almost jump in fear. However, it then disappears and a glass safe appears. Well, the glass safe has already been there, the light has just made it visible to them. 

Inside the square glass safe, a single book is kept on a glass stand. So, that is why they are here. That book, though the young woman is not sure what it is, must contain answers to the questions she has. She does not know yet if it does contain her answers, but since that lady has taken the initiative to bring her here, it must have something in it. 

There's a small hole-like setting on the glass door of the safe that she hasn't noticed until the lady has leaned towards it. It's a retina scanner, she realizes when the small device scans the other woman's retina and silently slides the door open. 

She starts feeling her heartbeat almost stop as she holds her breath as if ready for some sort of jumpscare. She watches the old lady extending her hand and picking up the book. As she brings it out of the safe, the light turns off automatically, the darkness embarrassing them again. 

The young woman listens for the wheeling sound again. The old lady is going back in the direction from where they have come. She starts following her again. Within around five minutes, they reach the glass door, the yellow light illuminating the door from the outside. They walk past it to enter the small space outside the door. Now if they cross this small space, they will return to the staircase leading to the main ground of the building, back to the old lady’s room. 

The old lady faces her. She watches for the young woman's expression, searching on her face for God knows what. She does not look her best at the moment. Surely her face is red from the suffocation. Fear and anxiety must be visible on her features as she still has not mastered the art of hiding her expressions in moments like this. After scrutinizing her face for several heartbeats, the old lady extends the book to the woman. 

With shaky hands, she takes it. It feels like the lady is giving something illegal to her. The weight of the responsibility seems heavier on her shoulder though the weight of the book is lighter than she has expected. As she glances down at it, she realizes it's not a book, rather it looks like a journal. 

When she looks back at the old lady, the lady starts signing with her slender long fingers. The way she signs always mesmerizes the young woman. The process almost looks like art.

What she basically says is, “This journal may give you the missing pieces you're trying to get. It's a secret object that you may have already guessed with all these securities. There's a scanner in it too which only has two entries meaning only two people can open it. I've entered yours. Anyone else won't be able to. If they try, the journal will destroy itself. So, be careful. There's a reason why it's a secret thing. So, don't go to the police or any authorities right away with it. They won't be able to use it either. And considering the situation, you should already know that getting the police involved will do more harm than good. You're a smart girl. You will be able to figure out the rest.”

The young woman scans her retina to get a glimpse of the inside. The pages are old but not so old that they'll turn into dust if pressure is applied. The first few pages are empty. Then a ‘declaration’ is written on one page. After that, the contents are written. As expected, it's a journal entry except there's no date or time. The contents are divided much like chapters in a novel.

She closes it. A faint ‘click’ tells her that the journal has locked itself again. She will read it later. Now the priority is to get out of this hellhole.

When she looks back at the old lady, she finds the place empty. Her eyes immediately travel back to the door that connects the basement to the outside world. To her relief, the old lady has not locked her up. The door is open. She almost runs out of the monstrous dungeon and back into the world where she can properly breathe again.