The archeologists sat around the entrance, occasionally giving silent whispers to each other, and avoiding giving anyone else any information on what they were doing, and everyone knew they were not keen to go down into it, and sat resting.
I realized that I was slowly being chosen, and that the paranormal scientists wanted me to go, and I knew I would, and I just could not avoid it, and in the end decided to get it over with, and made it known to them, and sat at the edge entrance.
One archeologist shone his light around the hole, and deep into the chamber, which went deep below somewhere, and seemed to discover something, and the answer to one of his queries.
“What do you reckon’s down there?” I asked him, trying to see in it as far as I could with the light, but only saw darkness.
He left and returned with a brighter torch and pointed it at a point at the edge of it, and he waited for me to reply, and I looked and I saw it, and I saw dark stone steps vanishing below, but I could not see them reach the top of the entrance, just below us, and wondered why, and I considered if there had been something there and it had either been taken away or had collapsed, which could indicated the steps could also have collapsed further down.
When Oswald came down from above with Higgins holding ropes and equipment I knew the time had come for me to get ready and enter it, which I still never knew anything about, and I swiftly got ready and they tied me to a rope and started hoisting me down, and I finally entered its confines, and realized there could be something of value below and that was the reason it was buried away, and I more keenly entered its confines, and darkness, and I turned up my light and adjusted my eyes.
When I landed on the stone stairs I was astounded by the stairs and walls, and wondered what the hell was going on, and I took off the harness and rope and quickly started to examine everything about me with amazement, and saw Oswald coming down from above, watching me, wondering what I was doing, and once he landed next to me he gasped and started doing what I was doing, as all the stairs and walls were cut to perfection, with incredible workmanship, with an accuracy I had not seen, even I know I am sure they could not do it.
The steps had not been fitted together, as stepping stones, on normal outside stone steps, and they were cut into the rock by something, and the walls were the same, and we felt the smoothness of them.
Once Higgins arrived I led them down the stairs, and watched the startled faces of the scientists and the archeologist above, staring downwards towards us, and we left on our journey, in even more confusion than we had been when we started.
The same view seemed to uniformly go off into blackness below, with the light showing the exact steps going straight down, and the two scientists copied and followed me, even looking ahead for obstacles, and I was surprised that it could be made with such accuracy and fit into such a confined space, and I examined it in detail as I crept down.
At times it was as though it belonged to someone, and was part of someone’s establishment, and I wondered what its logical function could be if it was, or if it had originally been part of the hospital or part of something that had been built there before it, and I knew that if it had been that all the information about it must have been lost or something, as it would have been discovered by us when we investigated all the information about the site.
Further down I realized I was too far out in front and I allowed Oswald to gain some distance, and I watched him going down without a light, using mine and Higgins’s light to see the steeply declining steps, and I wondered how much danger there was, as he continued following me down, and they showed no signs that they thought there was anything there.
At one point mud appeared, replacing the stone walls, and was over the steps, and it slowed us as we made sure we never slipped, as they looked more vertical now, as we were tired, and looked dangerous at times, and that they might cause an injury, when viewed in the right way, and I started wondering why they were going on and on, as why would anyone go to such a distance to build anything there, and I considered if there was something like an underground river or lake and that someone was or had been using it for some purpose.
Sounds sometimes were louder and echoed, and I heard them and voices from above, and knew that the others had entered it, and I listened to their strange tones as I tried to make out what they were talking about, and I heard a deep thud echo down and I wondered if someone had an accident, and I realized that it was a good idea to only have three of us at the front.
A feeble glow from something below swiftly caught my attention when it appeared and I wondered what it was, and if it was a reflection of the dimming light, and my eyes altered and adjusted to the darkness there as we moved faster down, I saw Higgins struggling to do something behind us, and he shouted to me to stop and he switched on a more powerful light, which he had taken out his bag, and pointed it at an area in front, and I realized the steps vanished in front of me, and I had nearly fallen, and I tiredly fell backwards, and grabbed at the stairs behind me.
It was as though sound and everything ended at that point, and vanished into darkness below, and somewhere there it vanished out of existence, and I could not hear or see anything from there, and it was a void and an abyss!
When I went close, and the lights of the paranormal scientists shone closer there, from just behind me, I stood shocked as I my eyes adjusted and I saw there was a colossal cavity below, and the steps had collapsed, down to somewhere below.
I swiftly placed myself a few steps higher and sat looking about it, trying to grasp what was there in the feeble light, and I realized that I had actually nearly walked off the lowest remaining step.
After our examinations of the last step we realized that they had not just collapsed and that they had been perfectly cut, as the rest of the tunnel and steps had been, and I wondered who the hell had done it, and I realized that it had to have fallen a long time ago, and I looked straight down and realized that distance to the bottom was not as great as I thought, and that the cavity outwards was immense, and though I could hardly see anything I tried to work out what it was.
It was incredible and had clearly been carved out accurately like the steps and tunnel, for some reason I could not grasp, and we sat on the steps discussing it and trying to work out what it was and had been used for, and I was sure it could have been to store something in, and I wondered how their paranormal fitted into it, as I listened to their voices mingle with the sounds of the others arriving and it echo about the cavity.
Chapter 23
I held the rope firmly, looked at the large cavity hole surrounding me, and started lowering myself into it, and dangled about with my legs swinging about, and moved slowly lower into dimness, as I wondered why everyone insisted I should go first, even though I wanted to, and wondered if there were similar structures to this all around the world, which had not been found or reported.
I shone my light about below trying to see something in the ground directly below, and only saw the remains of the staircase, and I tried to grasp what had happened, and what had been there, as the stairs must have gone over the cavity, before it collapsed, and there could not have been a tunnel there, as there was no sign of it in the rubble, and I kept wondering what had kept it up, and I wondered who had built such a dangerous construction.
It was my first proper look of below and all I saw was what looked like a large object at the center of the cavity, which I tried to grasp repeatedly, but I could not identify it, and looked back up above and saw a few of the others trying to properly see me.