The Moon, chapter 20: Descent

The sprint back towards the diner didn't take too long, fortunately enough. It was still rather early in the day, couldnt've been past twelve yet, so she decided now is the best time to see her. The front door's bell dinged as Susie entered the diner. The few that attended the diner at this hour didn't bother to draw their attention to her, except for Hazel at the other side of the room behind the counter. Upon seeing Susie, donned a mixed expression of shock and happiness upon her face. Susie smiled, and walked over to her, Hazel closing the gap rather quickly with a tight, forceful hug. Susie hugged her back, about as equally as tight.

“You're okay!”
“Of course I am.”
“Oh gosh!”
Hazel let go quickly, and stepped back, concern washed over her face.
“Your back, I'm sorry, I forgo-”
“Calm down, geez. My back's fine. You're fine.”
The concern faded from her face, showing a slight relief as she smiled.
“So you're healed now?”
“Well, doctor said to take it easy, but I've been feeling pretty good, lately.”
“That's good... I was scared you wouldn't be able to walk, or something.”
“Yeah, me too. I'm fine, but I heard you were really worried about me.”
“Well, of course I was. Having something bad happen to a guest, let alone a friend is scary... I even heard that you're staying up at Toriel's now, instead of my place. When I saw you gone, and the window open, I thought the worst had happened... A-And I thought maybe if I had stayed up a little later, I could've-”
“No, don't even think like that. There was nothing you could've done, trust me.”

Hazel looked incredibly unsure, but nodded anyway.
“If you're sure... I believe you.”
“Good. Now what the hell is going on with the outside world?”
“I'm not sure, actually. If you've heard it from someone already, they've probably already told ya everything. No phone calls coming in or out, can't drive outta here 'cause of the block, no internet either. Real weird stuff is happening, lately it seems...”
“Anyone found a reason why?”
“Nope, no one's even left town.”
“Hm. Maybe I'll fix that later tonight, but I got some errands to run. You sure you're alright though?”
“Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Just glad you're okay, Susie. Come back sometime, yeah?”
“You don't have to worry about that. I'll be back.”
“See you later!”

The doorbell rang once again as Susie exited the Diner. That hug was all she needed. Susie would have stayed a bit longer, but finding that mysterious set of doors in the forest really put her mind into overdrive. The mystery drove her forward. Though, the darkness inside it was quite the issue. She knew a crappy old lantern would probably be way worse than a flashlight, but she had no idea of where she could get one. She looked to her left, across the street, and an idea came to her head.

Though she had never seen anything but food come out of the grocery store, maybe, just maybe, they had flashlights there. The thought of going there without money was kind of silly to her, but then again, so was making money just to find out they didn't have what she wanted. She ran across the street, reaching the grocery store in no time at all. Judging from the sign on top of the building, it looked like this place used to belong to someone else, but their name was scribbled out. Now, only “sans” remained on the sign. Susie wasn't sure if it was always like that, but she decided she'd let herself in, anyway.

The building was your typical well lit small town grocery store, with food and other miscellaneous things lining the shelves and walls. The only thing that was out of the ordinary was a small, chubby looking skeleton monster in a blue jacket sitting at the till. Looked like he was asleep or something, since he didn't move an inch when Susie walked into the store. She walked over to him, Susie's footsteps echoing across the empty grocer.

“Hey.”
No response.
“Hey, you awake?”
“Yeah, I was just hoping you'd go away if I pretended to be asleep.”
“Well it didn't work.”
“Nope.”
The skeleton man lifted his head, two white eyes looking up at Susie.
“Hey, kid. Shouldn't you be in school?”
“... What? Didn't you hear about the accident?”
“Kid. I haven't left this store in weeks.”
“Why?”
“Nowhere else to be. Plus, this chair is actually kind of comfy. And there's lots of ketchup here, too.”
As if he had a point to prove, Sans took a bottle of ketchup out from behind the counter, and put the bottle to his mouth, squirting ketchup straight into him a couple times before hiding it under the counter again.
“What the hell, man?”
“Hey, don't knock it till you try it.”
“Isn't that from the store stock? Won't you get fired?”
“Not unless I fire myself. The last person who owned this place went on a 'business trip' out of town, and hasn't been back in weeks. She probably doesn't care, and apparently, neither did any of the employees, since they all quit. Now I own this place, cause no one else cares. Anyway, you're asking an awful lot of questions and buying an awful lot of nothing.”
“You got any flashlights?”
Sans, with almost no thought involved in answering the question, digs in an obscured place behind the counter.
“Catch.” Sans says, passing a small metal flashlight to Susie. It fit perfectly in her palm. Susie slipped it into her coat pocket.
“You're not gonna charge me for this?”
“No?”
“Why not?”
“The cash register's empty, so I can't give you change. It's been like that for weeks, cause no one has any money for some reason. There's money in the back in the safe, but it's dark in there. And you have my flashlight. It's also just a flashlight.”
“... Okay, then. And this has batteries?”
“Fully charged.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem, kid. Don't burn anything down. Especially not this place. I'd hate to be anywhere else for weeks at a time.”

Leaving his veiled plea in empty air, Susie walked out of the store, and into the chilled air of the outdoors. The realization was starting to set in that she was about to walk into a mysterious door she saw in a vision, knowing no idea what would be inside and armed with only a flashlight. This didn't seem safe at all, but it was either that or the hole that smelled of death back at her quite possibly haunted house. Susie decided that this was a relatively tame choice considering her options.

She debated on grabbing the duffle bag that held the ax from Toriel's, but decided against it. She didn't really want any suspicion to arise from her. For all intents and purposes, she needed this to be kept secret. People probably think she's crazy enough already. This in mind, she reluctantly headed southward, through the narrow treeline path, and back to the clearing. She had wondered if this clearing had existed before, but something had made the path just recently. Does that mean others could've discovered this place before?

She supposed there was only one way to find out.

The metallic wails echoed through the air once again as the door slid it's way open. The soft snow falling from the sky and onto Susie's shoulder would surely be missed, as would the sunlight falling upon her face. But sacrifices had to be made in the name of answers. And right now, Susie had a lot of questions. Seeing those concrete steps once again, but nothing more past the all consuming darkness, she took the flashlight out from her pocket and shined it down the stairs. With a click, the light revealed that the stairs went down even further than the light could reach. This made her feel a little sick to her stomach for some reason.

She tried her best not to let it bother her. She stepped into the strange bunker, unaware of whatever could be inside. She decided to leave the door behind her open, because if something wanted her out of there, she would rather not have a heavy metal door when she attempted to escape. She descended downwards more and more, for what felt like minutes. Minutes of nothing but walking into pure darkness began to take a toll on her. She began to feel anxious as the light of the sun behind her got further and further away, until it was but a speck of light in an endless sea of darkness.

It took far too long for her to reach the bottom, and when she did, she found that the stairs turned into a short cement hallway, with a large chain link gate that spanned the entire hallway at the end, and a single dark blue metal door on the right side of it, closed shut. Susie's footsteps echoed loudly as she walked to the door first, attempting to open it, and finding it locked. She expected this, but what she didn't expect was the door's knob to have no key. Looks like it had to be unlocked from the inside, only. She was about to walk away, but an odd noise brought her attention back to the door. She slowly and quietly walked back towards the door, and placed the right side of her head up close to it, trying to hear whatever was on the other side better.

Susie heard... chewing. Chewing, and the occasional sound of something tearing. She backed away slowly. She no longer wanted anything to do with whatever was behind that door. Her imagination ran wild with possibilities, none of them anything she wanted any part of. She walked over to the gate at the end of the hallway, and when she looked past it, saw four incredibly thick metal cords that descended into a seemingly never ending darkness. An elevator. One that went even further down than she had already went. Susie looked around for a control panel of any sort, and when she looked to the elevator's left, she found what she was looking for. At least, in a sense. A large red button was on the wall that she had somehow missed before. Above it was a small sign, stenciled in black letters, was the button's purpose.

“CALL LIFT”

Susie, left with no other options, pressed the button. Then, her body was almost shaken out of her skin when a loud alarm came on, along with a red, blinking light above the lift's entrance. Then, the mechanical whirring of the lift's cables began, as the elevator began to rise. Susie calmed down after she realized what was happening, and took a deep breath. A deep breath that quickly turned to a sharp gasp as she heard the sound of a monstrous, high pitched cry come from the locked room. All the noise must be attracting it. She pressed the button again, but it didn't seem to stop anything. She heard wet, panicked footsteps get closer and closer to the door.

Then, the banging started, along with more wailing and screaming. She felt paralyzed. She had nowhere to run if it got out, and judging from the force and speed put into the slams against the door, she couldn't out run it. The screaming and slamming continued for a solid minute before the black, metal lift reached the top of the shaft, and the gates opened. Susie hurriedly sprinted into the lift, and found a small panel with an up arrow and a down arrow. She pressed the down arrow, and the gates closed, as more noise erupted from inside and outside the lift. It's screams only got more desperate sounding as she descended. The sounds eventually faded into the harsh metallic noises as the lift descended. The lift had lights on the ceiling, but they didn't seem to be working. Susie sat down at the back of the lift, her flashlight the only source of light she had as the steel outside the elevator moved upward as she moved in the opposite direction.

She sighed, dreading what lied even deeper below this place, and wondering just what the hell she got herself into.