[center][h1][color=00aeef]Chres[/color][/h1][/center] [hr] Chres cautiously stepped through the door to the basement, not really knowing what to expect. The door gave way to a corridor of ramps, not stairs, that spiraled downwards. Much like in the prison these ramps were equipped with a healthy amount of railings to catch oneself should they trip, and had multiple landings should the Divergent’s misfortune get the better of someone who found themselves tumbling down the slope. Readying himself, Chres removed the hatchet from his belt. There would be no sneaking his way down to the basement. Each step he took echoed audibly downwards, announcing his presence. As he proceeded further, he could make out strange noises from below. Chres furrowed his brow. What were those sounds? It sounded like the guttural growls, grunts, and cries of animals that were- “V-v-v-visit-t-t-tor.” Chres stopped midstep, his back stiffening and eyes widening. He could make the sounds out better now. Those were not the growls and grunts of animals. Those sounds… they were human… “V-viiiis-s-s-s-s-sitor!” The voice grew louder and more sure of itself. It came out… wrong… with almost a bubbly quality to it. “See it see it see it see it see it.” Said another in quick succession. It’s voice was raspy and whispery. “Chres Chres Chres Chres Chres.” “C-c-c-chreeeeeeesssssssssssssss! C-C-CHRRRREEEEEEEEES-S-S-S-S-S-S-S!” Said the other. Chres’s heart stopped. A chill crawling up his back. He hadn’t entered the room, hadn’t even spoken a word yet, and these… people?… spoke his name. Was it Lys, had she mentioned him? Or… no… something about this felt terribly wrong With a deep breath, Chres continued downwards. His grip on the hatchet, though, tightenned. As he dove further downwards, more voices came clearing. Some were weeping. Others screaming intermittently. Bangs and clangs of cage metal could be heard. As if something was slamming itself into the metal wire over and over again. At last Chres descended the rest of the way and entered a room, it contents unlike anything he had seen before. Cages upon cages of human… things. Human monstrosities. “C-chreees-s…” Came the bubbly voice from a large cage to his right. Chres took a step back. His breath caught in his throat. From within the cage a… thing. A mishmash of living bodies fused together in the most haphazard of ways. Flaps of skin, dangled and stretched, fusing together into what has once been heads, hands, legs, arms, feet, chests… The skin seemed to bubble and almost drip. Eyes elongated and fused with other eyes of another color. Gapping mouths with missing teeth opening from places there should be no mouth. Hair dangling from upside down faces. Other hairs disappearing and resurfacing from beneath the bubbling skin… The thing, it reached out from the bars of its cage. An elongated arm with three elbows and a hand that had seemed to have once been two. “Chreees-s-s-s…” It said again. “C-c-come. T-t-t-touch. B-b-b-be whole…” “Don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t” Came the whispery voice from behind Chres. Chres whirled, turning to face another cage with something that appeared far more human… except, that is, for its eyes. Senses, the eyes! The whites were where its pupils should have been, and its pupils somehow made up the whites of its eyes. Heart racing, eyes still wide, Chres forced himself forward. These things.. Whatever they were… They weren’t attacking him. Best to ignore them, and stay far away from their reach. He took another step. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! To his left, a woman ran over and over again into the cage wire. She had no arms, or… were those severed arms in her cage once hers? No, they couldn’t have been… could they? Another step. Crying from the left. Two people, gender no longer recognizable. Fused together in an eternal hug. Another step. “Help…” Came a wheeze from a stretched out woman who was somehow part of the stone wall “Please…” Another step Another in a cage. Continuously bleeding from their eyes, ears and nose. They cut themselves with a shard of glass over and over. Somehow, the blood flowed toward the open wound and seeped into it. Another step. A person, with tiny blades for teeth, bit at his arm tearing flesh from bone. There wasn’t much left of him. Another step A body that never had a head -Chres stopped and cocked his head- Never had a head? Why never? [color=00aeef][i]Keep going![/i][/color] He told himself. [color=00aeef][i]Don’t think about it![/i][/color] Another step. Another monster. Another step. Another monster. Another step. Another monster. Chres put his hand to his head. His mind felt as if it were throbbing. Something was horribly wrong with this place, and yet somehow it all seemed normal. Another step. Chres felt his legs weaken. His thoughts clashed. His sense of how the world is supposed to be seemed withered and frayed. Cries rose all around him. Normal? How could this be normal! This was all wrong! Terribly wrong! Another step. His muscles began to spasm. So close to the room’s end. So close to the exit. Why?! Why was this normal?! An ever present thought force upon him. Thinking became painful. His mind felt as if it were unraveling. Another laborious step. Chres collapsed to his knees. Normalcy. The more he fought the idea, the more it threatened to overwhelm him. He found it impossible to stop thinking about! Impossible focus. He began to realize this battle of reason would break him if it continued, and that was something he could not allow it to do. And so, Chres welcomed the idea and reluctantly accepted it. The world seemed to somewhat steady, though his head still pounded and his body still shook. Chres opened his eyes. He had curled up on the floor next to the exit. The conflicting ideas were still there, but swatted away like flies. With effort, Chres reached up, opened the door, crawled out of the room and shut the door behind him. His mind righted immediately. The invasive idea only present in the distant recesses of his mind. Senses! What had that all been? Chres breathed out and took in his surroundings. In the center of the room seemed to be some sort of operating table with straps meant to hold its patient down. All manner of tools and torturous devices splayed about the shelving with old blood crusting the floor and table. Chres hadn’t the stomach to fully make sense of the room. So instead he focused on the two other doors in the room. He only hoped that Lys lay beyond one of them.