Yellow, viscous sludge dripped down the rough stone bricks and forming a seeping pool in the hallway. The mess attracted flies and gave off a burning, repulsive odor. The hallway was mostly dark but beams of white light shone blindingly through several openings in the rock, making the shadows that much darker. Sebathan moved down the hallway, in and out of the light, his head a mangy skull with only small patches of skin and hair. His eyes were piercing however and his ivory teeth gleamed. He led the girl by her wrist down the putrid hall. The girl, Darcy, had been working at a coffee shop in Dallas until 10 this morning and still wore her apron. Somewhere along the line she had lost her shoes and she now dragged her bare feet through the yellow sticky fluid that spread across the stone tiles. “This way,” Sebathan hissed but she resisted when she saw the sludge flowing down the stairs and all the flies. “I ain’t goin up there, no way,” she said.

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