Monsters from Beyond Reality by V Bertolaccini

the snow blanketing his
entire surroundings, almost in complete darkness, without any
lights, shifting into deep snow, considering everything that he was
up against, attempting to observe any place he could see, and
wondered if the killer could possibly see him.
    He listened through the howl of the wind and
all that he heard was the trees being blown around, and he looked
for a place to take cover and move over to, and one of the
policemen appeared at his side and shone his torch about, and
though the wood became visible, he could barely see anything
else.
    “ There is part of his
footstep! ” a policeman announced, pointing, and they realized that they
could not follow him, as there was only part of one footstep
there.
     

Chapter 14
     
    The Space/Time
Gateway
     
    Once Bryson arrived back at the top floor
that night after resting and having a meal he instantly realized
that they had found something else, and he saw Mitchell and his men
standing around a large hole in the floor in front of the
bookshelves.
    “ We just dug through,” Mitchell
announced, in excitement, as Bryson arrived, glaring, and Mitchell
shone his light around the large hole, where they had removed
floorboards and smashed in a stone entrance slab.
    “ When did you find it?” he replied,
wondering what was there, realizing it probably was what was marked
on the map, and that the bookshelves were covering it
up.
    “ We found it only an hour ago!”
Mitchell replied.
    “ How did you find it?”
    “ Some of the men, who were still
exploring the chamber with the tomb, found the area below here was
surrounded and hidden by a thick wall ... And we found a sealed
entrance over it ...”
    “ What’s down there?” Bryson asked,
trying to see in it.
    “ There’s stairs ... They go down below
somewhere!”
    Mitchell entered first, using his light to
see the ancient steps going straight down, and Bryson followed,
surprised that the tunnel and stairs fitted into the massive walls
in the floors below.
    Bryson watched Mitchell moving down making
sure he never slipped, and a deep thud echoed down from behind, and
he saw that only one other man followed him, and he realized that
it was a good idea only having the three of them as the ancient
derelict castle steps might not be able to support more
weight.
    The ebbing radiance of the light was not
enough to allow more than three to go safely down either, and he
tried to grasp the concept of the tunnel and he imagined the
outside of the castle, as he had seen it, and tried to recall the
place where they were on it, and where they were going. He was sure
that it might have been part of its defense against invaders!
    Sounds from behind altered and echoed down
giving muddled and strange tones, and he had to strain his eyes
more and more to see what he was doing, what Mitchell was doing,
and occasionally look back at Mitchell’s man behind him, who was
the man that had seen the cross map on the map, which had led them
there, and he wondered why he was so keen to find what was
there.
    He saw little below and that there
were no new features of anything, and that the
tunnel ’s small shape (less than a meter all around him) vanished into
the dark.
    The steps descended sharply and hazardously
and they had to climb down slowly, rather than walk down like with
normal stairs, and he had to hold himself upright and lean
backwards, and its drop seemed perpendicular at times.
    Once he thought he heard distant movements
from below, surrounded by their growing surges of strange sounds,
and he was sure Mitchell reacted, just ahead of him, with the light
oscillating irregularly. Its light swayed over the stone, and the
narrow shaft seemed to vanish at a point below.
    A feeble glow from something reflecting
light caught his attention and he wondered what was there to
reflect it, and he saw what looked like a crack in a wall, between
the castle stones, and when he looked down he realized Mitchell had
vanished!
    At first he