The Alien Artifact 9 (Novelette) by V Bertolaccini Page A

be freed, and enter some afterlife.
    “ Have
you found anything ? ” a voice yelled out, and hung there, and I
wondering if it had overheard my thoughts, and had taken a form of
human presence, and I never knew what to reply with.
    I eventually shouted back, “What do you want
of me?”
    To my surprise a reply emerged above, and
yelled, “We want you to tell us if you have found anything! And if
we should pull you up or lower more rope?”
    I gasped and realized it was Higgins in the
blackness above, and I stared there realizing that there must be
some light there and if my eyes altered to the darkness there I
would see him, and once I did I instantly shouted up for him to
lower more rope, as I was going to the bottom, and I realized that
I now had to go through with it, and there was no turning back! Yet
I had them above now, and could shout up for them to pull me
upwards when I wanted.
    In a combination of annoyance and confusion
I started lowering myself down again, into the blackness. Annoyed
at the rope only being lowered by a couple of feet and in confusion
at what I was doing there.
    I had the impression that the two paranormal
scientists up above might be on the edge of considering doing
something extreme, and beyond their customary actions, and it
seemed somehow dangerous.
    For a few seconds, as I lowered myself, I
heard Oswald and he gave me the impression that he was waiting for
something tremendous to occur, and I wondered if he thought there
were paranormal life forms or something!
    I realized the implications of any find and
that they and I would have to check what was there!
    I then
realized that there might people near the location behind the thick
walls in hospital beds and I wondered if they realized that I was
there, and that there was something of paranormal origins buried
away there.
    Now it
was basically the three of us, with Higgins and Oswald
above, and I was sure the others had left to go to bed, leaving
their equipment monitoring everything, which they believed was
there.
    For a few seconds I sleepily wondered what
the tiny sparkles were below, and realized that I was nearly
falling asleep, and my light had entirely gone out, and they were
not reflection sparkles of light from above, and gasped, and
realized the implications.
    I felt like a worm on a fishing line,
floating in the sea, and there to get what was below! I realized
the two paranormal scientists might have trouble climbing down, and
were slightly overweight and bulky at the moment, and they would
have a hard time getting back up again!
    I even considered if I would have to spend
the night at the bottom or something, if I was too tired and sleepy
to get back up, and if anything happened to me, and I lodged my
boot into a gap between two of the boulders, to rest better.
    I realized how
low down I now was and must be close to the bottom, and I suddenly
realized the depth down I had come and surely far more than the
actual size of the building, and I wondered if I had gone
underground, and how far underground I was, and how far down it
went, and the blackness there looked like an abyss.
    “ So are
we going down ...? ” Oswald moaned firmly, from out of the
blackness above.
    “ You
could send down a camera with a light
attached? ” I moaned, confusing both of the scientists.
    “ But you must be about on the ground?”
Oswald firmly replied.
    The rope started swaying and vibrating
furiously, giving the impression that something was frantically
doing something against it just above me and I glanced up but never
saw anything, and it felt as if something had got caught on the
rope just above me and was trying to free itself, and desperately
tried to escape from there, like some form of bird, which baffled
me, and I realized I had no rope left below me.
    I was trapped over an abyss with something
deadly, but the darkness was too absent of light, and it was then
that I noticed a dim light come across my front, over my clothes,
and I