They traveled down the hallway for some time, the walls seeming to stretch toward infinity. There was the occasional door beside them, but all were either locked to led nowhere. After awhile, Joseph detected a slight curve in their pathway, and he realized that it was taking them around the length of the building.
But finally, the hallway came to an end at a large metal door that split down the middle. As they approached it, the door opened to a small closet with a piece of paper lying on the floor. Joseph stepped inside with Silver close behind and picked it up. Written on the piece were several words of gibberish and a horned face at the bottom which had a long, pointy tail and a tongue sticking out.
A moment later, a rushing sound caused them both to turn, and the door closed. Silver pulled his tail out of the way seconds before it would've been caught. Then metal chains clanked above and below them. The room was beginning to descend.
Joseph held onto the wall, and Silver crouched down to the floor. They held those positions for some time until the room finally stopped moving. A time of silence passed, then the door opened. Joseph peered around the edge of the door, though only darkness met him back.
“Another hallway.” Joseph stepped out of the room, and Silver followed.
Several pipes ran along the walls down the hallway, and for a time that was all that they saw. Then dust began to appear at their feet as the room grew warmer. The hallway opened into a larger room where the pipes went up into the ceiling, which hung only a floor below Joseph’s head.
Several crates and barrels were piled around the room, and there were two other hallways on the sides of the room. On the far end of the room stood a large wooden chair next to a stack of crates. On the chair lay a large hardcover book with a strange symbol on the cover.
The tome was heavy in his hands when Joseph held it, so he sat down in the chair and opened the book on his lap. The words seemed as much nonsense as the note in the closet before, but as he continued turn through the pages, they began to make more and more sense. The book told of another plane of existence, where powerful beings who had turned from God resided. It talked of spells which one could use to travel to and from this place. Then it began to describe the world.
It was a world without sunlight, without beauty, and without joy. The creatures that dwelled there reveled in their misery and did all that they could to spread it to others. It was a place many millions of miles away from the Earth, yet the residents envied earthlings so greatly that they’d do anything to shorten the distance.
Joseph could feel himself slipping downward into the chair, like it was pulling him in. He remembered the painting from before, and slammed the book shut. The noise the book made echoed throughout the halls. With a grimace, he placed the book inside a nearby box and looked away.
But as he went back to Silver, there came a stomping sound from down the hallway to his left. He bent down next to Silver and stared into the darkness. A moment later, Dula entered the room.
It held a knife in its hand, pointed it straight at Joseph, and ran at him. Joseph dove out of the way, Silver bolted, and the demon struck one of the boxes. It growled and tore the knife out of the crate, pulling free several strands of straw.
Joseph drew his sword and stabbed Dula. It stepped out of the way, and his blade poked through the box that was behind him. The plywood spilled open with more straw falling to the floor.
It ran at him with the knife again. Joseph stepped aside, but the blade cut across his shoulder. A wave of pain ran through his arm, and he almost dropped his sword. He grit his teeth and tightened his grip on the hilt.
He slashed at Dula. It held up its knife to block, but the weight of Joseph’s blade was too great. The knife slipped from Dula’s fingers and flew away. Joseph cut along Dula’s chest, causing him to step back.
It was dark against the wall on the other side of the room where Dula fled to. But when Silver stepped close with the lamp, Joseph gasped at the sight before his eyes. The demon Dula was unwounded. His sword was useless against it.
Joseph slashed at Dula over and over, but none of his attacks even cut through its thick demon skin. Dula only laughed at his futile attempts at harming him, not even trying to dodge. Then it brushed Joseph’s blade away from his chest, where it struck a nearby pipe by the doorway.
There came a hiss like a serpent from the broken pipe, and suddenly a smell of rotten eggs filled the room. Joseph’s eyes went wide. He picked up a nearby box and broke it over Dula’s head as it continued to laugh. Straw and plywood and broken whiskey bottles rained down over it. As it brushed away a large piece of broken wood, Joseph took the lamp out of Silver’s mouth.
“You were brought into this world from fire, and with the same fire you shall leave it!” Joseph threw the oil lamp at Dula’s face. It ducked down so that the lamp struck the wall, but broken glass and oil poured over the demon just the same. The wick touched Dula’s oil soaked head and lit the demon ablaze. The fire spread from its head down to the straw lying at its feet.
Dula screamed over the hiss from the pipes.
Joseph and Silver glanced at each other, then they turned and ran down the hallway across from which Dula had entered. Their surroundings quickly grew dark without the lamp. Behind them, he could still hear the sounds of fire crackling.
Then they saw a faint light up ahead. There was a door at the end of the hallway, and Joseph flung it open. They ran up a flight of stairs and out into the moonlit air and beyond. After running several feet further, a sound erupted behind them and the ground shook.
Joseph and Silver stopped and turned to look back. Flames licked the walls of the inn. The sight brightened the whole area around them. Then the building began to sink down as the cliff gave way, and the light started to dim.
When the hotel disappeared, they ran toward the edge of the cliff and looked down. The crumbled wreck of the inn lay burning at the bottom of the cliff, but there was no movement under the many charred boards. They continued to stare at the glowing sight, until the waves finally extinguished the flames, and all that was left was smoke and burnt firewood.
The first rays of sunlight poked above the horizon. Joseph found a path leading to the beach below the cliff and traveled down with Silver following close behind. They spent half the day searching through the garbage, but found only a few dead rats lying in the wreckage.
Eventually, the tide swallowed the mess, and they had to return to higher ground lest they be swept into the ocean as well. Later that day, after he and Silver had eaten and explored a little, Joseph returned to the cliff's edge, only to find the wreckage mostly buried. He hoped and prayed that the explosion had destroyed Dula, but at the back of his mind was always a lingering doubt.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Contrast Light From A Window by George Hodan is licensed under CC0 Public Domain.