Naught made a hasty effort of trying to smooth out her shirt with one hand while she buttons an unbuttoned button above her bust with the other. All of these done as she leads Guilt, Ego, Conscience and Mother Goose with dainty little steps towards the back of the ab.
They enter a room, or rather, a large circular hall, with high ceilings. And in the centre of this hall, an archway extends out from the back of the hall. It's dark entrance only litted by a pair of blue-flamed torches on each side. The floor tiled with echoey diminished charcoal marble gives out the sound of unbearable emptiness every time your heels steeped onto it.
The five pairs of heels clunked into the hall.
Mother Goose holds herself and says, "Oh my, it's getting quite dark and cold in here."
Conscience removes a scarf that was tied around her waist and offers it to Mother Goose, "Yes. The lower we go, the colder it seems to get. And Love is being held in the lowest level of the ab."
"Thank you, child." says Mother Goose as she absent-mindedly takes the scarf. "Wha..held? Pray, what do you mean by held?"
"I'm not too sure, Mother Goose. She's not in chains or anything..." begins Conscience.
"Hey." a slightly insulted Guilt exclaims.
"You'll understand when you see her." says the impatient Ego. "Now, take a flame, woman, and as you have always expertly done, take the first step."
Naught holds a brief glare at Ego, brushes the hair away from her face, walks towards the right torch and tip-toed to remove it from it's brace. The rest of the group approach the entrance.
"Well then, does anybody need to go to the loo before we go down?" checks Mother Goose.
Without an answer, Naught takes the first step and leads them with her torch downwards.
Circular stairs are litted by the flame, clinging to the wall while the hollow middle reveals a weak light at the bottom. 'It seems like a very long way down,' thought the descending people without uttering it.
*********
At the bottom of the stairs, in a single file, they enter an arched doorway. This is what they found:
There were 5 steps left separating them from shallow floods rushing into the multiple round drainage closest to them. It was like a huge dimly lit empty showering hall. Some tiles were stained with filth and dirt, other tiles weren't so lucky. There was only one singular shower sticking out of the wall at the back of the hall, facing the entrance. And one naked figure stood with the back facing the group. An albino woman. Standing beneath, looking at the shower as pathetic patters of water rains on her face and body. Occasionally, without looking, the albino woman reaches one hand to a part of her body and removes a small patch of newly grown moldy moss-like substance and drops it onto the floor. It was like watching a person peeling of chunks of dried discoloured skin in the shower. The air was damp, it made the fame sizzle and retreat into a sad flicker. And they waited in silence until the albino woman turned and said;
" You came."
- To be continued.
Next Chapter: The One Love Hates
