When he reached bottom he expected the white panels of the program chamber. Instead his feet touched stone and the cavern spread out wide before him. Lights shone from the pits on either side of the massive room, exposing their untold depths to the space that could hold a few hundred people. Seth shuttered as the coolness of the damp air enveloped him. The echoes of the past drifted around the room barely loud enough for Seth to distinguish human voices, but not enough to make out what they were saying.

He fought the urge to listen, to decode the message, and won. His situation was bad enough without opening himself up to demonic influence. He steadied his breathing and focused his attention on the rusted door in the back of the room. Astral must be in the room beyond, deeper into the program. Shadows leaped across the light beams, triggering his animal instincts. Was something here? Of course there was. Stop being an idiot.

Another quick movement drew his attention to the light source on the opposite side of the room. He needed to move fast. He ran toward the door. The shadow dropped from the ceiling in a long elastic drip, barring his path. Others dropped down behind him.

They were thin, elongated but otherwise shapeless masses. They towered over him some twelve feet as the demons leaned over him as though inspecting their prey.

Don’t be afraid, they might sense fear. Astral was never afraid, but she was armed to the teeth.

Paper-thin twigs pulled away from the shadow, breaking apart to form hundreds of long slender arms. The shadow people’s fingers left thin cuts in the stone floor as their long limbs reached out for Seth. The shadows shapes merged into one another, unaffected by the damage they caused to the world around them.

Don’t just stand there! His inner voice snapped sounding an awful lot like one of Astral biting reprimands.

He had nowhere to run. The shadow fingers had formed a razor web around him, embracing one another as their head touched at the crown as they looked down on him. They were closing in, one slow liquid step at a time. He stared up at their curious faceless visages. His breaths were hallow, his heart on the verge of exploding with terror. He had nowhere to run. How am I supposed to use my environment like this? He thought at Astral. Her training has been insufficient in exactly the way he said it was.

‘Don’t get yourself in these stupid situation,’ his voice posing as hers retorted with a level venom and disappointment he had heard a hundred times before.

‘There, before it’s too late!’ The gap between the shadow beings was narrow, and their finger-nets were just far enough that maybe. ‘STOP THINKING!’

He dove for the opening. The shadows’ net fell, their long hands reaching out to him, slow and methodical. It was a though they wanted him to run; as though they wanted him to push his fears through his blood stream and marinade his organs in terror.

He ran to the door. Years of rust on the handle bit into his skin. The rust flaked, scattering to the floor and over his hand. The door… was a demon too! He slapped the rust away, feeling their tiny pincers bite into his hand and arm. The shadows surged toward him, their fingers dancing down the back wall and over the door.

His fingers burned and swelled as the last of the rust mites fell away in a burst of uncontainable ecstasy. As long as he didn’t get bitten by something bigger with better teeth, it looked like swarms weren’t much of a concern, unless the venom was designed to do less than kill their prey.

He slipped past a fresh net of shadow fingers, ignoring the door. He could come back around to deal with it, or maybe he could use the shadows to break it open for him. The lights flickered as the shadows swept toward him, dying when they drew too close.

Ever patient, they surrounded him like cowboys wrangling a stray steer, pushing him to the edge of the pit. They stood closer together, reducing the narrow gaps between their shadow tendrils to an impossible width.

He wouldn’t let them have him. He’d die first. He glanced down at the intense light at his back. Why hadn’t this fixture succumbed to the needs of the shadow people? In its growing brightness, the shadow people stopped. They watched him, their nets in place, waiting for him to make his move, when they could not.

The electric buzz of the light behind him told him that its protection was waning. He needed to make a decision. He only had one choice to make. He climbed into the pit.

The light could protect him for so long; its reach into the darkness could only reach so far. His grip slipped from the slick stone. His hand shook, his body complaining against the new bout of physical trials. He could give up. He could let go and end it all. Better to end it on his terms than suffer at the hands of some demon.

He descended a few more feet, reaching the cusp of the light’s protection when it began to flicker. The shadows were coming. He peered into the darkness below, trying to gauge the distance of his fall. The lights went out and he let go.