I slipped my phone out of my pocket, shining the flashlight down the pitch-black pit. Light dimly reflected off of the steep metal ladder but did not reach the bottom. Even when Lucas added his phone's flashlight, it was impossible to see beyond the endless metal steps.

I didn't know what awaited at the bottom, but I knew that I would never figure it out unless I made the journey. I placed my foot on the first step, going down three until there was enough room above me to turn around and grip the sides. My phone was unstable in my hands and could fall at any second. I couldn't point it down as I moved on the ladder so the light ended up illuminating the dirt side of the narrow square column.

I looked up at Lucas who held another light above me, "Can you hold your flashlight on the steps? I can't see anything."

Lucas' eyebrows furrowed and he hesitated to speak, "I don't really want you going down there by yourself though... We don't know what's down there."

"I'll be fine. And you'll be right behind me."

He gnawed on his lip and reluctantly agreed, "Okay."

I let out a puff of air and looked down. I readjusted my phone in my right hand so that the light was shining downward and I was only holding onto the side with a couple of fingers and a shaky grip.

Each step was practically directly beneath the other, making it a near-vertical descent. My neck was craned as I struggled to see the metal steps below, the possibility of falling through the open space between each step looming over my head. I kept going down, further and further until it was only my light shining on the rusty metal surface. I looked up to Lucas and the flashlight on his phone was a mere speckle in the distance.

My pace increased as I fell into a comfortable rhythm. I flew down the creaking steps. The rust had become a greenish-brown color, the metal moist from the thickly packed dirt walls. There was a deafening silence surrounding me. The only noise I could hear was the contact of my feet and the following step. The quiet surroundings amplified the sound of my heartbeat. The subtle thumping noise was all I could focus on, and as I got lower and lower, the sound of my heart only got louder and faster. It rang in my ears and throbbed in my head. My heartbeat pulsated throughout my entire body, flowing into the tips of my fingers and down to my toes.

My heart thumped as my feet thudded against the metal. I sucked in a breath, hesitantly pushing my foot past the last step and onto the solid concrete ground.

I looked at the floor beneath my feet. I stood upon dark grey concrete that extended onto the tall walls of a wide passageway. There was an eerie feeling as I felt a cool breeze sweep across the now present goosebumps on my skin. I moved back toward the ladder, turning my gaze upward and thinking about shouting to Lucas, but I decided against it as I was unsure of who was lurking beyond the chilling pathway. I went to unlock my phone with the intention of texting him, but I was so deep underground that there was no service. I took the side of my phone and banged it on the railing of the metal ladder, hopeful that Lucas would get the hint. Clanking noise echoed up the small column, sending vibrations throughout the silver metal.

Lucas quickly understood. I saw the small light being jostled around before it found a permanent position toward the right side of the ladder, just as I had done with my phone. Lucas' descent was swift, joining me on the hard surface at an unknown distance underground.

He dismounted from the unstable ladder, snapping his head around as his eyes traveled past me and stared into the daunting darkness in front of us. He blew out a huff of air and then looked at me warily. Lucas glanced down at my hand, smoothly moving to take it into his own. He entwined out fingers and looked into my eyes. I couldn't see the gold flecks in the green, but the emotion was there. The fear was there. He turned his head back to the path, slowly holding his phone up and hesitantly taking a step forward.

My right hand clutched onto his left, both of us hoping our flashlights could provide some insight as to what lies ahead.

We stayed as silent as we could, fearful that the sounds of our voices could echo and alert whoever may be at the end of this tunnel. The noise of our soft steps vibrated off of the concrete walls which would normally absorb sound but instead amplified it. This led me to believe that the concrete surrounding us was nothing but a thin layer of rubble protecting another material underneath it.

My thumb subtly rubbed against Lucas' wrist, allowing me to feel his increasing heart rate. The pounding sensation transferred through my thumb and straight to my pulse. I let out a shaky breath trying to steady my heart rate. There was a dizzy feeling circling through my mind and head, making me feel as if I was watching myself walk down the eerie hallway.

Lucas' grip on my hand tightened, sensing my unease. But his gesture did little to comfort. I knew he felt the same way I did. His eyes shook as they looked around with urgency, scanning for any threat that could jump out of the endless black we were running towards and chasing us from behind... From the darkness that surrounded us on every side and trapped us between cracking walls that looked like they were about to collapse.

I studied the crevices running along the grey concrete, giving way to damp clumps of dirt and untreated weeds. Roots from trees created bumps in the rubble with brown twigs sticking up through the ground and onto the surface.

The throbbing throughout my body quickened. My heartbeat suddenly picked up, making me feel like the organ would jump out of my chest. My eyes were glued to the dark that my phone light could not reach. It felt as if my eyes were closed. Completely blinded, a cold burst of wind flew into Lucas and me. It traveled through each strand of my hair, making my eyes sting from the cold. But that wasn't all, with the burst of air, a shrill scream rang through my ears. The strong current of air reverberated all around, the sound replaying as the wind swirled around. My breathing stopped, as did my body, and Lucas was frozen in place.

The noise blended into the sound of air bustling through the tunnel, making the two nearly indistinguishable. It was high-pitched and made my stomach flip.

It was gut-wrenching.

And it was real.

Lucas' flashlight began to flicker, the light slowly fading away and the shadows in front of us gained ground, giving us even less leverage in the giant walkway. My head snapped toward Lucas in worry. I stared as he repeatedly touched the home button. He hit the side of it with his hand in hopes to jumpstart the device, but it was no use. His phone was dead.

"The battery's out," he whispered in my ear.

I took a sharp inhale, looking at Lucas' swept-back locks that made him look like an anime character. I'm sure I looked similar. "It's fine, mine isn't going to die anytime soon," I tried to reassure him.

I took a step in front of Lucas, the intense breeze making the hair on my arms stick straight up. Lucas stood right behind me, following closely as I increased my pace.

The wind carried another shriek through the hall. It bounced off of the walls and echoed in my head.

"Do you think that's Charlotte?" Lucas asked, his face screwed up out of fear and worry.

I glanced back at the boy, my eyes widening as another tortuous scream pierced through my ears.

"Come on," I spoke to him as my pace gradually increased into a run. The light from my phone only illuminated a couple of feet in front of me, we were running in blind.

I could feel Lucas' breath on the back of my neck, it was warm, heavily contrasting the cool breeze that forced my eyes to squint.

We were no longer trying to keep our footsteps light, our legs carried us into the darkness in a rush. Further and further. It just kept going. There were countless turns in every direction. When the path would split, we would follow the lasting noise from the scream's echo. My heart was straining and my muscles ached. Sweat dripped from my skin, dampening my clothes. Lucas' hair was no longer the soft fluffy brown it normally was, but now a medium color, completely drenched from sweat.

My breathing was heavy and Lucas struggled to catch his breath, but we kept going, and we didn't stop. Screams continued to ring throughout the tunnel, becoming increasingly louder as we continued on our path. I wasn't sure how much further I could run, it felt like we have been going for miles upon miles. We were both beginning to slow down, heaving for air as we approached a steel door. Lucas and I had finally reached the end of the eerie tunnel, just to be met with a metal platform the size of the entire wall. The top loomed so far over our heads we had to look straight up to see it. There were bolts the size of our heads scattered all over, connecting different sized scraps together.

"How the hell are we supposed to open that?" Lucas asked. His hair had fallen over his eyes, droplets falling onto his face.

The door looked like it had been made for a giant. There was no doubt in my mind that it hadn't been opened in years. I let out a huff of air, "I don't know. What if they aren't even here?"

"They have to be..." Lucas sounded defeated.

He stepped closer to the steel that towered over us. His eyes trailed the material up and down until his eyes narrowed in on one of the large bolts that was placed where a doorknob would, oddly enough, typically be on a door.

"Do you think-" I looked at him, my voice implying my question.

Lucas didn't reply. His fingers fiddled around the edges of the bolt before they slowly slipped behind the head. He let out a shaky breath, licking the salty water from the corner of his mouth. He adjusted his stance as I kept my flashlight focused on the knob. Lucas slightly bent his knees, shuffling his feet into a comfortable stance. He adjusted his hands, gripping both sides as he began to pull the metal head toward himself. He let out a string of grunts as the veins on his forearms bulged.

"Aggghh!!" Lucas shouted, green and blue lines popping out of his neck. The strained look on his face told me he was at his limit. I dropped my phone on the ground and grasped the top and bottom of the bolt where Lucas' hands weren't present.

I started to pull with him. My biceps strained and I seethed at the feeling, "Shit!" I cursed, straining myself just as much as Lucas as we stared at nothing, the blackness of the tunnel taking over our senses and forcing us to rely upon our touch.

"I can feel it, just a little more," Lucas harshly spoke. Our shoulders and sides were pressed together as we tried our best to have a firm grip on the head of the bolt.

And then it happened. There was this sudden release and the metal bolt popped, now sticking a foot out of the door. The lack of resistance threw us both onto the cold rubble beneath us. Lucas and I landed on our backs with a painful thud. I withered on the concrete floor. I gasped, air instantly filling into my lungs as Lucas was trying to stand back up. He stood on slightly shaky legs. Lucas extended a hand out, offering to help me up. I brushed my hand over the ground, sweeping across the grey floor in search of my phone. The second I felt it, I gripped the device and clasped Lucas' hand. He pulled me up and I leaned on his shoulder in an attempt to recompose myself. I was exhausted and I'm sure Lucas was too.

He moved back toward the steel door and turned the head of the blot. There was a loud clicking noise that came from the metal. It reverberated through the hallway, the sound bouncing back and forth between each end of the tunnel.

Lucas pushed on the door. The giant slab made a deafening creaking noise as it slowly fell into whatever space laid on the other side. Lucas continued to move the door back until we were met with a hallway nearly identical to the one we were still in, except this one was lit. Bars of yellow lights were embedded in the ceiling. The concrete floor and walls had no cracks and there was no natural life visible to the human eye. I turned off my phone's flashlight and placed it in my pocket.

We were both breathing heavily as we stepped into the new section of the tunnel. The walls were lined with boxes that were stacked all the way to the ceiling with several rows, making the actual walkway somewhat narrow. The path was short, no more than 50 feet long before a new door appeared. It was normal-sized and sloppily painted a deep shade of red, some of the color had splattered onto the round gold knob. I gently grabbed the handle, twisting it slowly and hesitantly.

We were quickly met with a staircase, leading up to a blinding light. I audibly gulped and Lucas placed a hand on my shoulder. We slowly made our way up the steps, walking on our toes and trying to stay silent. Once I reached the top I couldn't do anything but stand still in absolute shock. Lucas paused right behind me, staring over my shoulder.

"Holy shit," He whispered.

"Something in me isn't even surprised," I replied as I gaped at the contents of the empty room.

"Isn't this... Isn't this really similar to the meth lab they had in Breaking Bad?" Lucas questioned.

I studied the stained dirt-yellow walls. There were numerous cabinets lining the wall to the right. The shelves were full of containers holding various pills and liquid substances. On the left wall was where I presumed my dad made whatever drugs the materials on the cabinet led to when mixed. I knew he wouldn't be able to get over his addiction without the people around him noticing, but this... This is completely unexpected. Even if he isn't using the stuff he's making, with the sheer amount here, there's no doubt in my mind that he's at least selling it.

"This is insane," Lucas ran his fingers through his air, his elbows raised in the air as he looked around the crusty room. "How could he have created the perfect image for himself in his family's eyes yet still manage to be a fucking psychopath that sells meth on the side?"

"Lucas?" I frantically hit him on the shoulder.

"Neo yeogisseo (you're here)," the Korean words had Lucas snapping his neck toward my father who had emerged from a door next to one of the cabinets. "I was not expecting you to find me, especially not from the back door," my dad's accent was thick.

I stared wide-eyed, taking in my father's appearance for the first time in years. His body was somewhat muscular, he was skinny but definitely not fragile. His white wife-beater tank top was tucked under the cheap-looking jacket he had tied around his waist and he wore typical denim blue jeans. It reminded me of what he wore when I was younger. I guess some things never change. Just like how he has red liquid splattered along his cheek, traveling down his neck and onto the trap of his shirt. I guess his violent tendencies never really went away, it seems like all he was doing was suppressing them.

"Where's Charlotte?" I spit the words out of my mouth.

He was wiping blood off of his hands with a square towel.

He ignored me, "Neoneun nyusue nawassda. Jeongmal nollasseo! (You were on the news. I was really surprised!).

"Geunyeoege museum jiseul hangeoya!? (What did you do to her!?)" I shouted as I stared at the blood on his face.

"Ya (Hey)," my dad laughed at my anger, "jinjeonghae! (calm down!)" He snickered at me, tucking his bloody rag into his back pocket. "Geogjeonghajima. Ne dongsaengeun gwaenchanha. (Don't worry. Your little sister is fine)."

He turned around and walked through the door, leaving it open for us to follow him. By the sound of his steps, it seemed like he was going up another flight of stairs. I moved to go after him but Lucas grabbed my arm, holding me back, "You're not actually going to follow him, are you!?"

"Of course I am! Don't you get it, all that blood was Charlotte's! After everything he did to me, he's doing it again!" I whisper shouted at him.

Lucas bit his cheek and released me. I walked toward the wall and stood in front of the doorway. I hesitantly stepped through it. I ran up the steps with Lucas on my tail.

It led to what looked like a living room. My dad had his back toward me and was digging around in the drawer of a desk. Charlotte was huddled in a corner, her eyes closed. One of her legs was bent up and being held near her chest, and the other was laying down straight. The lower half of her shin was bent in a strange way, poking into her jeans. A compound fracture. The bone had been completely disconnected from the upper part of her tibia and probably broke through the skin. Blood was pooled around the wound. She cupped her left hand with her right, both of her arms heavily bruised. She had a nasty dark purple black eye on her right side and the corner of her lip was cut.

"Why did you do this!?" I screamed at him as I started to run toward her. But a clicking noise had me stop in my tracks, forcing me to place both of my hands in the air as I slowly backed away.

I let out a shaky breath as my dad pointed a black pistol right at my head. He used his thumb to turn off the safety while his mouth twitched into a snarl, "Don't you get it? It's your fault! Modeunge da neoui jalmosiya! (It's all your fault!)" Spit flew out of his mouth with his words, his head shaking all over the place. He was completely unstable.

"She didn't do anything to you! Neither did I!"

"Neo ttaemune geunyeoneun ileohge! (She's like this because of you!) I was living a righteous and quiet life, but then you had to fill her head with such nonsense. And because of that, I can't just do nothing!"

"Righteous. Righteous? Selling meth on the ride is righteous?" Lucas sneered.

"Dagchyeo! (Shut up!)" My dad screamed. Lucas didn't flinch at his outburst but instead had a look of disgust on his face. "Who are you to interrupt!?"

"Chong naelyeo nwa (Put the gun down)," I glared at him.

He simply waved it in my face, "Put it down? No. I should kill you. You ruined my life! If you were never born then none of this would have happened," he began to laugh. His eyebrows were raised, revealing the aged lines on his forehead. "You started all of this! You're the reason my dear wife died! I didn't want to kill Ace, but he was getting in the way of your punishment and you deserve to suffer."

I clenched my jaw, my eyes never leaving the gun that was getting closer and closer to my face, "I never asked to be born!" I seethed. "It's your fault that I'm here, so by your logic, everything is your fault!"

He wasn't listening to a thing I was saying, "It's you. It's you, it's all your fault. Charlotte's hurt because of you. I didn't want to but you made me do it!" His eyes were red, bloodshot.