Writetober 2024, Horror Haven: Day 23: Beneath the Earth

In the light of a golden afternoon,

A day of all good & true,
Four friends seemed an adventure anew.

Oh untrustworthy Karl, with his Builder’s hat and steampunk flair,
Led the troupe with a who-will-ever-care air.

Clarice, with dark eyes like fallen twilight skies,
A lovely girl with mystery, secrets, and sighs.

Her sweater

 Draped over her with grace,
Violet like dreams she wondered if she should dare to chase.

Rachel, a whisper, shy yet bold,
With laughter that 

• Leaped and sparkled like stories untold.
  

Her red hair shimmered in the sunlit breeze,
As the group wandered beneath a canopy of trees.

A mannequin named Rohan, 

Loving, kind, un-mechanical & spry,
Stumbled into this humble troupe

 ..With not so much as a digression or a sigh

An alive theme park escapee with stories & fables to share,
His small feet pressed into softly rocking grass, 

His fabric joints 

creaked softly in the summer air.

Together they cried, laughed, leaped, their spirits high!
Their joys infectious through the endless azure sky.

And so they journeyed, unaware of the shadows that loomed ahead,
They forged a path in dry dirt where they assumed adventure led.

The infectious laughter faded just like the sun as it dipped low,
A hidden door found beneath an Unknown glow.

Their hearts quickened at the iron gate,
Curiosity bound, signed, and sealed them to their inevitable -

Doom and fate!

Down and down they went, 

Further down stairs plunged in the Earth’s emerald embrace,
Trepidation and misgiving etched on each young face.

A grey and uninviting hidden from the seemingly safe and harmonious world above,
Concealed like a magician’s hat to a dove.

And so they found it. 

Moldy and rotten, experiments, abandoned and cold,
They served as stories of terror and mysteries untold.

Rohan shivered at the mirrored sight,
Creations almost like him?

 ..In the dim, biting light.

written by Zoe