Subway
Cory felt panic rise as he awoke and adrenaline hit his stomach. He looked at his watch and saw that he’d been on the subway for hours, and had no idea where he was or which direction they were headed. It was already a quarter to midnight and Liz would be worried about him. He checked his phone only to see it searching for a signal. He looked around and didn’t see anyone in his car. He got up and looked through the connecting doors and didn’t see anyone in the next car either. Resigned to the fact that he would just have to wait until the next station, he sat by the door.
A voice cracked on the speakers and mumbled something about City Hall and that the subway was stopping service and all passengers should disembark. “Fan-fucking-tastic!” he thought. Six stops away from home and he had to get off. Well, he could catch a taxi at least and still be home in fifteen or twenty minutes if he were lucky. His phone was still searching for a signal so he may as well go up to street level.
He made for the first escalator and stopped short, reading the Access Closed sign strung across the railing. Well, that’s great; the main entrance was closed and he’d never gotten off at this station before. He looked around for another way out and saw at the very end of the platform some nondescript stairs leading up and around a corner. Within twenty feet, a noxious odor wafted toward him from the stairway. Involuntarily retching, he stopped in his tracks. Some twisted combination of feces, urine and decay lay beyond that stairwell and he wondered if he could still find a way out via the blocked access.
He braced himself, held his breath and began to climb the stairs. Not even wanting to touch the hand rail, he vaulted two steps at a time hoping he would gain the top quickly. After two turns he began to wonder where the hell these stairs went. Finally after what seemed like three flights he reached a hallway. In one direction he saw a mall with stores and a McDonald’s, all barred by a large locked gate. Wonderful! He couldn’t get out this way. Looking the other way, the hall just curved back and to the right into darkness. He looked past the gate again and yelled. Listening carefully he heard no one answer. “Oh well, guess it’s the path toward certain doom after all.”
As he made his way down the curving hall, he noticed the light growing more and more dim. When the next locked gate presented itself, he screamed in frustration. “How in the fuck am I supposed to get out of this labyrinth?!” Looking around he found another, even darker hallway, lined with ancient porthole windows and art deco relief sculptures. Was this section even used anymore!? He heard a noise behind him and saw a huge, dog-sized rat crawl through a bent section of the gate. It looked at him and began to advance. Cory yelled and rushed across the ancient hallway, reaching some stairs at the other end. Though it wouldn’t have seemed possible to him before, an even worse stench arose from the depths of those stairs. He paused for a moment to see the rat gaining on him and threw himself down the stairs. About four flights down he stopped to see a pool of viscous, rancid water where the steps continued downward. Nowhere to run now, and his sinuses burned with the rank odor. The rat had stopped a few steps up, raised itself on its haunches and shrieked loudly. He heard a splash in the water behind him and saw something moving under the surface, something large enough to cause waves. Suddenly two long, black, leathery tendrils shot out of the water and wrapped around his head, pulling him face first into the murk.