It felt like a Chinese water torture mechanism was dripping into the space outside my lungs, slowly irritating and constricting my breath. My head still felt hazed after the hurried rush towards this elevator downwards, which had replaced what had come to be known as a hazardous structure of long spiralous stairs. Construction of new buildings for such important manners was rare in Sugarteara -- our architecture was sturdy enough for whatever came out way. Thus, the contrast of the elevator to the surroundings, modern against the test of time. A thick glass barrier on the sides showed the world, unremoved brick foundation, and then the world again, the blank sea-floor, and a great shadow in the distance.

The gentle hum of descent was like a taunt to what was to come. Reports were from two minor earthquakes from the days before, with the epicenter being tracked down to...this. Thing. From the shadowed sillohute was some center, held up, swaying, and tendril-like appendages keeping it up in the waters, thick as a building itself. This thing was huge, and killing it was out of the question, so the best mode of action, our mission, was to chase it off.

I looked to the side through that slow descent, facing away from anyone else to admire that blank floor, and the rising stone of the Depths on the other end. But at one point, I did take a turn to the other end. Four or five of us, depending on if you included me. Leader, of course, a red-head newly recruit picked up from a tougher area of life, and an equally fucked mind. She could redeem herself here, as I did from poverish. I believed in her, her soft face, which talked to the other one on the end.

But Leader was blank on that other end. Their stare was out to the distant wall, with a poster for a band, and, unlike the usual composition, empty.