The path to beast land

Newton had no job, no family, no money, no girlfriend. He had just moved into an abandoned house outside town. He hoped no one would discover him there. He lived before in another abandoned house for five years. That was also the age of Noodles, his mutt dog friend. Noodles had long white fur and were as big as a regular bucket. He was also all Newton had.

In the old place, Newton always fed the stray animals. He never even hesitated. But then other people started to live there that didn't like animals as much. They were selfish and insensitive. They didn't realize how those animals were just like them, lost and lonely. How they needed the food and shelter just as much as we all do. So he went away. And the animals went after him.

When he first got into the new house, a group of stray dogs was already there. They first got angry, but Newton was good with animals. After a few growling and staring at each other, the dogs calmed down and left. After a while, they came back and begged for food. Newton had almost nothing, but he had some old bread to share. A lot of cats, dogs, and birds lived around the house and came daily for some treats.

***

_ What are you doing there Noodles?

_ Got tired of digging holes in the yard? You know... digging into wood floors is a completely different art.

   The dog kept pulling the block and it seemed it was moving a bit. After a sad loud whine, Newton went to the kitchen to grab a knife, then got next to the dog, put the knife between the woodblocks, then pulled slowly. The block started to come out, but with it, a bunch of other connected blocks started to come out too, like one big square piece of wood, not a set of small ones like they first seemed. As he managed to pull high enough, he grabbed the side of the wood piece and finally brought them up in his hands. At this point, the dog was already free, wiggling his tail and sniffing the newly uncovered area.

   Newton was holding this weird floor block in his hand, staring down to the spot where it once occupied. But instead of the plain concrete, he expected to see, there was something else.

   His eyes blinked slowly. His jaws gradually dropped. And his heart pumped fast.

   It wasn't gold. It wasn't money. What Newton found in the mysterious door was a stair. Made of raw concrete. A narrow steep concrete stair going very deep into the darkness.

***

   He lighted a half-melted candle and went down. He didn't think there could be any danger in there since it was probably an old bunker or hidden room. He was excited though. There could be some lost treasures, some money to be made. He could use that.

   Going down the narrow tunnel, he soon found himself in a much larger space. After a few meters, the tunnel made a curve and got larger. He could extend his arms up and his hand wouldn't touch the upper part of the tunnel. The same thing to the sides.

   The candle did a good job, but it's never good enough in the total darkness. When we are used to sunshine or big lamps on the ceiling, dealing with candles in the dark is very hard. When we have only one source of light working, anything that stands in between, even a small finger, can make a frightening shadow. The trembling light created moving shadows on the wall. But the immense silence, heavy and stiff, made him comfortable. Until, of course, it wasn’t. The silence broke by a crawling whisper from all the sides, touching his neck and spine with chilling coldness. He shook a little. The place smelled like dirt and old forgotten memories. And the walls looked tired and trying to fall apart. 

_ Why is he here? – the voice came from the right wall. An old tired voice, almost failing.

Newton froze. And looked around to find the source of the whispers.

_ He shouldn’t be here – said a different voice from behind him.

Newton turned around to see.

_ Why does it matter? He will die, or become something else. Who cares? – said a new tired voice, coming from the ceiling.

Newton looked up and threw the light all around to find a creature, a piece of sound equipment, or anything that could make some sense.

_ Will we ever die? I'm so tired... – said a voice from the left.

Newton tried to breathe slower but felt a deep pain in the chest. Like when we want to cry but can’t. He tried to think clearer. But the sadness and tiredness made it impossible.

_ What’s happening?! – screamed Newton, with a horrible face, almost crying.

A soft humming came from the end of the tunnel. Newton brought the candle to his right, at the end of the tunnel. He saw a huge black man, maybe three meters tall, sitting on the floor. His hands were holding his huge brown belly, that went up and down as he breathed. He had only one leg. One huge, thick and strong leg. His face was covered by a huge white beard and his eyes were closed.

The black man opened his left eye. And then opened a large smile. Newton tried to move, but he was feeling more tired than usual. He got dizzy and then he felt hard on the ground.

***

Noodles heard a loud stump. He got immediately alert, his ears rose and his snout opened. He sniffed a mysterious old magical smell in the air. He growled and got up. Something was wrong.

Running in little jumps like good boys do, he went straight to the source of the smell. Ah! What a huge hole he had dug in the living room. A square weird one. It smelled like an old piece of meat, buried weeks ago, that got stinky and full of flies and small slimy bugs. And evil. 

***

Newton woke up. The tunnel's melancholic air hurt his lungs. He couldn't move his right foot, it was stuck to the wall. When he looked closely he saw that his leg was inside the rocks, covered up to his knees. The one-legged man was up and moving slowly, leaning on the opposite wall, breathing hard. The candle was in the ground, lighting the end of the tunnel, making creepy shadows on the walls.

His skin was burning, his arms were melting, but he didn't care. It didn't matter. He felt so tired.

If Newton looked to his left, he would see two improbable things. The first would be the drawing in the ground, right at the point where he was standing when he heard the walls talking. It glowed like burning coal.

The other thing Newton would see was his dog standing right before the drawing. His body in position to jump. With fierce eyes and teeth showing.

Noodle's barking resounded all over the tunnel.

***

Noodles scanned the room for more information. He could sense the magical air. He could also smell not only his owner's smell but many others he had sensed before from the corners and holes in the house.

One big loud stomp. The tunnel trembled. One big one-legged man jumped in front of the dog. Two enormous arms reached for him. 

If someone was sitting near the drawing in the ground, right between the big one-legged man and the dog, then he would see a funny magical transformation. The fluffy little dog jumped ferociously into the man's face and, as he passed upon the magical lights coming from the drawing, he became bigger. A lot bigger. The little dog transformed into a huge fluffy monster, with huge teeth and claws. The big animal could easily bite the man's head, but the big man was as agile as he was strong and punched the dog in the jaws, then rolled away and got up and ready to fight.

The dog felt the punch but immediately got up again. His fur was long and white, his eyes blacker than before and his teeth were big and crooked. A loud fearless roar filled the tunnel and sent the melancholy away. Even some rocks felt from walls and ceiling. Newton felt the courage back in his lungs.

The big man jumped in Noodle's direction, but in the middle of the way, he grabbed a wood pice in the ceiling, swung his body and spun his leg around to deliver a strong round kick that threw Noodles to the end of the tunnel.

_ Don't hurt the dog! - screamed a new revigorated woman voice.

_ Stop it! - screamed the ceiling, shaking and making some rocks fall.

The big man didn't hear them. He went straight for the dog. Noodles jumped from the dark and bit his leg, sticking his teeth deep in his flesh. He screamed. His eyes got fire red and started glowing. With absolute anger, he grabbed the dog by the neck and pushed its head deep into the rocks. Noodles were been drowned. With an evil smile in his face, eyes glowing, the big man laughed. The sound of his laughing brought fear and dispair into Newton's lungs again, who, by now, was completely turned into rock.

The big man left Noodles with his head inside the rock. But as he turned around, a piece of rock felt from where his snout was.

***

A new sound came from the entrance. Timid steps coming down the stairs. A bunch of tiny dogs came slowly, sniffing the ground, looking for their friend.

Three stray dogs came in the front. A labrador, a basset hound, and a Shi-Tzu. And they stared at the big man. Growling. Behind them, one gray cat showed his teeth. They seemed to understand what was happening. They looked like they knew what to do.

His leg was injured but he still could fight. His blood was glowing red, like lava flowing from a volcano.

He easily dodged the giant shi-Tzu that jumped for his throat, and right after punched the monstrous Basset Hound with his right hand, while putting his weight on the other hand and swinging his leg to make a complete round kick that flung the cat and labrador away. While the others were stunned, he went back for the Shi-Tzu, that by now had six arms and walked in two legs. The big man was too fast, jumping from one side to the other, and the giant Shit-Zu couldn't hit him. He then put his hand on the ground and kicked the Shi-Tzu in the legs, making him fall. A terrible roar came, making the tunnel tremble once more. It was the monstrous version of the cat. Roaring. A beast-like monstrosity. It had three eyes, two bull horns, and some wings were starting to grow. The first roar made the tunnel tremble. The second made Noodles and Newton wake. And the third made the rocks fall and freed Noodle's face.

With only his face out, Noodles roared even more. A second head came out of his body, doubling the roaring. And then, the tunnel started falling apart. Newton realized that some rocks in his front had the format of a body. And the body started moving and, eventually, it felt on the ground. And so other bodies appeared and felt. And so he felt too.

The big one-legged man jumped to the back of the tunnel and put his hand on the wall. The wall seemed to disappear and showed an outside landscape. In the image, a lightning storm was falling on what seemed a primitive scenario where an erupting volcano spilled lava to the skies and enormous beasts walked in the ground. The big man looked back. He smiled again. And then he jumped into the image.

The drawing on the ground stopped glowing. The tunnel stopped trembling. The image on the wall disappeared. And Newton and Noodles fainted.

They woke up in the living room, lying on the ground. Around them, other people were laying down with the other dogs. Newton petted Noodle's head and then the second head licked his hand asking for attention as well. A cat flew inside from the window and started to purr and rub into a woman in the corner.

Newton looked to the tunnel entrance. It was closed and there was a big broken fridge on top of it.

Newton smiled. Hugged Noodles. And went back to sleep.