You have no idea how you ended up here, but you know that it's dark and terrifying. Something just brushed against your leg, there are things moving and you can't shake the feeling that you're not alone. The dim light of your phone screen illuminates wet, stringy things that writhe in the darkness, just out of your line of sight.
Dimly, you remember an old newspaper article you found during a curious Google search. Something about a group of elderly friends coming forward with a story of some alternate dimension that threatened the world when they were children. The "Upside Down," they called it. You thought it was a bunch of delusional old people trying to get attention, but now...
You are stuck in the Upside Down, and the following songs chronicle your journey.
1. "It Has Begun" by Starset
"Into the dark below, evading shadows,
Blind in a rabbit's hole, we fall beneath the earth ..."
Honestly, you will never understand how you managed to get yourself stuck in a creepy shadow dimension. But you're here, and you can't really do much about it except find a way out.
You have no clue where you are, but you can tell you're underground. That's a start. You suppose you should just walk until you can find the surface.
2. "The Ghost of Rattman" from the "Portal 2" Soundtrack
Man, there sure are some creepy noises in the Upside Down. You're walking down something corridor-like that looks like it's made of viscera. Your shoes sink into the fleshy ground with every step you take. You've heard whispers, distant roars and weird squelching noises. It's hella freaky. You wish you could do more than just walk in one direction.
The smell gets to you enough that you finally take off your jacket and wrap it around your face. As you do so, your foot catches onto something. You nearly fall, but you clumsily manage to recover. You secure your jacket and turn your phone screen down toward the ground.
It's a human skull.
3. "Help Is On The Way" by Rise Against
"They said, they said help is on the way,
But it never came..."
You admit to yourself that you probably need someone to rescue you. You've been down here a couple of days now, sleeping on the nauseating floor and somehow not vomiting. There's no way that your disappearance hasn't gone unnoticed, and the local police are pretty diligent guys. They'll find you. The hope helps you ignore the hunger gnawing at your side.
You haven't seen anything or anyone alive yet, though you've definitely had a few close calls — hiding around a corner when something comes running by, closing your eyes and hoping the things don't notice you. That kind of thing.
All you need to do is wait for someone to come save you.
4. "Actual Cannibal Shia Labeouf" by Rob Cantor
"He's following you, about thirty feet back,
He gets down on all fours and breaks into a sprint..."
There's something following you.
If you had to guess, you would say it's about thirty feet behind you. It has been for quite some time now. You don't know what it is; you're too petrified to turn around. You can hear its quiet padding and snuffling behind you, along with the occasional wet growl.
"It's Shia Labeouf," your brain supplies helpfully.
It is not Shia Labeouf. You don't know what made you think that. What you do know is that you need a weapon of some sort and, well... the ground is littered with bones...
You bend over and scoop up a thick femur from the ground while barely breaking stride. It's slimy, and you have to refrain from dropping it out of reflex. The growls from behind you have begun to slowly escalate in intensity. As the volume increases, so does your heart rate. It's like you're in a real-life horror movie, except the creepy background sound is a terrifying rasp instead of shady music.
There's no way it's not going to attack. It's now or never, you suppose. You turn around just as it leaps for you.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.