Terra Incognita Book one: The Abyss

Terra Incognita: The Abyss

  By Joshua Mays

  Copyright 2011 Joshua Mays

  I want to dedicate this book to Joellynn Bolen, an amazing woman who made all of this possible. Without her, I never would have started on this path

  If you enjoy this book, please help me out by leaving a review on Amazon, and be sure to look out for other releases in the Terra Incognita series!

  Chapter One

  His shin hit hard against the splintered wood as his foot broke through the floor, causing pain to race up his leg. It took a few seconds for the stinging to subside and a few more for him to regain his composure. With a crack, he pulled his foot from the hole, bringing rotted pieces of floorboard up with it. Anger rose in his throat as all the small moments of his past compounded into one.

  “God damn this house!” Benjamin Harking yelled, holding his leg, wincing.

  He hated this house, and this new incident only gave him more reason to feel that way. Everything in his life had changed, and this place stood only as a reminder of how unhappy he was. He felt more alone here than he ever had in his entire life. This wasn't a home for him, but rather a simple residence. It was nothing more than an unbecoming place to get mail—not that he ever got mail. His parents had forced him to move here, and then shipped him off to boarding school before he could get comfortable.

  “Some Christmas vacation this is,” he said, getting up, and dusting himself off.

  Ben looked down and saw that his leg had a bit of blood on it. Shifting his jeans, he pulled the pants leg up to get a better look at the wound. The wood had clawed up his skin, leaving its mark. Getting up, he walked back down the stairs and got some alcohol for his cut. He dabbed it on and cringed as it burned away the bacteria. After putting away the first aid kit, he saw the letter his mother had left him. It sat on the counter still open, taunting him with its emotionless message.

  “Sorry we couldn’t be home for your return from school. Your father got called away to the city for business. We will see you soon. Merry Christmas - Mom”

  Charles, their butler, had left it out on a silver platter for him to find when he got home. After the long bus ride he was famished, so it didn’t take him long to discover it sitting in the kitchen. Coming home to an empty house was one thing, but this was something else. They had already missed his sixteenth birthday, and now they were going to miss Christmas as well.

  Things had changed, and in Ben’s opinion, it wasn’t for the better. His father receiving a major promotion was great, but it didn’t take long for things to become unrecognizable. The mansion was so large that his father could hide for days, and all the money seemed to make his mother think she was a different person. She did everything she could to fit in with the other wives. Ben was proud of his father for making partner at his firm, but it was just too much, too fast.

  Feeling tired, he decided to head up to his room and call it a night. As he passed the hole in the second floor landing, he peaked down into it, expecting to see the vast expanse of basement below. Instead, he saw a small concrete room that didn’t appear to have a door. It was almost empty except for a desk and some stuff stored up in the corners. It was cramped and dusty, but the treasure trove of unknown items stirred up his curiosity. With little else to do, the prospect of exploration was enticing. He ran up to his room and returned with a long black flashlight. He clicked it on and shined it into the hole to scan the room under the floor. The beam didn’t reveal a door, but he did see something resting on the desk itself. It looked like a large, dusty book.

  With a slight shift, he migrated the light until something else came into view. There, grasping the book, was a skeletal hand, and attached to that, a corpse, withered to nothing but bone. Shocked, the boy sat there for a moment with the light fixed on the book and the bones. His eyes wide with fear.

  After the initial shock and fear subsided, Ben jumped up and rushed through the kitchen to the basement door with a newfound wonder in his eyes. His boring Christmas vacation alone had just become an enticing adventure.

  This room was an utter mystery to him considering the fact that Charles had shown him around the house. The tour he received when they moved had encompassed the attic, all three floors, and the cellar. There was never any mention of a hidden chamber in the basement. After rushing through the basement door and reaching the bottom of the polished wooden stairs, he surveyed the area, looking for any clue that could help him get into the room. The walls were white and branched out into a maze of hallways connecting to old servant quarters that hadn’t been used in years. If it hadn’t been for Charles, most of the corners would be covered in spider webs and dust.

  As he searched, his imagination began to go wild. Why was there a skeleton in his house? How long had it been boarded up, and what was that strange book? This was the most excited he had been in quite a while. In a single instant, his angst had turned into something else. The possibilities almost took his mind off his parents not being around when he got home, or how much things had changed in his life when they were supposed to stay the same. Too many unkept promises had made him bitter. He tried his best not to think about how excited his dad would have been, helping him look for this hidden treasure. There was a time when this sort of thing would have brought them together.

  It only took a few moments for Ben to find a place in the wall that didn’t look right. It had a door-sized spot that upon close examination appeared to be painted an off-white color that didn’t quite match the rest of the wall. It was hidden in a shadowy corner away from the rest of the rooms, under the stairs. He stood there for a moment running his hands up and down the area, trying to figure out a way to get in. It wasn’t long before a single, brilliant idea dawned on him. It was simple, but it could possibly land him in some serious trouble.

  The thoughts of any ramifications dissolved into the ether as he ran to the other side of the basement. The door into his father’s workroom hit the wall as he forced it open and rushed through. Coming to a halt, Ben stood there for a moment, looking around, examining every inch. Tools of all shapes and sizes hung from the pegboard that lined the walls. His search ended as his eyes rested upon a cherry-red fire ax. Dad, like most men, loved his toys, but never had time to use them. This one in particular was brand new. With a smile on his face, Ben knew he was going to enjoy ruining its nice red finish.

  Back at the wall with the hidden doorway, he hesitated, considering what he was about to do. The ax felt heavy in his hand, but the excitement and the rush made the weight less noticeable..

  If Ben had known what this act of defiance would lead to he wouldn’t have gone through with it. Instead, he would have put the ax back up on the wall and walked away, willing to finish his mediocre evening without protest.

  As it was, Ben was clueless. A bus-sized grin gripped his cheeks and he lifted the ax over his head and brought it down against the wall.