Chapter 3: Deep Into The Shadow
Upon entering the darkness via the cupboard from Tim’s house, Sunset Shimmer and Tim find themselves crawling through a dusty tunnel. The air is musty, cobwebs and dusts fill the air. Tim was hacking up a storm, with Sunset sneezing as an added insult to injury.
“A-CHOO!!!” Sunset sneezed.
“Bless you,” Tim said to the girl.
The two kept crawling through the tunnel, when a loud woman’s voice screamed.
"AAAAUGGGGHHH!!!"
“Jane?! Is that you?” Tim asked.
He quickens his crawl, while keeping his flashlight held up to shine the way through the dark.
“The sound’s not far from here.”
Both Tim and Sunset kept crawling until the tunnel splits into two directions. Turning his flashlight to the right, Tim decides to crawl to the right, with Sunset following close behind. They kept crawling before reaching the end, where they made a left turn and arrived at the end. A rustic iron grate blocked another pathway, with masses of red string hanging from the ceiling.
“Ugh!” Sunset grunted.
A bit of cobweb brush against her face before some dust bursts from the ceiling and hits her on the head.
In that moment, both Tim and Sunset swore they heard a loud thud coming from the ground above.
“What was that?” Sunset asked.
“I don’t know,” Tim replied. “But look at this!”
Barely turning around, squeezing through the tight interior, Tim showed Sunset a picture of an unusual looking knife.
“What kind of knife is this?” Tim asked.
“I don’t know,” Sunset replied. “But hopefully, it’s not something a certain ‘boxcutter’ girl would have.”
“Heh, you’ve read my mind,” Tim scoffed.
Sunset opens the man’s notebook, and they added the photo to the collection of clues they’ve founds thus far. Both man and girl turn around and were about to follow the other way, when they spot a small dark figure, crawling away from around the corner.
"AAAH!!!" Both Tim and Sunset screamed, nearly hitting their heads on the low ceilings.
“What was that?!” Sunset asked. “Did you see that?”
“Yeah, I saw it!” Tim gasped, coughing the dusty air at the sudden surprise. “It’s… it’s probably… just a rat.”
“Ew! That’s the biggest rat I’ve ever seen.”
Sunset and Tim press on, crawling back the way they came from and went the other direction. Along the way, Sunset could’ve sworn she heard some rocks crumbling, from somewhere in the tunnel. They arrive at the end of the tunnel, where they turn right around a corner, then left at the other end, before finally arriving at an opening.
“Ah! Fresh air! Sunset sighed in relief.
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Tim replied, stretching his arms and legs.
Both Tim and Sunset observe their surroundings. On first glance, it appears both Tim and Sunset returned to the same building they found themselves in at the start of their adventure together. The small room is littered with broken wooden boards, dusty cardboard boxes, and wooden tables stacked together. Sunset picks up one of the broken wooden boards.
“First chance I hear a clicking sound of a boxcutter, or smell blood, I’m so not holding back,” Sunset said, validating her reason for the piece of wood.
Tim nods in acknowledgment, as both he and the girl proceed with their search for Jane. They look ahead, walking up a flight of stairs, which took them to the next door. On the way up, however, Sunset couldn’t help but notice how the walls split between ceramic walls and wood. To further add to their bewilderment, upon opening the door, both Tim and Sunset find themselves entering what appears to be a rustic wooden cabin.
The cabin appears to have wooden counters, with more cardboard boxes, a small table with a wooden chair, and pictures of old people, about Granny Smith’s age, hanging on the wall.
“Huh, this is quite the transition,” Sunset commented, as they look around.
“Look!” Tim pointed.
There on the wooden counter sat a piece of paper.
“It’s another page from Jane’s diary!”
They both run up to collect the page, which reads:
May 2, 2013
That was not better! I was sure I fell into a deep sleep...then why on earth was I in that old-wooden house...and what was it with that shadow creeping outside?? I've never seen anything that gigantic before...I was able to get myself out of that nightmare, back to my bedroom...what is happening to me?
“Old-wooden house,” Sunset repeated. “As in this very same house?”
Tim shrugs his shoulders in response. Then, without warning, the sound of barking and howling filled the air.
AAROOOO!!!
RUFF-RUFF-RUFF!!!
AAAAROOOWWW!!
“Ah!” Sunset jumped, startled by the howling. “What’s that?!”
Tim looks out the window, before turning toward Sunset.
“That’s nothing to be scared of, Sunset,” Tim said. “Those are just dogs.”
“Dogs, huh?” Sunset asked. “But what are they howling about?”
“Well normally, dogs wouldn’t just howl in the middle of the night, unless…”
Tim’s calm demeanor turns to worry as he had an epiphany.
“Unless what?”
“… It’s just an old ghost tale, but according to the legends, well… the… dogs would only howl whenever they see a ghost… or so I think.”
“WHAT?!”
At the mention of ‘ghost’, Sunset’s thoughts immediately flash back to their previous unpleasant experience with the boxcutter girl.
“Where?!” Sunset asked, raising the wooden board at the ready.
“Let’s hope we don’t have to find out,” Tim replied, walking toward the trapdoor. “Let’s just focus on finding Jane and get out of here.”
Tim reaches to pull on the latch, but finds it rattling in its frame.
“It’s locked!”
It was then both he and Sunset notice a small combination lock keeping it closed.
“We can’t open it unless we know the combination,” Sunset shook her head. “But what if the numbers are somewhere around here?”
Turning around, both Sunset and Tim search the cabin trying to find the clue they needed to open the lock on the trapdoor. Sunset ran toward some of the counters and checked for a note or any form of clue to open the lock. Tim waves his flashlight around the room, before setting his sight on another door, which leads to another room.
Inside, the room appears to be a small bedroom, with a large wardrobe on the right, an electric fan standing next to a small mattress for a bed, complete with a pillow along the left.
With the dogs still howling behind them, Sunset and Tim cautiously step into the room as they search the place. Sunset checks a dusty shelf on the left, where she happens to find a picture of four teenage Thai boys, no older than the schoolboys back in Canterlot High. In the photo, the boys pose together next to a motorcycle.
Sunset couldn’t help but notice how the picture glows a white aura, much like the newspapers she and Tim found previously. Sensing it could be another clue, Sunset decides to tuck the photo away in the pocket of her jacket, as she turns around to see Tim shining his flashlight on a strange drawing on a wall.
“Find anything?” Sunset asked.
“Hmm… looks like a wall written with 3 different color chalks…” Tim described. “Could be conveying something…”
Sunset takes a closer look at the chalk drawing, noting how some of the colored lines match the three boxes at the bottom, from white, to pink, then blue.
“Hey! I think I figured out!” Sunset realized.
Sunset takes out Tim’s notebook, and a pen, to scribble the numbers of the chalk lines drawn on the notebook, in the order determined by the boxes.
“Could this be the combination to the lock?”
“Let’s find out.”
Sunset and Tim race back to the locked trapdoor in the room, where they scrolled the numbers until they matched the combination written, causing the lock to click open.
“Alright, Sunset,” Tim smirks, as he and Sunset share a high-five together.
“Not bad for a kid, huh?” Sunset snarked.
Sunset watches as Tim pulls the trap door open, revealing a stairway leading beneath the wooden house. Tim is the first to walk down the steps, with Sunset following close behind. At the bottom, the two look to see the area beneath the house was barred with wooden fences, surrounded by large clay urns and potteries, metallic walls on the left, and a dimly lit light bar hangs overhead, which attracted a swarm of insects. In the distance, the barking and howling of dogs can still be heard.
Looking ahead toward another flight of stairs at the other end, the man and girl proceed to walk to the other end, when something clatters against the metallic wall, causing Sunset to jump.
“What was that?” Sunset yelped.
She looks around for anything likely to jump out and attack.
“It… must’ve… been an animal,” Tim deduced. “At least, that’s what I hope it was…”
At the same time, the dogs howling grew louder, to which Tim looks to the right and his eyes widen.
“Sunset! Look!” He pointed.
Off in the distance, a ball of light can be seen, piercing in the darkness, and floating behind several tall palm trees.
“Any chance it could just be someone with a really bright lamp?” Sunset whimpered.
“Highly doubt it,” Tim replied.
Then, another clatter of noises was heard from the left, to which Tim shines his flashlight, at a gap in the metal walls, and both he and Sunset nearly jump out of their skins.
“AAAAHH!!!” They yelled.
Two gangly, dark-skinned humanoid ghouls that immediately scurried away.
“What were those things?!” Sunset panted heavily, her hand over her rapid heartbeat.
“I don’t know,” Tim replied, breathless. “But come on! We must find Jane and get out of here.”
Tim and Sunset proceed up the stairs on the other end, which lead them to another trapdoor. Upon opening the door below, both Tim and Sunset found themselves in another room, which strangely looks almost like the previous room.
“Is this the same room?” Tim asked.
“It can’t be,” Sunset replied. “There’s only one door here. The last we came from had two…”
The man and the fiery girl search the place, with Tim examining the portraits, and Sunset checking the windows, when she realized something was off.
“Hey…” She spoke. “Has it gotten… quiet?”
Tim quickly catches on to what Sunset was getting at.
“The dogs!” He spoke. “They stopped howling! Maybe it means that there are no ghosts?”
All was eerie quiet. Sunset passes by the door, when an English voice suddenly boomed, startling the girl.
“The Yasothorn police radio station reports that the chief policeman has planned to arrest all the speeding bikers on Yasothorn state highway.”
Tim and Sunset turn toward the door before they open it and enter the room to find a radio sitting on the shelf in the room.
“The police claims to have captured more than 10 bikers so far, but some fled the scene, which includes Mr. Pichai Manapaiboon, a suspect from the motorcycle robbery and believed to be the leader of this gang. We’ll keep you posted when we receive further notice on this. This is Srisook Pongsawat reporting.”
The radio broadcast ends with a jingle of a newscast channel.
“Bikers?” Sunset questioned.
She looks back at the photo she picked up in the previous room.
“Like these teenage boys?”
“I don’t know,” Tim replied, before inquiring. “Where did you get that photo?”
“From that other room we went to get the combination for the lock,” Sunset answered.
She soon noticed the wall behind Tim has chalk mark smears.
“Huh?!”
Sunset runs up to the wall to touch the smear with her fingers, inspecting the residue.
“Chalk marks…”
“Just like the last room!” Tim said, sharing the fiery girl’s epiphany. “But… then… that would mean…”
“… It can’t be a coincidence!” Sunset said, flabbergasted. “There’s no way… can it?”
However, the girl and the man were met with an even bigger surprise, when they emerge from the room, and turn to the left the house seems to have gotten bigger.
“Huh?!” Sunset shouted. “Wasn’t there just a wall here?”
Upon seeing the small room, they noticed how it expanded into a two-floor environment, with a large pillar in the center, with beautiful colored sashes wrapped around it, with plates of food at the bottom, and garlands of flowers hanging on the walls around it.
“What is all this?” Sunset asked.
"It's an oil-dripped pillar," Tim lectured. "In ancient time, large trees are used as pillars when building a house. When the wooden pillar leaks sap, people believed that these oil dripped pillars has a spirit that lives inside the tree before it was cut down. If the tree spirit is disrespected, misfortunes will happen."
"Fascinating," Sunset scratched her chin. "Do you actually believe in that?"
"Well, not at first, but...after everything, so far, I'm starting to see that," Tim sighed. "But then, modern science has proven that these oils dripped pillars are a characteristic of a certain type of trees such as trees that are used for making rubber, like Ta-khian tree (hopea odorata), green bamboo, Taengwood Balau (shorea obtusa), etc."
Sunset and Tim proceed up another flight of stairs, climbing up the second floor, with an old chair sitting by the railings, with a newspaper resting in its seat.
“Hey, what’s this?”
Sunset picks up the newspaper, which Mr. Tim then reads:
Vile thieves! Old Woman Robbed and Beaten!
Neighbors reported a fight the night before!March 8, it was reported to the police that Mrs.Chinda Manapaiboon, 60, was badly wounded and found unconscious. She was taken to the hospital before the police arrived on the scene. Investigators revealed that there may have been more than 3 people that inflicted such brutal beating. Her son, Mr. Pichai Manapaiboon is believed to be the one leading the robbery...
(more on page 13)
“That guy would go as far as to beat his own mother just to steal her money?” The girl frowns. “Even I wouldn’t go that far.”
Still, the girl looks even more troubled.
“Although, it’s not like I’ve been connecting with my parents either. I could hardly even remember their faces.”
Tim looks at Sunset, as she vented her emotional turmoil before his ears perk up to something resembling heavy breathing. The man shines his flashlight to the right, looking down from the railing to see two familiar dark-skinned ghouls from before, panting heavily and look hungrily at the plates that were at the base of the pole.
“It’s those ghouls again!” Sunset gasped. “What are they doing here?”
“I don’t know,” Tim replied. “But let’s forget about them and look for Jane.”
He turns to the left and opens a door, entering a room with open windows and the floors littered with dirty cardboard boxes.
“Jane?” Tim called out. “Are you in here?”
“Apparently not,” Sunset shook her head, before turning right. “Hey! Look!”
Sunset points to large red writing in Thai dialect on the wall.
“What’s this?”
“It says, ‘I’ll return! I’ll get what belongs to me!’” Tim reads.
Tim and Sunset turns to look at each other, exchanging disturbed glances from the ominous message they had read.
CAW-CAW!!!
A murder of crows cawed, flying across the windows startling both Tim and Sunset out of their wits.
“Phew!” Sunset panted heavily. “That scared me!”
“I can’t take much more of this creepy place,” Tim shook his head. “C’mon! Let’s get out of here!”
The man and girl quickly ran out of the room and were on their way towards another door. Unfortunately, they were blocked by a wooden table that stood in their way. Both Tim and Sunset bent down to move the table, causing its legs to make a creaking noise against the wooden floor. Suddenly, a great big hand burst through a nearby window, nearly smashing the two.
“YIPE!” Sunset screamed, falling off her feet and on her bottom.
“JESUS!” Tim shouted. “What the fuck is that?!”
The two watch as the hand pulled back through the window. From outside, Sunset and Tim hear the thunderous sound of large footsteps walk away from the house and into the distance. Sunset and Tim exchange worried looks, before Tim cautiously checks the window, shining his flashlight in the dark, searching for whatever it was that had attacked them earlier.
“Whatever that thing was… it’s gone,” Tim confirmed, as he pulls his head back. “But let’s hurry in case it comes back!”
Sunset nods in agreement, as she and Tim continues to the next door, which they open up to find another small bedroom, with the ceiling and the walls lined with tires of motorcycles, and a motorcyclist’s jacket hanging on a line on the right, and some gas tanks.
On the other side was another door, which Tim and Sunset both went up to open and step out onto a balcony.
“Looks like we’ve reached the end,” Tim stated, as they turn back to the door they entered from. “Let’s go back the way we came from.”
Tim reached his hand out for the doorknob, only for it to jiggle and remain firmly in place.
<What the hell?!> Tim swore, in Thai.
He struggles to pull the door open, but it stubbornly remains still.
“It won’t open!” He said to Sunset, in English.
“What?!”
Sunset took a turn to jiggle the doorknob open, but the door remains in place.
“We’re locked in?! But how?! Who would lock us in here?! We’ve got to get out of here!”
Tim searches the room, looking for some tools they could use to pry the door open. He turns back and looks to the door leading to the balcony. Only, the door was no longer there. Instead, the door itself was off its frame, as if suddenly unbolted revealing a small tunnel in place of where the balcony once stood.
“Hey Sunset!” Tim called out. “Check this out!”
Sunset turns around, just as perplexed to see the exit changed.
“Wasn’t there a balcony here?” She asked.
“There is. I mean, there was… but apparently—AHH!!!” Tim yelped.
A shadowy figured crawled across the floor of the tunnel, startling both man and girl. Sunset shook her head, as she felt the paranormal activities they’ve experienced were getting on her nerves.
“Let’s just get out of here!” She sighed.
Sunset and Tim start to crawl through the tunnel. Inside, both man and girl found another long web of red string, seemingly leading them the way out. Sunset and Tim followed the tunnel, reaching to where it splits off into two separate directions on the left and right.
They turn left, just in time to see the same dark-skinned ghoul from before, climbing up some wooden planks, but it tripped as it had trouble doing so. Overhead, Sunset and Tim hear the footsteps of the ghoul as it scurried across the wooden planks above them, until it vanished.
With the thought of the ghoul out of the way, Sunset and Tim resume their crawl in the narrow tunnel, following the red string, and discover wax candles strangely lit along the way. Sunset wonders how there are candles in a place like this, and even more unsure as to who lit them here, and above all ‘why’. Nevertheless, Sunset kept following Tim until they reach the end, arriving at the top-half of the door, with the doorknob an inch above the wooden floor. With a turn, they open the door to find themselves in what appears to be an office building.
“Phew,” Tim said.
He stretched his arms out and bent his back, causing it to pop.
“It was cramped with all that crawling in there.”
Sunset looks at the sudden change of environment, feeling unease as it reminds her of the building she and Tim were in, with the boxcutter ghost from before.
“I hope we don’t run into a certain ‘boxcutter girl’ in this place again,” Sunset whimpered.
Tim nods, sharing her concern and anxiety. He looks ahead and sees a hallway turn to the right.
“Okay, Sunset,” Tim began, holding the girl’s hand. “Stay close to me, be very quiet, and let’s keep our ears open.”
“Okay,” Sunset nodded, her voice barely a whisper.
Very slowly, very quietly, Tim and Sunset walk down the hall, turning around the corner to see a door at the other end, next to two trash bins and a blank whiteboard. They didn’t hear the sound of the eerie clicking from the boxcutter knife. However, they did hear a voice.
“All of you, please listen…”
It sounds like a man in his 70s, speaking English, on the radio, in a storage room.
“When you have done unkind things to others… either to family or friends… when you badly hurt those who are kind to you… when you commit crimes… when you caused others disturbances… the karma will be facing you when you pass away…”
The radio broadcast caught Sunset’s attention and she feels herself glued to the floor, as she continues to hear what the man has to say.
“Once the karma is done with you, you’ll be reborn as a ghost…” The man continued. “Drawn and wandered to all the places where you’ve once sinned… lost in the eternal limbo… All of you may be aware of the screams which can be heard in the distance at nightfall… the sound made by a creature with a mouth as small as a pinhole… unable to feast… unable to gulp… wandering around aimlessly and hungrily… full of pain as if it’s being tortured… The moral here is not to cause anybody pain or hardship, because that is where you’ll end up. Once the wheel of karma has turned, what you do comes back to bite you. What goes around, comes around.”
At the end of the radio broadcast, Sunset Shimmer has a troubled look on her face. Not of fear, but of regret from past misdeeds she longingly wished to forget.
“What you do comes back to bite you,” Sunset repeats the old man’s words.
She feels a turmoil of heart-wrenching emotional memories of her past sins flood back to her, like a raging tidal wave. She wraps her hands around herself, feeling a sudden chill crawling up her skin. Tim took notice of the girl’s sudden troubled look.
“Sunset?” He asked, with concern. “What’s wrong?”
“… I… I…” Sunset sighed. “I’m scared.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m scared too, but…”
“It’s not just from the ghosts and ghouls we’ve been encountering,” Sunset explained. “I’m scared of myself now. If I have to be honest with you, I… I was a very bad girl from where I came from.”
“You were?” Tim asked. “I mean… really?”
“… It’s not something I’m proud of,” Sunset admitted. “I mean I’ve changed; I’ve made amends with the people I’ve done wrong… you know? But… but…”
“But what?”
“But I don’t know. Is it enough to pay back for what I’ve… sinned? I mean, the man did say that… when we die… the things we did in the past will come back to bite us… and…”
The pipe broke as Sunset looked towards Tim, with teary eyes.
“I just don’t want that to happen to me. Alright? I…”
Sunset wipes her eyes clear of tears, but she kept weeping. Eventually she broke down, displaying a sign of fragility Tim has rarely seen of Sunset.
“I’m sorry…”
Sunset never felt this ashamed since the time she transformed into a demon sorceress, which followed to her defeat at the hands of Twilight Sparkle (the Princess) and the Elements of Harmony. The trauma, so overwhelming, it destroyed the evil inside Sunset and left behind the shattered, traumatized, frightened girl of her former self.
Tim gazes upon the sobbing girl, who relieves the pent-up turmoil she kept in so long. Driven by paternal instincts, Tim went over to wrap his arms around Sunset, pulling her in a comforting hug.
“There, there, Sunset,” Tim consulted the girl. “It’s okay now. Whatever you did in the past, it’s over now. If you’ve changed, you changed. You don’t have to fear yourself anymore.”
“I’m sorry!” Sunset blubbered, returning the hug. “I’m sorry!”
“Shh… you don’t have to apologize,” Tim replied.
He and Sunset stay this way for what felt like hours, till Sunset grew quiet.
“There, breathe it in, Sunset… feeling better yet?”
“Yeah,” Sunset replied, heeding Tim’s advice. “I think I’m okay now… but once this is over, I think some catching up would be nice.”
She remembered the past few weeks neglecting her friends, never spending enough time to bond with them than she did before.
“Good idea,” Tim agreed.
Soon, he and Sunset walk back down the hall.
“In fact, after we find Jane,” Tim continued. “I think she and I are overdue for some quality outings.”
The duo turns to the right, to open the door, and walk a flight of stairs to the next floor.
"In fact, right now, I could go for some stir-fried ice cream," Tim perked up at the said ice creams. "Have you tried them, Sunset?"
“Uh… no?” Sunset shook her head. “Can’t say that I have…”
“Oh, you’ll love it!” Tim smiled. “They’re delicious and creative!”
Eventually, he and Sunset walk into a room with a photocopier and a dirty metal table with some plastic chairs, next to a room which appears to be a lobby.
“In fact, after this is over and we rescue Jane, first thing I’ll do is buy us all ice cream.”
“Really?” Sunset smiled. “Even for me?”
“Absolutely. You’re our guest after all, and I think Jane would love to meet you.”
Sunset blushed, as she draws circles on the floor with her boot.
“I’d love to meet her too.”
Before the bonding could continue, both Tim and Sunset were startled by the sound of low hissing and growling not too far from them.
“Uh… was that your stomach just now?” Sunset asked, hopefully.
“I was about to ask you the same thing…” Tim moaned.
He and Sunset turn to the nearest open window in the lobby. Then, without warning, the two found themselves staring in the piercing glow of a red eye that looks as if it could stare right into their souls, from a large misshapen head that seems to resemble a skull missing the left eye.
"AAAHHH!!" Sunset screamed, hiding behind Tim. "What is that thing?!"
“I… I don’t know!” Tim stammered.
He watches as a large hand, the size of a palm leaf, reaches in to grab them.
“LOOK OUT!!!”
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Nicely done
As we have just seen from this very chapter, it's not just about trying to make sense over the news articles foreshadowing what our heroes are about to expect nor all the spooky hauntings that are happening in this area or rather then whether boxcutter chick will strike again. This chapter is all about exploring the shadows of the past and whether karma won't haunt us after every mistake we've ever made in life. In which case, it's no wonder Sunset Shimmer feels so insecure about herself because if she thought the first time turning into a demon was bad enough but if she were to die and walk the Earth as a monster... it would be a nightmare she would never wake up from. Though does that explain why she's been neglecting her friends lately? Preferring to play video games in her apartment rather than hanging with her pals?
That, we do not know at this time. All we know is once again their search for a man's missing wife has them involved in another mystery involving a giant monster. And unless they are able to use their wits to outsmart the restless spirit, they could meet their end at any moment.
Very intense chapter here and Sunset has a reflection on her own seem to bother her.
And also, very good chapter!
Well I just finished the game and I will say that episode 2 is a must given that ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, though I can imagine what will become of Sunny after that is anyone's guess. I can see at least a little being condensed between here and the end of the game. Hope to see more Game Quest content eventually.
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Don't worry. You will.
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Now that I've freed myself up a bit and feel more spread out on the fanfics I'll be working on, I'm feeling like getting back into Game Quest. Between working at my real job in the real word, and doing commentaries for the Cinematic Adventures, I'm formulating and setting up the timeline for all the characters and the actions they needed to make to move the stories forward.
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Whatever you have in mind, Ph.D, we trust your judgment. You're an amazing, creative writer and your materials are always worth the wait. Whatever you have in mind, we'll be at the helm at the ready.
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Good to hear