Time slowed to a crawl. Every fiber of Charlie's being was at attention, absorbing the environment he was in, trying to label what is predator and prey. His adrenaline was coursing through his veins, making him struggle to stay calm, yet with a face as still as a moonlit lake.
<"What you see in front of you, is a human who is possessed. They can not see what you see, and their actions are not entirely their own. Do not respond to the changes you see, for if you do, you and the man you see may die. Follow my directions as close as you can, and you may survive.">
Charlie was struggling to keep his composure, a slight tremor began in his left hand, but the fear allowed him an extreme focus.
<"Raise the lantern to the man's face.">
With a slow and trembling hand Charlie raised the lantern to the face of Cornelius, as the pale green glow illuminated more of his face black tendrils began to appear, sprouting out of the back, head, and shoulders of the kindly old man. They reached to the ceiling where the tendrils connected to a black shadowy mass.
<"It seems like the spirit has infected the entire building. It must be hiding somewhere.">
"What are you doing Charlie? Why are you holding that broken lantern like that?" Cornelius was acting as if all Charlie was seeing was a figment of his imagination, a bout of madness brought on by stress, or overwork, maybe the act of moving to a new place had gotten to him... Thoughts raced through Charlie's head, he began questioning what he was seeing, what he was doing.
<"Focus!">
The deep voice shocked him into reality again.
<"Do not let it fool you. It is worried you are seeing through it's ruse. Calmly reassure the man and try to excuse yourself. We must search this place for the source!">
Charlie's eyes became ice cold but soft, a soft smile appeared on his face, he lowered the lantern and with his left hand grasped the shoulder of Cornelius.
"Don't worry, I just wanted to make sure you could see how good of a job I did cleaning this lantern. I have to go downstairs again, I think I forgot my cup of coffee down there. Save a bowl for me?" Charlie was trying his hardest to keep a brave face, the man in front of him looked more like a corpse than a kindly old man, his skin was starting to fall away. Cornelius returned the smile.
"Of course! It will be all set out once you return."
"Thank you." Charlie patted the elder on the shoulder and slowly backed away down the stairs. The staircase now looked like he was descending into a metal cage. The wallpaper walls gave way to chain-link fences, pictures of family were replaced by images of torture and death. It was turning into an embodiment of hell. Reaching the landing charlie saw the antique store was now lined with metal shelves full of severed heads, with glowing objects interspersed in-between.
<"Those glowing objects you see are haunted. Each one a ticking time bomb in its own respect, however they are not what we are looking for. A possession like this is too powerful for mere objects to cause. The owner of the spirit must be nearby.">
Charlie had trouble keeping his lunch down at the sight of it all, not to mention the smell. What once smelled like musk and leather was now replaced by the sickly sweet stench of rot. Clouds of flies obscured his vision as he began to search for the source of it all. The cramped aisles now felt even more claustrophobic as the objects were now replaced by pieces of rotting corpses, crawling with maggots, flies, and scavenger insects galore. Upon reaching the area of the store where the bookcases used to be, Charlie could see a boarded up door behind one of the metal shelves.
<"There. Before you go trashing this place though, keep in mind that what you do here will reflect in the world of the living.">
"Then this will be one hell of a mess to clean up afterwards." Charlie sighed, he began to pull the metal shelving unit, however it did not budge, only beginning to lean towards him with each pull. Seeing as the door had to pulled open, toppling the shelf over would not be the best option, it must be dragged. Charlie crouched down and dug in his heels as he began to try dragging the metal shelving unit from the bottom. As he began to pull his back collided into the unit behind him, shaking it as rotten heads, arms, legs, and loose organs fell on top of him. Charlie started to dry heave in shock at the intense smell of it all, the cold and slick texture of it all chilled him to the bone, flies flew into his face and maggots sprayed across his body. It was a true nightmare, the dry heaves did not stop, but Charlie powered through the experience. With an iron will and determination to save the kind old man, he dragged the shelf away from the boarded up door. Collapsing after he finished he began swiftly pulling off the rotting meat that stuck to his body, batting off the maggots and flies. As if to congratulate him his body allowed him the luxury of throwing up, a slurry of brown being expelled from his mouth.
"Fuck!"
Disgusting was not the right word for it all, for the experience could not be described with words. With one last spit Charlie cleared his mouth and began tearing away at the boards, they gave way much easier than expected.
'It must be wallpaper.' He thought. It did feel more like tearing away a sticker rather than tearing out nailed in boards. The whole process of removing the boards took no more than a minute, and his reward for it was the visage of a dark staircase leading down.