HERR ANTONIUS · 1713
▚▚ [ ◬ ] ▞▞Deep within the coils of Eileadora's stony bowels is an iron door recessed into the old masonry around it. Easily mistaken for a long forgotten dungeon or some obscure storage-place, a keener eye might spy the gleaming details that speak to the contrary: there's no rust and little wear, and there are words written in new brass letters on a bolted metal plate over the lintel.A square slot screeches open where a peephole might have been. There is no glass and no eye on the other side, but instead two rows of straight and dingy teeth set into pale gums that seem, impossibly, stretched behind and into the metal around them."Good evening, VISITOR NUMBER #49," a perfectly cordial man's voice thrums from the mouth in the door, which appears to be equipped as well with a grayish tongue and a sickly-purple throat behind its surreal grimace. "Welcome to SOLVE ET COAGULA. My name is JANUS. In order to obtain entry, please look me STRAIGHT IN THE EYE."There's an eye, alright, at the top of the door, just as worryingly fleshy as the mouth; damp and jaundiced with a pointed stare and a contracting pupil. Its gaze lingers for an awfully long time before it rolls up into its lids and disappears once more against the shadows on the iron around it."Thank you for your cooperation," clacks the mouth.The slot slides shut again, almost loud enough to hide the sound of seven rapid-fire clicks before the door glides open on its hinges. Behind it is a modest interior lit by dimmed sunrods, its drab decorating and clinical presentation rather at odds with what sounds like muffled sobs coming from somewhere below.
There are more eyes among the stones that make up the walls and ceiling, betrayed only by the glitter of the light on their damp membranes. So long as any visitor wanders about unattended, they watch, most attentively...