Beneath the Depths of the Earth – Episode One: The Terrifying Darkness

Breathing was becoming difficult.

All around us was only darkness — a kind of darkness in which even the idea of light felt absurd. Water dripped from the damp walls, echoing sounds filled the air, and every now and then, a distant scream from some unknown creature… it was enough to paralyze the mind.

My hand was on the rock. Cold, wet, and trembling strangely. Maybe it was my imagination — or perhaps the wall was actually moving.

Professor Lidenbrock was a few steps ahead. He held a torch, but its light only revealed his face — everything else was swallowed by the shadows.

“Stop!” I said, my voice cracked and strained. “Something… something’s moving up ahead!”

The professor turned to look at me. There was no fear in his eyes — only wonder. As if he had been waiting for this very moment for years.

“We’re close… I can feel it, Axel. The secrets of the Earth’s core are calling to us.”

I looked back. Our companion Hans was sitting silently against the wall. His face drenched in sweat, his eyes vacant. He hadn’t spoken a word in the past hour, just kept staring in the same direction.

Then suddenly, the ground trembled.

Very slightly, like some giant creature was waking beneath us. A deep sound came from the cracks in the wall — something beyond the grasp of human language.

The three of us stared at one another. In this darkness, everything felt like an enemy — even our own shadows.

And how did all this begin?

Two months ago, we were sitting in an old library in Hamburg. The same library where we found that hidden message inside a worn-out book — a message that compelled us to undertake this journey. A journey where every step left the Earth and time behind… and whose end might be here — amidst this darkness, this silence, and this fear.

n English