Elijah trudged toward the basement, and even as he pushed open the rotting, scorched door, a pungent, burning smell, like death and destruction, clung to him.
The once-familiar basement is now completely different, as if it had undergone an apocalyptic catastrophe. The original mysterious runes on the altar were blackened by smoke, like the marks of a demon struggling in pain. On the ceiling, some of the stones had fallen away, revealing hideous gaps, like eyes peering through the darkness. The floor was a tangle of charred remains and broken fragments, the shells of objects that had once been consumed in the flames.
