(ON HOLD/BEING REWRITTEN) De Salute Mea- Safety From The Darkness

Chapter 17

( WARNINGS: Talk of torture, language, grotesque descriptions, gruesome horror towards the end )

The moonlight and eerie flickering glow of the fire raging above head lit the inside of the chasm, just only outside of the walkway Steve was creeping into behind Alex, his boots clacking against the planked floor. It was very dark, with only a few torches placed here and there along the walls.

"Looks like it goes pretty deep," Alex commented, her voice echoing down the corridors and bouncing back into Steve's ears. "It's probably a good place to hide, and hopefully we'll get some materials as well." She started further ahead, poking her head around the corners.

Steve just muttered under his breath nervously and slowly stepped forward, eyes on high alert, moving in all directions as the light at the entrance crept away from view. He nearly jumped out of his skin when a loud clattering sound sounded behind him, but as his head shot over his shoulder to look, nothing was there. He ripped a torch of the wall and held it in front of him as a guidance light. 

"Alex?" Steve whimpered, realizing she was no longer in his sight. His voice cracked as he called again when no reply reached his ears. 

The red-haired girl's head stuck out from behind a corner. "Yes? Keep up, slowpoke!"

Dropping his torch to his side, he hurried to catch up with her, not wanting to be left in the darkness for long. He passed another corner and another clattering sound echoed down the hallway. Steve, instead of peeking back to see what it was, cried out and ran to Alex, pressing his back against the wall.

"What?" She asked, partly amused and partly concerned.

"Alex, did you not hear that?"

She shook her head and shrugged. "No, nothing but your yelp." She chuckled. 

"I heard a loud noise back there! Twice!"

"Steve, we're in an abandoned mine. Of course there are going to be strange noises!" She motioned for him to follow her and began down the long, dark corridor.

"Exactly! What if there's, I don't know, ghosts or something?"

She shook her head and laughed. "Steve, are you scared?"

He blushed and straightened. "No! Of course I'm not scared! I was- I was just letting you know."

"Mhm. Alright."

They continued along in silence, boots clicking along the rails and occasionally stopping by a chest to see what was inside. Eventually they came to a crossing of two hallways, one of which ended in dead ends on both sides, and both had chests. "Hey Alex, there's a chest over here." "There's one over here too." 

Alex turned left and Steve turned right, and reaching the end of it, unlatched the lid and opened it with a creak. Some redstone, iron, torches, rails and redstone torches. He reached in to grab the torches and iron ingots as a voice reached his ears. 

"Hey, over here!" 

"One second," He replied, dumping the loot into a burlap sack he had found earlier, and hurried to Alex's voice, which came from further ahead of the corridor they were just walking through. He saw a figure moving behind a corner and out of sight and hurried to catch up with her.

"Find anything?" Came a familiar sweet voice behind him. He spun around and there was Alex, looking at him curiously.

"What's the matter Steve? You look like you just saw a ghost."

He spun around again and ran to the corner he saw the figure, and nothing was there. A shiver ran down his spine and he moved back to Alex, clutching her arm.