G/T Stories

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Brendan was about to do something illegal. He was standing in front of inactive mine, holding an pickaxe and wearing basket on his back.

This year's winter was harsh. There was a lack of coal and many people already died from frostbite. People started to steal coal and wood from each other, everyone was doing everything in their power to survive.

And so was Brendan. To keep his siblings and himself warm, he decided to mine some coal from this cursed place.

Why cursed? People claimed that there are ghosts haunting that old mine. That's was one of the main reasons to close it - many miners died from unknown force and others went missing. Everyone knew better than to go there.

But Brendan had no choice. Being the oldest, it was his duty to keep his siblings alive. So without much thinking, he decided to take that risk and go to the mine.

So he walked up to the boarded-up entrance and with the help of his pickaxe, he managed to rip wooden planks.

He turned on the light on his hardhat and entered the mine. He was going further and further, looking around for coal deposit, while also keeping his ears open. He didn't want to anger ghosts.

Soon he saw a huge coal deposit. He felt so lucky! Without hesitation, he started to hit the coal wall. He then tossed coal pieces into the basket, until it was full.

But suddenly, his light turned off and he couldn't make it work. He guessed that battery had run out. Luckily, he had a matchbox with him!

He took one match out and lit it up. He didn't know that methane concentration here was high. And it led to catastrophe.

Air above Brendan went "BOOM!". It caused the mine's ceiling to collapse, luckily boy managed to avoid the debris.

He coughed heavily, when dust blew away from the impact. It pinched his eyes, he had to rub dust out of them. He blinked furiously, to sharpen his vision. But it was for nothing, he couldn't see anything, for it was so dark.

He reached out his arms and touching the wall, he managed to find the debris blocking the corridor to the exit. He tried to pull rocks out, but they didn't budge. His only way out was buried.

Brendan felt that he was losing control. He had nyctophobia and being in the darkness for such a long time was stressing him out.

He punched the debris wall few times and began to yell:

- HELP ME! I'M STUCK HERE! I NEED HELP! CAN YOU HEAR ME?! HELP ME, PLEASE! SOMEBODY... Anybody!

But of course it didn't work. Even if someone dared to come near the mine, they wouldn't hear him, he was really deep in here.

He let out a cry of hopelessness and slid down, hiding his head in his knees. He broke into sobs, his arms were flinching violently. He didn't want to die, he had siblings to take care of!

Suddenly, he noticed a weak glow, few feet into the corridor. He got up and headed there, not thinking much about what it could be. The most important thing was that it was giving a light, a safe light.

The corridor expanded to a cavern, which Brendan entered. But he wasn't prepared for that view.

There was plenty of little, humanoid, bioluminescent creatures. They looked like fairies, but had bat wings instead of insect ones, additionally they had tails, like dogs.

But whatever they were, they looked adorable and harmless. Brendan was taught that fairies like to help people, so maybe these similar creatures would help him too?

He timidly approached the creatures, but they didn't seem to notice him - they were too infested in dancing.

Brendan tried again, this time he cleared his throat, to signal that he was there. It worked, he drew "fairies" attention. He shyly waved his hand and was about to ask a question, when creatures panicked.