A Dark Descent

The Cavern

Alex walked up the hill. But it didn't feel like a hill, more like a mountain but tiny. Trees on the hill looked like they were just thrown there and were called good. Rocks were jagged and had no clear pattern. It all looked like one big toy, or a rough draft of something bigger. He made it all the way up, and at the top was a large hole leading into a cavern. Though, the hole was blocked off by jagged pieces of wood that closed it all up, only leaving a few gaps for an outsider looking in, or maybe an insider looking out with no escape. Alex looked inside, nothing was visible beyond a few pebbles, a little bit of the wall, and the floor.

Alex backed away and took out the stones. They both lit up and sparkles flew to the cave with wisps of light following. They circled around the entrance and once every bit of it was covered by the light, they entered the wall and the spikes grew back into the wall. Inside, Alex could still see nothing. He took out the stick and it lit up with a bright light. Then he walked inside.

The light died as soon as he took his first step in. Alex shook the stick, trying to get it to light up again but it was no use. Then he hit it on the floor and maybe some of its "magic" would rise up again. Still nothing happened. Alex took out the blue stone and asked it to light up, but it dinged twice.

"What? Come on, please. I'm not going in there without your light." Alex got no response to this, the stone never lit up. "Come on, please, I'll do anything."

"Please don't leave me alone." Alex weld up inside but held it back.

He reformed himself. "Do I have to go in the darkness? Alone?" The stone dinged once very quickly.

Alex gulped and tried to be as brave as possible, he had been through worse so far, but all just seemed to open. There was no wall for him to hold on as he would not know what was to the other side of him. Before he went inside, he tried to find anything in his bag to produce light, but there was nothing, no matches, candles, lanterns, or light. He went inside, holding any fear back in his throat.

He hugged the right wall. There was a slight slope and once he was down it was all flat from there. He felt thin stalagmites bump against his feet and legs. His head bumped in a stalactite and he felt a thick amount of them on the roof and the floor. He grabbed onto them and moved around them to continue. The wall disappeared beyond the stalactites. He tried to feel for it but to no avail. He knew he just had to move forward.

He heard something run behind him.

He stopped entirely. He was more scared than ever with any beast since he was in the dark.

Could it see him, could it not, did it know where he was, can it not see either, was it moving towards him or trying to trick him and torment him.

Too many questions, not enough time, he had to move. He felt the floor first, just to make sure it was actually there. It felt smooth and flat, too smooth, too flat, not like any natural floor he had ever felt before. It felt like marble, made out of dirt. He got up and continued. He heard more footsteps in front of him. He waited until he felt it was the right time and he continued.

He tried to maintain his breath to be as quiet and consistent as possible. He heard a scream, more footsteps. Alex kept going. He noticed that his footsteps made no sound, nothing he touched made any sound so he went faster. He heard more noises, awful noises. But he kept telling himself that nothing here really existed, just created to keep him, or to keep someone in. More noises came about, louder and louder.

More screaming, more footsteps, more gibberish that Alex could not understand, more banging against symbols and triangles, horrible music that made Alex want to cry and lie on the floor forever in the darkness.