The Curse of Hidden Hollow

The Mystery Deepens

He kept crawling and eventually forced himself up into a wobbly run. He kept running until he reached an open area. "What the heck... it feels like I just keep going in circles!!" He turned to look behind him. It was a tunnel, as far as he could see. He turned back around, and the setting was different. "What the!?" He started to walk down the corridor. "This isn't the.." He stopped for a moment and put his hand on his forehead. "I feel like I'm going crazy here. Wasn't this just an open area?" He shook his head and kept walking further into the mine. He pulled the lantern up to his vision and turned the crank. "Dangit, It's freakin dead." He kept walking straight, wondering what he was going to find. He came to a crossroads. He could've sworn he heard voices coming from the right side of it. He slowly began down the pathway and came to a door. He felt a cold hand on his shoulder and screamed out. He whipped around prepared to fight, but there was nothing. His heart was pounding, and his nerves were already shot to hell. He pondered for a second. "On one hand, I need to be careful here. On the other hand, there could be something on the other side of that door that could really do some damage." He came to the conclusion to barge in and took a few steps back in the corridor. He took a running start, and shoulder-trucked the door. When he got in, he gasped. It was like a bedroom. A bed in one corner of the room, with a lumpy blanket over it. There was a dresser alongside the crudely carved-out wall. A desk with another lantern was on the desk. Ash went over, hoping that this one worked. Sure enough, to his delight, it did. He was able to get a better look at the bed. It looked like there was something under the blanket. He walked over, pulled the blanket away, and screamed. There was another skeleton underneath the blanket. This one had a cowboy hat on. Ash couldn't believe it. "Jed Anderson.." He whispered, almost solemnly. He went to reach for the cowboy hat when a spider crawled out of one of the skull's eye sockets. Ash didn't have the reaction time to pull his hand away before the spider sunk its fangs into his hand. He stumbled back, hissing in pain. He was about to say something mean when he became woozy. He tried to stay upright but fell onto the ground, his vision clouding. He came back around a while later. He couldn't tell how long he'd been out for. He grunted in anger, this place sucked. You couldn't tell what time of day it was. He forced himself off the ground, ignoring the throbbing pains in his head and hand. He looked over to the bed, and his heart sank. The skeleton was gone. Suddenly, the room didn't feel so roomy anymore. He backed up to the door slowly. He turned and tried to open it, but it was jammed. Ash felt himself begin to panic. How could the door have locked? He turned back around to face the bed, and that's when he noticed a small crack in the wall, with a piece of ratty cloth hanging out. He made his way over to the wall and pulled the cloth out. He unfolded it, revealing a note and a crystal, He opened the note, and began to read out loud. "I have stumbled upon something horrible. Something EVIL."