Moana - Warrior's Journey (AU after the first film)

Chapter 24: Island of Depression

A/N: I sincerely apologize for the wait, but I had finals and end of first semester to take care of. I did not end strongly but I'm glad that I got to get back to writing. Sorry for the wait. Thank you for understanding and consideration.

Moana let out a deep breath as she was exhausted by the spirit of anxiety. "These things really love to torture me," Moana said as she flipped through the charms.

"Remember, warrior face," Maui reminded her. 

"I know, I know," Moana said. 

Pua nuzzled his cheek on Moana's waist.

"Aw, Pua," Moana picked him up and rubbed her cheek against his cheek.

"Pugley's so sweet," Maui said as he caressed his head.

"Oink," Pua responded.

"Bawk," Heihei kept bumping into the wall. 

"Come here, Drumsticks," Maui said as he grabbed Heihei.

"Wait a minute," Moana said. "Have you noticed something different in here?" 

"Different?" Maui looked around. "Oh... oh! Whoa! The torches! They're all lit! But how?"

"I think it happened after I caught that spirit," Moana said. "By the way, have you seen this spirit before?"

"No, in fact, I never seen any of these spirits that we were supposed to find," Maui said.

"There's gotta be secret of why these all look the same," Moana said. "We'll figure out soon. We first need to fine these creatures and seal them."

"You know, you always say something similar to that and I never get tired of hearing them," Maui said.

"Well, we gotta finish what we started," Moana said.

"That too," Maui said.

"What is that thing over there?" She asked as she pointed at the end of the hallway.

Maui squinted his eyes to see it clearly. "I think it is... a stairway..."

"Let's go down there then," Moana said as she took a torch. "And this is just in case we do not get any lights in the second floor."

"I'll use me hook for light source," Maui said.

"That works too," Moana said.

They carefully walked down the stairway as Moana gently held on Heihei and Maui gently held on Pua. Stairway felt rough and slippery, but Moana and Maui were very careful that they did not slip, fall, and roll down the stairs. When they both reached the second floor, they looked around to see if there were anything suspicious. It was like a wide, empty room.

Moana focused on her emotions to see if anything was bothering her. She felt nothing. She then heard something. "Maui, did you hear something?"

"No, I didn't," Maui replied.

"Sniff... sniffle..." The sniffing sound of a woman echoed throughout the space.

"Okay I heard it this time," Maui said.

"Who could possibly be crying in here?" Moana asked. She decided to walk towards the area where the woman's sniffing noise came from. Maui followed after her. "Hello?" Moana called. "Hello?" Moana called once more. The sniffing sound was getting closer and closer. "It's okay, ma'am, we're gonna get you out of here," Moana said as she became closer to the area where the sound came from. 

Moana's footsteps stopped. 

"Kid, what's wrong?" Maui asked.

"Shh!" Moana shushed him. Fear flooded her eyes as they were glued to the area where the crying noise came from, which was the darkest spot in the room. Moana slowly and carefully let the torch clean some parts of the darkness. Moana gulped as the red-orangish light revealed streams of red... blood red...