Marion's Hideaway

Chapter 7: A Light In The Dark

We stepped over stones and puddles and whistled a merry tune as we ventured through the shadows, our torch being our only guide. "Oh it's fun in the dark when you feel that spark" I sang. "You hear wolves bark and you get eaten by a shark" Tuck chimed. "Geez, that's gruesome." I laughed. "Well, what else rhymes with dark?" Tuck asked. "I dunno, you could say you 'met a guy named Mark' or something. Anything's better than getting eaten alive." "I think you're just being too picky." Tuck rebutted. "I hold high standards when it comes to rhyming, okay." We both laughed together. "So what was up with that, back there?" I asked. "What? You mean the killer teddies?" "Yeah! You like, set the bar really high with your things deadlier than even your imagination can comprehend statement, and I gotta say, those bears were pretty underwhelming." "So, you're saying that those guys weren't dangerous enough to quench your thirst for thrills? You seek something a bit more extravagant?" "Kind of, I mean, I didn't even get to use my sword!" I kicked a rock and sent it soaring through the pitch black. Bang! It made impact with an object we couldn't see, however, we didn't need to see it to hear its growling. "Uh, Marion?" I could see Tuck sweating like crazy under the torchlight. "Yeah?" I responded with a nervous tone. "Never do that again, please." Tuck tried to use the torch to get a view of what was causing the growling. Just then a large tentacle rammed into him, sending him, and our source of light, soaring. "Tuck!" I couldn't see a thing, but I could hear the growling all around me. Next thing I knew, my head hit the cold, wet earth.

Beep. Beep. Beep. I could see a group of doctors talking nervously. "Sir! We're getting feedback from her!" A female doctor called to her male advisor. "What?!" He rushed over, "Yeah...yeah she's here." "So she has awoken?" "Not quite, but at least we know she's still in there. We'll just have to keep doing what we've been doing. Call her parents. Let them know that there's still hope. God bless their hearts."

I opened my eyes, but honestly, it made no difference, as I literally couldn't see squat. "Christ, what was that?" I said as I got to my feet and massaged the newly acquired bump on my head. "Tuck! You there?" I called. I heard a flurry of footsteps and felt someone grab my arm. I could barely make out Tuck's face. "Marion! We have to get out of here now! That thing is coming after us!" We started running, but it was almost impossible for me to ensure exact footing in the solid black of the darkness. "How are we gonna get out of here if we can't see jack?!" "No idea!" Tuck said reassuringly. I could hear the monster around us. I was turning my head around trying to get a look at our enemy when, sure enough, I found myself falling.

Splash! We had fallen into a pool of water that glistened brighter than diamonds. At least we could see our hands in front of our faces now. I swam to the top of the water for breath. "Well, luckily for us we found a convenient little underground lake!" I climbed up onto land. "And its bright glow provides light! How neat!" I stood triumphantly as Tuck crawled onto land, coughing up water. "At least we're safe from the-" He choked up a little fish, "from the monster." I watched as the monster crawled around the cave ceiling menacingly, and let out a horrible screech. "With our luck, imagining such ease is completely ridiculous."

It was a centipede-like beast the size of a bulldozer, and instead of legs, it had hundreds of outstretching tentacles. I pulled out my sword in the coolest fashion I could think of. "Finally! Now this is more like it!" Tuck passed out next to me, so I decided that this fight was up to me. The monster wriggled its way towards me and I held my sword in a defensive position, ready for any attack. The beast swiped a tentacle at me and I cut it away, angering the fiend. It slammed another tentacle in my direction, but I evaded it by jumping out of the way. I hurriedly got up and ran up the tentacle and onto the creature's back. I ran up to where I imagined its head must've been and thrusted my blade through its exoskeleton. The monster wailed in pain, it's pitch so high that I felt my head might explode. The beast tried to twist and roll and get me off and I clutched the sword with all my might, trying as hard as I could to avoid being hoisted from the creatures back. In the struggle, the beast fell into the water. I barely managed to hold the breath in my lungs as he swam at a rapid pace, trying as hard as he could to remove me and my blade from his back. He then crashed through the wall of the cave, causing the water to burst out violently and my sword to be removed from his skull. I washed away, trying to hold my breath.

"Ugh, where am I?" I was soaked and exhausted. "Did I kill it?" Sure enough, I could see it's enormous carcass laying by a hole in a nearby mountain. I watched as Tuck ran towards me. "You did it! You killed it! You're amazing!" He was short on breath. "I don't know, it's no more impressive than you killing that teddy bear earlier, really." We both looked at each other with stupid grins on our faces. "Okay, maybe mine was a bit more impressive." I confessed, laughing. Tuck reached out his hand to help me up. "I'm just glad to see you alive." "So what next? We have to burn ourselves alive trying to climb that volcano?" "What? Pfft, no! There's an elevator, duh." Tuck said, in a surprisingly un-sarcastic tone.