Beta || Iancorn (NaNoWriMo 2018)

Level Twenty-Six

David's eyes jerked open suddenly, as if someone had splashed water on his face. For a few seconds, he thought someone did. He sat up hurriedly and glanced around, trying to find the suspect, before realizing he wasn't wet.

The witch's lair was gone. In its place was a... ravine would probably be the best word. He was sitting on the rocky, uneven ground of the massive fissure in the earth. It was so far down that the sunlight wasn't enough; in order to see, he had to depend on the torches hanging against the walls, casting everything in flickering orange light.

The walls, however, were the most interesting part. They were covered in cave entrances, thousands of them, that went as far as his eye could see in all three directions. The pattern of them resembled that of a honeycomb, as there was barely any space between one entrance and the next. If this wasn't a video game, David would've wondered how the walls hadn't collapsed.

As he stared in awe at his surroundings, he got to his feet. It took a few seconds for him to remember what had happened in the witch's lair, before it all came back to him. His hands reached for his face, above his eye, to feel for the gaping wound that had been there what felt like minutes ago. Just like Matthew promised, it was gone.

They must've done it. They must've buried the heart. Which meant that they'd finished level three, and were now on level four. And if it healed him, then that must mean it-

"Ian!" David called out instinctively.

"What?" the familiar voice came from behind him, and David instantly whirled around. Ian, along with the other five members of the group, were inspecting the caves closest to the ground. They'd all grabbed torches from the walls for light.

The second Ian saw it was David that spoke, his lips split into a grin. Much to David's relief, Ian was perfectly healed. There wasn't even any dried blood on his jacket. The changing of levels had healed him as much as it had healed David.

Once the others had become aware of what was going on, David had already swept Ian up in a tight hug. Ian returned the embrace immediately, holding David close against him as they buried their heads in each other's shoulders.

"You're okay," David breathed after they pulled apart.

"Of course I am," Ian grinned. "Do you think that a little scratch would be enough to take me down?"

"Yes," David replied. "Yes I do."

Before Ian could reply, Mari crashed into David's side and hugged him so hard that he could barely breathe. Following her lead, Wes and Joven joined in, and next thing David knew all five of them were hugging him, and then he couldn't breathe at all.

Thankfully, they released him before he suffocated. Mari wrapped her arm around his shoulder. "God, are we glad to see you up and about."

"Took you a little while to get up," Matthew explained. "We were starting to get worried. Usually only takes ten seconds at the most."

"The gamemakers were probably fucking with us," Wes piped in. "That's the leading theory."

"It took you five minutes," Mari stated.

"And your first response was to leave me on the ground alone?" David joked.

Mari punched him lightly on the arm, before grabbing a torch off the wall and handing it to him. David noticed how she twisted around Ian as she did, to try and put as much distance between them as possible, and purposely didn't look in his direction. It seemed like old habits died hard.

"Um, did I miss the objective?" he asked as Mari started to walk away.

She smacked her forehead and turned to face him. "Fuck, I forgot about that. Yeah, you did. We have to find a lava pit in the lowest levels of the cave."