Whispers in the Dark

Puppet Show

The white room started to fade, gradually becoming replaced by a dark forest. Dolos disappeared into the ground, and his five game masters followed suit. Martin, Luke and Nikita were next, leaving Kol and Eve by themselves.

As usual, Kol was the one to take initiative. He began to study the forest around them. The trees were incredibly tall, and their branches too far up to even attempt to climb them. It was definitely night, but the forest seemed to be illuminated for some reason. He dismissed it as just a quirk of their current game.

When he looked down, he was surprised to see mist forming at his feet. When he looked ahead, he realized it actually covered the entire forest floor, which lead him to assume its purpose was to hide all the traps that certainly had to have been laid out for them.

"Kol," Eve spoke, breaking the silence, and he turned to her. She was pointing at something. "Should we follow that?"

It was a small orb of faint green light, and it was moving away from them. Since the forest had no obvious pathways, Kol agreed to go after it, and the two started the final game.

The light passed tree after tree, taking several lefts and rights, and changing its direction multiple times.

Eve felt something touch her shoulder, and saw it was spider web. She smacked it away from herself, then started looking around in fear. "He's a spider. Look out for those."

Kol was about to ask what she meant, but then heard movement behind him. When he turned around, nothing was there. The footsteps didn't sound human.

A weird sound came from all around them - one that sounded like a mix between a hiss and a screech. Many more of those odd footsteps followed it.

"Hey, you don't think those are-" Eve started, then yelped and jumped out of the way as something came at her from the distant dark. It was a massive spider, easily the size of a beagle. It crawled toward her, forcing her to back away in fear. "Kol!"

He couldn't help her, as he was busy with his own creepy crawly. His boots made short work of the spider's front few legs, and the creature tried to retreat. Instead of letting it, Kol jumped on its body and squashed it against the ground. The spider's inside splashed all over the forest floor like a giant zit.

Eve tried to do the same, but while she was in the air, another spider jumped on her from the side, and knocked her down. "Help!"

The arachnid bared its fangs, but before it could bite her, Eve lashed out with the same move she had used on Los' web. The spider's body was vertically cut in half, and the two remaining parts of it each fell to their side of the girl.

The first spider that had come at her took its chance, and pounced. This one didn't get as far, because Kol rammed his shoulder into it while it was still in the air, and it landed on its back.

Kol helped his friend back up as another two spiders came from the darkness. They approached the one that was still on its back, then attacked it and began tearing it apart.

Eve winced.

Kol didn't. This was just how nature was. Cold and logical and merciless. The weak were food for the strong. "Let's go."

He turned around and ran, Eve hot on his trail. The spiders had distracted them long enough for the orb of light to head further ahead, making it hard for them to follow it. The mist was growing thicker and thicker, no longer just on the ground.

They could hear the spiders' screechy hissing from behind them, and weren't about to get into that mess again. The two ran as fast as they could, and finally caught up with the light.