Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
The sound of their footsteps was the only noise in the tunnel, a crunch that scattered debris of rock and shale that littered the floor. This new passage was roughet than the ones before. Since their crossing of the pool, the path had been strangely straight, offering no forks, no dead ends, no choices. It felt less like a path and more like a channel, funneling them toward an inevitable point.
After a long stretch of silence, Violet's voice, thin and uncertain, cut through the gloom. "Dave…"
He turned slightly. "Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing," she said quickly, then corrected herself. "It's just that… I feel like we are being followed."
Dave stopped walking and fully turned to face her. "Are you sure?"
She nodded, a series of quick nods. "No, Yes, Yes," she stammered, contradicting herself in her nervousness. "But I'm not very sure. Maybe it was an intuition of mine or… something else. Sorry, sorry for bothering you. Let's just forget it and keep moving." She looked down, embarrassed by her own fear.
Dave stared at her for a moment as he thought inwardly. Anxiety sickness can really be troublesome. He understood her condition, but he couldn't afford to dismiss anything in this place. He sighed inwardly and glanced back the way they had come, peering into the impenetrable darkness behind them. He saw nothing. No movement. No sound beyond their own.
With an outward sigh, he tried to sound reassuring. "No problem. Let's just keep moving. Your intuition may become real if we keep standing here." He offered a slight smile.
Violet nodded quickly. "Alright."
As he began to turn back to lead the way, his eyes caught a flicker of movement in the deep black of the tunnel behind them. He froze. He strained his eyes, staring into the darkness. And then... slowly, he saw it. A faint, pinprick of red light, glowing in the darkness. Then another appeared beside it. And another. Until the entire tunnel behind them was filled with a constellation of silent, watching red eyes.
His blood ran cold. He didn't need to know what they were. He just knew.
Violet was right. There really was something following us.
Without a word of explanation, his hand shot out and grabbed Violet's. She gasped at the suddenness, her eyes wide with confusion, but she didn't protest. The sheer urgency in his grip told her everything she needed to know. Her fear had been real.
With the fire torch held high in his other hand, Dave broke into a run, pulling Violet along. He didn't look back. He didn't waste a single second trying to identify the creatures. His entire world narrowed to the straight path ahead and the red marker in the distance. The marker seemed to be getting closer, its glow brighter, a small promise that the Selection Zone was near.
But the tunnel stretched on, an endless stone throat. The hope that had flared began to curdle into a new kind of tension. Don't tell me that this is a trap? Did I pass the wrong place? No, no, I'm very sure this was the place I was meant to pass. But… why is there no more sign of getting closer?
Just then, a new sound erupted from behind them, a deep rumble that vibrated through the stone beneath their feet. It was followed by a gush of forceful air that roared past them, a phantom wind that tore at their clothes and threatened to extinguish the torch. It wasn't just wind; it felt like the breath of something immense, something that was now charging right at their backs.
Whoosh!!!
A thundering wind crashed on them again, with the weight of solid stone. The very cave around them groaned in protest, sharp cracks spider-webbing across the walls and ceiling under the oppressive pressure. This was no natural gust. It lifted them, not forward down the tunnel, but upward, defying all logic as it slammed them against the roof of the cave.
The impact drove the air from Dave's lungs. He realized that even the gravity here is an enemy. The Game Maker wasn't just setting obstacles; it was rewriting the very rules of physics to toy with them. They were pinned, suspended in a vortex of howling air, unable to move, unable to breathe.
"Just hold steady!" Dave shouted. He tightened his grip on Violet's hand, feeling her entire body trembling violently against his. She was a leaf in a hurricane, her fear a palpable force she couldn't control.
Then, as suddenly as it began, the raging wind vanished.
The support was gone. The force pinning them to the ceiling disappeared, and the natural, downward pull of gravity reasserted itself with indifference. They fell, a tangle of limbs, crashing onto the hard cave floor below. Dave managed to twist, taking the brunt of the impact on his shoulder, a jarring pain shooting down his side. He heard Violet land beside him with a silent cry.
Pushing himself up while mumbling curses, Dave got to his feet. His body ached everywhere. Violet rose more slowly, one hand pressed to her face, her fingers covering her eye. In the blackness that now surrounded them, he couldn't see the thin trickle of warm, red liquid beginning to trace a path down her wrist from a cut on her head.
He didn't notice her injury. Not because he didn't care, but because a more immediate, terror had seized him.
The flame torch was out.
The impact had extinguished it completely. They were now standing in a darkness so profound it felt solid, a suffocating blanket that robbed them of sight, direction, and hope. The red marker was gone, the path to follow was completely invisible.
Everywhere was dark.
And in that silence, a sound began. A high-pitched cry, like that of a young girl, echoed through the cavern. It wasn't a cry of fear or pain, but something else, a predatory, hunting call... The cry faded, receding into the stone.
A moment later, it was replaced by a voice. It drifted through the cavern, a high, sweet, little girl's singing voice that was utterly devoid of any warmth or life.
"Don't let me find you, find you, find you…
Don't let me find you, or you're nothing good but…
Dead!!"
The song ended, and the silence that followed was worse. It was a listening silence. It was the silence of something hunting in the dark, something that knew these caves far better than they ever could.
It was at this moment, standing blind in the dark, with that ghostly melody still ringing in his ears, that Dave knew with certainty.
They were really about to die.