"violet... violet," Dave called out, his voice a low, urgent whisper in the darkness. He didn't wait for her to form a reply. "Follow my voice and grab hold of my hand. Let's make a run for it."
"But, but," her voice trembled with panic, "even if we run, we can't see where we are going! How are we going to survive?"
"Just do as I say," he insisted, his tone leaving no room for argument.
After an heartbeat of a moment, he felt a hand fumble in the dark and find his. Her grip was weak, shaking with a terror that vibrated up his arm. She's completely frozen, he realized. "I'll reduce my voice. You run when I say run," he instructed. He received no verbal reply, only the continued, tremulous pressure of her hand in his.
He pushed his own rising fear down, forcing his breathing to steady. He strained his ears, listening for any sign of the singing horror. The silence was absolute, and somehow that was worse. It meant the thing could be right close or even... right next to them, and they would never know.
Three… two… one…
"Run. Now," he whispered.
He turned toward where he remembered the red marker being and took the first step, ready to sprint and pull her with him. But her hand didn't follow. Instead, her grip tightened, becoming a vise, anchoring him to the spot.
"Violet… what is this? I said run, not stay," he said quietly, a flicker of irritation breaking through his fear. He knew she was scared, and might not be able to move If she was too afraid, but doing this now was like a man voluntarily stepping into a lion's cage. It was a death wish.
He tightened his own hand, attempting to yank her forward, but her grip was impossibly firm, unyielding. His brow furrowed in the dark. This wasn't the weak, trembling grip of a terrified girl. This was strength.
A suspicion, colder than the cave air, began to form in his mind.
"Violet?" he said, testing if his intuition was right.
Silence. A heartbeat of silence that stretched into an eternity.
Then, a voice answered. It was Violet's voice at first, but after the first word, it wasn't Violet's. It was a voice high and sweet, a little girl's singing voice that was utterly devoid of any warmth.
"I have found you, found you, found you…"
The voice began to change, cracking and thickening, shedding its childish sweetness for something rotten.
"I have found you, and you're nothing good but…
Dead!!"
In that instant, a hand of invisible force clamped around Dave's throat. He was wrenched off his feet, dangling in the black air. He choked, his own hands clawing at the emptiness where an arm should be, finding nothing to grip. He couldn't breathe. His vision sparked, blurring at the edges, a terrible coldness seeping into his limbs as if his very soul was being siphoned away.
Through his blurring vision, a single red eye materialized in the darkness before him, glowing with amusement, drinking in his dying struggle.
Then, a solid, unexpected Thwack!, echoed through the cavern. The sound of a large rock, bigger than three fists, connecting with something solid. The red eye widened in shock, and a piercing, inhuman screech tore through the air. The grip on Dave's throat vanished. He dropped to the ground, gasping, his vision swimming.
"Dave..! Dave, Wake up, we have to go!" It was Violet's real voice, frantic and breathless with fear. He felt her hands patting his face in the dark, light, slapping touches as she desperately tried to rouse him.
Slap. Slap. Slap.
"Cough! Cough!" Dave spluttered, air flooding back into his burning lungs. His hand shot out, finding hers, and he squeezed it, a confirmation of life. He scrambled to his feet and without a word, they ran. They stumbled blindly in the direction of the vanished red marker, driven by pure instinct, not daring to look back.
Behind them, in the place they had just fled, the figure that Violet had struck with the rock…
Shifted.
Its form contorted with a sound of cracking stone and twisting air.
And in that shift, a deep growl rumbled through the tunnel, shaking the very ground beneath their fleeing feet.
"I will find youuuu!!"