Ow!
It hurts!!!
Where...!!
The words tumbled from his lips, raw and desperate.
Something hard pressed against his cheek.
A breath tore into his lungs, sharp and uncontrolled.
Pain pulsed through his head. His chest tightened, breath catching halfway in as his eyes snapped open. Darkness greeted him—thick, heavy, pressing in from all sides.
He sucked in air and immediately regretted it. His heart hammered against his ribs, each beat sending a dull ache through his body.
Where… am I?
He tried to move. His arm slid across rough stone instead of ground. Panic flared.
Gritting his teeth, he dragged himself backward instinctively—palms scraping, feet pushing weakly against the floor. His stomach pressed against the cold rock as he crawled back, clumsy and half-aware, like an injured animal trying to escape something it couldn't see.
Then—
His right hand slipped.
The ground beneath it crumbled away.
—!
His body lurched sideways. He slammed hard onto his shoulder, pain exploding up his arm as the world tilted violently. His upper body slid forward before stopping abruptly, his weight catching on his elbow and chest.
Below him—nothing.
His arm hung over empty space. His stomach twisted as cold air rushed upward, brushing against his skin.
Carefully—too carefully—he tilted his head downward.
The darkness opened up beneath him.
It wasn't a pit. Not exactly. The cave split here, dropping into a wide, jagged ravine carved deep into the stone, its walls disappearing into blackness.
A few loose pebbles broke free under his fingers.
He froze.
The sound followed them.
Tick. Tick. Then—far below—clack.
Too deep.
His stomach tightened. He leaned forward just enough to peer down, careful not to disturb the unstable edge again.
Faint glimmers drifted through the abyss.
Winged shapes. Slow. Silent. They moved in loose clusters, their bodies pulsing with a weak, sickly glow as they rose and fell through the open space beneath him.
Insects.
Big ones.
He pulled back, heart pounding, and pressed himself flat against the cave floor. The cold didn't bother him anymore. The height did.
That was when he heard it.
A sound—low and distant—rolled through the cave.
Not loud. Not sudden.
A growl.
It vibrated through the stone rather than the air, like something heavy shifting its weight far away. The sound faded… then returned again, closer this time, distorted by the uneven walls.
His breath caught.
That's not the insects.
His body reacted before his mind did. He pushed himself up onto one knee, then the other, using the wall for balance as another spike of pain flared behind his eyes. He swallowed it down and forced himself to move.
Standing in the open felt wrong.
The growl echoed again—closer now. Slower. Patient.
His hand slid along the wall as he moved, fingers searching blindly. Rough stone. Cracks. Jagged edges—
Then his fingers slipped into a narrow gap.
Cold air brushed his skin.
He paused, pressing his ear close. The space breathed back at him, the sound of his own exhale changing as it vanished inside.
A crevice.
Narrow. Darker than the cave itself.
Another growl echoed, closer still, followed by the faint scrape of stone against stone.
He didn't hesitate anymore.
Turning sideways, he shoved his shoulder into the gap. The stone bit into his arm and ribs as he forced himself in, fabric tearing softly as he squeezed forward. The space narrowed immediately, walls pressing tight enough that every breath felt trapped between them.
He dragged himself deeper, elbows and knees scraping, skin burning where it met rock. Panic clawed at his chest, but he kept moving, inch by inch, until the cave behind him vanished into black.
The passage sloped downward.
That realization settled slowly—and uncomfortably.
He crawled on, counting his breaths, trying not to think about how far he'd already gone. The air felt thicker here. He could no longer tell where the cave ended and the crevice truly began.
No space. No room to—
Then he heard it.
Behind him.
A sound where there shouldn't have been one.
Stone scraping stone.
Slow. Careful.
Something was moving at the entrance of the crevice.
He froze mid-crawl, body pressed flat against the narrow floor, heart pounding so hard it hurt.
Don't freeze.
The sound came again—closer this time—followed by a faint, uneven breath that wasn't his.
The passage was too tight to turn around.
Too narrow to fight.
And whatever was behind him… hadn't given up