Darkness

Don’t move. Don’t make a sound. These are the only thoughts going through my head as I press myself against the cold stone of the cavern wall. The sound of dripping water reverberates through the dimly lit cave; the only source of light is the lantern I placed on the damp ground in the centre of the room.

The cavern wall comes to life. What I had dismissed upon entering the cave as an abnormal outcropping of rocks, starts to lumber towards me. The soft light of my lantern reveals a humanoid creature with thick, grey skin. As it begins to move, and the flickering light illuminates its sharp features, I get a glimpse of its face. Dark, knotted hair sprawls down the sides of a jagged head; deformed, twisted ears protrude underneath the tangled hair; and sharp, black teeth hang from a drooping mouth. But what is most striking about the appearance of this monster, are its eyes, or more so lack of them. Where a human would have two round sockets populated with two round eyes, this beast had nothing, no round sockets, no eyes, just grey skin stretching from the top of its head to its nose and mouth.

The creature staggers across the open cavern; its back foot drags along the floor making a jarring sound, much like the sound of nails on a chalkboard. As it continues to traverse the chamber, the sound of scraping changes to a wet squelch, it has reached the puddle in the centre of the room. The eyeless monstrosity doesn’t realise it is slowly approaching the spot on the floor at which I left my lantern, it must be attracted by the soft crackle of the open flame. A stark shadow is faintly cast across the opposite wall as it looms over the lantern. It begins to sluggishly continue moving, past the light, towards my side of the cave; its trailing foot knocking over the lantern. With a quiet hiss, the flame is extinguished and the cavern is plunged into darkness.

I fumble through my pockets to find some source of light; I need to get sight of the monster before it gets any closer to me. I need to find my way out of this cave. As my fingers rummage around the pockets of my tanned coat, I find what I was searching for. Taking the box of matches from my pocket I strike one and produce a small beacon of light. The sound of an object dropped in water floods the cave. Unbeknownst to me, the matchbox lifted something else out of my coat, dropping it to the ground and into a small puddle of water beside my feet.

As the light from the match re-illuminates my surroundings, I notice that the creature has hastened its pace, moving towards me at an ever-increasing speed. Not having time to think, I rely on my instincts. I need to create a sound on the opposite side of the cavern to draw the monster away from me, buying time to retreat. With my free hand, I finger through my pockets again, trying to find something, anything, that could save me. After what feels like an eternity of searching - but in actuality was only several seconds - I find what I was looking for, a small purse of silver coins. With a swift underarm throw, I launch the pouch across the cavern, filling the area with the sound of scattered coins. The creature immediately stops in its tracks; the sound of silver splashing across the room settles down, silence takes over.

Time stops in the cavern, my eyes fixed on the creature a mere few feet in front of my face, waiting, waiting for it to make a decision. Does it continue towards me, towards the initial splash of the item dropped from my pocket; or does it turn back towards the many sounds of small, round, silver coins dispersing across the opposite side of the room? I continue to wait for the beast to make a decision, hardly allowing the sound of each breath to escape my chilled nostrils.

Finally, the creature starts to move again, turning on its jagged heels, and lurching across the cavern toward the sound of rolling silver. As it begins to traipse across the chamber, I press my back against the damp cave wall, feeling the icy coldness chill my spine. Sidling my way around the edge of the cavern, I make my way to safety by exiting through the opening that I originally entered from. I would have liked to have recovered my silver coins, or identified what dropped out of my pocket, but a voice inside my head told me that going back toward that monstrosity could only end one way.