Pain writhed throughout Soren's entire body, every single nerve in his body being flooded with overwhelming pain, forcing him to open his eyes. He sucked in a sharp breath as something cold and jagged pressed against his back. For a moment he did not move, his head throbbed in slow, heavy pulses and every breath scraped through his chest like he had swallowed dust

  'Where am I?'

  He blinked, but the darkness did not change. It was thick. Absolute. The kind that made it feel like his eyes were closed even when they weren't. His fingers twitched against the ground. Loose stones shifted under his palm and skittered away, the sound echoing strangely through the space around him. Too wide for a tunnel. Too hollow for the forest

  His head throbbed in pain. Then it came back. Running, the trees, the monster's voices screaming through the night, Vera and the fall

  Soren's stomach dropped as the memory snapped fully into place. He pushed himself up too quickly and the world lurched sideways. A dull groan slipped out before he could stop it and he had to brace one hand against the ground to keep from collapsing again

  The air was damp here. Cold. It smelled like stone and dirt and something stale that had not moved in a very long time. A faint grey sliver of light cut across the darkness somewhere above him, barely enough to outline jagged rock walls stretching upward into shadow

  A cave

  The realization settled heavily in his chest. For a few seconds he just sat there, breathing slowly, listening

  Drip

  Somewhere deeper in the darkness water struck stone

  Drip

  His ears strained for another sound. Then he heard it. Breathing. Not his own. Soren's head turned slowly toward the shape lying a few feet away in the dim light. Adrian lying there unconscious, still alive

  Soren spasms from pain which forces himself to sit down, resting his back against the cold stone wall of the cave. He looked around his eyes now focusing, but to his dismay he could barely see anything. Only faint streams of light barely illuminated his surroundings just enough to see the faint outline of everything around them. The place where they have fallen into was small, cramped almost claustrophobic. Right now only him and Adrian have fallen into here but if the whole group had joined them everyone's body would be pressed up against each other, that's how small it was. Maybe that was their fortune that only them two survived. A very grim, twisted fortune indeed

  Soren rested his head against his hand gritting his teeth his body still screaming in pain, 'Ah God it hurts. At least both of us escaped from anything serious after falling'

  He had already looked around the cave but now Soren looked up to try see the hole they had fallen from. Despair. That's what he felt. If being chased relentlessly by a terrifying monster wasn't enough and not only being trapped in a forest now they were stuck in a cave. A low sounding laughter began to resonate throughout the silence of the cave. Not the familiar mocking laughter of their dead friends, not a deep twisted mangle voice but Soren's

  ''Stuck in that shit castle for two years and forced to train like obedient dogs, stuck in this fucking forest when finally got a breathe of fresh air out of that castle and now again I'm stuck in another place. A cave!.....hahaHAHAH''

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  ''No food, a sprinkle of water, what exactly am I suppose to do to escape?''

  A low groan broke through Soren's complaints

  Adrian shifted weakly on the rough ground, his body twitching as consciousness slowly clawed its way back. For a moment he didn't move, his breathing uneven, like his body was still deciding whether waking up was worth it

  Then he sucked in a sharp breath

  "Ah… shit…"

  His hand moved to his side as he rolled slightly onto his back, wincing as loose stones scraped under him. His eyes opened but he immediately squinted, trying to adjust to the dim, miserable lighting of the cave. For several seconds he just stared upward, his mind blank

  Adrian jolted slightly and pushed himself up onto his elbows, breathing quick and shallow as his eyes darted around the cramped space. The movement made his head spin and he had to pause, squeezing his eyes shut

  "...Soren?" he muttered hoarsely

  His voice echoed faintly off the cave walls. When he opened his eyes again he finally noticed the figure sitting against the stone wall/ Relief flashed across his face

  "Oh thank god…" he breathed, his shoulders dropping slightly, "You're alive"

  Adrian slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked around the cave, his eyes struggling to make out the cramped outlines around them

  "…This place is tiny," he muttered

  His gaze shifted upward toward the faint streaks of light coming from above, following them until he found the jagged opening far overhead. For a moment he just stared. Then the realization settled in

  "…We fell pretty far," Adrian said quietly

  His voice lacked its usual nervous energy now. It was dull. Tired. He swallowed and glanced back at Soren

  "…You okay?" he asked after a moment

  Soren stared into the darkness for a moment before locking eyes with Adrian

  ''I'm good enough. I'm just sick and tired of all of this shit. I hate it''

  Adrian stayed quiet for a moment after that, studying Soren's face in the weak light that filtered down from above

  "Yeah… me too," he muttered

  His eyes drifted toward the ceiling again, following the faint streaks of light that leaked through the broken opening far above them. From this angle it looked impossibly high, jagged rocks jutting out along the walls like teeth

  "…You think we can climb that?" he asked

  The question sounded weak even as it left his mouth

  Adrian slowly pushed himself to his feet, wincing as his body protested. He took a few careful steps toward the wall beneath the opening and reached out, running his hand across the cold stone. Loose dust crumbled under his fingers. He looked up again

  "…Yeah. No chance"

  Adrian slid back down to sit on the ground again, resting his head against the cave wall. For a few seconds neither of them spoke. The silence in the cave felt heavier than the forest ever had

  Then Adrian spoke again, his voice quieter now

  "…Vera"

  He swallowed

  "She… she didn't make it out, did she"

  The question hung in the air between them

  Soren not even looking at Adrian plainly says, ''She's dead. Just like the others it took her as well. Now only me and you are left''

  Adrian didn't respond immediately. The words landed slowly, like they needed time to sink in. His gaze drifted down to the ground between them, his hands resting loosely on the rough stone as he processed it

  "…Right," he said quietly

  His voice cracked slightly at the end

  For a moment it looked like he might say something else, but nothing came. His jaw tightened and he looked away instead, staring toward the faint sliver of light spilling down from the opening above. The cave fell silent again. Only the quiet dripping of water somewhere deeper in the darkness broke the stillness.

  Adrian swallowed

  "So… that's it then," he muttered after a while, "Just us"

  He let out a weak breath through his nose, something that almost sounded like a laugh but died halfway out

  "…She saved me"

  The words came out softer this time. Adrian rubbed his face with both hands before letting them fall back to his lap

  "If she didn't push me out of the way…" he continued, trailing off before finishing the sentence

  Another stretch of silence followed. Then Adrian glanced back at Soren, studying him carefully in the dim light

  "…You're taking this pretty calmly," he said

  It wasn't an accusation

  Not yet

  But there was something uneasy in his voice now

  Adrian couldn't explain why, but a quiet thought crept into the back of his mind

  He's different