《Down the sewer (complete)》


 1:How she fell

    Ria Battista is a 21-year-old young college goer: happy, healthy, and ravishing. She has Long legs, beautiful golden hair, creamy soft skin, deep blue eyes, a sharp nose, and a soft jaw.


    Her parents are well off. Her life is great. Her friends call her princess. Her science teacher has a crush on her. She knows.


    She¡¯s flying through her life. Everything is perfect, but one-day things changed.


    On the 22nd of June, the hottest day of the month, her BFF called her on the phone.


    ¡°Hey hon~ what are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Nothing¡­ I was sleeping.¡±


    ¡°Oh come on babe! People are enjoying naked raves and you are sleeping? Get ready! I¡¯m coming to get you.¡±


    ¡°But I don¡¯t want to go!¡±


    ¡°Yes, you do. Now, be ready when I arrive. I don¡¯t want to see you sleeping on the floor- you hear?¡±


    ¡°But-¡°


    ¡°No buts! I¡¯m coming, and if you are not ready by then, then I¡¯ll throw you out of the house.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s my house-¡±


    ¡°Whatever- so be ready, I¡¯ll be there in fifteen minutes. Okay, bye.¡±


    ¡°HEY!¡±


    The phone disconnected. She looked at the thing¡­ then threw it on her cushion. Covering her face with the blanket, she went back to sleep. A few moments later the blanket was kicked away.


    ¡°Ugh`¡± Groaning, she rubbed her face on the pillow.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to go-I don¡¯t want to go!¡± She chanted for five minutes continuously, then sighed and got up.


    ¡°Just how many parties does she want to attend? We are already in our final year. If she doesn¡¯t slow down, she¡¯ll drown sooner or later.¡± She mumbled while sliding her legs through her dark blue denim jeans.


    ¡°I need to talk to her.¡± Mumbled again and completed her look by wearing a plain white t-shirt. She didn¡¯t have to go the extra mile to look beautiful. She had looked great wearing baggy shirts with a knee length skirt. Now, she looked mouth watering even in her plain jeans and a simple t-shirt. It was nothing new to her.


    Washing her face, she brushed her teeth, slapped her cheeks, and she was ready.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Oh- I forgot to do my hair.¡± And she wore a cap.


    ¡°Now, I¡¯m done.¡±


    It took her ten minutes to do all that. She was a rare breed of females who could get ready in under an hour. A minute later, she heard the sound of hip-hop music echoing around the block.


    ¡°It¡¯s so like her, to arrive before time.¡± Drinking a glass of water, she opened the door and watched a red SUV stop on her porch. Snorting air, she locked the door behind her and entered the car where her BFF sat waiting for Ria with her hands on the steering wheel.


    Black Gucci glasses on her eyes, red lipstick accentuating her lips, wearing a tight green flower printed dress, she pouts angrily, moving her tongue over her gums, visible to outsiders- a bad habit. Shaking her head disappointingly, she looks down on Ria and starts slapping her with verbal complaints.


    ¡°NO, no-no, no-no- you¡­are not going there- looking like that! Hell no!¡± she said. ¡°Just what¡¯s wrong with you? Tell me- I¡¯m your BFF right? Are you ill? Did you contact brain worms or something?¡±


    ¡°Shut up and drive.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not going anywhere until you go back inside and change into something hot, something which at least shows a little of your cleava-¡°


    ¡°I¡¯m not going. Bye.¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright, sit your sorry ass back in the car.¡± Pulling Ria onto the seat next to her, she drove into the sun muttering all kind of incomprehensible things.


    Fifteen minutes later, they arrive at the party.


    Seven more hours later, Ria wakes up drowsy. Head spinning, sight foggy, she groans. Her left-hand made squishing sounds as she rubs her wet bed.


    Why is my bed wet? Rubbing her eyes she looked around. The room was dark and her shaking vision didn¡¯t help either. There was a soft sound of running water. Nicky- she left the tap open¡­ was her first thought, the second one refused to come.


    She groggily shook her head and slapped her face. That¡¯s her morning ritual. According to her, it¡¯s a fantastic way of waking. Pulling her pillow, she rubbed her face on its wet, stinking surface.


    ¡®Wait- that¡¯s not right¡­¡¯ forcibly opening her eyes, she looked around. Firstly, she made a casual glance, then a shocked stare. There was a man lying right next to her, naked.


    ¡°WHA-!¡± She inhaled sharply, which led to coughing, and her eyes closing. She hurriedly stood up and jumped away from the floor.


    ¡°Where¡¯s the bed?¡±


    Feet wet, body cold and dripping, she stood up. Eyes watering, she rubbed her chest and thighs then sighed in relief upon finding herself still clothed.


    ¡°At least I didn¡¯t-¡± she chocked on the words next.


    ¡°Where¡­ am I?¡± She wasn¡¯t in a room. It was dark but not pitch-black. She could see light further ahead, coming from a hole in the rounded ceiling at a slant angle. She was in a tunnel, a pipe of some sort. There was green moss on the visible concrete walls, a shallow sound of water flowing away coming from the distant, and a not so sound stink.


    She was in a-


    ¡°What am I doing down a sewer?¡±

 2: When she yelled

    It was just her and him, left alone in the dark unknown sewer. Confused, stunned, and perplexed, she hesitatingly bent on her knees, leaned forward, and shook the man. She wanted to know where she was. How she¡­ they had gotten there, and where the way out was. She remembered partying. She remembered drinking more alcohol than she should have. But she also remembered leaving with Nicky. That part was a little fuzzy in her mind.Did I really leave with her? She couldn¡¯t remember.


    ¡°Did we even leave the club? Was I¡­ drugged?¡± aware of how these things usually go, she panicked. And not finding Nicky anywhere nearby didn¡¯t calm her either.


    ¡°Did she¡­ she couldn¡¯t have, could she?¡±


    Jolted back into the present dark and stinking sewer by the cold water, she looked ahead. She was still shaking the man, but he was not waking up. ¡°Oh come on!¡± She snapped and clicked her tongue. Then slapped his head -hoping that would jolt him awake- but still nothing. Not a single groan or shiver. A small fear grew in her heart. He was as cold to touch as the water beneath. The fear grew into a shiver, which shook her completely awake. Her hands quivered. She yanked the man¡¯s shoulder and turned his face up. His eyes were open. Red, blasted, hateful, and still. His pupils were blown and mouth open. He was dead. She drew a sharp breath and screamed.


    Screaming she tried to push him away but stumbled -her feet slipped on something moldy- and splashed into the dirty sewer water. The sewer tunnel screamed with her in her voice. Then her voice screamed back at her from the distance. The echoes echoed until she finally stopped and closed her mouth. Her hands trembled in fear as she brought them to her face. Something brown, maybe mud, covered her palms. Shocked at how ridiculous her morning was turning out to be, she put them back into the flowing water to clean them.


    Eventually, after her heart calmed down and her breathing stabilized, after the thought that she was currently trapped inside a sewer with no visible exists settled in her mind, she stood up.


    Her eyes peered at her surroundings. A small emotion urged her to do something. She looked for something, for someone, but found no one else in the tunnel beside her shadow.


    ¡°Nicky¡­ are you here?¡± She whispered. Then taking a step away from the corpse she ran into the darkness. With no light to see and no sound to follow, she ran practically blind. There must be an opening somewhere. Somewhere- She thought and yelled as loud as she could, ¡°NICKY! WHERE ARE YOU!?¡± She did stumble once or twice while running but managed to remain balanced. Unfortunately, there were no footpaths in this sewer. She felt disgusted moving through the brown, muddy water which splashed and rose dangerously close to her face with every step she took. Helplessness drowned her in sorrow.


    He was dead. Nicky was gone. And she was alone. ¡°HELP!¡± she kept screaming and running. Hoping someone would hear her. She screamed while running. She ran screaming. Her naked feet kept splashing and sloshing the dirty water. She squirmed and shivered every time she stepped on something soft. She ran straight, for almost twenty minutes. She didn¡¯t look back once. But half an hour later she had to stop. The foul odor was horrible enough on its own, but her rapid expenditure and brisk intake of foreign gases had left her wheezing and out of energy. Using once of the rounded walls as her support she walked forward, and just when she thought of giving up, she found sunlight. She knew it. It was lighting a portion of the rounded concrete wall and the patch of green and brown moss covering it.


    ¡°HELP, me, somebody, help me!¡± with newfound enthusiasm she moved forward. A big smile grew on her face. Her strides got bigger the closer she got. ¡°Somebody-somebody-¡± she neared the source of light yelling. It was coming from a hole in the rounded ceiling at an angle. She wanted to look outside but the hole was out of her reach. She jumped and failed. Frantically, she searched her surrounding for something to hoist herself up, but what she found made her stagger. She wavered; her face turned pale. Her legs lost power. She became stone still under the sunlight. Her feet were in the dirty water. Green moss grew from the stained walls. A man lay dead at some distance, naked.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    She had run straight. ¡°I-I ran strai¡­¡± She hadn¡¯t experienced a single turn. So how could she be back on the opposite side of where she had started from?


    ¡°What is happening¡­ what is happening to me!¡± She yelled and yanked her hair. Stopping her madness, she ran back into the darkness, onto the path, into the tunnel she had come from, mumbling, ¡°it can¡¯t be happening..¡± again and again.


    Her journey remained the same- exhausting. The water remained brown and bubbling- filthy. The walls didn¡¯t change. The light came again. The corpse still remained.


    ¡°Third time¡­ third time¡¯s a charm¡± She ran back once again. She came back and fell knees first into the stinking cold water, under the light, in front of the body.


    ¡°Wh-why-¡± she asked completely drained, but no one answered. She remembered getting up in the evening. She remembered getting into the car, them driving down the 54 street into Dunworth Avenue. Then they entered the Hola-hub club where she danced under the red, green, pink, blue, rainbow lights. On beats which sounded alien to her now. On songs, she didn¡¯t understand. She remembered drinking soda, some cocktails: few drops of lemon, some gin, brandy, a pint of milk. It tasted disgusting, like sour milk. There she met a man. There she saw Nicky winking at her. They leaned into each other and danced. She remembered kissing a girl she didn¡¯t know, remembered walking backstage with her. Then she remembered nothing else.


    ¡°Please God, help me.¡±


    There- a sudden burst of something foul and disgusting yanked her out of her thoughts. The songs from the party rang in her ears. She heard music. Carnival sounds. It was soft on her ears. Like a feather moving round and round at the edge of her ears. She licked her dry lips at the sound. Hope was slowly growing inside her.


    She looked up. The music was real. It was coming from the darkness, past the light and the body. She could see a wavering light glowing there at a distance. A light of white, like from a television. She crawled forward with shivering hands and pushed to stand up. Stepping unknowingly on the dead body, she walked first and then ran toward the sound and light. Tiredness disappeared from her face.


    The sounds grew louder the closer she got to the source. There it was¡­ a door. A big wooden door which was assembled from large planks nailed together with crossing planks at the top and the bottom. But where did the door lead? Ria didn¡¯t know. She stopped in front of it, breathless. A sense of dread enveloped her.


    What am I doing?


    The water was cold here- Too cold. It awoke her. She was senseless before. The cold water soothed her. Light leaked out from the gaps where the doors met the walls. The sound was penetrating its shabby build easily.


    She placed her hand on the door then hesitatingly peeked inside through the keyhole. She saw light. A room enveloped in fiery orange. She saw a painting on the wall over the fireplace where a big fire burned. The burning logs produced cracking sounds- a peaceful sound. A couch sat a good few feet from the door. An old black and white television glowed brightly at a healthy distance from the couch. The lively music was its creation.


    ¡°At last-¡± she found her voice back. ¡°Is there anyone¡­¡±


    ¡°Come inside, little lamb. Me don¡¯t want to wait any longer.¡± the voice came from inside. A grumpy, somewhat heavy voice it was. The voice of steel grinding upon rusted iron. Not really awe-inspiring or calming.


    ¡°Who-¡± she asked, the words slipped out of her lips which she hid quickly behind her hands.


    A step back, but the darkness scared her. The endless looping tunnel scared her even more. The corpse reminded her of her past. She felt helpless. What was she to do? Where was she to go?


    Without letting the man inside answer her, with shaking hands she opened the door and stepped inside. The door, it remained opened behind her.

 3: What she found

    The room¡¯s warmth surprised her. It made her flush. A joyful cry erupted from inside her when her feet touched the hard wooden floor. Rubbing her feet hard on the welcome mat, she carefully trotted forward. The floor creaked like under her weight. Its creak sounded like a groan which made her jump. She almost ran outside, but the endless looping dark tunnel made her hesitate and made her stay.


    In the room, she looked around. Her eyes darted from corner to corner, from the walls to the roof. It was surprising enough to find a clean warm room in the sewer but the furniture decorating the room really made it look out of place. A royal printed rug under a brown maple wood dining table. A fireplace burning logs of wood just right to the table, opposite to which hung a stuffed deer bust.  Then her eyes fell on the black recliners back, the stand to its right upon which rested a glass of milk, and the television.


    A video played on the black and white television. A video showing uncensored violence played on it. It was a video of men raping women and women burning their children wearing the biggest smiles their faces could hold. In it she saw towns burning and turning to ash, fathers cutting their parents into pieces and children burying their own parents alive. It was horrible. It was gruesome. The video was pure madness. A probable fiction because there¡¯s no way such a reality could be plausible.


    The bricked room was lit in a warm orange color of the crackling fire. The painting hanging above the fireplace wasn¡¯t an art piece either. It was just another account of conceivable horror. It depicted men and women burning alive, their skin melting and their organs keeping the fire going, their blood evaporating and charring their souls inside their own bodies. The images moved inside the painting to complete a cycle of suffering before refreshing and starting anew another cycle with a different cast. If anything, the silent depiction of horror, of a possible future, churned Ria''s inside more than the video playing on the television had.


    ¡°Me can help you, little lamb. Do you want me to help?¡± The voice came from behind the recliner. Someone sat there, hiding behind its velvety cover.


    ¡°Help- I- where am I? Who are you? Please, I need to leave!¡± She said, her voice shivering.


    ¡°We are in the sewer, of course. Where else could me be found? To leave, umm, sure-¡± The voice said and the recliner rotated. The person sitting on it came face to face with Ria. Her eyes opened wide upon seeing him. She was visibly panicking. Her teeth clacked. She drew a sharp breath and stepped back.


    Her fingers curled and made a fist. She quickly brought her hand to her mouth and held it shut, tight. She would have screamed if she hadn¡¯t closed her mouth shut, for sure. Thoughts left her. She found herself staring at the being slew jacked.  It was not human. It shared no resemblance to humans, other than the general structure of its body.


    Light green skin, long pointed ears, and small eyes. He stood only five feet tall and was a few inches shorter than Ria. However, it looked way gruesome. Two sets of fangs grew straight out of his lips. Nails so pointed they looked sharper than a razor. Its muscles weren¡¯t bulging, but something down his waist -a monstrosity of unclenchable girth- stood straight pointing toward the ceiling. It donned no clothes. Naked he stood in front of her, showing not a hint of shame or inexperience. He probably had done this countless time before. This wasn¡¯t his virgin meeting.


    It took a step forward and Ria screamed.


    ¡°NO! DON¡¯T COME NEAR ME!¡± Tears trailed out of her eyes. Her heart rate rose and picked up the fight.


    ¡°Now, now, why be so afraid? Me won¡¯t hurt lamb. Me will help you. Me promise.¡± He said.


    ¡°Wha-what do you want from me?¡± She said. Her clenched hand turned pale. Something changed in her.


    This can¡¯t be happening. I¡¯m dreaming. I probably drank too much. Nicky will wake me up. This can¡¯t be happening. Her delusional thoughts kept her sane.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°Do you not want to go free?¡±


    The words sounded so good to her. She held her breath to hold the moment- afraid she would miss her chance.


    ¡°Ye-yes,¡± she said stuttering. Nails bit into her clenched hands. ¡°Ho-how?¡± she asked, looking around the room for other monsters that might be hiding in the shadows.


    ¡°Good lamb¡­ here, here, drink this and you can go free.¡± The being enthusiastically grabbed the milk glass resting on the table to his left and limped toward her. Holding a sly smile which made him look eager and dangerous, he forcibly grabbed Ria¡¯s hand and made her hold the glass as she screamed in terror but no sound came out.


    ¡°Drink it. You drink it and we wait for one hour. Then you can go.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± she said soundlessly. ¡°Th-That ca-can¡¯t be right.¡± The words came out as a harsh scream. ¡°You are lying!¡± she floundered to get away, but the being didn¡¯t let go. It looked sheepishly at the glass- as if afraid of spilling its content.


    ¡°NO little lamb. Me don¡¯t lie. Me is good goblin. You only have to drink and wait. Me will then let you go.¡± The goblin said rubbing his hands together.


    She looked at the glass in her hand then looked outside the open door. The door was still wide open and the darkness was not overturned by light either. She wanted to runway. She could leave. She didn¡¯t know whether it would allow her. But she could leave. However, the darkness, the corpse, the kindle of light lighting her starting point made her hesitate. Here, she had a chance, no matter how slim. It was there. While outside, there was only endless darkness, a looping tunnel, a maze ever repeating.


    She was scared, really scared. But the limited options and the fear of the unknown allowed her to take a decision.


    ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ I¡¯ll drink.¡±


    ¡°Excellent choice. Me is happy. Me is very happy. Drink, Drink, hurry¡­. One hour and you¡¯ll be free.¡±


    ¡°Bu-but only i-if you step aside,¡±


    ¡°Me will stand near the fire. If you agree,¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡±


    The goblin walked away toward the fire and shivered in excitement. He kept his eyes on her. His mouth opened, watering in wait. Ria knew she was trapping herself, but she had no other choice.


    Hopefully, it¡¯ll be nothing serious. Looking at the glass she smelled the milk. It smelled awful: Of salt and vomit, of diarrhea mixed with the smell of sewer.


    She gagged. She retched. The vinegarish taste of stomach acid gnawed at her throat. Her eyes watered. She looked at the excited gobbling, gritting her teeth, reluctantly, she drank the thing sip by sip.


    The liquid was gooey, very salty and pungent. It refused to quickly go down her throat and relieve her from the humiliation. Moving around her mouth, it coated her insides in its viscous layer, and then slowly slipped down her throat, almost blocking her windpipe.


    The first sip made her lips sticky. The second sip covered her mouth. The third sip made the horrible taste explode on her tongue. On her fourth sip, some of it reached her stomach. The fifth sip was a large gulp which made her body heat up questionably. During the sixth gulp, she was sweating so hard, her t-shirt was drenched, making her nipples visible. Seventh sip and her nipples turned hard and started itching. On the eight gulp, she wanted to throw the glass, but her shivering hands kept raising it high. Another gulp made her feel a heat building below her navel, right under her stomach. A burning desire grew inside her. She drank the tenth gulp and her tongue subconsciously came out of her mouth and licked the glass clean.


    A moan escaped her throat and she shivered excitedly. She wasn¡¯t high. The thick pungent milk didn¡¯t contain any drugs. She knew how being high felt. It was something else. Something which made her parched which left her breathless and increased her heart rate. It was something which made her wet, which flamed a fierce fire in her body. Which-


    ¡®WHAT DID YOU GIVE ME?¡± She yelled, horrified, terrified. Goosebumps licked her skin. Sweat caressed her folds. The warmth made her shiver. Her vision started spinning. The whole room spun like a top.


    ¡°Te-Tell me Wh-what- what did you make me drink!¡±


    ¡°Me didn¡¯t hurt you. You please be no angry. Me will care for you. Me love will you. You will be cared. Me gave you my love fluid. It works will for an hour. Me will wait for you. You will come. Me will pregnant you again and again.¡±


    The goblin scratched his head and sat back on the couch facing her. His bulging member gawked straight at her. Raging blood pumped it into hardness. The thing scared her. The room scared her. The sewer scared her. The darkness scared her. She wished she hadn¡¯t woken up to Nicky¡¯s call. She wished she had died instead of waking up in this nightmare. She wanted to run. She wanted to leave. The door, however, was no longer open. It had closed at some time while she was drinking. She slammed into her with all the strength she could muster. It didn''t budge


    ¡°Your one hour starts now.¡±

 4: Filth all around

    Something happened. Like a burst of wind blows away dried leaves, a wave of pleasure rippled from the center of her chest and expanded to the rest of her body. The ripple, unlike a normal wave, didn¡¯t lose its energy, rather the pleasure multiplied when it banged upon her most venerable flesh nodes. She fell down. Her whole body quaked. Saliva flowed out of her mouth without stopping. She felt warmth. A burning heat she felt under her navel, and inside her heart. She felt suffocated. The nauseating wave of pleasure made her thoughts hazy. It wasn¡¯t warmth. No¡­ it was desire. She badly desired to do something bad, something frivolous. Something which would stop her pounding heart and make her body bend at unnatural angles.


    The milk churned inside her. It moved as if fondling her body from the inside. She felt butterflies warping inside her stomach- tickling her senses askew. Her muscle relaxed uncontested. She fell on the wooden floor which creaked. More like sighed, as if it had been abused in the same way one too many times.


    She undressed. She tore throw her t-shirt and pushed away from her jeans.


    Taking big gulps, she licked her lips. A white light flashed in front of her eyes. Her hands moved on her body, unconscious to her control. They fondled her breasts. Her nipples already hard and eager pulsated with want. Seconds passed like minutes. Her heart lurched. Her breath turned foggy and trailed in front of her. She felt warm- Scintillating. Her sweat coated hair grabbed her folds. Their touch lashed at her skin, leaving burned red marks. They give her the illusion of being caressed; of hands teasing her with touch.


    She moaned loudly.


    Her spine curved lusciously. A loud beat pounded her ears. Her hips moved without stimulation. Her holes gaped for a taste. She didn¡¯t have to see to know she was wet. She was dripping. She was slowly tinkling on the wooden floor. The scent, umm, so refreshing, so desiring¡­


    Her hands moved down from her breasts. They reached her navel and this sudden stimulation brought some of her conscious back. Panicked, she slammed her head on the wooden floor, leading to a red bump on her forehead.


    Come to me¡­ let me fuck you¡­ you know you want it¡­ I can fulfill your wish.


    The whispers made her want. To give in to her needs.


    I¡¯ll do it slowly. I¡¯ll fill your body. I¡¯ll rub you where you are the softest. I¡¯ll massage where it will sting the most.


    Ria almost saw herself, lying on a bed, her old boyfriend Jason behind her. His large hands moved up and down her skin. His breath Ria felt on her neck, raising Goosebumps. The air bit her like he once had, pricking and tingling her sense. Her back touched his chest, something hard pressed in the gap between her thighs. His tongue on her mouth moved in and out, deep into her throat, giving her only a sliver of air to breathe, almost choking her.


    She experienced a lapse. Her mind wandered. Her body moved on its own. She moaned loudly, crushingly loud. She came. The scent of pure selfish bodily desire wafted strongly from her and into the windowless closed room. It picked her up from the floor and moved her toward the goblin. She looked at him, watching her moaning and fondling her body, massaging and pleasuring herself. She saw him beating his monstrous member, moving his thin bony hands on its veined skin. A clear liquid flowed out of the mushroom top, flowing freely without consent. Its scent felt so familiar to her. Like it was her own, something, stolen from her at some distant past, something so important that she would suffer life long if she didn¡¯t make it her own.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    So thick! She thought. A gulp she took. Her knees turned weak again.


    Do you want me?  The goblin asked. A staggering maturity in his voice. Do you want me to help you?


    ¡°I-¡±


    She wanted him. She needed him. Her body burned so badly. Her heart pounded so harshly. She wanted to be fucked. To be pounced by a wild beast and gaped until she loses conscious. She-


    Something jolted her out of the illusion. The figures moving on the bed disappeared. The light haze surrounding her mind cleared. A memory surfaced. A deep dark secret she had forgotten or buried came alive.


    She stopped crawling and watched.


    A small girl lay on sheets of pure white silk. Her arms and legs both tied to the bedposts. A boy stood tall over her- looming. Both of them were naked. The girl looked shocked senseless. The boy leaned forward and kissed her, but the girl remained motionless. Like a doll. A lifeless corpse she remained. Her eyes were wide open. She was fearless.


    ¡°NO!¡± Ria screamed. Her scream got their attention. Both of them turned to watch her. The boy grinned. The girl questioned her fate. Why didn¡¯t you do anything? Her blank stare seemed to be asking.


    Screaming, Ria ran toward them. She took big strides and jumped on the boy. Her hands passed through him. They passed through the young girl. Ria tried to latch onto something. A lock of hair, the bed sheet, the wooden support, the posts, the white marble tiles beneath, but she continued falling. She slipped through everything material and fell back into the fire lit room with the goblin furiously beating his member. His eyes on her, wide open with desire. Her eyes on him, wide open in shock.


    The fire of lust burning inside her calmed for the moment. Her shaking heart followed its pace. A stark coldness enveloped her body. Deep festering hate emerged from her mind. It churned inside her. So deep a hate, the milk she had drank lost its potency. Drained of its effect, it returned Ria¡¯s senses to her.


    Gritting her teeth she stood. She looks at the goblin with murderous hate, who kept still beating his member, and as she walked toward him with the desire to strangle him, he grabbed the empty glass from the table and poured his seed inside it.


    His spasmed while ejaculating, keeping his eyes on her, and filled the glass full with his thick white sperm. She dressed in a hurry. Wore the tattered remains of her t-shirt and pushed her legs through her jeans.


    ¡°Ah- finally.¡± He groaned taking a big gulp of air and let go his member, which continued pulsating with desire without a inch of decrease in its vitality.


    His actions froze her. She looked at her hand in plain loathing. Her eyes moved between the glass and her hands, and she vomited.


    ¡°You can leave. You managed to preserve. It has been an hour.¡± The goblin told her, walking away from the recliner and toward the fire, where he stood facing away from her like an old wizened sage.


    She watched him move away with hateful eye and point to her left, where a new door had somehow appeared unknowingly to her.


    ¡°Where,¡± she asked, gritting her teeth, clenching her fist and compressing her hate. ¡°-does it lead?¡±


    ¡°The only way out is down, little lamb.¡± The goblin mused, watching the fire as if it held some deep secret.


    Steaming, she looked between the goblin and the door. To go down or wait in the room with the naked goblin so close to her, she didn¡¯t know the right answer. She couldn¡¯t wait with him in the room either. How would she even sleep with the thought of going to sleep only to wake up naked and bound? Taking such things into consideration, she first rested for an hour. The goblin didn¡¯t pester her. When Ria finally stood up to walk through the door, he came to sit back on his recliner with the television still playing the same video of horror in a loop. Heart calm and mind focused, she sighed and walked through the door toward whatever waited for her outside.

 5: Worried she grew

    Hesitatingly, she entered the door, and just as she crossed the threshold, it slammed shut behind her. She looked back and saw¡­ darkness. Endless haunting emptiness of the dark sewer welcomed her. There were no doors behind. It had seemingly vanished similar to how the first one had. She was back. She was back in the maze.


    It took her a moment to realize she was free. No more did she have to worry about the goblin. The goblin was gone. The room, however, had similarly disappeared along with him. Gone was the warmth, the hard creaking floor, the safety. Her desire, the heat, the love, the lush, all gone and cooled, replaced by a bone-chilling coldness, a stinking stink, dreading darkness, a knee-high pool of dirty brown-muddy water, and mind-numbing emptiness. Yes, the sound of moving water accompanied her, but what did it matter. She was promised freedom, but what she had found was far lesser than that.


    ¡°GRRRR!¡± she growled at her fate. Raised her clenched fists above her and kicked the water bathed sewer floor. She managed to create a splash, which infuriatingly, helped her become even filthier.


    Sniffling a cry, she walked forward mindless of everything around her. A memory played kindly in her mind. A funeral she saw quickly passing through in front of her eyes. A casket was slowly being buried in the dirt. Swollen eyes wet with tears. Rising chests bellow of fear and insecurity. There she stood hunkered and alone- mindless, staring, cold, and then she heard a sound.


    It got her attention. The memory disappeared and the darkness returned. There was no light only a flash of radiance lighting the water surface and the surroundings around. The flash had no source just like the room before. It was just there, out of place.


    ¡°Keep calm, keep steady; eyes open, stay ready.¡± She softly whispered to calm her raging heart. When was the last time she had felt so alone? It was such a long time ago she couldn¡¯t even remember it any longer, even when she tried.


    Her eyes furiously looked around for the source of the sound. A sound meant presence. There is no way it would have come without something else moving in the tunnel with her. She had thought herself alone, but she could supposedly not be alone anymore. However, eager though she felt, she didn¡¯t become complacent. She stayed vigilant. The debacle of her previous mysterious tackle wasn¡¯t worn off her yet.


    ¡°There is someone here¡­¡± The sound could have been her delusion, a growth of her scared mind. But she needed it. She badly needed to feel that she wasn¡¯t alone. And now that she had found inkling, she clung to it despite its authenticity.


    The morbid silence and darkness however restricted in more than one way. She walked forward, hunched with her hands spread out in front of her. She walked and walked and walked. Her feet hurt. Just imagining how close she was to get seriously ill was making her itch all over her body. Her clothes didn¡¯t help against the coldness either. She needed to find a dry spot. She wanted one urgently.


    Just when her resolve started wavering, the splashing sound came again from somewhere in the distance. What would she do? It was up to her. The sound broke her concentration. Angry and frustrated she might have been but her emotions kept her busy, kept her mind off her situation. The sound just did that. It reminded her of her present. It made her hesitate, and brought her back, out of her delusion and into the sewer.


    The sound came again. This time a ripple followed it. She made up her mind and ran after the sound. She had already experienced the horrifying. At least a part of it was not untouched to her anymore. There could be monsters waiting for her in the darkness, creating sounds to play games with her. However, what choice did she have? The goblin hadn¡¯t asked her to enter the room, but she had. He hadn¡¯t forced her to drink his milk. He hadn¡¯t even touched her when she was ready to be touched! It was her own two feet she had walked on. Her own hands had raised the glass higher and higher. Her own mouth had swallowed his cum sip by sip. Nobody had forced her.


    She knew it was a gamble. Her running after ghostly sounds and illusionary people didn¡¯t improve her situation. They only gave her hope. And that was all she needed. She didn¡¯t know what waited for her at the source of the sound; what will be asked of her; and whether she¡¯ll be helped or not. But she had to take to step forward to see for herself. She could flee or fight. And she had decided to fight.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    She had already tried tracing the length of the sewer and what had that gotten her? an endlessly looping maze. At least there was something there. In the swirling, rippling water, where plastic bottles and bags floated and moved, she actually had a chance of finding hope. The mortifying stench didn¡¯t help. Her memories didn¡¯t help. Her worries didn¡¯t help. The knee-high water didn¡¯t help her. It was the only chance she had at moving forward. Where ever it leads her. She knew she couldn¡¯t be complacent.


    ¡°I have to get out of here.¡±


    Hence, she ran, awkwardly at first, and then determined, she ran through the drowned sewer. She ran without worry. She didn¡¯t have the energy to waste on such worries. She wasn¡¯t exactly hungry; however, she wasn¡¯t completely in control of her thoughts either. What will I do if I¡¯m given something to drink again? What will happen to me then?


    With worries keeping her occupied and her fake confidence driving her, she continued moving. Light peeked inside the sewer at some places- not brightening the sewer, only making the darkness a shade or two lighter. Tired and sulking, thinking and trying to figure out how she got here, she mumbled her thoughts out loud. She wasn¡¯t turning senile. It was just a habit she had grown into. Something which had helped her in school, though annoyed her mates, and kept her mind occupied. It preserved her sanity in a way, kept her from breaking down.


    Then she saw. A bit further away from her, a man. A hat covered his head, a long coat dropped from his shoulders and dragged behind him on the water. His legs she couldn¡¯t see. Probably underwater, she thought. He moved, creating ripples. He was far, but his presence kindled a spark inside her. I¡¯m not alone. The thought made her lips quiver and tears formed in her eyes. Joy appeared. Hope arrived.


    ¡°Mister!¡± she spoke first, then yelled loudly. Her voice quivered in helplessness.


    The man stopped. The ripples stopped with him. He turned his head. The hat moved as he looked at her. She couldn¡¯t see his face, but it gave her a sense of security. At least his head didn¡¯t turn a whole 180 degrees, like a ghost. The silly thought made her smile. Thanks indeed. Because that would have made him another inhuman creature; she didn¡¯t have the heart to face another one of those. Not right now. One is the most vulnerable when they are the happiest. And she hadn¡¯t been this happy in a long time.


    But after glancing at her, the man in long camel-colored coat walked away. Down the dark tunnel, he went, paying her no further attention.


    His nonchalance surprised her. She wasn¡¯t expecting to be ignored. In the darkness, he went. She took a step forward in a daze, and then ran after him, screaming.


    ¡°Sir, stop! You have to help me. I can¡¯t get out. Please-¡± but her feet failed to find footing. She fell forward as if she had missed a stair. She hadn¡¯t stumbled. The floor was actually uneven. The momentum carried her feet down and it slammed on the sewer floor, which was a good few inches deeper. A sharp pain shot up from her foot to her hip. She yelped up in pain. Her second foot followed and she found herself standing in waist-high water. The change had happened too suddenly. The water surface had remained the same but the floor hadn¡¯t. It was like she had walked into a different section of the sewer.


    Her stubbed fears found a crack to rush out through. The worry of being attacked made her flinch. But the man was walking further and further away. The water didn¡¯t seem to be restricting him. He was already so far away; she could only make out a general shape of him. The tunnel was too dark. The light didn¡¯t help.


    Worried, she ran after the man. The water made her slow. The various artifacts littering the floor further hampered her movement. ¡°Hey, why aren¡¯t you stopping?¡± she yelled. Her voice, however, only echoed, it failed to find ears to scratch. Slowly, the man disappeared from her view. She followed him for a few more steps, eventually; she lost her will to continue.


    Defeated, she came to a stop. The constant stress made her wonder more, made her hesitate, it made her weaker than she really was. Should she stop following the man and look for an exit, instead? Maybe this dark tunnel really had an end? Maybe it wasn¡¯t a looping maze like the one before!


    Yes. It ought to be! She thought, but deep down she knew there was no exit. She had walked straight for so long. The sewer hadn¡¯t even branched! How was she supposed to find an exit in this straight tube?


    ¡°Who am I kidding?¡± She mumbled. ¡°I need to make up my mind.¡± Ria knew she had progressed forward only after meeting the goblin. Before him, she was stuck. Just like how finding the room had given her a chance to escape. She had already found the odd one of this stretch of tunnel. She just needed to confront him. She couldn¡¯t give up now! No, she wouldn¡¯t!


    Glowing with newfound vigor, she steeled her heart for her future. ¡°There is no exit.¡± This was the first thing she needed to understand. ¡°The only way out is down.¡± This was what the goblin had repeated to her. ¡°The only way out is down.¡± Taking a deep breath she decided. ¡°I¡¯ll go down.¡±

 6: When lies come true

    Following her decision, she inhaled the moldy, stale air, coughed and sighed. With fear gone, her complexion improved. A bush of red on her cheeks and strength in her movement, she followed the man. Her tears fell to give space to sanity. The emptiness of the tunnel shifted from hostility to company.


    Ria slapped her hands and rubbed them, her eyes wandering around. The splashing sound came again and she followed. Dragging her feet -to dampen the resistance- she walked. The cold no longer froze her body, it refreshed her instead. The stench no more made her frown. No, that didn¡¯t change. The stench was too much, especially in this part of the sewer. The penetrating scent of something decomposing had the tunnel filled. It was really vulgar.


    She walked for ten minutes straight, with her hands covering her nose, but there was still no sign of the man. She was determined nonetheless. ¡°I¡¯m not giving up. I am going to leave. You can¡¯t keep me caged. Not again.¡±


    Then she saw it. Not the man, no. Over the slow water current, the camel coat was floating away from her, trailed at a few feet of distance by the hat.


    ¡°No¡­¡± She mumbled and her hands fell to her sides.


    ¡°No, no, NO!¡± her echoes yelled behind her as she haphazardly ran toward the clothes. The water tried to hold her back, it certainly resisted her emotional energy, but its feeble chains couldn¡¯t stop her.


    ¡°It can¡¯t be. It can¡¯t be¡­¡± she chanted, passing by the hat, as she came to stop behind the coat, which kept floating away of her. Her trembling hands pulled the half drenched, half submerged coat out of the water and looked at it incredulously. It was the same camel-colored coat. There was no doubt about it.


    ¡°But¡­¡± she said in shock. No much time had passed since she had made the decision to see the end of her struggle. She needed time, however; Valuable time to further steel her heart for future troubles. Her resolve was made of glass sheets and wet mud. It wasn¡¯t yet strong. Just a single nudge of emotions, of circumstances, of another bump on the road, a difficulty, and her fake construct started crumbling like her confidence.


    ¡°What is happening?¡± she asked. Her eyes moved from the clothes to the sewer. The darkness -once again- had everything around her in its grasp. The silence was jarring once again. The water was freezing cold. The tunnel was constraining and her mind started wavering. The dread was live again. Her shivers detailed of her condition. The sewer had a hold on her once again.


    She imagined a naked man standing in the darkness staring at her; Lust brimming in his eyes, desire dripping from his tongue, and hunger festering his inside.  She took a step back. The coat fell from her hands. The sound made her jump. She splashed and squished away. Tumbling she fell in the sewer and the muddy water swallowed her body. With only her head outside, she saw the hats brim. It was slowly being carried away by the flow. Rotating round and round, it was moving away from her.


    ¡°God, help me!¡± she mumbled, clenching a bottle her hands had found on the drowned floor. Her chest rose and fell as she sat there waiting. She longed for her friends, her pillow, for the comfort of her bed. She wanted to sleep. She was tired. She was hungry and was slowly growing lucid and lethargic. She almost wanted something to charge toward her shearing the darkness with its burning ferocity and take her down for her sins.


    She almost wanted to close her eyes, but something from her past, the echoes of young laughter and the whispers of a dreadful promise, kept her awake. Her fear kept her caged.  The lifelessness of the sewer was haunting enough. However, Ria wasn¡¯t broken yet. This wasn¡¯t enough. Her eyes closed for a moment. She needed time to think. But her mind didn¡¯t want her in control. In the darkness, she saw something. The image of a wooden floor stained by something red and bubbling passed by her mind. She breathed sharply. Her eyes opened a second later and goosebumps erupted all over her body.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    ¡°Who is there?¡± she yelled.


    And then the hat rose.


    The water followed it. Something humongous tore through the calm muddy water and stood up in front of her. The erupting water fell back, most splashed back into the stream, while some fell on her head. Ria chocked. Her eyes refused to believe. Her past and the reality, her dreams, and the present, mixed together in front of her eyes to create the illusion of a ghost looming over her. Through revoltingly large and yellow glowing eyes, it stared.


    Leaning toward her face, it opened its extended jaw, full of gleaming white, dagger-sharp teeth. Scales donned its body, a tail, she saw, flipping behind its broad, light-yellow scaled chest. She sat in the water shell shocked, stunned, breathless, as the beast slashed his clawed hand at her and ripped her shoulder into pieces, ripped her flesh off her body, and tore her head off her neck.


    Ria hiccupped as the thoughts zipped through her head, as the possible future burned through her thoughts. Eyes in eyes, it exhaled a puff of steam on her face, and then spoke¡­


    ¡°BOO!¡± It said. Ria fell backward in the water, unconscious.


    Sometime later, she woke up. Drenched but clothed, scared but complete. Her eyes darted everywhere to look out for her assailant. Was it her assailant, however? It hadn¡¯t eaten her¡­ Yet. Nor was she raped.


    At least I can¡¯t feel it. She thought.  She was scared, but not frantic. She felt awake. Refreshed.


    She was out of the waist-high water -Yes, she was- and now sat uncomfortably on a relatively dry piece of flat bricked floor. Uncomfortably she sat because she couldn¡¯t believe she was alive. ¡°How, where¡­¡± stumbling through her words she stood. Disbelieving, still not understanding how she was alive, she tried to take a step forward when she heard something.


    ¡°Jou awake, girl?¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°I have to say, ghough I love to scare ghe pepole who are sent to me home, jou is the first bun who fell unbonsbious. Girl, I¡­¡±


    There it was, the big yellow, scaled, clawed, jawed, crocodile, with a bulging belly, donning an open buttoned coat and a dripping hat -the same ones from before-, walking toward her on its hind legs, while flossing her monstrous teeth. Thank God, the overlord of fear, that this unexpected spectacle left Ria so dumbstruck that she couldn¡¯t lose unconscious again.


    ¡°Whag in God¡¯s name are jou saying?¡± The crocodile said when it heard Ria mumble. Ria snickered, then she looked around, and started walking away.


    ¡°Jhese bloody day walkers¡­ Ugh, make me want to shtomp my feetch. Jou shtop foolish girl and come bahk. Don¡¯t jou wansht to leabe?¡± the croc screamed as if afraid of losing sight of Ria. It pondered -pouting her non-existent lips and shaking her bulging tummy with her clawed hands- whether to run after Ria or not. Ria stopped. It sighed in happiness and clapped its forelimbs upon seeing that it wouldn¡¯t have to run after the foolish girl.


    ¡°You¡­ are real?¡± Ria turned around and asked.


    ¡°Of courshe, I am.¡± The croc said.


    ¡°And you can talk?¡±


    ¡°-Ever shince my birth, girl. Now bome on, we have to gho backe, it¡¯s almost time¡­¡± The croc trailed off and started walking way.


    ¡°You said something about leaving? Ria said. ¡°I don¡¯t want to waste your time¡­ but you have to tell me, please. I can¡¯t stay here. I can¡¯t.¡±


    The croc stopped to look back at her, squinting. ¡°Didn¡¯t the old dog above tell you the rules, hmm?¡±


    ¡°What rules?¡± Ria said, stupefied.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me jou drank his¡­" The croc said uncomfortably, ¡°before he told jou the rulez?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh, he duped Jou¡­¡± it said, ¡°That old trickster¡­ he did jou good. Jou poor, poor child. Well, it¡¯s noh like jou have any choice now, hmm.¡±


    ¡°What is happening? Tell me. I was partying with my friend and¡­¡± It interrupted Ria.


    ¡°We can talk while waking. Follow me.¡±


    Don¡¯t go. Ria¡¯s mind said. I know him. You can¡¯t believe what it''s saying.


    A feverish desire to stay alive grew inside her. She looked at the crocodile slowly trailing away and looked back at the emptiness. A stream of dirty stinking water flowed behind her, edging away into the darkness. Ria knew she was stuck. And she knew it was a bad idea. But she had no choice. Even though her heart raced inside her chest to walk away, she followed the croc.


    Frightened as she was, she still needed to know. She needed to find the exit. And eerie as it may sound, the talking crocodile was her only hint.

 7.1: Weak she felt

    The crocodile walked at the front and Ria followed behind. Tension strewn between them, helplessness oozing, they traced the bricked floor leaving the flowing stream of sewer water behind. Ten minutes of silence drained Ria faster than the undying length of struggle she had performed before meeting the croc.


    Flustered by the annoying silence, Ria spoke up.


    ¡°So,¡± she said, ¡°Where are you taking me?¡± But her companion didn¡¯t reply.


    Ria tried to ask again, but she somehow found her voice gone. An invisible hand seemed to be constricting her throat. She choked as tears welled in her eyes and slide down her cheeks. A single human can only take so much in a short time frame. Stress was piling on her. Fear accumulating. Death wasn¡¯t out of prospect. And now she was following a sewer crocodile. It¡¯s not false to say that Ria was on the threshold of breaking mentally.


    She hesitated. Rubbing her cheeks, eyes filtering sadness, head facing the floor, she watched her battered bare feet carrying her forward. They looked bad. Walking in the cold water had taken its toll from her feet. Wrinkled skin, white tone, patches of red, and blisters near the toes. Her feet were numb but they were slowly coming back to life. With warm air circulating around them, they were starting to hurt. Pain in Ria¡¯s case wasn¡¯t an accurate measure of her condition. However, her feet moved without stopping, carrying her forward. She had managed for this so long without falling. She wasn¡¯t going to back down now.


    I-I will go back alive. She thought and waited for the reply. Counting her footsteps to force back the silence and to keep her mind occupied, she followed behind the croc. Time passed very slowly. She only managed to count one hundred steps about four times before every breath she took started harassing her for questions and she couldn¡¯t hold on any longer.


    ¡°At least tell me about the rules?¡± She screamed. She had wanted to speak softly, but it seems she was more frightened than she had imagined. The croc- stopped and looked back following her outrage. It gave her a ¡®What do you want?¡¯ look then started walking again.


    A small crack and the dam holding her emotions in check broke. Relief followed as she emptied her mind and released everything stressing her.


    ¡°Tell me!¡± she said. ¡°Or I am not going with you. You can leave me alone for all I care! What the fuck are you? Why can you talk? What is this place!?¡± and she was done screaming. Exhaustion came over her once the emotions settled down. Her mind relaxed and she felt peace. Calmness settled in the vacuum left behind by rage. Her outlook refreshed and even though the croc watched her contemplating its next step, she didn¡¯t fear it anymore.


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t excepting an outbreak from Jou, girl. That¡¯s for sure. Jou deserves an explanation at the very least. I can do that.¡±


    Ria¡¯s face glowed red from shame and with excitement. She clenched her fist to bear through any bad news which might be coming her way. Images of her recent past flashed through her mind as she inhaled deeply and held her breath.


    ¡°This sewer,¡± The croc said scratching its chin with what one can call its index claw. ¡°Jou can call it a prison. Well, it¡¯s not a prison like Jou humans have. Ah, it¡¯s something like that.¡± Ria¡¯s face turned pale. She had been expecting¡­ even she didn¡¯t know what she was expecting, but she wasn¡¯t expecting being in a prison. Something tugged her mind, bringing buried thoughts to the surface, but she ignored them for the time being. She was actually thinking along the lines of the story Alice and the wonderland, where she was this stories Alice and the sewer was her wonderland.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°Jou are technically caged, but not bound.¡± The Croc was still speaking and its next words flushed Ria¡¯s face back with color. ¡°And there is a way out. Now, I can¡¯t exactly tell Jou where the exit is, being the very person placed to keep an eye on you. But I can still advise Jou to go deeper.¡±


    ¡°The only way out is down the sewer.¡± Ria whispered along with the croc-.


    ¡°So Jou do know. At least the old dog told didn¡¯t forget to tell jou that. Alright, now follow me quietly. We are getting close.¡±


    Their journey continued. A few thousand steps they walked, a few hundred thoughts Ria thought. She walked mindlessly watching her feet repeating the same motion over and over again. Eventually, she entered a daze. She kept counting her steps, the time continued to pass, the scenery refused to change and soon her counting reached six thousand six hundred steps when her companions suddenly stopped.


    ¡°We are here.¡± the croc said.


    The voice brought her back into the reality. For the first time Ria recognized how gritty and irritating the Croc¡¯s voice was. The feminine quality of its voice wasn¡¯t easy on the ears either. If only, it didn¡¯t speak with a heavy eastern accent, then there might have been some relief to have.


    Ria looked up at the croc and then to her left following its head. There, in the depth of the tunnels dark entrails, at an immeasurable distance away, glowed a soft light, flickering like a candle flame. Eyebrows cocked, Ria looked at her¡­ companion? Asking, ¡®what¡¯s that¡¯ without speaking? It smiled in return. Jerking its large head toward the light -telling her to follow- it started walking again.


    Ria did hesitate. Now that their destination was so close and the climax had finally arrived, the thoughts she had bared behind the excuse of exhaustion and fickleness once again bared their fangs at her. She couldn¡¯t ignore them any longer. She remembered the goblin and his unusual demand. Lust caressed a tiny portion of her body before strength washed out of her limbs. She knew the croc was also not up to anything good. Although it had acted civil and hadn¡¯t demanded anything from her, the goblin had also acted similarly. However there was one crutch which kept her sane. No matter how monsterish the goblins appearance was, he hadn¡¯t attacked her. So, maybe, the croc won¡¯t betray her either. This was the thing which gave her the strength to finish the last hundred or so meters of her journey remaining; this and her only clue out of the sewer.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go down. I¡¯ll go down.¡± She chanted continuously as the light grew brighter around her and so did a gurgling sound, coming from somewhere past the light.


    She ignored the sound for now, but her face scrunched when she saw the light source. All the trouble she had faced, all the steps she had taken, the water she had swam through, the fear she had felt, all of that, just to reach a dining table. It was hilarious. She snickered. Unable to control the emotions juxtaposed inside her she laughed, crazily.


    ¡°Bah! I felt so much- I lost hope, I felt like dying, just for this?¡± She said, crying tears of laughter. She wasn¡¯t happy though. No need to mistake her laughter for happiness. She was frustrated. She was angry. She didn¡¯t know what she was thinking. Why had she followed the Croc, really? Was she hoping to be shown a door with an exit sign hanging above it and waved a happy farewell? Was that what she wanted? Well, she wasn¡¯t after a reward. That¡¯s for sure. She wasn¡¯t a fool. She knew the Croc wouldn¡¯t help her escape. Now that the truth was out, however, she was finding it very hard to digest.


    It was a small square table covered in a clean white cloth. Five candles burned in their silver stand which was placed at the center of the table, lighting the table and its surroundings in a soft orange light.


    ¡°Sit,¡± The croc said, pulling the chair nearest to him looking expressionless. Ria sat at it, aghast. Color drained from her face as she looked at her reflection on the clean and polished silver plate sitting on the table right in front of her. The croc sat down on a chair on the opposite side of the table, facing her.


    Ria looked up from her plate and across the table at the Croc- A bad feeling welling inside her heart. It looked at her in silence. She broke the eye contact and asked.


    ¡°What¡¯s on the menu?¡± Ria said then jumped in surprise at her own words. Glancing back, she met the Croc¡¯s eyes once again, a silent plea in her gaze. She was replied with silence until -this time- the Croc broke eye contact and sighed. It groaned, rhythmically tapping its claws on the table, before it looked back at her and said a single word, ¡°You.¡±

 7.2: Weak she felt

    ¡°You,¡± she heard. ¡®You¡¯ It has a nice ring to it.  She thought. For some reason she, though, was surprised, wasn¡¯t scared. Knowing her task instead relaxed her. The Goosebumps which had finally found a reason to touch her skin came and went- like a firecracker, bringing a second of excitement ¨Cin her case, dread- before letting the normal settle down.


    ¡°Me,¡± she whispered with a drawn breath. ¡°Why me?¡± She spoke, asking no one. The relaxation and comfort she had thought would remain with her soon started wearing, leaving her discomforted first, then stunned. Her thoughts paused for a second before the situation attacked her in earnest.


    ¡°You are going to eat me.¡± She mumbled, gulping.


    Her sight widened at the realization, her pupils expanding. The light hadn¡¯t been blinding. The table wasn¡¯t once unapproachable. The croc, though not her friend, hadn¡¯t been the scariest thing down the sewer either. It¡¯s funny really, how easily a single word had converted the role of light and darkness. Ria pushed with her legs, leaning back into her chair. She felt exposed in the light. So naked she felt. If only she could jump into the darkness and bind for time. But could she even try that? She didn¡¯t have time and no amount of darkness would have saved her. She had found the Croc in the darkness. Or maybe It had found her instead. She couldn¡¯t contemplate. She was alone and, she was finally coming to understand the disparity of her position.


    The square dinner table had four chairs in total. Ria and the croc occupied two of them. The chair to her left was empty, and the other had fallen over. The chairs themselves weren¡¯t the most comfortable pieces of furniture there. With no cushion at either the seat or the back which was just a wooden board- flat and straight, however, the polished surface of the chair left to her gleamed dark brown under the candlelight, while the other chair ¨Cthe one which had fallen over- held a wet gleam to it; like a fire- doused, yet, red and smoldering.


    Ria¡¯s own chair was similar to the dark brown chair but with an angled back and no armrests. And similarly had no pieces of brutalized ropes dangling from the armrests either. There was an empty plate to her right, positioned in front of the chair now fallen and hidden under the darkness. Besides these, there was an old weighing machine sitting right in front of Ria¡¯s plate, whose one side was weighed down by a stone slightly smaller than a baby fist.


    Ria looked closely and found out that the stone was in fact a real baby¡¯s mummified fist. The Croc smiled at her discovery; while watching her shy away into the back of her chair, it fished for something in its coats left pocket. Maintaining eye contact, it pulled the find out of the pocket and threw it toward Ria who gasped, leaning further back into her chair. The thing tumbled toward her on the table and clanged to a stop atop her plate. It was a knife. Not a steel knife, but a knife with a yellow colored blade, housing an extremely sharp edge, and polished bone handle.


    Ria stared at the knife in a daze.


    ¡°Jou have to feed me a pound of your meat if jou wants to leabe here¡¯. Jou has an¡¯ hour.¡± The Croc said, but Ria stayed silent.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. Don¡¯t try to run. Once the hour ends, I¡¯ll have to hunt Jou down, and jou will lose much more than a few pounds if it came to that.¡± It continued. Ria still stayed silent, staring at him.


    The Croc looked at her, squinting, giving her time to ask questions. ¡°Don¡¯t try to cut Jost whole hand or jost boob. I have seen people die that way.¡± It added and thumped an hour-glass on the table. ¡°Jost time starts now.¡±


    Ria stood up and looked around. She was hesitant, but not frantic. Her body though shivered. The temperature had dropped without her knowing, and it was still dropping. There was nothing around the table other than emptiness, and a small mound.


    ¡°I can run.¡± The thought came hopelessly to her mind, with the sound of water flowing in the background. I can jump and get away from here, even if it¡¯s a croc. She thought, rubbing her hands together. The temperature was really dropping now. She could see her breath fogging. Tapping her foot, she leaned on the table and picked the candle stand. A single glance showed her the croc¡¯s indifference and she walked away from them both- the table and its occupant.


    She walked blind. Although her path lightened under the flame''s light, the overall emptiness of her surrounding didn¡¯t decrease. It only grew on her the longer she walked. She didn¡¯t know what she was looking for. She wasn¡¯t trying to run or hide. She simply wanted to find a piece of hope lying around. She had one hour and wanted to make the best of it.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    But her mindless tracking came to a stop when she stepped on something hard and it broke with a loud and echoing crunch. She had stopped paying attention some while ago without noticing. It is safe to say she had started losing her mind. She looked down and found herself stepping on the femur, grayed and broken. Inhaling sharply, she stepped to the side and another crunch sounded out. This one was louder than the one previous to it.


    ¡°Wha-¡± She stumbled backward as her foot stuck in a cavity of some kind and she fell to the ground screaming. Her arms flailed at her sides as the flickering light lightened large mounds around her. One look made her stunned, another left her tongue-tied.


    She had stumbled on a skeleton and was staring at a mound made of bones. Bones stacked over and over and over, creating small hills which now loomed over her like fingers ready to catch her. Skulls, ribs, hips, spines, and femurs made the bulk of their mass. The sight paled her face. A few moments later, when the surprise vanished, she pushed herself up, and picking the only candle still burning, she started running the way she had come.


    An hour, She thought. I only had an hour. How much time do I still have?


    Somehow she found the table, now lit by another set of candles with the Croc sitting calmly at his seat. He looked at her, surprised. Ria was starting to understand his expressions. Maybe he was surprised she had come back or it was something else. She didn¡¯t know. She didn¡¯t want to know and neither did she have the time.


    Pulling her chair back she sat on it. Although there was no wind blowing, the temperature now was chilling enough to make her shiver. How does it even work? The thought distracted her, but she shook her head and hissed.


    She looked at the Croc ¨Cwho sat leaning- and rubbed her hands. ¡°I-I can¡¯t run¡­ can I?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid not.¡±


    ¡°Are you a female?¡± she asked and it perked up in amusement. ¡°No, no- I mean there is no exit, right?¡±


    ¡°Jou already know the answer.¡±


    ¡°Right- right,¡± Ria said now rubbing her shoulders which were turning stiff from the cold. Her eyes though were watching the sand slip inside the hourglass. Its sound weighted over like her like a mountain crumbling. Now, she couldn¡¯t really cut her own flesh and feed it to the croc now, could she? Where was the sense in that? But how was she to survive then? What would happen to her once the one hour elapsed? She wasn¡¯t surprised to imagine the Croc jumping on her and ripping her soul out of her body. Her crusader was a man-eating beast, after all. She had no doubt about that.


    As she stared at the sharpened knife sitting on the silver plate, she noticed the difference between their seating. While the Croc had everything from different types of knives to a wine bottle and a napkin on its side, she only had a single knife to her, and even it was provided by her date.


    I really did walk into this on my own, didn¡¯t I? She harrumphed and smirked as a distant memory starting surfacing in her mind.


    It was an old memory; one so old it arrived fragmented and blurred. But there it was, fizzing into existence from the dark recess of her past. In it she found a face, too young to be hers, being reflected back by the glass of water a youthful handheld. She heard music, but it was too distant, too fragmented to be clear. Was it even music? It certainly held a rhythmic beat to it, so maybe it was. She saw shadows, walking past her as broken silhouettes, and her companions strutting, while she sat distressed.


    She looked up and saw a majestic chandelier hanging right above her, showering her in a rain of golden light. She looked down and noticed a carpet of white, stained with a patch of red, which flowed toward her like a living object, becoming of shapes too abstract and un-cohesive. Muffled sounds were all around her. Interested, she looked around. She saw figures of shadow pointing their fingers at her- some hissed, others watched in glee. She looked back and found herself sitting crouched on the carpet. Fingers now were trying to burn into her shoulder, trying to pry her away into the night. The spilled liquid of red had come to coat her fingers and a pair of dead eyes stared back ahead.


    ¡°NO!¡± Ria slammed her hands on the table. The tremor woke her from the dream. The same dull and emptiness surrounded her again. The croc sat in front of her looking at her with a dead pane stare.


    ¡°You should hurry.¡± It said.


    A sharp pain was rising from her left hand. She looked down and found a slit bleeding blood from her left wrist. Surprised, she looked at the plate for the knife and found it held tightly in her hand, instead.


    Her hand clenched the bone handle as tightly as it could. Her eyes burned red as she stared at her hands without blinking. She had just remembered something she didn¡¯t want to remember any more. She didn¡¯t.


    She hoped tears would well in her eyes and make her sight hazy. Hoped that they would destroy the evidence of her deed and make her forget, but they refused to come. The burning desire, however, grew instead; while the sand slowly slipped.


    ¡°You only have half an hour remaining.¡± The croc reminded her.


    Ria raised the knife above her head in one forceful sweep and held it there. The white cloth covering the table beneath her wrist distracted her for a second, reminding her of her dream.


    Will it be stained in red if I cut my wrist? She thought, dangerous thoughts emerging in her mind.


    ¡°I advise Jou to cut your fingers, instead. If jou ration them properly, jou will be able to keep enough fingers to not impede your walking or holding.¡±


    Hesitation waned as the voice fell on her ears, the knife dropped, and blood splattered, a scream echoed. The white table cloth really changed colors as blood seeped into its pores.

 8.1: A green surprise

    In a sunlit chamber, a wooden door ingrained with the pattern of a rose flourishing midst bushes opened soundlessly. A few seconds later, a topless girl missing both her ears, fell out on the grass beneath. The door closed behind her and vanished.


    The girl was Ria. She had survived¡­ but not without repercussions. She had to sacrifice both of her ears and a part of her left hand to sate the Crocs hunger. She had survived, but the price she had to pay might just have been too big for her to remain sane any longer. If it wasn¡¯t for the weakness which had hit her right after and the Crocs unbiased kindness ¨Cfor he was the one who had shoved her into the door after she had lost conscious- she might just have ended up becoming a part of the bone dumps she had seen in the pitch-black dining chamber.


    Exhaustion had sent her conscious adrift, but the everlasting pain managed to bring her back around. Time seamlessly passed but the surrounding didn¡¯t show any reactions to its movements. The light shower remained constant throughout as if the cycle of day and night had been demolished and exchanged with a never-ending day. The night refused to come.


    Sometime later, Ria woke up with pulsating blobs of hurt ravaging through her body. Pain pounded her head from both of the sides. Assaulting her like the sting from a hundred bees. Her left hand, which was wrapped in a bloody bandage haphazardly created from her own t-shirt, however, was numb. When she tried to flex her fingers, it led to a sharp spike of unwanted emotions crawl up her arm, which made her leave it for the time being.


    Groaning and cursing under her breath, she shook her head. She mindlessly rubbed her other hand ¨Cher safe hand- on the grass bed, remembering the last of her coherent thoughts. The images of the Croc, one by one popping her bleeding fingers and ears into its mouth, and delightfully moaning while chewing on the bone -which snapped under its fangs with a gut-wrenching crunch- involuntarily passed through her mind, nauseating her further. She moved through the motions of vomit, failed to produce any result, and fell face-first on the wet grass with her eyes open.


    She stared directly at the green grass and the brown soil beneath it, unable to produce any thoughts. The sound of her own breathing echoed in her ears.


    Grass,


    The thought, the sight, the past, the present, they seemed so incredulous to her. It wasn¡¯t long ago when she had happily fallen sleep in her condo, not planning to wake up until night; and now here she was, in this hell of a place, being tortured and maimed, brutalized and forced to drink and harm. She wasn¡¯t this girl, this rabid and insecure mental being without the capacity of making rational decisions. Just how had she decided it was her only option to do as told and follow creepy sewer beasts without a sense of security or rationality? It is crazy unbelievable to just think about all these things and she had managed to walk through these horrible ordeals and was still alive and well- considering the other side of well was not unwell, but dead.  Stolen story; please report.


    ¡°URG!¡± She groaned as load as she physically could- some of it to numb her pain, and some to steel through the frustration clogging her chest and making her restless. Because groaning alone wasn¡¯t helping her much, she started yelling and rambling at the top of her voice and pounding the ground with her safe hand. She even banged her forehead on the ground a good few times before her thoughts cleared up ¨Cnaturally- and she understood that foolishness wasn¡¯t the way out of her situation. She needed to get her act straight.


    Rubbing her open hand on the grass bed, she pushed her fingers into the soil and curled them into a fist. With the sound of roots tearing, she stood up and breathed in the cold fresh air, blinking. The haunting was still fresh in her mind. However, somehow, the horrifying pain she had gone through didn¡¯t turn into trauma and change her personality for the worst. The incident didn¡¯t make her cold-hearted either, but it is safe to say from her recent emotional display that her mentality was changing. Now whether it was adapting to her situation or degrading was something that time would tell. For now, she was focusing on her surroundings, ignoring everything else.


    The area, the light, the grass, and the overall freshness fascinated and overwhelmed her at first, but she pushed these emotions away before they could take dangerous roots and grow into hope. Although there was grass under her feet and plants growing around her, she was still inside the sewer. She knew it and it was true. Her situation hadn¡¯t changed. She had just completed a challenge and was facing another.


    The whole floor had grass growing over it. Even the walls were covered in a curtain of deep and lush flowering barbed vines. She could even see a humongous tree growing at a distance; its countless branches covered the whole roof like a web. There was not a hint of anything related to sewers in this whole area. Even the odor unsurprisingly was of flowery and fruity scent with a hint of herbal taste to the mix.


    As if this paradisiacal display wasn¡¯t enough, there were even butterflies roaming; and the singing of birds wasn¡¯t lost either, rather it was pretty loud and clear.


    Am I still in the sewer? The thought did come to her mind but her desperation wasn¡¯t light enough to let her grow complacent. She thought, she processed, and she discarded. She took the bright roof as her proof. There was light in the garden, but it wasn¡¯t coming from an open sky. A squinted glare had confirmed to her that the whole roof was shining white. There were no cracks slipping light into the garden. The light was actually a manifestation of the crystal growth covering the whole roof. The crystals glowed, emitting a soft warm light, making it possible for the greenery to flourish here.


    I¡¯m still in the sewer. She understood it completely.


    If her sight was telling her the truth, and she was to believe it, there were fruits growing over the tree¡¯s various branches. Her rumbling stomach wasn¡¯t being shy either. No matter how vigilant and careful she wanted to be, there was something¡¯s which she had come to understand about the sewer. First was that there were monsters or guardians -as the croc had said- waiting for her on every floor. And second that they weren¡¯t there to harm her.


    Now, she could ignore the basic needs of her body and risk dying from hunger rather than walking to the tree, which was clearly set up as the meeting point with the guardian of this stage, but it would be a senseless decision. Not only did she need to talk with the said guardian to know her task, but also needed to complete the task if she wanted to travel further down the sewer; because that was her only way out.


    Having made up her mind, Ria started walking toward the tree. ¡°Hopefully, there won¡¯t be any tigers waiting for me there.¡±

 8.2: A green surprise

    Weed, ferns and wild plants grew along the barbed walls- some grew at a distance, standing peculiar and vulnerable, and others grew hidden behind the green curtain. The grass beneath Ria¡¯s feet though remained even throughout as she prowled toward the tree. She felt incredibly uncomfortable walking in the open and lit garden; even the grass seemed to annoy her with its brashness. Most of her discomfort stemmed from her unfortunately bare and unclothed chest, making her feel more than just naked in this open area where she was sticking out like a sore thumb; and some of her discomforts were related to her swollen feet.


    Her feet, which had very much adapted to being submerged all the time, were finding the sometimes soft-sometimes sharp blades of grass very jarring to walk over. She was already accustomed to the Itchiness and the irritation which the sewer water had brought, but her every step over the grass bed was making her think that something was very wrong with the ground. She was frustrated, and she had every right to feel that way, but she wasn¡¯t angry about it. She knew that her frustration was also keeping her mind occupied, and she wanted it to remain that way until she was ready to confront her feelings.


    The closer she got to the tree, the amazed she grew at its blusterous size. It wasn¡¯t tall by any means, but it was thick, very thick. It was only after she stood at its feet could she start to imagine what its true height might have looked like in the past.


    ¡°Is this just the stump? Just how big¡­¡± She trailed off, her eyes focusing at the top where the broken end of the stump touched the ceiling and the branches grew outwards.


    As if the tree¡¯s width wasn¡¯t surprising enough, multiple braids of interwoven branches hung lifelessly from the ceiling in front of the tree stump. Most of them were bare, dry and dead, while Fruits enveloped in an incandescent golden glow grew at the flat ends of a handful of these braids -still green and bright- connected by tens of extremely fine tendrils.


    These pineapple-shaped oddities were unfortunately too far away from Ria to get. To put salt on her wounds, not only were the fruits hanging right above her, the sweet and luscious scent wafting from them was awaking her hunger with pangs, making her extremely restless.


    Gulping the saliva gathering inside her mouth, she jumped, thanking her mind for not cutting her toes at the previous stage. The decision hadn¡¯t been made rationally, but it was serving her greatly now. The sewer water held a much too dangerous potency to be walking around in its filth with wounded toes. That¡¯s just asking to be infected.


    Ria, however, found herself falling way short from the fruits. ¡°No way,¡± she complained, slumping to the ground, hand still extended overhead, eyes staring at her prize. Gritting her teeth, she looked around for stones to throw at the fruits, hoping that one would fall when hit but found no help from her surroundings.


    She even tried to scale the tree, but its dried bark broke with a simple pull, leaving her bruised, battered, and hungry with her body heavily shaking. Wary of the guardian who might be stalking her from the shadows, and utterly exhausted from her meaningless act, she took a deep breath of the cold air circulating freshness around her, and let her body fall on the motionless grass. She lay back with her limbs spread-eagle and watched the fruit first, and then the crystal growth past it.


    Light twinkled inside the crystals transparent confines, moving around like a tempest. They were similar to stalactites in make but geometrical in shape -rather than pointed conical growths- with straight fine lines creating their lengths. To her amazement and then stupefaction, she found out that the tempest swirling inside the crystals was similarly flowing through the veins of the few green braids at the ends of which the fruits still grew.


    Before long she was drifting toward the world of dreams. No wind, no voice, and finally no foul smell and darkness, she really felt out of place. Like something was missing.


    ¡°If only the fruits weren¡¯t hanging so high.¡± She said sighing.


    It was peaceful, however. The scent of flowers and the fruit, and the chirping of birds, they added a well-needed charm to the place; one she was in desperate need of. If only she could eat the fruit and give her body its much-needed reprieve, then everything would be great again. She wouldn¡¯t be out of danger, but rest would do her well. Clicking her tongue against her optimism, she tried to fall asleep, when something thudded next to her. One moment she was lying and in the next moment she was up and active with her back to the tree. Her reaction even surprised herself. Her eyes darted from left to right, panning the area to find the anomaly. She found nothing distressing, other than a fruit lying a few feet away from her- it was glowing golden.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Eyes up, she looked around at her surroundings, at the distance, and then back at the fruit. She stared at it, took a step forward, but then stopped.


    ¡°It¡¯s happening again, isn¡¯t it? I¡¯m not alone anymore, right?¡± She said out loud, asking no one in particular. A child''s voice, however, answered her, sending her lurching toward the tree.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you hungry?¡± The voice said and then started giggling with a childish furry.


    ¡°Who is it?¡± she blared, baring her teeth. Amusingly, she noticed a knife being held in her safe hand; it was the same knife she had recently used to maim herself, and now she was using its edge as a form of protection. There were dreadful memories associated with the knife, but she didn¡¯t drop it. She didn¡¯t remember bringing it along- but she didn¡¯t remember much of anything that had happened after she had paid her price to the Croc, either.


    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you eating?¡± The childish voice spoke once again; the giggles soon followed.


    Ria had been looking for the source of the voice and she found it. She looked up. Right above her head stood a tiny figure, no bigger than her palm, with its feet resting on the tree¡¯s stump, staring directly at her through its unusually big green eyes.


    ¡°hey!¡± It said and Ria scurried forward and staggered to a fall. She almost fell on her hands, but managed to push her left shoulder forward and roll away from the tree. Controlling her momentum, she peered back at the tree trunk but found it bare. The thing had vanished from there.


    ¡°What are you looking at? Is it fun? Why are all of you humans so tall?¡± She found the thing scampering around her in a circle, bobbing its head left and right, humming a fairly simple tune, most probably from a children fairytale.


    Ria glared at it at first -pointing her knife¡¯s drop point at it- but watching it harmlessly flitter about, she let her knife hand drop and exhaled. ¡°What are you?¡± She asked, meeting its eyes and the tiny thing stopped, facing her. It straightened the wrinkles out of its brown robe, giggled, and went to drag the fruit toward her.


    She saw it laboriously drag the glowing fruit to her feet and wiping the sweat off its head with a grass blade. It wheezed looking at her with expectant eyes, patting the fruit holding a shy blush on its cheeks, as if saying, I have brought this for you.


    ¡°Here-here, eat this.¡± It said, looking between her face and her hand, jumping restlessly for her to pay attention; but when Ria refused to comment or receive the fruit, its eyes dropped and it leaned its head on the fruit, grouching.


    Its sulking made Ria feel bad. Its big wet eyes, furry face, and pawed hands, only added to its appeal. If she hadn¡¯t faced the goblin and the croc before it then she probably would have ended up rubbing her face upon its. It was that cute.


    ¡°What,¡± Ria really wanted to have nothing more to do with it or the fruit, but all the walking, running, and everything she had endured in the last few day or weeks ¨Cshe didn¡¯t know- had left her drained. To tell the truth, she was famished and was really hoping to eat the fruits if she could, but she didn¡¯t want help from a creature of this sewer. No matter how cute and harmless it looked.


    Its ears perked hearing her speak, and it jumped to face her holding the sweetest smile she had ever seen anyone or anything wearing over their face.


    ¡°Does it do?¡± She hesitantly asked, feeling stupid for letting the thing fool her with its appearance.


    It instead moved to lift the fruit and holding it with trembling arms spoke with a strained voice, ¡°Here-here, it will help your wounds. Eat, before the glow vanishes.¡±


    ¡°Wha-¡±


    ¡°Hurry- It¡¯s falling, Eeeee, I¡¯m going to get squished under the fruit of life!¡±


    Ria hesitated, but held the fruit just as the furry thing almost died under its weight, and raised it to her eye level. She heard breath laboriously, laying on the grass with its tongue out, and ended up snickering at its foolishness.


    ¡°Ha-ha,¡± the chuckles soon grew into full-blown laughter with tears welling into her eyes.


    ¡°What- what, what happened? Why are you laughing?¡± She heard it say and found herself busy curling on the ground with her arms wrapped around her chest.


    Although it didn¡¯t understand her reason, the furry being started laughing anyways, making her spurt out all her restlessness and fear. It took her a long time to calm down, but even then she couldn¡¯t stop her body from trembling with general happiness. The laughter worked like a charm releasing some of her pent up frustration and weight burdening her mind. She lay curled on the ground, with her legs tucked against her belly. Her eyes stared at the furry thing sleeping across from her. She still had the fruit clutched in her safe hand.


    Ria felt relatively safe and light-hearted. She didn¡¯t know whether it was safe to assume whether the thing was telling her the truth or not, but she took a bite from the fruit anyways. She believed in her decision. However just as she did, a thundering crackle exploded from the tree stump and the furry being opened its eyes, wide and dangerous.

 9.1 The Grave

    A wave of wind rolled toward them from the point of rumble, visibly to the naked eye. It flew toward Ria and her furry companion like the blade of an ethereal sword, striking to remove her head off her torso. It started Ria, who unconsciously dropped the fruit and crouched to lay completely flat on the ground. The angry wave brushed past her a second later. It came whooshing. The impact made her hair dance frivolously in the air. They whipped and whirled behind her head, threatening to rip away from her scalp. The force exerted by the wind pushed her down and backward; it tried to pry her off and take her along.


    Thankfully, there were no stones or broken branches and logs lying around; otherwise, one of those blind missiles could have ended up hurting her in more than a few ways. She would have been lucky to survive with nothing impaling her body or any broken bones. The wave, however, passed away quickly.


    Ria stood up and dusted herself. Dirt and grass fell from her naked torso as she brushed her eyes open. The whole area had been damaged beyond easy repair. The wave had ravaged the ground and uprooted the grass from many places, leaving behind naked patches of brown soil. The vines had been displaced and deflowered, bringing the bricked walls behind them into the open. And most of the herbs growing along the wall had been similarly uprooted. The evidence of their presence remained easily distinguishable. The wind had picked up everything and taken them along.


    Exhaling, Ria put her back to the stump and faced the direction of the explosion ¨Cto find the reason behind the thundering crackle. Whatever had caused the disturbance had left behind ten feet large square hole in the ground a short distance away. She squinted in surprise at how precisely geometrical the hole was; and as if that wasn¡¯t a mystery to itself, a braid of interwoven branches grew from the roof and extending directly into the hole. It whole length glowed similarly to the others braids hanging near the tree stump housing a fruit at their end.


    This sudden movement by the supposed dead tree confused her. She had only taken a bite from the fruit and hadn¡¯t even filled her stomach yet. Couldn¡¯t the disturbance have happened after she was finished with her business? Wondering whether the changes had anything to do with the guardian and his fruit of life, Ria looked around for their presence and easily found the furry being gawking at her. As for the fruit, the guardian was sitting on it, but the thing had ¨Cfor some reason- lost its glow.


    ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°Your wounds have healed.¡± It replied almost instantly as if it was waiting for a chance to hold a conversation. Ria, however, ignored its worthless babble. She didn¡¯t have time for its puzzles. Something had changed. Her instincts which had honed alongside her troubles were blaring at her to get ready. Tide was coming. The garden wasn¡¯t safe anymore.


    A similar thing had happened in the first tunnel she had woken in; it was the sound of carnival music which had broken the loop and given her a path to tread. In the second tunnel, the water had deepened; a needed change for the crocodile to travel. In this stage, the change was that hole which had just opened up.


    ¡°What,¡± she said pointing at the dark hole. ¡°Is that?¡±


    The Furry beast looked at her with wet eyes, as if scared for her well being. Receiving a hateful glare, however, made it flinch. Its eyes dropped ¨Cexpressing feelings Ria couldn¡¯t argue with- and started sobbing.  Ria, however, didn¡¯t let it gloat. Leaning toward it, she picked it up and started shaking it vigorously. It was the only method she could think up at the moment to make it talk without hurting it¡­ too much.


    ¡°What happened?¡± She firmly asked, keeping an eye on her surroundings. Thrown was her docile nature and vigilance returned with the death of calmness.


    ¡°Your¡­ task¡­ grave¡­ inside.¡± She heard it say, but his words were too fragmented for her to connect. She was shaking the guardian with the intention of interrogating it, but with the trust between them shattered and blown to bits by the crackle, her intentions changed. Her bottled anger exploded on it.


    Blinded by the rage she almost threw the poor fellow on the ground but ended up putting it down when she heard his pitiful cry. She cursed under her breath while the guardian cried its throat out. She had to rub its head and pat its back warmly to make it stop crying.


    ¡°I thought I was going to die.¡± It said, sniffing and wiping the tears clogging its sight. It blew its nose on the hem of its robe and plopped tiredly to the ground. ¡°Thank god we can¡¯t get hurt on the first floor.¡±


    Ria didn¡¯t understand the meaning of its words, but they certainly made her remember about her own wounds. Miraculously, the pain which had been irritating her since ever was gone. Not only that, but she also noticed herself using her bandaged hand to calm the tiny guardian. Not only did no discomfort surge up her arm from her once hurt hand, but she could also actually flex her fingers without being stunned and deafened by her own screams.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    It wasn¡¯t long ago when the smallest of movements associated with her left hand had felt like she had put her whole hand in fire.


    Her focus shifted from the furry being to her bandaged hand. She could see her fingers moving underneath the t-shirt. She hesitatingly removed the t-shirt and saw her hand no longer pale and blue or, bruised and battered, like before. Even though the fingers, which she had herself removed, hadn¡¯t grown back, the wounds themselves had closed and healed. The hand, however, looked odd missing its last two fingers and the mass of muscles, skin, and bones connecting them to her wrist.


    She raised her claw-shaped hand in front of her face and curled the remaining fingers into a small fist. They worked surprisingly well. She was sad at her loss, but she didn¡¯t cry. She hadn¡¯t overcome the loss, but she had grown strong in the time being to enjoy what she still retained.


    She didn¡¯t forget to check her ear on the sides of her head and found the scabbed wounds there similarly healed and closed. She pictured her image without ears and blushed thinking how freakish she must look without her ears. But she didn¡¯t regret her decision. She had survived and that¡¯s what means the most.


    To her wonder, her feet and legs had also healed. Her legs even pulsated with vigor. There was a far greater strength flowing through her veins than she remembered possessing. The fruit had rejuvenated her. Her hunger was gone she was healed and most of all, for the first time in a long-long while, she was feeling sorry, for a stranger.


    Her emotions which she had bottled and buried deep inside her heart were now growing back out and showing compassion. It is important to be able to feel because humans are emotional beings. Her bubbling compassion was just another tick in the long list of things which kept her sane and different from the sewer beasts. Its presence told her that even though she had become a part of the sewer, it hadn¡¯t become a part of her. She was still Ria. She was still human. That hadn¡¯t changed.


    Ria sat down on the ground. Although the hole which had opened looked eerie, it didn¡¯t really vomit out monster for her to defeat. After the first crackle, the garden had returned to its previous calm. The birds had also started chirping again.


    Cupping her hands together, she placed them in front of the sobbing furry being. ¡°Come.¡± She said. It hesitated at first -afraid of being whipped around like a ball, shaken like a wet cloth, and thrown away like a fruit''s seed- but decided to follow anyways; Wiping its big green eyes, it held her thumb with both hands and climbed onto her hand.


    It sat at the center of her palms, waiting for her to speak. Ria thanked it for giving her the fruit and determined to get answers, she started asking it questions. ¡°Do you have a name?¡± She asked and it nodded its small furry head.


    ¡°I am Ria.¡±


    ¡°Em,¡± it whispered.


    ¡°Em¡­ can you tell me anything about this place?¡±


    Em heard her but didn¡¯t speak. He had gone back to stare at its furry feet. Ria didn¡¯t feel any urgency, so she let it take his time, and finally after ten minutes of grumbling under his breath, he spoke, ¡°This¡­ is the garden of Eden¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°Not the real one. But it is this planets Garden of Eden.¡±


    ¡°You mean there are other planets?¡±


    ¡°That I don¡¯t know. But I know that there are other realms.¡±


    ¡°Is this related to me?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Em said, so softly she almost didn¡¯t hear him.


    ¡°Can you tell me why I am here?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± He said. He was like a child who only answered as much was asked of it. And like a child, he was in a bad mood right now. Ria didn¡¯t know how to make it tell her everything. The best she could do was to talk to it politely and have patience.


    ¡°Why am I here, Em?¡± He hesitated at first, as if afraid of being punished for speaking about things he shouldn¡¯t. Ria thought he wouldn¡¯t help her anymore, but he proved her wrong.


    ¡°T-To prepare mankind. To birth a leader,¡± he said stuttering, his body trembled as if he was having a seizure. With this, the ground also started shaking. The birds started crying and leaves started falling from the branches above.


    ¡°Prepare us for what, Em; tell me?¡± Ria asked eagerly felling a pang of urgency in her heart. The change was happening. She didn¡¯t know what would happen this time, but she knew she had just uncovered something even she wasn¡¯t supposed to know- Something which mattered more in the grand scheme of things; Something which concerned not only her but everyone living on Earth.


    As she tried to get answers out of Em, she saw his eyes rolling to the back of his head. His fur, which was white and clear, started turning grey. ¡°I can¡¯t say; I can¡¯t say; I can¡¯t say¡­¡± He mumbled again and again until it body suddenly stopped trembling; that¡¯s when he pried himself out of her grip and jumped away to the ground.


    His body touched the ground, and before Ria could do anything about him, the ground swallowed him whole. Ria watched him disappear. The ground stopped quaking for a moment after, then rumbled with an intensity much-much greater than before.


    The lights which had been constantly shinning dimmed until complete darkness enveloped the garden in its sheet. The tree and its various branches instead, started glowing in a mix of purple and blue. A bright pillar of white light erupted from the square hole, tapering to the side before touching the roof. The pillar of light pulsed and throbbed like a heart and its rhythm ¨Csomehow- exactly matched her heartbeats.


    ¡°It¡¯s time.¡± She head. The voice wasn¡¯t Em¡¯s; and neither did it have any source. It seemed to be coming from everywhere and just a manifestation of her mind at the same time.


    ¡°The grave has opened. It is time. Come,¡±

 9.2: The Grave

    Ria picked up the knife, eyed the surrounding ¨Cto see if Em was anywhere nearby, watching her from behind a stalwart bush- and finding the target of her concern nowhere, started prowling toward the hole. Something had happened to Em¡¯. He was hurt and she was the reason. He hadn¡¯t tried to harm her in any way. He was like a child with curiosity- a selfless being. But here she was, getting hurt and hurting everyone she was meeting, just as she had done in the past.


    With worry grew anxiety, taking her to a stroll through some moral questions.


    I can¡¯t be the first one here. There must have been hundreds, if not thousands of other people, brought to this sewer in the past. Other who must have crossed the same path I am crossing, purged and forced like me.


    How many from them had met the sewer croc? How many had entered the light? How many had reached the exit, and how many were still buried beneath the lies? The number that had forfeited their lives is not actually the large number, but the hundreds of thousands who were left stranded in the search were the biggest tragedy brought on by this place. How many mothers might still be roaming the alleys and roads where their precious pearls were last seen? How many families must have and were still being torn apart from the sudden loss of their cherished individuals? It is an enigma; one, which will never get answered.


    I am not the only one. There must be other survivors.The idea surged strength into her whole being. It helped her overcome her fear of the unknown waiting for her inside the pillar of light.But where are they? Why haven¡¯t I actually seen anyone else?However, the idea of not being alone also made her senseimpending doom, bringing with itself the collapse of everything natural.


    She had feared to have to either jump or climb down holding the braided branch into the square hole, rather the world changed around her when she entered the light. Her feet fell on the solid ground upon stepping inside the detained circle. Neither could she see inside from outside, nor did she see anything outside once she stepped inside the light. The light didn¡¯t blind her. It was bright, but not impeding- it felt like a curtain to her, separating the outside from the inside.


    The ground spun under her feet the moment she settled in. The noises, the chirping, the smell, the freshness everything vaporized in a hectic spin of silence and flashing lights, until eventually, everything calmed down: the ground stopped spinning, the lights frizzled to nonexistence, and a new stage opened. Nausea struck her with force as the ground stabilized. She fell uncomfortably, raising a cloud of dirt, and started retching.


    She crouched leaning on the ground with her hands holding her stable. Her headache subsided slowly with her breathing. The place she found herself in wasn¡¯t as well lit as the garden. It wasn¡¯t even a room. She could make out the shape of a tunnel from the light coming inside from the exit. It was a soft orange light, most probably from a fireplace or torches.


    She hesitated at first, and then stood up using the walls as her support. Her vision hadn¡¯t stabilized yet. Groaning in annoyance, she pulled her knife from the ground once her feet stopped floundering and her balance normalized. She didn¡¯t know what to expect, but she made a wild guess ¨Ccomparing her previous tasks- and couldn¡¯t help but think about having to kill a human. The voice had called this place aGraveafter all; and death, unfortunately, is not anonymous to graves.


    She slowly walked toward the exit, her steps echoing gloomily in the narrow space. She was accustomed to the darkness by now. She had been in the darkness for a fair share of time. The darknesshadhaunted her, scared her with its stickiness and its unlimited depth, but now she could see it as nothing other than a phenomenon, as the opposite of light. If she could feel safe under the inspecting light then there was no need to feel naked in the darkness. If anything, darkness provided the perfect cover.


    That doesn¡¯t, however, mean that she had dropped her vigilance. She held the bone handle of her knife hard enough to turn her hand pale. She walked with bent knees, chest hunkered and both hands spread at a safe distance in front of her. She was yet to acknowledge her changes, but they served her perfectly, nonetheless.


    She reached the exit and saw shadows twisting under torchlight like claws shaping up toward her. She hesitated at first and then kept onwards, walking past the threshold. She breathed in relief upon finding the new open chamber empty, as if expecting to be pounced upon by a monster hidden somewhere nearby.The Grave of past, she saw written on a tombstone used as a tile to cement a straight path forward in the dirt-filled chamber. The words were engraved into the grey stone, chiseled¨Cmost probably- to preserve the words against the toil of being stepped upon for an unknown amount of time. The graveis the moment-the next few tombstones read-empty for now, place within a body, and fill this un-holy ground.The words were all engraved, deep and heavy, and their tone: chilling. The tombstones must have looked different at the time of their creation, for they all had similarly aged, cracked and, eroded.


    There was something wrong about his chamber. These tombstones and the torches they didn¡¯t mingle very well with each other. Why put the tombstones into the floor? That¡¯s not their place! And not the whole chamber was lit either. Only a portion of the chamber was under the torches conviction, the rest was shrouded in similar pitch blackness- like ink had been smothered in the other half of the chamber.


    Ria looked into the darkness. There was an eerie stillness to the chamber, but when Ria really concentrated, she heard a sound. A wheezed groan, she heard. She wasn¡¯t alone. She stepped forward to locate its source and an adjacent set of torches lit up on her side, bringing another section of the chamber in its temporary custody. A previous set of torches ¨Cthe ones furthest from her- however, burned out, extinguishing upon sensing her departure from their range.


    Tightening her grip around the bone handle of her knife, she steadily took forward another step and another set of torches lit and extinguished, keeping her surrounded in a circle of radiance, dissolving the rest of the space surrounding her into a void. The sound also grew slightly louder, slightly enchanting. It was painful to hear. How painful must have the pain been to bear for the bearer? She shivered as the sound of her heartbeats rose to audible degrees.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Something shuffled in the distance. A sense of foreboding hit her in the exact next moment. She stepped back but held the ground. Steeling her mind against anything which might be waiting for her, she took three continues step forward and found the source of the painful groaning.


    She had faced a naked goblin and stood her ground against a coat wearing crocodile that could speak. She had traversed through the dirty shunned corridors of a sewer tunnel and had lived through the hurtful maiming of her own body. Those hadn¡¯t been her choice. they had struck her without any foreboding and she had dealt with them as timely and efficiently as possible. Nothing, however, could have helped her prepare for what she saw in front of her.


    ¡°Nicky?¡± She said, stopped and squinted, then screamed, ¡°NICKY, YOU¡­¡± and ran under the sound of torches glowing and extinguishing around her.


    Nicky was her friend; her best friend. She was the one who took her along to parties and helped her meet people. She was the one who had forced her to give the world another chance and be a part of it. She was the one who had helped her meet her Ex-Jason; The only one who understood her truly. The only one who cared for her without asking anything in return? And the most important person of Ria¡¯s life now lay in a pool of piss and blood, missing all of her limbs, with her abdomen swollen to the point of bursting and the flesh of her chest nibbled to bits and pieces. It was her, who had picked Ria up for clubbing one last time. It was her-


    ¡°Ria¡­¡± She froze hearing the weak whisper. Nicky¡¯s bruised lips curled upward in a smile as her head twitched and faced her. Her eyes were open, but Ria saw no light in them. Her pupils were blown and wide.


    ¡°Ah! Where - are you ¨C Ria? Why can¡¯t I ¨C see you? Aren¡¯t you going to -turn on- the lights?¡±


    Ria lost all strength in her legs and fell to the ground in front of Nicky. It can¡¯t be real. It must be a dream. Itmustbe! She was too stunned. The world suddenly didn¡¯t feel so large anymore. The light she was so fond of felt constraining and crushing.


    ¡°Is it time?¡± Nicky lucidly asked. Her smile had never looked so hurtful, so sad. She was genuinely happy. Ria could feel it in her smile and in her words. It was as if Nicky didn¡¯t know about her condition- Like she was in a trance so deep, so strong, that it had erased a part of her memories to keep her from breaking down completely.


    ¡°Are you here to- take me? Are we going clubbing? But it¡¯s still so early! Look- I can¡¯t even -get up.¡±


    Nicky wasn¡¯t bleeding from her wounds. They had mysteriously healed and closed; Just like Ria¡¯s wounds had after eating the glowing fruit in the garden. The blood under her body hadn¡¯t been expelled by her missing limbs; the only place still red on her body, was her crotch.


    ¡°A slap might -wake me- up. Why don¡¯t you give me one?¡±


    Ria touched her face with a trembling hand. Tears unknowingly had started flowing out of her eyes.


    ¡°It¡¯s good that you are here, Ria. I was really scared, but I am not anymore. You know you came at the right time. Can you help me sit up?¡±


    ¡°Nicky¡­ what happened to you?¡± Ria asked.


    ¡°What? Oh, you mean this?¡± Nicky said looking at her shoulder- unfazed at her missing arms. ¡°Oh you know the party, I meet a guy there. You know me. I couldn¡¯t resist him. He is a handsome person and sogood at sex. God, I couldn¡¯t resist him at all. He asked me to marry him, and I did. He asked me to feed my arms and limbs to his cousin from the second floor. I know I shouldn¡¯t have, but I couldn¡¯t say no to him. He¡¯s a dream to look at. Anyways, help me up. Hurry up, it coming.¡±


    ¡°What is happening?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be surprised, okay. I¡­ am pregnant. You are an aunt now. Here, push me from behind. Keep me raised. I think it¡¯s coming.¡±


    Nicky crunched hard -after Ria positioned her right- as if she had prior experience. Sweat trickled down her forehead as she moaned and groaned, pushing with all the strength she could muster from her broken body. And to Ria¡¯s horror, her swollen abdomen convulsed and stretched. It peaked as if something was pushing from inside, and Nicky laughed tiredly, laboriously trying to push that thing out of her system.


    ¡°Come on baby. Come out!¡± She wheezed, shifting between crunching and breathing.


    As Ria watched with a paling face and absolutely terrified of how to help Nicky, a small green hand poked out of Nicky¡¯s crotch -covered in a mix of slime and blood- and curled its clawed fingers to form a fist.


    ¡°Yes, baby! Come on you can do it!¡± Nicky hissed as a shiver ran down Ria¡¯s back and she almost baked away in horror when another similarly malnourished hand poked out of her crotch. They both clutched the sides of her hole and started pushing, to widen it.


    ¡°Yes! Yes!¡± Nicky screamed in glee and Ria screamed from behind her, when a green monster twice the size of a human baby slipped out of Nicky¡¯s deflating abdomen and into the chamber- bringing along a deluge of blood, lining, and fluids. The monster didn¡¯t cry. It didn¡¯t look back. It simply started flailing its arms and wriggling away from the duo- one donning the smile of a mother and the other pale as a ghost and trembling from head to toe with Goosebumps erupting all over her body.


    A door manifested at a short distance and the monster soon disappeared inside it. The door similarly vanished seconds later.


    ¡°Ria¡­¡± Nicky said looking at the emptiness which had swirled in place of the door. ¡°Am I a monster?¡±


    ¡°NO-NO,¡± Ria yelled at her holding her shoulders with the strength of a vice, looking directly into her eyes. ¡°You are not a monster! You are the best friend I could have ever asked for. You are my family. The only one I care for. The whole world can be monsters, but you are not. We are not.¡±


    Nicky smiled. ¡°I love you, you know.¡± Ria nodded.


    ¡°So kill me, alright.¡±


    Ria didn¡¯t reply.


    ¡°You can. I know you can. You are stronger than you know. You are definitely stronger than me. So kill me before I break down completely- before I completely give up¡­ give up on dying too.¡±


    They had first met in high school when some girls had tried to harass her. Ria had been ignoring their taunts as she had always ignored others. Then for some reason, while everyone else was busy laughing at her, Nicky had come to her rescue. She had never seen a girl pull out a knife and shove it inside another person¡¯s mouth before. Those blondes ran faster than a cheetah after Nicky whispered something to the leader of their group. Everything after that had been pure bliss. Not only had her life changed for the better, but she hadalsofound love; although they hadn¡¯t stayed together for long.


    ¡°I-¡° Ria whispered, noticing Nicky¡¯s abdomen growing bigger in real-time. There was another monster growing inside her.Just how many time has she already gone through this? Why her? Why us?


    ¡°Please¡­¡± the voice came again, followed by a groan this time. Ria could almost imagine the monster growing inside her, eating her from the inside like a parasite- the cycle continuing until she was broken beyond repair. Ria spread her legs on the dirt ground and gently rested Nicky head on her lap.


    ¡°I¡¯ll miss you Ria,¡± Nicky said holding the brightest smile she had ever seen her show.


    Tears trickled down her face and fell on the cold ground, splattering in the air like the countless dreams they had shared with each other. She had never held anything close to the weight of the knife which she currently held. She delayed its fall for as long as her strength allowed after which it fell, soaking all of her strength. It plunged deep bringing a cascade of red, a sharp inhale and then, nothingness.


    Ria sat there crouched next to Nicky body, her eyes staring and fingers rubbing the cheeks which had now lost all of their warmth. She hadn¡¯t felt such loneliness in years.

 10.1: Second floor

    Another door appeared. Another threshold Ria crossed. Another tunnel entered. This one was, however, a shade darker than most, a few inches narrower than the last, and incongruously silent. Even her exhales bounced off the walls with a crisp sharpness- like the hiss of a snake coiling nearby, keeping its sense on her and getting ready to spear an attack.


    Counting her steps- one, two three¡­


    Her steps splashed nicely in the water because of the silence. She could even hear the water droplets fall back into the stagnant pool, making another festival of lush echoes blister around her. The door motioned to disappear behind her. It didn¡¯t screech on rusted hinges rather closed away with a quick heavy thump.


    Ria heard it and it made her steps stall, but the thump eerily didn¡¯t echo like every other thing set into motion by her movement. The sound returned with the door, disconnecting the past from the present with a final salute. She resisted the hunger and the weakness raising their heads inside her and started walking again.


    Breathing- inhaling and exhaling.


    There was a slight stench of rot in the air. Her hands were to her side, open and clean. Eyes to the ground, she mindlessly watched the water become visible under a distant light source and the ripples move -breaking and multiplying- when resisted by obstacles. She sometimes saw rubble and garbage float by- plastic bottles wobbled with the ripples she produced, hollow metallic cans sunk, and wooden bits either rocked up and down as the rippled passed below them or simply rid along the small waves.


    Goosebumps had her hair in their custody. Thank God for the t-shirt that she was wearing. Though tattered, it was doing a good enough job of preventing the cold air from biting into her skin. The water, however, was cold. It had her whole body shivering. Her toes had already curled inwards and were numb. She was simply losing too much heat to the water below.


    As she kept walking, the water level dropped until it only remained covering her feet and ankles. She slowly neared the once distant source of light, but she didn¡¯t lookup. The stench of rot was overpowering the sewer odor. And the bloated corpse she saw made her grit her teeth in silence. She didn¡¯t connect any dots. She was back in the first tunnel she had woken up in; the tunnel connected directly with that monsters room.


    Grinding teeth and curling a fist.


    She was back. This jolt made her remember the goblin''s words. ¡°GO down,¡± he had said. ¡°The exit is down the sewer.¡± But here she was, once again trailing through the dirty trenches of the sewer lines: whose floor still retained the prints left behind by her feet, whose walls still bounced back her screams, whose darkness still held the odor of her sweat. For how long had she been trapped inside the sewer thinking that she was making progress? She¡¯d been in there for days! She had injured herself because of the promise of safety. But where the fuck was her redemption?


    Her face turned pale at the familiar sight. The light was still there and so was the corpse. The only thing missing was the music to guide her toward¡­ toward relief. Where is the music? And she heard the music, the boisterous carnival sound full of joy come from inside the darkness further up ahead. It was like a rope set out for the foolish, the gullible, to grab, unaware of the noose at the end of its length. Something broke inside her upon hearing the all too familiar music.


    She ran.


    Ignored were the corpse and the light, the stench and the bright. She ran with everything she had got, striding toward the music with rage pilling up inside her in stacks. She pulled the knife out of her back pocket and brought it the front. The dried coating of red still marring its edge, however, gave her a fright and it fell out of her grip. It didn¡¯t disappear out of her sight under the murky water, rather plunged shallowly at an angle into the soft filth floor, remaining standing with its polished handle still visible outside the water''s depth.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    She stopped to look at the knife, but a loud boom ¨Ca cannon firing- jolted her awake and her body moved away from the knife, afraid of the horror it might dig out from the grave of her past. The surrounding darkness blinded her. She pressed forward anyway. The water froze beneath her feet, the music became loud and clear. The door appeared in the distance, light leaking from the central gap where the two panels meet and from the hinges. Her voice erupted in a mixture of scream and anger, as she kicked the door wide open. The goblin sat right in front of the door -naked, smiling, and waiting.


    ¡°Ah- you are back,¡± she heard him say. She jumped on him, ignoring all pretense of civility, manner, and calmness at the threshold.


    They both tumbled in a series of groans and yells as her momentum toppled the recliner backward. Ria fell on top of him; wasting no time, she slammed her forehead at his nose. It didn¡¯t help. The goblin tried to push her away, but they were lying on the ground, so she fell back upon him.


    ¡°ARRR!¡± she screamed, standing on her knees, she clawed at his face with her nails. Something wet, something warm, marred her hands, but she kept going. She couldn¡¯t see anything. A deluge of emotions and feelings had busted out of her eyes and were raining over her hands. They fogged her sight, reminding her of this one time she had missed her school bus and had to walk back home in the rain. Nicky wasn¡¯t her friend then. The rain had fallen with an unusually sad sound, drowning everything else in its cold and sharp line and sapping away all her happiness, leaving her alone and stranded. Ria felt the same today.


    She wanted to keep going; Tear the monsters apart, skin it alive, and return all the pain it had given her and Nicky ten times, a hundred times over. Pain erupted from her hands as her nails broke. She didn¡¯t want to stop, but the pain made her. A few minutes later when her breathing became laborious and weakness shrouded every inch of her being, she simply put her head on the monster''s chest and wept.


    The goblin hadn¡¯t stopped her from hurting him and he didn¡¯t stop her from crying either. He didn¡¯t stop her and he didn¡¯t help her. He remained motionless under her, indifferent to her pain. She didn¡¯t see but he was watching her with dead pane eyes as if waiting for the appropriate moment to lift her up and throw her into the fireplace.


    ¡°Why?¡± she asked without lifting her head. She didn¡¯t speak out loud. She didn¡¯t want to hear reasons and explanations too hard for her to understand. She simply wanted her friend back.


    ¡°What did we do to you? Why did you take her from me?¡± Ria growled- seething with pain.


    The gobbling who hadn¡¯t acted until now spoke, as if obliged to answer anything which was asked of him.


    ¡°A leader has to be fair. A leader can¡¯t be weak. Leaders can¡¯t let their emotions rule them. A leader needs to have the ability to sacrifice for the greater good. A good leader isn¡¯t partial.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll kill you,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ll do it.¡± Her lips, however, quivered at being stared back by his pitch-black irises. They looked like two voids, planning to swallow her whole. No blood leaked from his wounds, no bloody ravines marred his face, and no wounds glorified her actions. He looked immaculate, the same as ever.


    ¡°Me can¡¯t get hurt on this floor, miss. You have to go deeper if you want to do that.¡± The goblin said standing up. ¡°Want me to die? Go deeper. Want to get revenge? Go deeper. Want to leave the sewer and return back to your life? Then go deeper. Me is not sure about the chance of the last one happening, however.¡±


    ¡°What did you do to Nicky? What did you do to her?!¡± said Ria, stepping back toward the door, distancing away from the monster.


    ¡°Me? Oh, me did nothing to her.¡± He replied, putting his recliner back in its place. ¡°Me only acted as my master had worded. Give the filthy humans a chance he had said. Allow them to pick up the pieces he had said. Me is only staying true to my master''s words. Me only wants to help you. Your friend, she was too corrupted to be a leader. But you can become one. Yes. And then me will finally be free. Master promised me freedom. He really did!¡±


    Ria shook her head; she felt a mixture of disbelief and disgust at its response. ¡°Free? You want to go free after stealing my family from me? I¡¯ll never let it happen. I¡¯ll never let it happen!¡±


    ¡°Good-good, anger is good. Follow me. Use it to survive.¡± He said, walking past her nonchalantly and opening the door which had closed behind Ria. His behavior only worked like salt on her wounds. He didn¡¯t care. He really didn¡¯t care whether she or anyone else for that matter lived or died. He only cared for what his master had promised him. He only cared for his Freedom. No matter the price.


    Stopping at the threshold he looked back, holding another glass full of his lust enduing potion. ¡°Come,¡± he said. ¡°Your task awaits you.¡±

 10.2: The Second Floor

    Ria heard him, lifted the three-legged stool still standing beside the recliner and threw it at the goblin. She didn¡¯t yell. It was simply her way of telling him to fuck off. The stool fell short of the goblin, however; and her anger failed to even make him flinch. Holding the glass he watched her antics. Maybe he was curious about her choice or maybe he was simply waiting for her to run out of the room so he could have some quiet time and watch the world burn from the window of his television; he didn¡¯t show her what he was thinking. Yes, the TV was still on, playing the gruesome account of events happening in some fictitious universe where the world itself burned and the humans died along with it.


    ¡°I¡¯m not drinking that,¡± Ria said, Period. End of discussion. Just the thought of voluntarily going through the lustful invasion of foreign emotion made her repulsive to the idea. She had seen what uncorked desire did to Nicky. She didn¡¯t arrogantly believe that she could face the goo¡¯s effect without giving in to her basic bodily needs. She had survived through it once, true. But now, with her emotions fuming and feelings conflicted, she held no hope. She knew herself and the truth scared her. The goblin scared her. But the fear of him itself wasn¡¯t strong enough to bend her will. He was trying but she was similarly resisting.


    She didn¡¯t even want to listen to him, much less do his bidding. Defiance was growing strongly inside her, but there was also cracks forming around her morality- around the thoughts which collectively made her personality. She wanted to leave. Go back to her world. However, how would she achieve that without becoming the puppet he already assumed her to be? That was a question she had no answer to.


    ¡°I¡¯m not drinking that. No way,¡± Perplexed and scared she may be, she still stuck with her decision in the end. She might have mindlessly drunk the goo before, but now she knew what constituted its elements. She wasn¡¯t going to let him humiliate her again. Try to force me. She thought, clenching her fists tightly. Just try and do it.


    But the goblin didn¡¯t force her. ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t want to drink it?¡± he asked, tilting the glass toward her and smiling. Her confusion only helped his cause. ¡°Suit yourself.¡± He said, nodding his head and walking toward her. Ria stepped back in surprise, getting ready to fight her way out of the room if it came to that. He picked up the stool instead and putting it back at its place, he placed the glass on it and pointed his finger at her.


    ¡°It was you who refused. I gave you a choice. You can¡¯t back out now.¡±


    ¡°Bring it on.¡± She said raising her head. A chill, however, shook her whole body, as the implication of his words started settling in her mind. His Grin widened.


    Something¡¯s wrong. The thought nudged her fear forward. She didn¡¯t know what he was planning, but his intentions were clearly bad, that she knew. However, she was still determined. She had been through a lot already and she wasn¡¯t about to surrender her leftover dignity to his farce.


    The ghostly form of her abandoned knife pressed on her back, reminding her that it wasn¡¯t far away; she could run for it if the goblin tried any tricks. But she put the thought away as soon as it had come. The damage could and had already done to her mind far outweighed the protection it offered. She would rather let the sewer monsters ravage her mind than to pick up that cursed thing again.


    I¡¯ll have my revenge. She had no doubts about that.


    ¡°Me is left with no choice.¡± He said, putting his fist in front of her and uncurling his fingers one by one. Semi¡ªbright rays of prismatic light escaped his palm, revealing the object he held. It was a golden marble the size of an almond. Once he made sure that she had seen the thing, he abruptly moved. Ria frowned again. He didn¡¯t attack her. He turned and threw the marble out of the door, into the darkness beyond.


    ¡°Go find it.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s your task.¡± He said acting coy. But Ria knew him. Their relation might have been short, but she knew the type of being he was.


    He¡¯s playing with me. She thought. He was truly having fun. She could see it in his amused eyes. There was a certain kind of playfulness in the way he looked at her, in the way his lips curled. She could imagine him gloating, laughing at her bemused face once she left. She would have kneed him in his balls if it had any effect, but he seemed uncaring.


    He stands there naked for Christ¡¯s sake, flaunting his assets like he¡¯s the messiah himself! Chasing the helplessness away, she worried about the hole she had dug for herself.


    The marble wasn¡¯t big. It was so small and the sewer was also very dark and large. How was she going to find it in the vastness of the tunnel? Just how was she to complete her task? For the first time since Ria had stepped back on this floor, she felt despair. She saw the tunnel becoming endless in the darkness: its walls growing wider, the water murkier and freezing to touch. The door didn¡¯t disappear behind her as she stepped outside, and the goblin also didn¡¯t hold back with his taunts. He didn¡¯t verbally abuse her but snickered at every given opportunity- Mocking and flaming her smoldering anger.


    He gave her one last bit of advice before he finally decided to close the door and take a nap. He showed absolutely no intention to watch her grovel in the sewer water. Why had he given her the hateful task if he wasn¡¯t going to enjoy the spectacle of her failure? Ria had no idea.


    ¡°You better hurry. Once it attaches to something it will lose its glow.¡±


    She looked back hatefully at the goblin. She hated everything about him and the room he possessed. If only I had a fire. She thought as the words grew spontaneously into an idea. It spread like a virus, taking over all her thoughts until she came to the conclusion that she was a stupid, idiotic woman. ¡°Why can¡¯t I have a fire?¡± she mumbled, ecstatic at her discovery. Her grin confused the goblin, and he cocked an eyebrow when she rushed back into the room, this time himself bemused about her agenda. She found all the materials needed to build a fire or a simple torch in there. She double tapped her head for not thinking about building a fire before. It could have made her life so much easier. So many episodes of survival shows she had watched- all wasted on her stupidly.


    There was a pile of arm length logs near the fireplace. She ignored them. Instead, she stopped in front of the goblins dearest stool. Once there, she calmly picked the glass and threw its content at his favorite recliner, drenching it completely. Under his watch, she raised the stool and holding its legs, slammed it harshly on the floor. The seat cracked in two with a loud don! The floor groaned under her as splinters flew left and right. She didn¡¯t stop hammering it on the floor until the seat and the legs completely separated, giving her three long sticks to work with. Satisfaction wafted over her body, calming her restlessness by a degree.  Then to the goblins horror, she picked up a silver knife from the dining table and tore square pieces of leather from his recliner, leaving it looking like a relic fitting to the sewer. She even tore some sponge from the fillings- not that she needed it for anything, she simply got carried away.


    She laughed at her ingeniousness. The goblin didn¡¯t stop her. She had fun tearing and breaking his belongings. But he didn¡¯t stop her. He looked angry but his face already looked too nasty so she couldn¡¯t determine whether the change in his expressions was a result of her expressive love toward his property or some unfathomable genealogical defect.


    Wrapping the leather at the thick section of the stool legs, she drowned them in fuel she picked up from the fireplace and ignited one. It burned brightly- the dancing flames rejuvenating her. She almost cried in happiness. The light meant a lot to her. Now there would be no more darkness, no more blind trudging. She tore a section of the table cloth, tied it at the ends of her unlit torches and slung the strap across her neck, letting the torches rest under her left armpit. The goblin cringed slightly as she burgled the candles too and left the room.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°Finally,¡± He said from behind. ¡°And thanks for not tearing my whole room apart.¡±


    She ignored him at first, still drunk on happiness, but her mind soon connected the dots for her and gave her a reason to worry. The goblin was implying that she wasn¡¯t the first one to build a torch and neither was she the quickest. His words further hinted that everyone else who had come under his care had either died or was still trapped in the sewer, guaranteed by his previous comment of going free if he managed to raise a leader. She had clearly antagonized him.


    But the door closed behind her before she could react. She spent thinking about the consequence of her actions, and scoffed at the end thinking that she was already knee-deep in sewer water, what more could he possibly do to her?


    Holding the torch, she took a deep breath. Groaning she got down on her knees and cringed hard as the murky water washed against her abdomen. She spent a few minutes settling her emotions and cursing the goblin before sticking her free hand into the filthy floor and started fondling its contents to find the marble. It was a monumental task: Much difficult than trying to find a needle in a haystack. Ria would have happily agreed to go through a stack of hay to find a needle. Sifting through the sewer was still too gross an overtaking, even for her. Not only did she need to manually sift through the whole sewer floor inch by inch, step by step, she also needed to make sure that a sudden ripple in the wrong direction wouldn¡¯t roll the marble into the checked section of the sewer- undermining all of her progress.


    It was a repulsive task, a repetitive, mechanical overload of disgust and fear. It was a task much-much-much worse than simply holding her desires in check for just an hour. Only an hour passed and she had already started doubting her decision. She was realizing how deep a hole she had fallen into. She had blundered. Drinking the white goo would have been quite easy. I could have easily handled its effect. It was only cum. It¡¯s not like I never gave Jason an oral.  The corrupted her thoughts became, the sorrier she felt for herself, and the harder the task became. It was a task a lot more physically straining than disgusting.


    There was even a silver lining to her task. It didn¡¯t have a time limit.


    Three hours later she was twenty meters from the door and cursing herself regularly. He lower back creaked every time she moved and the arm holding the torch was screaming.


    A fool, she called herself. She even gave up completely a few times after the first three hours, but the fear of the unknown, Nicky¡¯s death, her fate, the promise, and the goblins amused face, they all kept her going. Her resolve changed at her whims. Fear would strengthen her resolve for a few minutes during which she would sift through the begrudging floor with complete concentration, after which it would drop, making her complacent.


    Hours and two torches later, she only saw endless darkness spread in front of her. Even the light from the torch didn¡¯t change anything. Did the blasted tunnel even have an end? She knew the answer to that question. The straight tunnel had a warped end which coincided with the start, making it an unending loop. So the tunnel was actually endless but it spanned over a limited area, making it theoretically possible to find the marble with time. Time was the only variable which bummed her the most. Even after hours of concentration and hard work, Ria saw herself reaching nowhere near the end of her task.


    She silently wept.


    There was no stopping the tears once they started shedding. The loss of Nicky had been slowly bearing its fangs at her and now that she was alone, and emotionally and physically tired, it easily found a chance to the hurt her, to make her feel guilty. And with the weight of her unstable future pressuring her from the outside, tears came easily to her eyes.


    She had many bouts of false hope lifting her feelings, but they only made her fall to her lowest. When her every find turned out to be a glass marble, a useless gem or some perfectly rounded stone ¨Ceroded over time-, she started doubting whether the goblin had even thrown the dammed marble or not. At first, she only stopped sometimes to rest and to warm her numb limbs, but as time trickled away her rest periods slowly increased in length and frequency.


    She spent hours and hours scouring the filth and when the all too familiar sunlight entered her view she completely gave up. The ray penetrated through the darkness, dispersing the foggy blindness and providing that small patch of the sewer with greenery and calmness which was completely at odds with the rest of the tunnel.


    Ria was breaking down. Inducing meanings from a simple ray of light, she was too tired, too weak, and too numb to clearly ponder.


    ¡°I¡¯ll take a short nap and then¡­¡¯ she didn¡¯t know what she would do next. Once she completed this task there would be another one waiting for her on the next stage, then another one and then another one. This stage had the goblin and the next stage had a crocodile waiting for her. He would similarly ask for a piece of her humanity, leaving her broken and incomplete. And who even knows how deep the sewer went? How far was she from the exit? Her lower back was burning and her feet had blisters over their blisters, and her arms had gotten heavier than lead rods in the last half an hour. How would she face them? She had absolutely no fucking idea. The only reason she was still up and about was her legs, which though were also at their limits, were still providing her with much-needed reprieve.


    She didn¡¯t know anymore. She was too tired. If anything, hunger didn¡¯t help her in her condition. Thank god for not providing a mirror in sight for she would have once again cried up looking at her sunken eyes and a protruding jaw. Her face had slimmed down significantly, showing the effect of extreme malnutrition. It shouldn¡¯t be forgotten that she had only eaten a single bite worth of food ever since she had arrived in the sewer. The effects of hunger were much profusely visible from her waist. Her jeans, which had possibly seen better days, were only hanging from her waist because she had worn a belt.


    She saw the bone handle of her knife sticking out of the water with dropping eyes. She ignored it, of course. She saw a bloating corpse lying with its head facing her. She ignored it too. Not many days had passed since she had first woken up next to it. She had screamed then upon noticing its stillness, now she indifferently stared at its eyes and passed by. The stench didn¡¯t seem to affect her as much, the warmth from the light, however, made her shiver.


    She found the corpse¡¯s company much better than the Goblin who was always in lust. She didn¡¯t even want to dream of sleeping with him in the same room from the fear of waking up with him using her as an object to release his lust.


    She stood under the light with her eyes closed. In her weakness, she saw how noticeably dry the floor directly underneath the ray was. She picked a wall and sat leaning against it with light falling on her face. It was obtrusive, but its presence made her feel safe. Safety was something not easily found and much harder to obtain in the sewer. She had a long day ahead of her once she was done restoring some of her health. Yes, she had given up. Yes, she didn¡¯t care anymore. Yes, she was rejecting reality. Having been through everything that she had, she wasn¡¯t delusional and neither did she think someone would come to save her. But there was some part of her that knew she was only rejecting everything and was cranky only because of the harshness of her surroundings. And it also knew that a good night sleep would refresh her mentality.


    All she needed was good night sleep. I¡¯ll think about the marble tomorrow.


    Closing her eyes, she let her thoughts go away, as the images of her previous Endeavors¡¯ came to haunt her. Dust swirled on a red carpet in her dream. She stood there, a child holding a bone knife in her hand. Nicky lay dead in front of her. Beads of red hovered in the air, trapped by time, a framed witness of her deed. Nicky¡¯s bloated dead body lay under the golden shower of a chandelier. Both of her eyes stared at her ¨Cwide, still, frozen- one green and the other gleaming golden under the light.


    Ria opened her eyes open and frantically crawled toward the corpse. It lay there silently with its head facing away from her, toward the darkness. She rolled its head and looked into its eyes. One of its pupils was blown open with a rim of green surrounding the deep well of blackness, and the other eye was ruptured exactly in the center where a golden marble stayed fixed, covered in dried flakes of his blood and eye fluid.


    Ignored the maggots pushing at it skin from underneath, Ria pried the whole eye out of the socket using a piece of the branch lying nearby. The method was disgusting, but she showed no hesitation. She got the marble out of the eye and sighed victoriously. After getting the marble out of the squelching organ, she peacefully placed the eye back on its owner¡¯s chest. She celebrated the end of this task by screaming her frustration out of her system and stood up.


    As she stretched her arms over her head, feeling excited and burning with resolve, the corpse, which hadn¡¯t moved for a long time, blinked.

 11.1: Zombie

    Ria busily examined the marble, trying to determine its importance. It wasn¡¯t a diamond or even a gem. Its body was as smooth as a pearl, but it was also peculiarly spherical and almost unnaturally round. She noticed that it wasn¡¯t actually even golden in color, but was a transparent globe which housed a fervent golden mist. At first, Ria thought she was delusional ¨Ca small side effect of not eating and sleeping properly- but a keen look disclosed that she really was right. There really was a difference between its transparent outer and the volatile inner layer!


    She got so transfixed by the marble that when a branch snapped behind her she almost ignored it. Her inner voice-acted when the sound came again ¨Cthis time sharper than before- and she almost dropped the curious little marble and lost it again to the surprise.


    Ria looked back, putting the marble into her right pocket to keep it safe. The corpse on the ground was moving. With its hands pushing the ground and torso lifted up, it was amidst the motions of standing up. Ria paused then hurriedly distanced away from it, befuddled. Her eyes opened wide as ripple washed against her feet.


    ¡°What the hell?¡± she mumbled and watched as the corpse stood up straight- carrying the sound of bones grinding against each other. Its head bobbed as it watched the floor with its chin resting on its chest. Its stiff muscles must have relaxed because gasses ¨Cresulted from decomposition- passed through its system, coming out of all its holes with quite some fanfare. As Ria gagged, it stumbled to his left and then to his right, as if learning how to position his foot properly on the ground.


    Was it still a corpse if it was moving? But she had clearly cheeked its pulse¡­ she hadn¡¯t actually checked its pulse, but she knew its chest hadn¡¯t been moving and neither had it been breathing. Or, maybe, he had been alive when she had checked him and her sudden jolt had stunned his nervous system and stopped his breathing as a result?


    ¡°That¡¯s impossible¡­¡± but was it really impossible. She wasn¡¯t a doctor, but even she had heard of cases where the doctors had successfully revived someone recently deceased ¨Cpeople with heart failure being the most in number. Was this a case similar to those? Had she really perceived an unconscious but alive human as dead because of his unmoving chest and left him in the sewer at the mercy of God?


    Ria inhaled sharply. It wasn¡¯t alive in the general sense of living. It was moving but it wasn¡¯t a living person. How did she conclude that? She saw maggots drill out of its skin and fall on the ground; Its remaining eye was rolling inhumanely inside its socket; it was groaning and, black tar dripped out of its mouth every time it moved its jaw. Other than these, it had abnormally blue skin and swollen veins. It was still bloated and she still heard no inhales coming from his direction. So yes, he was dead and now an It.


    It stretched its limbs in an unordinary fashion, which moved beyond the degree of mobility possible ¨Cthe sound of bones breaking was explaining enough. Determining how easily bones break, it fixated its clouded iris at her. It stood at its place, silently watching her stepping back. It stood with its weight placed at neither the heel nor the ball of his feet, but at the sides, leading to a uniform, but unhealthy deflection of its legs. It could move but it wasn¡¯t alive. It was dead. It was dead.


    Something crunched under her feet. Ria jumped in surprise and it reacted in anger, growling dark spittle at her. She waved her torch to scare it, but the light attracted its anger. It screamed and to Ria¡¯s horror, it ran after her.


    ¡°No!¡± Ria jumped again. She practically ran blindly for the first twenty meters, blinded by the torch¡¯s light. Her feet splashed the sewer water knee-high and the fire growing on the torch formed a short tail behind- growing dangerously close to her face. She hurriedly angled the torch away from her face and ran with all her might. Thank God she had slept for long enough to fill her body with energy; otherwise, her legs would have revolted against the torture.


    The zombie slipped behind her and fell into the water with a loud splash, giving her much-needed room and enough time to stabilize her breath. As it seems, she was running toward the Goblins room. But there was no music in the air, which could mean anything actually. If the door hadn¡¯t vanished yet, then she would eventually chance upon it. And if there was no door ¡­ then she will just have to fight the zombie one way or another. There was no going past it. She would have to kill it. Kill once again.


    She ran with the darkness parting away from the torchlight. But staying true to its nature, the door had disappeared once again. Now, Ria was slowly starting to panic.


    She could see the zombie tirelessly following behind at a distance. It was fast, blazingly so. It wasn¡¯t like the movie zombies which couldn¡¯t even take a step forward without stumbling away. Death seemed to have removed its inhibitors because it was slowly gaining upon her, even though she was sprinting at an abnormal pace herself. It hadn¡¯t stopped shrieking like it didn¡¯t need to breathe. Ria had felt its coldness. She had seen its dead eyes stare back at her. It was a zombie now- with an amazing set of physical qualities. Whatever doubts she had left closed the shop and ran away. First, she met a Goblin and then came a croc, followed by a gnome, and now she was running away from a zombie. What will the next stage have in store for her? Skeletons?


    I hope it doesn¡¯t.


    The ceiling light soon came in her sight. She had run a whole loop around the tunnel and had arrived back at where she had started from. Now, she was tired. She had broken more than sweat, but her legs still had enough juice to take her through a second run around the tunnel, if she wanted- they weren¡®t complaining.


    She looked further ahead of the light; there was only darkness waiting for her there with no sign of help. She was on her last torch and even this one had reached its limit. If she wanted to do something about the zombie then she needed to do it now. This was her only chance. Because things would certainly turn trickier once she burned through her last torch. And with her stamina slowly draining, who knows how long she even had before she loses the ability to fight back? This was her chance. It was now or never.


    She could see the zombie catching up to her; Its mournful groan was echoing profoundly in the sewer, signaling her of its arrival. She looked to her left and right. She needed help. How was she to defeat the thing without any weapon? She was nervous. She hadn¡¯t really made up her mind about how to tackle her situation. At least she had decided to focus on surviving. That¡¯s all that matters. She remembered her promise with Nicky. I will survive, she had said. The promise gave her determination. Her anger eased her fear. She wasn¡¯t quite ready to attack the zombie, if only she had a weapon of some sort¡­The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    She ignored the bone sticking out of the water. No, her feelings were much more mundane, much more human-like. She refused to hold it again. She refused to even look at it. That thing had taken Nicky¡¯s life. How would she justify taking hold of it ever again?


    However, she stood her ground, holding her torch with both hands. The zombie didn¡¯t seem afraid of the fire. It stopped for a second upon seeing her then rushed toward her with its arms flailing about.


    She could see maggots streaming out of its empty eye socket, see its mouth tear at the seams as it stretched its jaw wide open, see its raunchy tongue move inside like a cockroach- It lunged for her, she dodged. They goblin wobbled onto the floor and skidded past. Ria rolled in the shallow water and stood up again, her torch still burning, her heart racing and her back to the wall. Her legs were shaking with fear.


    This is crazy.  She thought. She had no idea what to do, how to attack and kill the dammed thing, but she held her ground, spreading her legs for balance and tightly holding on to her burning torch. The zombie thrashed on the ground for a few moments, getting caught up in the mess of its own limbs, before it managed to stand up again, creating a nightmarish cacophony of bones grinding against each other.


    It came again, running toward her carrying the weight of a freight train. She somehow managed to jump away but lost her fire in the process. It seemed to have anticipated her reaction, as one of its hands managed to scratch her abdomen, leaving a claw-shaped rip on her flesh. It obviously didn¡¯t come out unscathed either. It struck the wall face first and became a tangled mess of limbs and bones. Its jaw broke upon impact and came to hang loosely from the hinges. But it didn¡¯t show any reaction to the pain.


    Ria jumped forward and attacked its head as it wobbled back from the impact. Her strike managed to do nothing other than to remind it of her presence. It looked back shaking its head and jumped at her at an unnatural angle. Its body twisted and untangled midair as it fell upon her screaming self.


    She crashed into the water and it fell upon her. She somehow managed to push the torch against its neck while it tried to take a bite of her face in frenzy. The impact made her groan. I am dead. She thought. Its face was so close to hers, she would have practically tasted its breath if it could breathe. She could hear the sounds of its groans and its jaw biting air. She could feel its weight on the torch. She could feel it thrashing, trying to inch toward her. Water droplets fell from its fingers and splashed against her face as it tried to grab her. It was uncomfortably close to her. When its dark-slimy spittle fell on her face, she decided she had had enough.


    It was strong though, Very strong. But where it strength excelled, its intellect failed. It didn¡¯t grab her even though it could. It didn¡¯t try to pull the torch stick away from her hands or even break it. It didn¡¯t try to stand up. It was like it had a single command- to keep biting and eating continuously.


    How much had she struggled? What would the Croc demand from her this time? She didn¡¯t know. What waited for her in the grave of her past? She didn¡¯t know.


    She only knew one thing and one thing only. She needed to survive. She has to leave the sewer alive. She had promised Nicky that she would. She didn¡¯t want to break her last promise with her. She hadn¡¯t bottled through the endless strolls into the dirty sewer water to one day die drowning inside it.


    Taking a deep breath, deciding her course of actions, she pushed against the stick. It was heavy. Even though her legs had grown stronger somehow she didn¡¯t feel the same kind of strength from her arms. They were weak in comparison. Her arms were too normal. In this place of goblins and zombies, where abnormal was the new normal, she was the odd one.


    Still, Ria pushed. She only managed to straighten her bent arms slightly, before the naked zombie learned from her and pushed back too, equaling the force. No, he was much stronger than her. Its push placed it right in front of her face. She didn¡¯t know what would happen if it bit her. Whether she would turn into an infected or not was unknown to her. So she didn¡¯t want to take the chance by getting bitten.


    The push didn¡¯t work. In the process of keeping her face away from the zombie, she pushed her head back and saw the bone handle. It was still sticking out of the water, standing tall. It was bobbing along with the ripples as if sleeping and waiting to be held by her again.


    She simply hated her life. She hated being told to do things. She hated being forced to do things even more. First, she had a horrifying childhood and now her adult life wasn¡¯t letting her off either. It was like the goblin knew she had left the knife behind in the sewer; like he knew she didn¡¯t even want to look at the thing and had decidedly resurrected the dead person, just to make sure that she would have to pick up the knife once again -pick up the tool she had used to murder her friend- and then kill again. Although she could technically say that she was defending herself, but would she even have the required mental capacity left after killing once again?


    It was like Ria¡¯s life was a game for the nameless Goblin. The Goblin was his master¡¯s tool. and she, his puppet.


    So that¡¯s what she did. She kneed the zombie in the gut. It didn¡¯t have any effect on its enthusiasm. It¡¯s possible that it can¡¯t feel pain anymore. She reminded herself. The attack, however, was powerful enough to fold its body. Her eye didn¡¯t lit up, but determination congregated inside her. Crunching her abs, she bent her knees to her abdomen then kicked his gut with all the strength she could muster.


    The zombie visibly flew.


    Its feet left the ground. Its body folded upon itself. It didn¡¯t feel pain, but it must have felt something form the attack because it stopped moving for a second. She didn¡¯t, however, let it get too far away. No. What would have been the point in that? It would have fallen straight back upon her.


    With it being airborne, she struck its face with the smoking end of her torch, swatting it toward her left. Nothing snapped, but her torch splintered and the zombie fell away from her.


    Wasting no time, she released the broken half of her torch and rolled backward toward the knife. The zombie fell on its shoulder and without stopping or feeling any adverse effects of the strike, wriggled toward her, dragging its shoulder on the ground without standing up.


    She only managed to get a single second to act after which it jumped on her, just like she had jumped on the goblin. Neither held anything in their hands. But it could rip her apart with simply with its fingers.


    The zombie came intimately close to her then stopped moving altogether. The zombie¡¯s hands stopped partially from her temples, declaring its intent. They both fell on their backs at the same time. Ria pushed away from it in a frenzy of kicks and swings. The zombie remained motionless with a bone handle sticking out of the roof of its bloodless mouth. Its body twitched every now and then, but it otherwise showed none of its characteristic spark.


    It was finished. She did it. She managed to kill a zombie, alone. She did it.


    Ria breathed in relief when the zombie stopped moving. Once she made sure it was really dead for good, she crawled to it and removed her knife from its mouth. As black pus leaked from the gaping slit, she clenched the knife in her dormant hand and stood up.


    She cleaned the blade and put it in the back pocket of her jean. She didn¡¯t stop grieving, but she was done being stupid. Why blame a fellow tool? It neither had the opportunity nor the choice to act according to its wish, but she did. She could use it however way she wanted. Without her, the knife was purposeless. So she gave it one.


    ¡°I blamed you as a killer. Prove me wrong.¡± She said staring at the closed door. ¡°Help me survive.¡±

 11.2: Zombie

    Once the zombie died the door appeared, fashioning the same glow and accompanied by the familiar carnival sound- which, as Ria had discovered, apparently had no source. At first, she had thought the sound was a yield of the Television playing in the room. It hadn¡¯t taken her long to revise her thinking though, for the TV inside was as soundless as the dead being lying before her.


    Glancing at the zombie one last time she got up feeling nostalgic. Not that she had gotten attached to the stinking piles of shit and the murky stream flowing in the tunnel. She was leaving her innocence behind- whatever was left of it from her childhood- and she was finding it difficult to adjust her mindset. She found it extremely difficult to take her steps toward the future she had deliberately chosen, but she also knew it was a path she had to walk if she wanted another chance at life under the twinkle of stars and skies of blue. With her heart-pumping lead into the veins, she opened the door and entered the room beyond. She had made her choice. She didn¡¯t look back.


    The goblin sat on a chair he had pulled from the dining table and was watching TV. The door to the next stage was already standing to his right; it donned the engraving of a jaw fitted with plenty of lethal fangs on its surface. The goblin didn¡¯t face her as she entered. And neither did he welcome her.


    ¡°You sure took your time.¡± He however said; he wasn¡¯t sarcastic with his words, but he wasn¡¯t kind either. He was unusually serious. Him being serious was good for her right?


    Ria looked between the new door and the Goblin and decided she was in dire need of some answers. She might have already made her decision related to harming others, but she knew her capacity to whittle surprises wasn¡¯t anything great. The only being who could possibly know what was waiting for her in the next stage was sitting in front of her. She wasn¡¯t sure how easy it would be to scam him, but she sure as heck was feeling confident for some reason.


    ¡°Seems like someone¡¯s in a bad mood.¡± She retorted, wining a cocked eyebrow from the goblin in return. ¡°What happened? Tired of watching the same thing over and over again?¡± she said pointing at the TV, surprised by her own calmness. Knowing that the damned monster wouldn¡¯t even touch her now that she had performed his task played a big part in getting her¡­ out of control. But that¡¯s just how humans work. Give them an inch and they try to take a mile, nothing new there.


    The goblin looked at the object of her scrutiny and stood up ¨Cas if about to say something- but paused, glared at her, and sat back down on his chair with his back to her. ¡°Don¡¯t poke your finger into things you don¡¯t know anything about, little lamb.¡± There was stillness to the way he said those words- a gloom he hadn¡¯t displayed before.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Little lamb¡­ he really doesn¡¯t think much of me.


    ¡°Alright, so if you can just tell me what waits for me on the other side of the door, I¡¯ll leave you be.¡± The goblin, however, replied with silence, denying her the relief she craved. Questions, she had so many of them. She didn¡¯t know what the marble was? Whether she was supposed to return it to him or what? How had the corpse turned into a zombie? Why was she back to his floor again? What did it actually mean to go down the sewer? How was she to pry answers out of the goblins thick skull when he didn¡¯t even give her any attention? He didn¡¯t even feel pain for God¡¯s sake! Not that she would try her little stunt once again¡­ who knows how he would react? Well, she could decide to not play his games anymore, but how would that help her? It is not wrong to say that the goblin scared her most of everything she had seen and faced in the sewer. At least the Croc had the decency to kill its targets. Those bone mounds weren¡¯t a natural creation! She wouldn¡¯t have even known about the sewer and its rules if it wasn¡¯t for the Croc. It¡¯s like the Goblin wanted her dead.


    But she needed answers. Something, anything would do. Why hadn¡¯t it answered her? Wasn¡¯t the goblin obliged to answer everything that was asked of it? Hadn¡¯t it told her about how to become a perfect leader when she hadn¡¯t even asked him? What am I missing?


    ¡°At least tell me about the zombie! How did it come back to life?¡± She said groaning. He¡¯s so frustrating. She thought. Stomping on the floor she picked up speed toward the door when ¨Cdisbelievingly- the goblin answered her.


    He spoke, barely, with a very strained voice- as if being forced to speak. His veins bulged and his eyes stared dangerously at her, reminding her once again that it was only luck that she had attacked the goblin and lived to tell the tale. ¡°The bead is a seed of power.¡± He enunciated every single word with distinctly. ¡°It can do wonders you can¡¯t even think about. It gave the corpse a boon of life. But the corpse had no soul hence, it only became partially alive.¡±


    ¡°How does that work?¡±


    ¡°It gives the power which one desperately needs, not which one desperately wants.¡±


    ¡°Can it help me? Can it give me powers?¡±


    It stared at her without blinking then shook his head. ¡°It is a useless thing now. Do you have anything else to ask?¡±


    She didn¡¯t know. Did she have anything else to ask? Of course, she did! But she had gotten so absorbed in thinking about the marble that she unknowingly shook her head, releasing whatever power was bounding the goblin: His face visibly relaxed and eyes returned to normal; his veins, however, remained swollen, pulsating with his heartbeat.


    So he does have a heart. She mindlessly thought then grimaced at the opportunity lost.


    ¡°Me hate you, humans.¡± He said standing up. ¡°And don¡¯t even try to do that again. Me promise it won¡¯t end well for you.¡± Finishing, he took off into the tunnel beyond. She had clearly set him off.


    Now that the goblin was gone and she had the whole room to herself, she instantly went to closely investigate every nook and cranny. She pulled knobs, rotated pillars and hangers, knocked walls, tapped the floor, everything she did ended up exhausting her completely but bore no fruit. In the end, she depressingly broke another chair and created torches with their legs to take along.


    Once done, she passed through the door without hesitating.

 12.1: The rattler

    The sudden contrast between light and darkness was jarring, but Ria blinked through the worst of it. Blackness overshadowed the brightness here. The large overarching shadow had disappeared, replaced by small black trails formed under her torch¡¯s shine and echoes. The one main difference Ria noticed between this stage and every other stage she had been through was the position of the roof; The roof of this bricked chamber was so high that Ria couldn¡¯t even see from where it started and where it ended. Even the light from her torch didn¡¯t help her determine the actual size of this construction. This chamber was absolutely gigantic.


    Though her direct transportation so close to the dining table confused her, she didn¡¯t mind the change one single bit. She was happy for not being subjected to the torturous walk through the waist-high waters of the tunnels of this stage. Though her steps now ringed with strength as she calmly walked through the chamber, it shouldn¡¯t be forgotten that it wasn¡¯t long ago when she had tied to cut off from the reality by losing herself to the maze of her thoughts. It was only thanks to the change of her mindset- a change she had absorbed a lot of mental pain to get- that let allowed her to pass her confidence as strength.


    And the result of this change was her actively trying to find the Croc.


    ¡°Hello.¡± Her voice echoed but no one answered her, as if the chamber had entered a cardiac arrest and was slowly dying. Even the sound of the fountain she had heard back on her last stop on this stage couldn¡¯t be heard anymore. As if whatever dread had this stage in its grasp had dried all the water.


    ¡°Should I take a look?¡± She said looking back into the distance, toward the tunnel where water once flowed but decided against it. Had this change any influence on her task she would soon come to know it anyways. So why waste time and energy doing something unneeded like that? Silence isn¡¯t always aggravating. It¡¯s only hindering when one¡¯s scared or anxious. And she surely wasn¡¯t scared but, she was actually very anxious. That bit is true.


    Although she had grown confident thanks to her struggles, it would be a lie to say that Ria had grown completely fearless of the Croc. She could still feel a ghostly pain from her removed fingers. She had also found herself trying to move them on many previous occasions which had only reminded her of their absence. She hadn¡¯t forgotten the pain. It was now an unfortunate part of her: A reminder of her actions in the sewer. And she still feared being forced to give up another part of her body to gain a momentary reprieve. But she also understood that there were rules encompassing the sewer. She was slowly coming to understand that no one was bigger than the rules. Not the Goblin, not the Croc, and definitely not her.


    The way out demanded her sacrifice and she was now in peace with the idea. She was ready to sacrifice. She was ready to hurt herself. She had learned to give. She had already freed her mind from the guilt. Now if she could only free her nerves too. That would be great.


    She didn¡¯t have to walk much under the illumination of her torch before her eyes registered a faint glow of light over the horizon. Now that she was not blinded by depression she could see the effect light had on the darkness around. It appeared to create a sphere diffusing the darkness and keeping its tendrils at bay.


    She increased her pace at the sight and soon she was upon the dining table which had the candles still burning and all the chairs toppled except one. On this chair sat the croc with his head in its hands and his back to her.


    I can push the knife through its heart. I can do that.  She found the thought very enticing; with the Croc busy pondering over something, she had to try very hard to keep from giving in to the excitement. She had seen what the Goblin was capable of in terms of regeneration. He had spared her for attacking him, the croc might not. So sad though she felt, she didn¡¯t take the steps cutting all ties, and took a detour instead, so she would appear from his right- properly visible and unsurprising. Surprises work like gunpowder in a tense situation; you can¡¯t anticipate what would light the fuse, sweeping everything in a tide of destruction. And the Croc surely looked very tense from behind.


    (POV change)


    ¡°Hey¡­ what are you thinking about?¡±


    ¡°Hmmm,¡± The Croc looked up with confusion. Then squinted as the familiar form of Ria entered her sight. It wasn¡¯t long ago when she had to throw Ria¡¯s unconscious form over the door leading to the garden. Ria had been a frightened little thing when she had first found her. Now that same girl looked so different, so tall. Though the girl looked physically exhausted and the sewer hadn¡¯t been polite to her in any sense, but at least the girl now radiated with light. She, on the other hand, was tired. The old dog above was doing something and it was changing everything. She didn¡¯t know what the changes meant for her and her challenger, but if she was to believe the whispers she could hear on the wind, the tide was coming. It was almost here. And it frightened her.


    ¡°Jou are here.¡± She said watching Ria stop at a distance. ¡°Jou took your time.¡± And for some reason, she heard the girl snicker. When was the last time she had heard laughter in this dismaying place? Never is the answer.


    ¡°Jou¡­ is smiling?¡± she asked in confusion.


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing,¡± The girl replied, picking a toppled chair from the ground and setting it up opposite her. Hmm?  The girl can¡¯t possibly be thinking about- This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    To her surprise, the young girl was definitely trying to sit on the chair.


    I have to do- left with no choice she directly struck the table with her fist. She struck the table so hard that wood on her side of the table broke, lifting the other side of the table and topping the surprised girl and the chair back onto the ground.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± The girl said angrily.


    Yep, every challenger boiled with anger which wasn¡¯t displaced either, but this girl was different. She could smile even after going through a whole floor of the sewer and get angry for the shallowest of reasons- considering what the challengers were made to go through.


    What are you trying to do old dog? I can¡¯t even decide whether you are playing with her or you hate her.


    She couldn¡¯t help but cock an eye and sigh seeing the girl trying to stand back up looking like a homeless person with her clothes all dirty and ragged. At least only her clothes were tattered and not her mind. She had seen many day walkers come and die- all either broken beyond measure or on the very verge of it, and that¡¯s the story of only the first floor. Ria hadn¡¯t looked any different from those others walking corpses the first time she had seen her.


    Something must have happened to her. Such a drastic change wouldn¡¯t have been possible otherwise.


    ¡°Lay the chair down girl. Don¡¯t sit on it.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm¡­ why?¡±


    The girl really wasn¡¯t scared of her. No, she could see the girl squirming where she stood, ready to run. So not only has she not completely given up but is still trying to survive. I thought it was her last hurrah- but that old dog¡­


    ¡°Te old dog didn¡¯t explain to you anything once again, right?¡± The girl nodded and she shook her head.


    I knew it. He¡¯s up to something- Something dangerous. Has he given up too?


    ¡°Jou are here that means Jou refused his drink. If Jou had accepted the glass a second time, Jou wouldn¡¯t be here right now. That¡¯s what I mean. Just so Jou know. The chairs are bound with the same rules. Jou sits at one and I eat Jou alive.¡± She could see the disbelief written all over the girls face.


    Jou didn¡¯t anticipate that, huh.


    But it was quite understandable. The goblin and she were not someone born a week ago. How many leaders they had produced? How many lives they had taken? She never counted, but the number is huge. Even they didn¡¯t remember how long they had been creating leaders. If a girl of her age could estimate every rule that old dog had set, he wouldn¡¯t be called the lord of schemes for no reason. Although he wasn¡¯t physically anything close to being a lord, his schemes run very deep.


    Last time he wanted to go free. What is he up to this time?


    ¡°Anyways, that doesn¡¯t matter now. Jou has already passed his stage. I hope he rewarded Jou the marble?¡± He can¡¯t have found a way to keep it from her¡­ could he? But her worries were for nothing. The girl nodded in reply. And she silently sighed in relief. Why do I care what happens to her? It¡¯s not like she¡¯ll be the first one to die by my hands. Maybe I am tired too.


    ¡°And what kind of skill did the marble gave you?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    That¡¯s surprising¡­ Did he not explain to her about the marble? Is that his next play? It can¡¯t be that easy?


    ¡°I mean what did the marble gift you?¡±


    ¡°But the Goblin said it can¡¯t give me anything. That it is already used.¡±


    That doesn¡¯t make any sense. He¡¯s not strong enough to change master¡¯s words and morph their meaning to his liking. Has he found a loophole? That can¡¯t be.


    ¡°You can¡¯t have passed without receiving the marble. That means you did receive it.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± The girl nodded and then brought the marble out of her pocket. Her eyes opened wide seeing the artifact of power in the girl¡¯s hand. It was the same golden marble she had seen her master give the Goblin. The only difference between the marble in the girl''s hand and the one from her memory was its missing glow. This marble wasn¡¯t glowing anymore, meaning it had been used and had returned to become a normal object.


    But I perfectly remember- it can¡¯t be brought down from the first stage. It can¡¯t be- Wait¡­ is he trying to fight back? Has master lost control or he¡¯s back¡­ master is back¡­ That¡¯s the only reason. But how-


    ¡°Are you alright?¡±


    Huh? Her- I don¡¯t know what he¡¯s planning, but he has involved her in his plans. And I can¡¯t even ask her. He¡¯s played us all.


    ¡°What did you do to him girl? Why is he so against you? He really wants you dead, you know.¡±


    ¡°What are you trying to say?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m saying the marble was thou reward for passing the first floor and it can grant its user with a boon of power. And that thing jou are holding can¡¯t be brought away from the first stage. It just can¡¯t be. I don¡¯t know what he wants from jou.¡±


    Her words stunned the girl. It¡¯s a shame really. The old dog might have found a way to work around the rules, but I haven¡¯t. Wish I hadn¡¯t given up so easily.


    The girl silently pondered about her situation and came to a decision.


    ¡°What¡¯s my task?¡± she finally asked.


    ¡°Jou really want to do this? I guess Jou don¡¯t have any choice anyway. Just so Jou knows, there is a reason the marble is given as a reward for completing the first floor.¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. Just tell me my task. Do I have to give you more flesh?¡± The girl said pulling out the knife from her back pocket surprising her.


    She nostalgically looked at the knife and shook her head. ¡°I am happy to see that Jou  are taking good care of it. I made it from my sharpest fang, so it will probably serve jou for quite some time. As for Jost task, because the water has stopped flowing through the tunnel I can¡¯t fish any more food from it. And the rattlers stole my last stash three days ago. I want you to kill the rattler and bring me back my stash.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s a rattler and how did it steal from you? I mean you are a Crocodile for fuck¡¯s sake?¡±


    ¡°We guardians aren¡¯t allowed to attack, so I couldn¡¯t do anything. As for the rattler, you will find it by the mounds. I think you know what I mean. I will wish for your success. Both of our lives depend upon it.¡±


    She watched the girl nervously leaving and floundered into the back of her chair. A hundred questions passed through her mind, but she wasn¡¯t able to understand the old goblins game. Sighing she let her thoughts go. We have been alive for too long, old dog. I hope his time you have something up your sleeve.

 12.2: Rattler

    Ria was hated by the Goblin, but helped by the croc and cared by the garden elf: she had to constantly remind herself to not completely believe their words, but not to neglect them either. Though some of them were nice to her, they weren¡¯t her friends. She didn¡¯t know whether their affection was a ruse or not. Being subjected to this kind of mental friction was hard on her, but it did a nice job of keeping her worried and focused.


    The mounds weren¡¯t far from the dining table. The light from her torch revealed the route and the past associated with it. Broken pieces of white bones littered the whole floor: some were mere splinters of their previous size and others crunched loudly under her weight. The sounds made her cringe but they didn¡¯t slow her down. However, that doesn¡¯t mean she wasn¡¯t terrified. The crocs words had her on the toes. Knowing that something lurked inside the shadows emerging from the mounds kept her wary of her surroundings. She even reverted back to prowling with her back arching and chest almost parallel to the white floor.


    The rattler ¨Cas the Croc called it- had stolen its last stash of food. She had an inkling of its identity. But she hoped for her thoughts to remain a work of her imagination and not something true. Her task bound her to fight and defeat the thing, after all. Although her primary objective was to retrieve the Croc¡¯s stolen food stash but having just come from facing a zombie that acted with relentlessness, she held no false hope of being spared from the fight. But she was ill-equipped. She had her torch gripped in her left hand, and in her other hand, she clenched her knife. Her clothes were tattered and she was barefoot. Not really the ideal equipment to fight with a zombie¡¯s successor.


    A few minutes later she was in front of the mounds. Their number had increased since the last time she¡¯d seen them. There had only been as many as a palm-full of peas scattered sporadically. Now the conical shapes jutted out of the ground at every few meters. Either a massacre had happened on this stage in the time being or this was a completely different place. A large number of bone shards covered the whole floor in a layer of white. The sharper pieces of which did try to poke her sole but her feet had grown tough enough to strive through them. The floor gave her a sensation akin to walking on rocky terrain.


    ¡°If only I hadn¡¯t lost my shoes.¡± There was nothing she could do about it.


    She did hesitate at the boundary of the new mound valley. The whole thing just didn¡¯t feel right to her. But she carried onwards, however. Her torch fire ruffled beside her, the light illuminating old and grayed ribcages, cracked bones and broken skull on her path. Shadows grew and disappeared with her. Silence followed quietly. Her heartbeat echoed in her ears. Every breath she took was loud and sharp.  Bone crunching sound followed her every step. To her surprise, the deeper she went, the wider the valley got. It hadn¡¯t looked so large from the outside.


    ¡°Should I go back?¡± She said looking over her shoulder. However, she soon came to understand that she had underestimated the sewer. There wasn¡¯t an exit behind her. Hundreds of mounds crossed the path behind her. The entrance was nowhere to be seen. Had she really walked so deep into the valley of mounds? She really hadn¡¯t, but the sight was also true. As for how she could distinguish the number of mounds in the darkness where the only source of light was her torch? The air itself was faintly radiating, creating a hue of illumination strong enough to make the mounds distinguishable. It was no surprise that she decided to head-on.


    Is there no exit? Or will one appear upon the rattlers defeat?


    As of now, no otherworldly being had tried to stop her descent and this knowledge had her on the edge. She knew the sewer liked to play with its contenders. She liked calling herself a contender because the word gave her hope; it made her think that -slim as it might be- she still had a chance to survive. But she didn¡¯t enjoy the restlessness her surrounding permeated. She could almost feel something watching her from the shadows- keeping its eyes on her. This was one very demanding thought. It expended her focus at a much rapid rate than she felt secure with.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    And to her surprise she easily found the crocs stash lying in the center of an open area with a ring of bone mounds surrounding it. It shouldn¡¯t be forgotten that the mounds weren¡¯t small. They were ten-foot tall at an average and equally wide. There were many which were easily triple that size and some which were even smaller than her. To find an open area in this place was a sign of trouble on its own, but to find her objective lying defenselessly along with it, only added to the complexity. The stash even looked completely neglected- like the entity which had stolen it hadn¡¯t done so out of necessity but order.


    ¡°Is that it?¡± She gawked from the boundary of the circular space. But before she could make up her mind, about what to do next, something ¨Ca dark shadow, a shape- moved in the distance with a heavy rattling sound.


    ¡°I knew it!¡± she said. ¡°How could it be that simple?¡±


    Clenching her knife tightly, she waited for her stealthy neighbor to come out into the light but no matter how long she waited it refused to act before her. It really tested her patience. She was already tapping her feet in anxiousness and when it refused to act before her, she stopped waiting and went for the stash.


    I¡¯ll deal with it when it comes.


    It was a giant leap from her side. There were no exits. There was no place to run or hide. No one would come to help her. She was alone, on her own. And she decided to fight without hesitation. Growing closer to the stash she plunged her torch deep into the ground and dropped her sack of torches beside the stash. She immediately lit another torch and opened the stash to see what it contained.


    It held an unconscious naked man with his hands tied behind his back to his feet.


    Oh, No. The Croc¡¯s food stash¡­ of course¡­


    And to her horror, he was alive.


    Then the sound came again. Something rolled away from her left to right behind her with the sound of bones grinding against each other. Her back tingled as a shiver passed down her spine. She was waiting for it but it still managed to surprise her. As she wheeled on her heels and stood up facing the direction it had went toward, something rattled behind her. She only managed to see bones tumbling down a mound. Breathing deeply she gulped and exhaled. The unfortunate crunching sound followed her- Distracting her.  She stood on the balls of her feet, giving her just enough lean in her posture to allow her to roll forward or dash away in an emergency.


    Something rattled again to her right. It was getting stupid now. ¡°Just come out and fight me.¡± Angry and anxious as she was, she still looked and just as she turned, something grunted from her left. She didn¡¯t think and rolled forward. A gust of wind ruffled her hair and something small fell to her direct right.


    ¡°Fuck¡­¡± a groan leaked out of her mouth as the sharp bones on the ground rubbed against her almost bare back and shoulders. As she came to a stop something tightly held her ankle and pulled. The pull hadn¡¯t been strong, but it had come at a bad time. She fell back to the floor with her arms spread forward. Bones crunched to her right, at a distance. Something rattled. She scrambled up by pushing on her free leg, dragging the other behind. Whatever had held her ankle tugged a few more time before letting go. She inadvertently looked down and saw something the size of an apple roll away into the shadows. Her imagination was coming back to haunt her. She saw a white skeleton hand, limped away using the index and middle fingers as legs. She hiccupped as she heard something running toward her from behind.


    She raised her torch and slashed with her knife just in time to catch her assailant in the ribs. Something whirled past the left side of her face as the torch brought her assailant into the light. It was hard. It was light. It was a skeleton- a structure made of bare-bones which moved away from her after being struck down.


    ¡°Holy shit, it¡¯s -really a- skeleton!¡± She scooted away from it, rolling on the ground, as the skeleton disappeared to her left and into the darkness. She had dropped her torch in surprise and currently, it lay there on the ground burning but with resistance. It had run away, but she could hear its bones rattling nearby. It wasn¡¯t far though it constantly kept changing its position. Using the darkness as a cover, it moved about. It didn¡¯t strike her out from the front. No. It played hide and seek with her.

 12.3: The rattler

    ¡°First a zombie and now a skeleton,¡± She voiced her frustration. ¡°Are ghosts coming next?¡±


    Leaning forward, Ria picked up her torch as bones cracking sounds reverberated around her. She pushed the naked man¡¯s back with her foot to wake him up; to her surprise -unlike the dead body from the first tunnel- the man moaned and grunted in his unconscious state.


    ¡°Mom,¡± he said groggily in half-sleep, ¡°let me sleep for a few more minutes¡­¡±


    Surprised at his liveliness, Ria hurried to her knees and started slapping him left and right, whilst keeping her ears open. After a minute of being brutalized the man finally woke up: completely unaware of his situation.


    ¡°Mom, hey-¡± he said grunting. His face showed signs of struggle before expressions of clear terror adorned his face. ¡°Who are you? Where is that thing? That coat wearing crocodile- where is it? Help me, you have got to help me!¡±


    ¡°I-¡± She tried to explain but heard a small landslide of bone to her left and swung on her heels to face it. A small round bone fell in front of her, right at the moment she faced it, and bounced away, leaving her breathless.


    ¡°Get up,¡± she said looking around. ¡°We need to leave. Your life is in danger.¡±


    ¡°What danger? And why can¡¯t I move.¡±


    Unperturbed by his emotional display and crackling voice, she peered at him and saw no ropes binding him. The man was trying to move, but noting below his neck was moving. She checked his neck and saw a deep cauterized wound there. A look of sympathy washed over her face before she stood up with her back to him.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she said.


    ¡°Why- why are you sorry?¡±


    ¡°I think you are paralyzed below the neck.¡±


    ¡°Wha- how can that be? How could that- oh, that Croc- he- he- hit me with a machete. He did this ¨CI-I,¡± he trailed off for a few moments before he stopped shuddering and looked back at her. ¡°You- you can help me? You can,¡±


    Ria bit her lip but didn¡¯t respond. She had nothing to say to him. She was in a situation of her own. And now with his untimed revival¡­ she was finding herself quickly sinking into a quagmire too deep for her, emotionally and mentally. It would have helped her much if the man hadn¡¯t woken up or had simply been dead from the start. But the sewer clearly had its own plans. It wasn¡¯t about to let her off easily. No. it had to bring her morality into question. This shitty place had to make her question her own self. The skeleton hiding in the shadowy depths wasn¡¯t her only enemy. One shouldn¡¯t forget the real task of this stage- the retrieval of the Croc¡¯s stash. And the stash being a living man¡­ the sewer wanted her to save herself by sacrificing an innocent man.


    Does the Croc want me to sacrifice a man to save my own life? Is this also the conduct of a leader? What kind of leader knowingly kills a man to save his own skin?!


    Mounds toppled and a jaw cackled. Not knowing how many stupid skeletons surrounded her was hard on her psyche, but she held her spot. The dread of being put through the choice to hand over the man to the Croc slowly chiseled at her sanity, but she held her spot. Where would she run to anyways? A grunt came out of her mouth as the liveliness got louder around her, making her step away from the man.


    ¡°What is that? Are we not alone? Is that monster still around?¡± She heard the man ask and clenched her knife tighter than ever. She felt constricted. The skeleton was still running around the circular opening; whether it was waiting for something or simply trying to get into her head, only it knew. It wanted to scare her, to make her fear the unknown. And its antics were working. She was trembling.


    She had somehow faced and defeated the zombie, but that incident had happened as brisk as a gust of wind. The zombie hadn¡¯t given her the time to think. It had chased her to the end of her stamina and attacked her without any delays. But the skeleton was stalling. It was giving her time to think. It was forcing her to think about all the scenarios which could, should or would happen. And if her headache was any indication, its tactics were working. A body of bare-bones without a brain had her in its clutches. Every little sound it created made her jump. Its every cackle haunted her breaths.


    ¡°Hey,¡± The voice brought her out of her thoughts. It not only made her remember that she wasn¡¯t alone, but that she hadn¡¯t lost yet. She still had a chance. Whether she would win or not- time would tell. But for now, she was still alive. She was alive and she could resist.


    I¡¯m still alive.


    ¡°I¡¯m talking to you lady? Although I can¡¯t get up, you shouldn¡¯t ignore another human like that. At least tell me what¡¯s out there, please? I can hear it moving you know, even if I can¡¯t see it.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a skeleton.¡± She said.


    ¡°What now?¡±


    ¡°A skeleton is a skeleton,¡± she said slightly uptight. ¡°What do you want from me? To give you a proper explanation of what a skeleton is? It¡¯s a pair of bone and it can move-Happy now?¡±


    ¡°Good God. What are you going to do? It¡¯ll kill me. I can¡¯t move!¡± he said ignoring her angry tone. This man either knew his priorities or he was absolutely stunned.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. You have been sleeping under its eyes for who knows how long. It hasn¡¯t hurt you until now. So it¡¯s possible that it won¡¯t hurt you.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know that.¡± He said opening his eyes wide.


    ¡°Well, your crying is not helping my situation. So you better shut up and let me-¡± She trailed off looking at the fringe of the open area. She could see a figure standing there just outside the coverage of her torchlight. As she squinted, it cackled and something churned inside her. It was the same feeling which she had felt before pulling the knife out of the floor while facing the zombie. It wasn¡¯t a sense of urgency or hesitation. It was an onslaught of calmness and freedom, of utter and unfounded confidence. And before she knew it, she this feeling had her running-running directly toward the skeleton.


    ¡°It is our situation. Not just yours. Hey-Are you listening to me? Where are you going? Don¡¯t leave me alone, man?¡± The man¡¯s shriek rang behind her, heard and forgotten without a second thought.


    It has finally given up on stealth. It¡¯s my chance.


    The skeleton was finally in the open. She didn¡¯t know whether she had the strength to deal with it, but she ran without care. She didn¡¯t run like her life depended on it, but like anything was possible if only could just reach the skeleton. Her mindset was changing. Thankfully, she wasn¡¯t completely doubtless about her situation. Her hesitation about the stranger¡¯s fate tells a wide tale of her personality. She had made up her mind about the monsters. She now understood what to do about them. She understood that the monsters were her enemy and that hesitating against them wouldn¡¯t do her any good.  Her thoughts, however, weren¡¯t completely set in stone, yet. Though she understood it in her heart, she hadn¡¯t stopped hesitating. This time, her body had acted while her mind hesitated. Next time, she might not even get the chance to act.


    She heard her heart beating crazily inside her chest. She could feel her heart rate increasing. Her breathing wasn¡¯t out of her control though. She thought she needed time to make up her mind about the stranger. He was a done case after all. He was paralyzed and broken. There was no way to save him inside the sewer.


    Other than the fruit, She thought. She had felt the fruits effect on her body. She knew what it could do. It had not only closed her wounds but had also repaired her body and refreshed her mind. The fruit had worked its wonders on her and it surely could help him too. And it¡¯s not like she would have to drag him around! She was sure the garden elf would help him just like it had helped her. These thoughts however only worked as stones to drag her feet. They didn¡¯t present her with a solution about how to deal with the Croc but tilted her decision toward going against it. And the reason was very convincing too.


    If only I had a way to deal with the Croc.


    As she ran it cackled jovially. Well, she was also happy. She didn¡¯t want to fight the skeleton between the mounds. The mounds were its playground. While out there, in the open area, she was at an advantage. At least she wasn¡¯t at a disadvantage. As she neared the skeleton ¨Cits bare form almost visible- she heard a bone crunch behind her back. The sound came unspeakably suddenly. It got her attention. And as her attention slipped, something caught her feet. She tripped and fell. Everything happened in the blink of her eyes. The reaction window was so small Ria only noticed her fall when she saw the white ground nearing her eyes. She hurriedly put her hands forward to protect her face and shrieked in pain when a few bone shards pierced through her left hand. And the roll next really pushed her understanding of pain through a threshold. A few more shards of bone punctured through her collar and back, poking out of her bloody skin like she had broken her own bones.


    The pain brought Ria out of her rushed state of mind. The newly formed wounds burned. The hurt came suddenly and way worse than some thorny prickling, and it stuck with her for a long following while. The silence rushed at her like a binding globe of discomfort. It tightened around her, making her breathless and hazy.


    While she was still in shock, that something holding her feet crawled up her leg and over her body like a snake. It wriggled up her back, held her hair and brutally tugged them back. The pain multiplied instantly, making her coherent. The thing tugged her hair hard enough to curve her spine and raise her head from the ground, making her look directly at the skeleton which finally came into motion and lunged at her with its jaw open.


    A faintly glowing blob of blue light glowed inside its eye sockets. She saw its focus set on her. The sight of death rushing toward her sent shivers snaking down her spine. She gave up. She remembered the zombie and decided to give up struggling. She remembered the Goblin and gave up on the thought. She remembered her family and forgot them the next second. She went through her memories one by one to give her a reason to struggle, to act. Then she remembered Nicky and she found herself liking the idea of meeting her again. She found herself closing her eyes forever, she remembered her brother. She remembered thinking that going against him was impossible- a mountainous task. And remembered sticking a knife into his chest, right where his heart rose and fell, right where he had asked her to strike if she wanted to be freed from him.


    ¡°Only kill me if you have the strength to face life on your own, all alone. If you can¡¯t even oppose your big brother, your own flesh and blood, then how will you face a lifetime worth of strangers? Won¡¯t they simply eat you alive?¡± And she had acted. Right then and right there she had killed him. She had used a knife polished to mirror finish, a knife used to slice butter, to slice him out of her life. She had done that. With her own two hands. She had protected herself once. She had faced oppression and rioted. She had done it once.


    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    ¡°I can do it again.¡± She made up her mind. Be it the goblin, the croc, the zombie, the skeleton or a stranger, she would do anything to protect herself. If surviving meant defying the Croc and stealing his last food, she would do it. If surviving meant stealing the life of an innocent stranger-


    ¡°THEN I¡¯LL DO IT TOO!!¡±


    Pushing on the ground with her right hand she dodged away to her left. The skeleton fell amidst the man¡¯s cries and rolled away toward him with a bustle of bone shards and bone-rattling.


    Standing up she got a hang of the thing holding her hair and pulled. It, however, stayed stubbornly latched on to her hair no matter how hard she yanked. And to her dismay, the skeleton stood up. It stood motionless for a moment then lunged for her again. The man cursed in the background. She decisively pulled the critter holding her hair above her head and sliced the length of hair it held with her knife, gaining freedom. In the next moment, the skeleton was right upon her. It had a single hand ¨Cwith pointed fingers- which it sent slashing at her neck. Left to no devices, she swung the critter she held and smacked it at the skeleton''s skull, cracking it in one swing and flinging the skeleton away. A scratch grew visible on Ria¡¯s neck as the skeleton dismantled into pieces from the strike and its skull rolled away into hiding. The threads of her arm length hair slowly fell around her, glowing dimly under the torchlight.


    The skeleton went into hiding once again leaving her with the knowledge that its limbs could move separately from its body. The critter which had wormed over her body had been the skeletons missing arm: the remains of which she tossed away into the darkness with her back to the man who was snarling behind her.


    ¡°Holy shit, what was that? It was only bones! How did that thing even move? I saw that white arm stalk you. At first, I thought it was a snake. I froze. I¡¯m sorry. I should have warned you. And then you smacked it with its own arm. That was hilarious.¡± Finishing his words, he started laughing. She, however, wasn¡¯t in the mood to listen to him. The danger wasn¡¯t over yet.


    And if her condition was normal then she would have noticed how jovial the paralyzed man was. His was not the recovery speed of a normal human. He should have been acting all cooped up and broken, not laughing and screaming.


    ¡°It is not done yet. It¡¯s going to attack soon. I want you to keep your eyes on my back. Warn me if something pokes out of the dark again. Our lives depend on you.¡±


    She didn¡¯t wait around to hear his agreement. It was about to attack again. The pattern was right there. The skeleton was building momentum. Its echoing rattling was the sign. Putting her knife into her back pocket she picked up the femurs left behind by the skull. Holding them, she positioned to defend the middle of the circular arena with her legs spread wide and knee bent. She was ready.


    Bone shards crunched in front of her. It was coming. A bead of sweat trickled down her face. She didn¡¯t run for it this time. I¡¯ll intercept you right here where the light shines. I¡¯ll see how you run this time. The noises increased. Her heartbeat rose. Just when she was stiffening up, one of the mounds to her right toppled toward the arena. The bones tinkled into the boneless ground stopping a few inches from her feet.


    ¡°Oh no,¡±


    It was just the start.


    One by one the other mounds started falling upon Ria. Bones rained at her from above. A sea of abrasive shards flushed toward her. Bones broke upon impacting the floor. A mass of sharp shards flew all around. She somehow managed to cower into safety underneath the only mound left standing. But she didn¡¯t come out of it unscathed. Her flesh was gorged in many places. A few of the sharper pieces had managed to draw blood. The man, on the other hand, fared much better than her. He only suffered a few shallow scratches at best, and a bone poking his arm was his worst wound.


    Ria feared being buried with the stranger under the mound. She knew they wouldn¡¯t survive if it also fell. But it didn¡¯t. Bone dust-colored her sight in grey. She, unfortunately, lost her torch to the tsunami. If it wasn¡¯t for the natural luminance, she would have been left completely blind. For now, she could at least distinguish between the shades of dark. Left to no choice, she dumped the thought of running away into the back of her mind and watched the newly formed trench with squinted eyes.


    ¡°What-what are we going to do now?¡± The man said, stuttering and coughing.


    It didn¡¯t take long for her immediate surroundings to calm down, but the skeleton was still in her vicinity. She could almost hear it inching toward her. She didn¡¯t know whether it could breathe or not, but she was sure there was a stinking breath in the air. And what else could produce such a nauseating breath other than the skeleton which possibly hadn¡¯t brushed ever since its revival?


    As she closed her eyes to take a breath, something light fell on her back and bit her shoulder. She staggered and gasped as a pair of legs ¨Cthe skeletons lower half- dug out of the bone mess and kicked her in the gut. Everything happened so quickly she had no time to defend herself. Pain stole her breath as she fell and sprawled back onto the ground. The man said something incomprehensible behind her but she had fallen too awkwardly, whipping her head at the fall and becoming incoherent.


    Lights flashed past her eyes while she groaned and grunted under the skeletons scrutiny. A kick to her gut brought her back into the present and stabbed by something long and sharp on her thigh woke her up completely. She saw something white and segmented dancing above her thigh, trying to drill inside her flesh. Screaming, she tied to move her hands but found them tightly bound in a hug by a pair of bony arms. She panicked as adrenaline coursed through her veins, slowing her vision and giving her the necessary time to think. The legs jumped upon her gut again. She barred through the pain and holding the bonny arms, pulled harshly. Screeching, she tore the arms right out of the shoulders of the skeleton and smashed them on the ground to her side: breaking them. Almost manically she pulled the snake-like thing trying to bore into her thigh and threw it away. Her conscious started drifting and pain started taking over. But she held on. She kicked the legs away and stood up in the same motion, right before she jumped high and fell with her back to the floor. The impact broke the skeleton''s torso and sent its cracked skull rolling away toward the trench. She coughed blood.


    The man said something behind her. She didn¡¯t hear his voice. She got on her knees favoring her right leg and retched through the screeching headache. Although nothing came out of her stomach, her drifting conscious settled soon after. Whispering laughter echoed inside her ears reminding her of her childhood. A few moments later, a constant ringing sound replaced the laughter and she pushed herself up from the ground, unaware of where she was and what had happened.


    ¡°Your shoulder isn¡¯t looking good.¡±


    She heard the voice, but her surroundings were tumbling around her. Even when she tried to focus on the man, he kept moving about and rotating around her at a slanted axis. She knew the skeleton wasn¡¯t done yet. Somehow losing its limbs didn¡¯t harm it much. It could generate or gather a new set of bones. Finally, the world slowly settled around her and returned balance to her feet. She stood up laboriously wheezing, dragging her right leg up and her right shoulder pulsating with pain. The slightest of movements burned through her stamina and mental capacity, but she used the pain to stay conscious. Her life depended on it.


    Blood trickled down her various wounds shallow or deep: painting a vivid picture of her struggles. The fruit will help me recover. It was hope which kept her moving. Her hands and feet were badly shredded. Her body trembled out of her control. She was at her poorest condition yet. But she hadn¡¯t come out from the hassle with a loss. She had learned something about the skeleton form it. She had noticed the crack adorning its skull. Unlike its limbs and other bones which it had been replenishing limitlessly from the mounds, it hadn¡¯t repaired its skull.


    And if I am right, She thought, looking into the dark trench where the skull had rolled into with hateful eyes, the skull is its weakness.


    She took a thoughtful few steps toward the trench while grinding sound came from the piles. She dragged her right leg behind her at first, then clenched her jaw and started running.


    ¡°Where are you going, oye?¡±


    She left the man behind; He didn¡¯t concern her, being the only one safe from the skeleton. She left her pain behind. She left her concerns behind. She left her last shred of doubts behind too.


    Bones exploded around her. Hands and legs rose from the piles and surged for her life. They came one by one. She smacked the hands with her bone clubs and shattered the legs by kicking them. A segmented spine slithered toward her. She thought of jumping above it but it coiled around her foot, halting her steps. A leg kicked her back. She staggered but managed to stay afoot. An armless hand tried to chock her neck, but she held its fingers and snapped them out. As the bones from the hand fell out of her grip, a rib cage with sharp and pointed ribs fell or was flung at her head. It tried to swallow her head and shear it off her neck. She could only pull her arm up and let it cage around it. It shredded the flesh of her arm but she steeled through the pain.


    She saw another arm rising from the mound to her left. She pulled it down and kicked on it, breaking it into two. A headless torso jumped at her from her right and she heard something running toward her from behind. She jumped just in time to roll out of their range and saw the torso and lower half seamlessly join together and run after her in one fluid motion. It jumped at her once again for the tenth time, and she sent it flying into the dark trench by holding it from the arms and kicking it on the hips at the exact right moment. She was wheezing. Her body was torn apart. But she held on. Her destination was so close.


    Just a few more steps and it will be over.


    She saw the headless skeleton fall and roll on the ground, breaking into hundreds of pieces before collecting around the skull and rising once again as a single body. The skeleton stood up soon looking neat and proper. Its only flaw was the missing jaw and the large crack rising from its temple to its crown. She had already decided what to do. She ran for it. The skeleton removed its hand and threw it at her. She saw a femur sticking out of the pile and pulled it out; swinging it at the hand like a bat she destroyed them both.


    As it stood there staring at her with its ghostly glowing orbs, a bone arm jumped out of the pile and connected to its shoulder. She already knew it could replenish its bones but seeing its skull look the same as before only strengthened her suspicion. It could move is body parts freely and send its limbs as live projectiles. However, it wasn¡¯t impossible to defeat.


    It answered her charge by lunging at her. It seemed to have given up on running away or had taunted itself into confronting her directly. Copying her, it held two big wide bones in its hands. They both collided. Its bone club connected with her ribs and cracked one. Her femur struck its skull and smashed it into pieces. Her scream pierced the area and the skeleton bones scattered behind her like thrown away garbage, never to rise again. She finished her swing above her head as the broken skull collided with the trench wall and rolled to a stop. She watched the bright globes of light darkening inside its sockets until they completely extinguished, and she fell to her knees so exhausted she couldn¡¯t even cry.


    The world changed around her as she cried. The valley of endless mounds shrunk until only a few of them remained standing. The man whom she had left tens of meters away appeared right next to her: right next to an open door.


    Calm returned, bringing the news of an upcoming storm. It gave her invaluable minutes to make up her mind. Then the storm struck.


    ¡°I knew jou would succeed, girl.¡± The voice came surging. It brought along a wave of metallic panic, an end to her ongoing decisions. Hearing it mean a conclusion to her physical struggle, but also the start of her mental punishment. But she had already made up her mind. She didn¡¯t know how, but Ria stood up on her feet and pushed the man through the door.


    She knew her actions would bring a devastating consequence. The goblin had told her so, the Croc had explained it to her, and in the garden, she had seen the consequence of her forceful meddling. It¡¯s possible that the Croc wouldn¡¯t act kindly to her next time. But she had made up her mind. Nobody had tried to save her from the demons of her childhood. She knew that feeling. She knew what it felt like being left behind all alone.


    I can¡¯t become one of them.


    She was stepping onto the harder route, but it was her decision and she was fine with it.


    ¡°JOU FOOLISH GIRL, WHAT DID YOU DO?!¡±


    The Croc raged behind her as she closed her eyes fell through the door. Silently, she allowed her pain to bring the gift of unconsciousness.

 13: Garden

    A shuffling sound woke Ria. The blinding light which filled her sight stilled a smile on her lips. Though a twang of pain from her feet, a few prickling sensations from her legs, a pulsating blob of hurt from her shoulder, and tiredness from her inside had her tensed and seething, these marks of her struggle also kept her emotional and alive. She was sprawled motionlessly but flattered nonetheless; almost dead but living and breathing.


    She had done it. She had saved the man and herself. She had defeated the skeleton and managed to keep her humanity. She hadn¡¯t lost herself to the sewer. She had won. Against all the odds she had kept herself alive.


    I won.


    Lying on her back she watched the starlight flit like ink inside the crystals stalactites. They were glowing once again, though not as radiantly as they once did. Before them, the branches seemed to cushion their growth, allowing the crystals to spatter the garden with light rays and life itself to settle into the fray.


    Ria hissed in pain as she raised her head to look around, and squinted at the sight of her surroundings.


    Somewhat familiar scenery gratified her eyes. She remembered the green garden where the light shone without universal reprise, where birds chirped from day to day, and flowers spotted colors in the otherwise dull and morbid sewer; the sight which reflected in her eyes, however, was different -much different- from the peacefulness of her previous visit.


    A wild scent filled her sense every time she inhaled. The ground beneath her swollen flesh was bare of grass. Her fingers coursed through bare-dry-soil during her struggles to keep her head raised. Weeds had grown and overtaken the flowers and plants. While vines now not only draped the chamber walls but also carpeted the whole floor in a dense wildering layer. She could see a few strands of grass trying to hold on to dear life, but their dry-yellowish appearance made them look chocked by the vines. The world tree appeared so distant from where she lay; and the garden as a whole, so constricting, so wild. She felt as if a great beast had taken abode in the once peaceful quarter and uprooted calm with its vengeful strides.


    ¡°What the-the hell happened to this place?¡± The thought that this place was not the same garden where she had met Em¡¯ and eaten the Fruit of Life did try to deceive her, and if it wasn¡¯t for the web of branches and the glowing stones above, she might have believed that she had stepped into someplace new.


    Nonetheless, life flourished bountifully in the chamber without binds. A sea of green was the whole chamber, but nothing organic seemed to be prospering between the tides. No birds chirping fell on her ears and no fluttering butterflies passed her by. Nowhere had she seen such silent overtaking before. Not in even the forest grounds surrounding her family cottage. Back in the forest, the birds did sing and squirrely did roam, and the forest had housed a few generations of deer¡¯s which her father liked to hunt for pride. Though malice had fostered the hearts of the owners, silence hadn¡¯t churned their lies.


    She had run a full cycle across the sewer floors and had come back again looking even worse than before. Last time she had only been missing her ears and some fingers, this time though she had lost so much more.


    Ria checked her body and frowned. Bone shards poked out of her skin at various places and dried blood flaked from the sides. She pulled out every foreign body infesting her flesh through gritted teeth until none remained poking to her eyes. It was a painful and long process. And she took her time. Because of blood loss and swelling, she was numb at places and the numbness helped her much. The pain still attacked her in bouts, even after she was done removing the shards, though it didn¡¯t hurt as it could have.


    When done, she was left with a body punctured and cut, with wounds which bleed constantly. Some of her wounds had scabbed while she slept and others were starting to rot. She could do nothing other than to grit her teeth and lay down quietly. It was something she had to do to collect her thoughts and energy. The glowing fruit still grew on the other side of the sea of barbs, so the festering wounds didn¡¯t bother her much. She knew she could recover once she was done resting. Her life wasn¡¯t in imminent danger.


    ¡°Em-¡± she finally called. The furry named Em had helped her the last time that she was there. She hoped that it would remember her voice and come to talk with her once again, but no one answered her back. Even the echoes which had accompanied her in the sewer tunnels didn¡¯t dare come out in the light.


    Things of darkness are scared of light and beings of light are scared of the dark. Humans are such beings who prosper under light and become senseless during the dark; such was Ria until a few days ago, but the sewer changed her. Since unwittingly waking up inside the sewer, she consumed so much darkness with her eye that it was difficult to say whether she was now a child of light or an animal of the darkness, for the fumes of blindness didn¡¯t scare her like they used to. She found them the darkness too valuable a commodity to be scared of because it helped her hide from the real monsters venturing the night¡¯s shades.


    ¡°EM¡¯!¡± she yelled once again, as loud as she could, much out of frustration and hopelessness than need. The little furry thing was the first and the only being that had selflessly helped her inside the sewer. Everything else had demanded a piece of her to answer the simplest of her questions. And the absence of its presence implied that she had lost it too.


    Wind careered through the vines and whatever remains of grass had managed to survive rustled with its touch. There hadn¡¯t been any wind during her first visit. This garden¡¯s based inside a closed chamber, after all. Wind doesn¡¯t flow in closed rooms without outer interventions. The wind is a force of nature. No nature no wind. Now, whether it was really wind, which was fraying through the vines and grass or some unwanted beast stalking her from the cover of vines, she didn¡¯t know. What she did know was that neither was the strength coursing through her veins enough to defend against another beast nor was her body in any condition to move. If there really was a monster waiting for her then she was already dead.


    However, the irking thought that she wasn¡¯t alone convinced her to take a look at her surroundings. Even though the vines rustled around her, she hoped it was Em who was trying to scare her once again. But when she somehow lifted her head to look at her feet ¨Cwhere the rustling sound was the loudest- she saw a thorny vine slowly tightening a nose around her ankle, trying to be as discrete as possible.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    She could only stare at it wide-eyed as the vine noticed her attention and tightened its hold on her skin. Its thorns dug straight into her skin drawing blood without any difficulty. But that sharp bolt of pain was the least of her concerns because then the once slack vine tightened, and tugged.


    As Ria sharply inhaled, her body slid down the ground. She slid slowly at first then the vine lurched and dragged her through the whole carpet of vines covering the floor.


    The next some moments of her life can be easily explained by saying she fell into a shredder. The hundreds and thousands of vines and their tens of thousands of thorns used the opportunity to gorge her flesh and draw blood out of her body. Some only left shallow scratches while others tore her skin and sheared through her muscles and fat. She went through a world of pain but didn¡¯t die. The thorns weren¡¯t large enough to kill her. They were only a few millimeters large at best and were mostly shaped like hooks.


    Thankfully not every vine was oriented to harm her. Most of them faced the same direction she was dragged toward, easing her suffering by some parts. However, by the time the vine brought her out of the vine carpet and held her by the ankle in the air, she looked nothing more than a freshly gutted porcupine with blood raining out of her body.


    Deep and long bloody lines covered her from toe to head. Her jeans had been cut into ribbons below her thighs. And to her dismay, even after going through so much pain, she didn¡¯t lose consciousness. Even after putting her through such misery, the vine was done yet. Seeing that she was still squirming and alive, it started swinging her from left to right as if to drain out the last of her blood. Thank god the entity holding her upside down didn¡¯t decide to splat her onto the ground, for that would have surely ended her right there and then. However, even after going through all of this, Ria¡¯s eyes were still brimming with light.


    There can only be two reasons behind her obviously cheerful demeanor. She had either found out a way out of the misery or she had gone bat shit crazy.


    Hanging so far above the ground, she had a clear view of the whole chamber. So it isn¡¯t much to say that she was able to find the oddity poking out of the vine carpet strikingly near the world tree. The thing was a gigantic plant bulb of teal. It didn¡¯t have leaves, but vine coiled at its bed like humongous green-barbed snakes. Eight beautiful petals of red surrounded the bulb like a budding flower. One should understand that its every petal was the size of a car and the bulb at their center was almost a story big, making it a deadly but wondrous creation of nature.


    As the vine swung her left and right, she saw multiple rings of thorns growing inside the bulbs conical extension overhead which was opening and closing with the swelling and contraction of the round bulb below. She was being prepared for being eaten. Maybe it didn¡¯t like blood or whatever its reason, it was adamant about draining all of her blood before bringing her closer to its mouth.


    It swung her like a stone tied at the end of the rope. Ria with her waning conscious saw herself being twisting to and fro from the glowing fruits. She saw her chance. As the monster stretched its barbed tentacle to a stop near the world tree she tore a glowing fruit and took a bite. A single bite and the fruit lost its glow. Whether she had wasted two of the fruits by taking a single bite or not doesn¡¯t matter. The glow less fruit dropped out of her hand as the monster yanked its tentacle vine and brought her closer to its mouth.


    The energy from the fruit coerced through her body, alleviating her pain and restructuring her body. As strength returned to her limbs and her wounds closed in real-time, she pulled out her knife from the back pocket of her trashed jeans and slashed the vine holding her ankle. She dived directly into its mouth. She was going to tackle the monster from the inside.


    Whether it was a sound plan or not was debatable. But it can be easily conferred that the monster probably wouldn¡¯t have swallowed her without chewing her thoroughly with its needle-shaped teeth first.


    Before it could understand anything, she was past its needle-shaped teeth and directly inside its stomach. The vines dancing around froze for a second. It possibly felt something amiss. Though being a monster with low intelligence it soon forgot the slight change in its routine and what started doing its victory dance. It closed its mouth and started waiving its vines in the air to enjoy the success of another stupid human devoured. Soon the vines silently sprawled back on the ground and the bulb also closed its petals and sank into the carpet of vines. The actual size and depth of the vine jungle can be imagined by understanding that all ten feet of the bulb-shaped monster easily hid beneath the vines without a hint of its presence clear anymore.


    But not even a few minutes passed when the vines started twitching one by one and the bud came out of hiding swaying left and right. Its petals closed and opened again and again as if ignorant about the sharp revolting sensation rising from inside it. The monster only held on for a few more minutes before a fountain of clear viscous liquid erupted from its mouth and it fell to the side, unmoving. Ria slashed through its inside and climbed out of the hole she had created covered in slime from head to toe. She held a glowing orb the size of a child¡¯s fist in her left hand and her knife in the left. It is to be noted that she no longer looked as hurt as before though many wounds still covered her body, but they were slowly also closing,


    She was no longer on the verge of death and stood up on her legs. She was breathing heavily indicating how difficult it must have been for her to cut through the bulb with a small knife like hers. The hole on her thigh was one of the wounds which were still recovering, but her body looked slightly fuller than before. The energy from the fruit was restructuring her whole boy. Just like how the fruit had strengthened her legs after repairing them the last time, it strengthened the overall durability of her body this time while repairing her over the top damage.


    Ria waited for the monster bulb to rise once again, but it remained motionless.


    So she went onwards to examine the orb cutting ¨Cdigging out which had finally killed the monster- and saw starlight glowing inside it. Its glow wasn¡¯t anywhere near as volatile or vibrant as the fruits, which seemed to contain the very essence of the starlight. She was just about to throw it away when her jeans pocket started glowing. Startled, she almost dropped the orb but noticed the orbs glow dimming while the glow from her pocket rising by the second.


    While she hesitated the orb completely lost its luster, while her pocket glowed like never before. She knew what she held inside there. It was none other than the marble that the goblin had given to her as her prize for surviving the first floor. It was supposed to give her power, a boon of strength, or something along those lines, but had failed to activate, or had become a powerless stone if she was to believe the goblin. But now the same powerless stone had stolen the starlight confined in the monsters orb, which was similar to fruits hanging near the world tree or the crystals growing above her head.


    Enticed by the fictitious power the marble in her pocket was supposed to give her, Ria excitedly pulled the marble out of her pocket. It was warm to touch. And the golden luster it radiated shone out through the gaps between her fingers. But the moment she opened her palm, the marble broke down into tiny motes of light and disappeared into her palm. Her hand glowed red like she had put a torch at the back of her hand before this light also disappeared, returning her hand to normal.


    ¡°Huh? Was that it? Is that supposed to do something?¡± she didn¡¯t get to find the answer as a tremble shook the whole garden. A thundering crackle came from the tree and when she looked, she saw it splitting from the dead center.


    A dark hole opened in its trunk, one similar to the cave-in she had experienced during her last visit, proving that her time in the garden was over. She called for Em¡¯ one last time before she walked into the opening.

 14: Change

    About the monster, there was nothing to say. New stage brings a new monster and another struggle. Rinse and repeat. There was nothing new about the result either. So what was there to say? The plant monster was just another obstacle, a hurdle for her to cross. It was defeated and the stage was over. Though her method varied, she struggled above her capacity and won; even though her victory came under the extreme scenario where she had to voluntarily let the monster swallow her.


    Her impromptu plan somehow succeeded but it could have been disastrous. It was a do or die moment for her. She was on the verge of death already. If the monster had swept the rug with her, if she hadn¡¯t managed to steal the fruit, if the vine had been too hard for her to cut, if she was had lost consciousness from the loss of blood; many things could have gone wrong. However, she survived and defeated that thing. She survived yet again. And Ria understood this fact very well. She had only survived, not won. She wasn¡¯t free yet.


    With the monster dead, the fruit consumed, and her body repaired as new and full of energy, it wouldn¡¯t have been wise of her to waste time mingling with the vines and the motionless tree. The garden had even lost its capacity to offer her peace; what value did it have to offer to make her stay? Hence, she left as soon as the cave opened.


    Ria crossed through the hole in the world trees trunk and stepped into the familiar dark and constrained walls of the tunnel beyond. A familiar chamber opened to her upon exiting the tunnel and a pair of torches lit up on her both sides. Watching a mirroring glow of torchlight up on the other end of the chamber, she stepped on the tombstone path which had once asked her to fill the grave with a body.


    She had Killed Nicky here, in this chamber, with her own hands. And she had fulfilled the task, given the grave the body of her friend and left to struggle in the sewer to find the exit. She had selfishly sacrificed her only friend. But she was over the guilt surrounding Nicky¡¯s death. She was over it but the wounds still remained. Her gritted teeth and rapid breathing told of her emotional state. But she kept walking on the tombstones with firm steps, reading the words inscribed into their faces.


    Consequences are inevitable, Read the first tombstone. Whether life or death. Read the following one. Your paths are given; you chose the rest. She read on the tombstones being released from darkness¡¯s hold by the light of torches lighting up with her steps. She came to stop at the foot of a circular platform which lit in sunset orange by a row of lanterns: eight of them, each a meter apart. It is unclear how she would have reacted upon seeing the blood-soaked dirt ground instead of the platform, but her released breath hints at an ease in her suffering.


    A man she saw standing on the other end of the platform, lit similarly by the glow of torches. The platform was grey, coarse and old to look at the shallowest glance- much like the tombstone used as tiles to base a path in the dirt-filled the chamber. The man wore a skirt woven out of nylon thread -something he had probably found in the sewer- tied at his hips by a familiar green vine and boots.


    ¡°Ah, Boots¡­¡± Ria mumbled in regret. Where had she lost her favorite pair of sneakers? She had no idea. She remembered wearing them to the party, but had no recollection of anything which had perspired afterward; so she could only put the loss of her shoes on her bad luck and forget about them.


    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s you!¡± She heard the man speak from the other side of the platform and the voice got her attention. It was a familiar voice, one belonging to the man she had parted ways with just a few hours ago. Surprise washed over her eyes. Opposite her stood the once paralyzed man whom she had rescued from the skeleton. He was smiling like none one else could with his arms spread wide- expressing disbelief and surprise at meeting with her so soon.


    ¡°You¡­ the fruit¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± he yelled raising his arms in the air. ¡°She remembers me. I thought you were someone different, but I was like I remember those breasts. Where else have I ever seen such a full bosom?¡±


    Ria blushed at his blunt reminder and hid her breast with her left arm. She could have turned around and shown him her back, but that idea didn¡¯t sit right with her. The sewer was really making her oblivious to her genders necessities. With taking beast and monsters haunting her right and left, there wasn¡¯t any space left in her mind to worry about such things. She had many worries, but exhibitionism wasn¡¯t one of them. She already had her hands full with staying alive. And the effect of her conditioning was noticeable from her brazen behavior. Yes, she did protect herself from his eyes, but that didn¡¯t make her any less vigilant. She kept her eyes focused on him. Although he was pretty far from her, as long as attacking distance goes, that didn¡¯t make her lose sight of where she was. That¡¯s the most important thing to note. This grave was the last place she wanted to meet anyone alive, much less someone she knew. She really wasn¡¯t expecting this.


    ¡°Thanks for saving me.¡± The man said folding his hands behind his head and standing by leaning on his left leg. He looked completely relaxed with not an iota of tension radiating from his posture. But he stayed at distance and didn¡¯t try to close the distance between them. Which was also the thing which Ria felt was very odd. A normal human wouldn¡¯t be able to stay calm after meeting their savior and not try to come closer.


    At least I couldn¡¯t have.


    ¡°You sacrificed yourself to save me. I don¡¯t know how I¡¯ll ever repay your kindness.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to.¡± She replied with a strained voice. There were many thoughts going through her head and one of them was her concern about the task. Though she was surprised to see him, she wasn¡¯t happy. She was concerned.


    This fucking sewer,


    ¡°Don¡¯t you know why we are here?¡± she asked and unsurprisingly the man puckered his lips.


    ¡°Yea, I kinda know,¡± he said, rapidly tapping the ground with his foot. The rhythmic sound easily reached Ria¡¯s ears, stressing her further. And to her surprise, he looked at the roof, as if calculating something, and stepped onto the platform.


    ¡°Thanks to you I am alive. Now,¡± He said coming closer and closer then abruptly stopping just a few meters away from her, grinning. ¡°Wanna have sex one last time before we do this thing?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡±She asked, but he didn¡¯t answer back. Maybe the look of her eyes scared him mute or he was done talking to her. It is possible that he was trying to loosen her vigilance, but Ria had also been through her share of troubles. Sexual harassment wasn¡¯t about to get him much further. So he pounced.


    Not directly at her, but to the left and as Ria¡¯s eyes followed his sudden jump and her body stiffened, something bright and glowing and warm . . . something really dangerous . . . speed toward her. As her eyes were still following him, she perfectly saw him smiling and wording, Thank you before a shiver started her whole body.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    By the moment her eyes registered the bright orange ball of fire, it was right upon her. Ria thought she didn¡¯t have enough time to move . . .  much less dodge the fireball, and her own movement surprised her more than it shocked the man when her hips swayed out of the fireball''s path and she managed to perfectly dodge the life-threatening bullet.


    ¡°Holy shit!¡± she heard behind the buzzing of another something glowing and burning rapidly flying toward her. Having learned from her mistake, Ria fell away from that things flight path; and as the thing swirled past her, she fixated her eyes on the man and pulled out her knife once again. For the first time since having received the tool, she saw its importance.


    The zombie and the skeleton hadn¡¯t shown any reaction to her knife, but the man flinched and slipped seeing it in her hand. It was a very effective tool: very sharp and strong. It had saved her a lot of time, but for the first time, it made her opponent scared of her. It was a fulfilling sensation.


    ¡°Ho-how did-did you?¡± She heard him say and stepped toward him.


    ¡°Stay away from me DEMON!¡±


    She didn¡¯t care about his shameful display. Maybe he was scared of her or he was trying to make her complacent. She nonetheless kept his under her sight and didn¡¯t forget about the burning ball of fire he had unleashed at her. Just a fraction of late reaction and she could have died. It wasn¡¯t something he would be forgiven for.


    ¡°So this is how you wanted to pay me back, huh? Seems like a reasonable thing to do.¡±


    Ria wanted to question him about his power but then thought against it. Humans are not born with such abilities. Only the Goblin¡¯s marble could bless an individual with such an unusual strength. She pined the thought to ask the Goblin about the marble upon returning to his room and decided what to do with this man.


    ¡°I helped you.¡± She said stepping near him. The man cowered before her. Whatever his reason, he didn¡¯t attack her again with his ability.


    ¡°Stay away from me,¡±


    ¡°I fought against the skeleton while you laid back and watched me getting hurt.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t come near me! I¡¯m-I¡¯m telling you-¡°


    ¡°I went against the Croc and helped you across the door. If I hadn¡¯t saved you then the Croc would have eaten you . . .¡±


    ¡°I-I-¡±


    ¡°And this is how you pay back your due.¡±


    One on the platform, Ria jumped at him. They weren¡¯t that far away from each other, to begin with, and she had already reduced the distance between them by walking. But the moment she jumped at the man, his face refreshed and his lips curled upwards.


    ¡°Got ya!¡± He said, pointing his right palm toward her.


    Ria saw a spark ignite at the center of his palm. The spark quickly grew into a radiant ball of fire the size of his hand which he pushed with his palm toward her.


    There was nowhere for her to dodge. His laughter was already starting to echoes back and forth inside the chamber. She did what she had to do. Drawing a large breath, she gritted her teeth and sliced at the fireball with her knife.


    The man squinted at the sight of his fireball deforming at the blades touch; His face lost all color when the knife and is shadow both sheared past the fireballs buzzing and his head in one swift motion.


    He saw with his tumbling sight an explosion of orange swallowing Ria before a well of complete darkness swallowed his sight and all the colors and sounds of life along with it.


    Ria¡¯s slim bare figure exploded out of the fire plumes. With the aftertaste of swallowed smoke coalescing into tar inside her mouth, she fell forward and rolled on the platform. She coughed, puffing black smoke. Her ringing ears slowly normalized and the room stabilized around her.


    Focus sharply returned to her eyes and she hurriedly checked her body for signs of burning fire and lesions but found no signs of defects other than slight redness of her skin at the abdomen and swelling in the nearby region. She was fine otherwise. The explosion whose intensity she had felt with her own body had failed to burn her unrecognizable. She had survived once again. This time it was due to the restructuring done by the fruit. She understood the meaning behind it. The fruits could strengthen the human body.


    ¡°No, not the fruit, it was the starlight.¡± The fruit, she had only taken a bite out of it. What had really worked miraculously to heal her was the starlight concealed inside its fibers. The same starlight which was not only bountiful in the crystals roof of the garden but ¨Cas she had found out- also present inside monsters, confined inside an orb-shaped container. Now whether the orb was artificially put inside the plant monster or a natural organ was unknown to her.


    ¡°That means the zombie and skeleton might also have had starlight inside their bodies in some shape or form.¡±


    But Ria knew she wouldn¡¯t get to check out her hypothesis and neither did she want to face the monsters again.


    Seeing that her body was responding beautifully to her command she glanced at the man and sighed. She didn¡¯t know how far she would have to go and how much more blood she will have to spill with her hands, but there was no hesitation in her mind. Not anymore. She hadn¡¯t¡¯ stopped being a human, but if others couldn¡¯t even respect her for saving their lives then she had nothing to say to them or any emotions to show at their deaths. Mankind as a species fell a few more places in her eyes. But she didn¡¯t forget the key thing which makes mankind different from beasts-


    ¡°Not everyone is the same. Nicky wasn¡¯t like him or like my brother. She was herself. Not the best of us but not selfish either.¡±


    For the same reason, she really wanted to get out of the sewer and find someone . . . anyone, working selflessly to help others. She believed that not everyone was like the man beside her but really wanted to meet someone like that.  Because she was losing slowly hope. She knew politeness wasn¡¯t the true measure of selflessness, but a mask people wear to hide their filth. The dead man wasn¡¯t the first to have approached her wearing the mask of familiarity and friendship and she knew he wasn¡¯t going to be the last one either. But it was really a tiring thing to think about. To understand that the place she called home wasn¡¯t any less crowded with monsters than this sewer she currently roamed about.


    When the door leading to the next floor, to another stage, back to the goblin appeared in front of her, she didn¡¯t wait long before stepping through it. The floors were becoming a chore for her, but they hadn¡¯t managed to rubout her hatred for the goblin from her mind. Though that doesn¡¯t mean she would pounce at the sight of him like before. There was one thing which had naturally come to her from her time spent inside the sewer, and that was self-control.


    She crossed the door with the goblins face ingrained on it and found herself back in the goblins abode. The fire still burned in the fireplace. The pieces of the chair she had broken were similarly still lying on the floor. The goblin stood right in front of her; his foot continuously tapping the wooden floor; he was anxious.


    The moment her eyes met with the goblins, she saw relief wash over its face. Glee replaced anxiousness in seconds and his foot turned still.


    ¡°There you are. Me was starting to get worried here.¡±


    She stared at him instead of replying back. It didn¡¯t seem to her like he was asking her the question, rather speaking out loud.


    ¡°Must have been tough to get through the monsters with a human''s pathetic body, me presume?¡± this time however she cut in between his monologue. He was happy for some reason, but she thought it was the perfect time to ask the questions which had thought of while waiting in the grave for the door to arrive.


    ¡°Was that man¡¯s ability to conjure fireballs also a boon of power? Is that the kind of things which the marble gives?¡±


    He ignored her poking and started moving around her instead.


    ¡°You finally found yourself a pair of boots, huh? Though, me can¡¯t see where you might have lost the rest of your clothes. Don¡¯t be mad though. Me is very liking your attire- fewer clothes for me to rip off your body.¡±


    Saying that he laughed to himself, but her angry stare made him stop.


    ¡°Well, it doesn¡¯t matter. Me like angry little girls, just so you know. Your angry stare is only making me harder. Umm, Me really wanted to have fun tearing all of your holes one by one. Me find it a very shameful thing to not enjoy your body thoroughly.¡±


    Having said his piece, the goblin stopped in front of her, grinning to himself. Ria staggered a step back in plain fright, which only worked as a reminder of her hate toward him. The moment rage built up inside her she lost all fear toward him. It was acting strange and she was about to find out why.


    ¡°What?¡± The goblin sternly said staring straight into her eyes. ¡°Didn¡¯t think that was funny? Me will then drop the formalities and ask you directly if you may. Me wants to know, has the marble chosen you its master?¡±

 15: Goblins plan

    A crack appeared in Ria¡¯s guise upon hearing about the marble.


    What has that got to do with anything?  She almost asked then remembered her conversation with the Croc. According to whom, the marble was a marvel private to the first stage and the goblin and was neigh impossible to be brought away. But she had done it. At the Goblins insistence she had brought the marble along with her to the second floor and the floors further. He had used her. The reason of which Ria was sure the goblin was about to tell her in his own words.


    The goblin snickered at her sudden stiffness and understood without her telling.


    ¡°So chose you it did.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about that,¡± she said, hoping to find out more about the unusual disappearance of the marble but without coming out as interested. It was supposed to give her a boon of strength, the marble - not simply disappear into particles of light! Having already seen the selfish man show his ability, she was really interested.


    ¡°Me think you are a lying whore. Did the marble not glow and disappear when you were in the garden?¡±


    He answered for her.


    ¡°Oh,-ho-ho- It must have. Me can read your slutty face. Me didn¡¯t believe you would come back from the garden though, but here you are, so scared and anxious yet, standing still and alive. Yet, such a pity. Ah ¨C so unfortunate I am. Your unrivaled bosom and that refreshing scent you give . . .  truly what unfortunate coincidence this is. If only it was someone else with the naivety of yours . . . Me could have been enjoying your body right now.¡± He said, bringing his face close to her bare body and taking a loud whiff. She took three steps away from him and he didn¡¯t follow.


    ¡°Me believes you held the beast''s heart- and don¡¯t try to act coy- Me can read your face like a cookbook.¡±


    Gritting her teeth in a mix of anger, shame, and fear, Ria indulged the Goblin with truth to be repaid with truth in return. ¡°You mean the orb containing starlight?¡±


    ¡°Starlight . . . it is not wrong of you to call Devils breath by that name. Me think it is a very fitting name.¡± he said pondering, ¡°So yes, me will rephrase my question so you can understand it with your small brain. Did or did not the marble absorb starlight from the monster''s core?¡±


    She scowled at him for calling her stupid but nodded her head to answer his question. A look of pure joy on his face, the goblin started laughing.


    ¡°And in which part of your body did the waning light disappear into?¡±


    Ria subconsciously hid her right hand. To which he forcefully grabbed her both arms and pulled them apart. He didn¡¯t display a feat of strength justifying his demonic presence rather struggled to bend her wrist, clearly putting at display his lack of strength. He looked between her hands and went for her clenched right fist, letting go her other hand in return. She braved a punch at his face with her free hand but he shrugged it off, showing no signs of pain. Rolling her fist, he pried open her fingers and there -to her surprise- glowed a faint ring-shaped mark which she hadn¡¯t noticed before.


    ¡°Yes.¡± the goblin yelled in excitement and Ria hurriedly pulled her hand away from his eyes and stepped toward the wall at her back. Ria noticed the regretful absence of the door leading to the tunnel beyond. The goblin wasn¡¯t being coy with his tactics. He was already being blunt with his manners ¨Ccalling her a whore and a tool- and the door''s absence only strengthened the danger toward her life.


    ¡°It has happened. Me plan worked. Oh, for so long I craved a na?ve fool with the qualities of a leader and my prayers were answered. Now, me will be free . . .¡±


    Ria stood dumbstruck in front of her dancing companion. Like before, her punch had failed to harm the goblin. Whatever damage she did had been healed in a matter of second. Not understanding what the goblin was up to terrified her, but having found out that there was no way out was even more horrifying. What would she do if he pounced on her? He didn¡¯t even feel pain! How would she defend herself? she thought.


    ¡°But you can¡¯t hurt me?¡± Ria murmured and the goblin ¨Cin his haste- indirectly agreed to her suspicion.


    ¡°Do you really think that?¡± he said, walking over to his new chair ¨Cthe one he had dragged from the dinner table after Ria¡¯s little stunt- and sat on it, acting without hurry, like everything was under his control. He swept the whole room with his eyes before setting them back on her. His eyes twinkled like a child waiting for praise. He was excited like never before.


    ¡°Me will let you a chance to glimpse at my excellence. Me find it really hilarious: all the whining and crying you did, all the struggles you faced to find the exit.¡±


    ¡°You mean there is no exit?¡± she snapped.


    ¡°Oh, there is one -and you are really-really close to it.¡± He managed to wheeze the words out through his laughter while leaning the chair back on its hind legs. He had a fit of laughter after which he stubbed the chairs front legs flat on the floor and looked at her: really looked into her eyes.


    ¡°A real pity it is.¡±


    ¡°You know what pains me more than not being able to enjoy your body?¡± he asked seriously. ¡°Me, who controls the life of your kind in here, can¡¯t leave this place as you filthy humans can! They said it was my punishment; well, I beg to differ.¡±


    ¡°Me won¡¯t stay a prisoner forever though. Not me.¡± He then started rambling about times and places Ria had no recollection of, making the goblin a creature belonging to some foreign time and place. He mumbled about things like kingdoms and wars, about rivers of blood and really obnoxious stuff which was truly unbelievable to hear. His words sounded like the narration of the scenes screening on his television. Both of which painted a vivid picture of his hometown - wherever it was. He rambled about his hatred for winged and horned beings for a long time before ¨Cfinally- he once again focused his story back on the topic which concerned Ria.


    ¡°Me will leave. I told them and they laughed at my face. Me decided then and there to show them. For millenniums Me struggled to find a way and then a woman got the boon of prophecy. She told me they lied. That they did. She told me the truth, she showed me the path. Me wasted so much time finding the key to the cage holding me imprisoned while it had always been there, right under my nose. She gave me a prophecy at her dying breath. End will come and night will rise; the golden sun brings a hidden prize. She told me. It cages death, a cycle stopped; it can free life, and bring you hope. Break the cycle, to want a wish; surrendered death will lead to bliss.¡±


    The goblins previous words had sounded like nothing more than the ramblings of a crazy person to Ria. The prophecy, however, did take her interest. ¡°What does it mean - the prophecy?¡± She asked while repeating the words in her mind to commit them to her memory. She didn¡¯t know why, but a feeling told her the words were important, much more important than her life.


    ¡°Oh, now you are interested. Good, good. Me will consider this your last wish and tell you. The marble is the golden sun ¨Cthe woman told me- and it can grant a want at its master¡¯s death.¡± Seeing Ria¡¯s confused expressions the goblin started laughing.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you see?¡± he said ecstatically. ¡°The marble is my way out. It can grant me a wish at its master¡¯s death!¡±


    ¡°What has that got to do with me?¡±


    ¡°The prophecy has got to do everything with you- little lamb. I purposefully made you ¨Ca feeble human- the marbles master. Now with your death, it will grant my wish . . . and I¡¯ll be free at last!¡±


    ¡°But-¡± he can¡¯t hurt me, just like how I can¡¯t hurt him. She thought, but she knew it had somehow managed to get past that little obstacle. The croc called him an old dog and she was right about him.


    ¡°Now to take care of our little problem,¡± the goblin pulled out a glass filled with his semen from under the chair and tilted it toward Ria.


    ¡°If you think I am going to drink that-¡± she said but his laughter cut her short. Standing up, he winked at her and chugged the glass¡¯s content. Once done with it, he burped and threw the empty glass to his back. At first, his antics stupefied Ria then she remembered the effect the white goo had on her. She had completely lost her mind during the one hour its effect had remained.


    ¡°Me told you, didn¡¯t I? I have everything under control?¡± he couldn¡¯t even finish his words before his whole body started shaking. His voice trembled while his laughter echoed in the room.


    Shaking, the goblin soon fell to his knees and bent forward with his hands on the ground. Neither did his laughter stop nor did his trembling. To Ria¡¯s horror, his goblin¡¯s physic started changing rapidly under her supervision.


    First, his skin darkened, and then his fangs grew pointier and longer.  Muscles popped into existence where bones had been visible under his skin once. First expanded his shoulder, and then his chest became fuller. His neck grew broader as his voice grew heavier and freaky. His muscles wriggled into existence under the skin of his back which tore at places near his joints. At last his legs became the size of a log and his skinny arms became larger than Ria¡¯s waist. He no longer laughed but growled while a layer of thick black hair grew to cover his body in proportions to his newly found strength.


    The creature which stood up from the floor after the transformation looked nothing like the goblin from before. All signs of his weak, shrewd self were overtaken by visual terror.


    At this point, he reached his biggest size: A seven feet tall block of raw muscles and hatred. The creature now had eyes redder than the color of blood. His ears had turned into two small knobs, and he had grown three more set of visible fangs. His nails had grown larger and sharper; his face looked like a watermelon wrapped tightly inside a sheet of wrinkle-free skin, and his nose sat flat under his stretched skin. The sudden growth spurt had such effect on its skin it was stretched tightly against the contours of its muscles: His lips were pulled flat at both ends ¨C unable to cover its yellow gums and brown pointed teeth; his eyelids were also stretched wide enough to show the muscles surrounding his marble-like eyes.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    It¡¯s like . . .  the thing is wearing the goblins skin as a mask, Ria thought, trying to hold her disgust. If it wasn¡¯t for the contrast in the size of its dick -which had decreased from the size of an arm to the size of her pinky- keeping her light-headed, she might have started crying by now. What am I going to do with it?


    There was one thing she was certain of, the goblin was after her life and he would be swift with it. He had constantly cried about his regret for not being able to enjoy her body, so a part of her fear was taken care of.


    At least, I won¡¯t suffer.


    This change in his physique was the method the goblin had found to challenge the binds binding it from hurting the challengers. Whether it was raw strength or something else, she had no idea.


    Ria stood still, rooted to the floor by fear. The giant sniffed the air around instead of mocking her like a big bad bully usually would have. She firmly held her knife, noticing its chipped edge and getting ready to fight. I should run. The thought swept past her mind, but she stood her ground, silently watching the creature scratch its hairy head. She hadn¡¯t suffered countless days inside the sewer to give up without a fight. She would at least resist, and if she died in the end . . . then that would be that.


    There was nowhere to run, anyways. The goblin had been meticulous with his preparations. No doors connected the room with endless tunnels and drowned sewers. It was just her and the creature alone confined in a closed room. Unknowingly, she had been holding her breath ever since the goblin had started transforming. The moment she saw it ignoring her for whatever reason and released her breath, it turned toward her and their eyes met.


    She only saw a sea of red churning inside its eyes for a moment before wind sweep against her face. Its swift attack would have troubled anyone, but she still managed to get her knife between its hand and her body. It¡¯s another thing that even though her knife dug to the hilt into its palm, the creature didn¡¯t avert its hand away from her and she was sent flying at the impact.


    She collided with the wall. A ripple spread across the wooden wall expending the energy behind the crash. But the impact hurt her nonetheless. Thanks to her restructured body, she only fell dazed for a couple of seconds and her inner organs were slightly displaced because a normal human would have easily had a concussion and lost consciousness from the force. Even in a daze, she saw the creature following with a charge and, out of sheer luck, managed to slide out of its way before its shoulder tore into the wooden wall. Ria didn¡¯t wait for her headache to subside and sliced at his calf. Her knife only managed to leave a shallow cut, but it didn¡¯t heal like before. And she saw that.


    It can be killed. She thought, rolling away while it followed, stomping at her shadows.


    The creatures every stomp left behind a web of cracks on the screeching floor. Insufferable as it may have been, Ria survived its first bout of anger and stood up leaning on the wall on the other side of the room. The room spun to her eyes. It didn¡¯t follow her, rather roared from distance and threw at her whatever it found nearby. Chairs and furniture flew through the air and broke into pieces colliding with the wall. She hurried under the dinner table -which wasn¡¯t far from where she stood- while broken wooden pieces flew around her. The goblins recliners soon bounced off the table as the creature spread its arm and screamed at the roof in pure joy.


    Why is it acting so different? It¡¯s like . . . the goblin has turned into an animal, a beast. Did he give up his ability to think to create the chance? No, someone who could plan so far ahead wouldn¡¯t pay such a heavy price for freedom. The one hour. His strength is only for one hour.


    Her thought perfectly caught why the goblin was in regret. His actions further strengthened her idea when the moving pictures in the television attracted its attention. Gone was that box of idiocies and fantasies in the next moment. The walls and the floor came next. It stomped and smashed, it did whatever it liked. And Ria was sure as hell, she saw it smile. The smallest of movements its lips made, nothing more than a twitch, but it was smiling; it smiled for being able to let lose to its heart¡¯s content.


    This wasn¡¯t the goblin that scared her. This was something else, something raw and natural. A beast it was without much to write about in terms of his thinking ability, but a predator, nonetheless. It still held the ability to kill her in seconds. However, the removal of the healing factor and the goblins wit made it a much easier target for Ria to handle. A beast, it may be, but not her first one. It didn¡¯t have endless stamina like the zombie and neither did it have the ability to replace its bones like the skeleton. It was just a bag of muscles. Something she could handle.


    Finished bellowing steam, the creature remembered the rat it had been trying to squish under its feet and jumped atop the maple wood dining table. Ria yelped from underneath which, and it heard her clearly. Next came a fury of punches at the table¡¯s top which made it ring like a war drum.


    Boom ¨C Boom ¨C Boom, the table screamed.


    Not even a minute had gone past when its hand tore through the tabletop and brushed past Ria¡¯s head. She hurried out from under the table and it saw her. Its cheeks curled upward and tore at its skin. Pulling two chairs from the side, it smashed them above its head and screamed at her retreating figure. Broken pieces of wood fell on Ria one which smacked directly on her head. ¡°Wha!¡± she yelped in pain and it jumped behind her. The ground trembled from its weight and the floor screamed again in annoyance. A large crack spread under her as it fixed its fingers around her head. And before she could understand anything, she was lifted off the floor and brought in front of its face; where their eyes met for the second time.


    It lifted one end of the table ¨Cgrinning- and threw it at the wall behind as a show of force; she tightened her fingers around her knife. Her chance came when it tried to head butt her face. In a swift motion, she stabbed it on the side of its head, missing the temple and it brain but managing to puncher its left eye. It bellowed in pain and softly flung her toward the fireplace.


    ¡°Shit!¡± Ria cursed under her breath coming to a stop right of the fireplace. Her knife remained lodged on the side of the creatures head, robbing her only weapon and making her barehanded.


    ¡°What now?¡± She thought and hissed as a plank broke near her and stood up scratching her arm. While rubbing the gash her eyes fell on the can of lighter fuel lying beside the pile of logs. Looking between the cracked floor and the fireplace a plan formed inside her mind. ¡°It¡¯s going to be difficult but-¡±


    The creature shook, groaning. It looked weak and unstable. Gulping, she made her move. Rolling between it legs she came to stop behind it, stood up and kicked it at the back of its knee joint. As it fell, she went to the foot of the toppled table and collected the table cloth from the ground. The cracks spread on the wooden floor as it fell and Ria threw the cloth at it head after tying weight at the corners.


    Unable to cope with the cloth it screamed in annoyance; while she quickly made way to the fireplace, picked the can of fuel and emptied it at the monsters head. As it fumbled about on the floor she pulled a burning log from the fireplace and threw it at the monster. The creature lit up like a bonfire. While its heavy rattling screams echoed in the room, Ria tried to crack the floor and plow it into the pit.


    But it stood up before she finished and ran toward her with fire still burning on its flesh. It threw the burning cloth at her- bringing along the odor of burning rubber and blood. She dodged the cloth but met with his fist midway, and was sent rolling. Before she could even through up blood, it picked her up form the back and threw her to the other side of the room like a ball. She smashed back first into the flat of the dining table. The impact turned her fizzy and her ears started buzzing. She lost sight of the room around her for a few seconds.


    Finally, when she opened her eyes, she saw it waiting for her at the center of the room with fire churning behind it. It was challenging her. Ria stood up staggering and hissed at the sight of her twisted left arm. It was broken beyond repair. Blood ran down from her left side where a deep gash had opened up.


    ¡°You want a fight, huh, fucker? You think you are winning, huh?! I¡¯ll show you - Just you wait! Screaming, she ran- not toward it, but toward one of the webs of cracks formed on the floor.


    It ran after her, stomping and cracking the floor. She fell to bait it and the creature stomped at the false chance, helping her spread the cracks across the floor. It punched and stomped, but she dodged away like a fly. Her injuries made her struggle but she got through the worst of her pain with pure willpower.


    Then finally, the cracks expanded and connected one by one and broke the whole floor. A pit formed in the middle of the room and the creature fell into it.


    Ria came to stop at the edge of the pit as the whole room burned around her. Smoke made her cough but she held her feet. The creature tried to come out but she didn¡¯t let it.


    She doused every piece of wood she saw in the room with fuel and threw it into the pit. She threw the table, the chairs and everything else. Even the paintings and the logs weren¡¯t spared. Soon fire churned inside the pit and its screams she heard above. The floor felt hot to her even through her boots. It is understandable how high the temperature inside the pit must be. It soon got so hot inside the pit that it became almost insufferable for ria to stand at its edge. But she stayed firm. She was being foolishly tenacious. Some of it had to do with her promise to kill the Goblin and some of it was to rub salt on the goblins ghost- if there was any. The goblin was cooked alive. Its voice drowned beneath the crackling of the fire and as she started losing conscious to smoke, a door opened at her back and she jumped through it.


    She watched the Goblins room fall prey to the fire she had started as the door slowly closed- separating her from the scene.


    In the end, even though the goblin had planned for years and years, he had forgotten to consider the chance of losing to a na?ve little girl. He must have spent countless years to wait for the right candidate: someone weak and fearful. And even when he found the leader candidate whom he thought he could kill by the sheer force of his strength, he still died. Goes to say, weak as Ria may have been at the start of her trial, she had changed and grown strong; and not just physically but also mentally.


    Ria sat on her knees in the knee-high sewer water, thinking about everything she had been through and what killing the goblin meant for her. This was possibly the last floor of her trial. The loss of her knife pained her. It had been through thick and thin with her. And now that she¡¯d lost it, the thought of entering another beasts den made scared her.


    When she finally rested her mind and looked up, the familiar darkness of the Croc¡¯s stage welcomed her. Water once again flowed in the sewerage tunnel. However, there was something different about this tunnel. She was sure there was light in the distance. Not light from candles which glowed at the Croc¡¯s dinner table, but natural light.


    She walked through the waist-high water and an hour later reached the lights source. There was a garden where the light was coming. But the garden didn¡¯t belong to this stage. It was growing behind the door leading out of this stage. Surprisingly, the door which only appears at a stage¡¯s end was already open.


    ¡°What about the Croc, what happened to her?¡± It didn¡¯t take long for her question to be answered. She had only stopped for a second when a long and strong jaw caught her leg in its grasp and dragged her into the sewer water.


    A few bubbles rose to the surface in behind her and the water became turbulent for a few moments before everything turned silent once again. As for Ria . . . she never came out of the water again.

 16: Marbles secret

    Pain for Ria lasted for a moment. Confusion, numbness, pain and then nothing ¨C she went through the process in that chronological order. After pain came serenity. The foreign movements all stopped, and stopped with them all the disorientations around, and feelings. The stench, the light, her thoughts, and everything in between were dampened and erased. Only darkness which had surrounded her since her first step in the sewer till her last remained behind. This thing around her was not the darkness of the sewer tunnels though, but endless pitch blackness with no opposite: Darkness akin to the nothingness offered by blindness.


    But Ria hadn¡¯t gone blind. Although her surrounding was pitch black like the vacuum of space, a lone star she could see whining golden an infinite distance away from; It¡¯s light so weak it was but a mere speck in the void surrounding her.


    She hovered calmly with not a sign of the struggles she¡¯d been through visible from her guise. She could still think but the panic from her apparent death just wasn¡¯t there. It was like she had been robbed of all emotions and provided with just enough to reenact thoughts and not feelings. She could think but there was nothing else: no feeling at her feet, no sensation over her body; It was like she was not alive.


    ¡°What am I?¡± Her mind seemed to have completely accepted her new reality as she didn¡¯t spare a single thought about what had happened to her. She probably knew what had transpired in the Croc¡¯s den. She remembered the pain and the suffocation she had gone though; it was a sensation she would never forget. Her calmness, however, betrayed the dread she should be feeling.


    ¡°I died¡­¡± she finally reached the conclusion; It didn¡¯t take her a long time neither a short time. Time seemed to have lost its grasp on her because even though she pondered about her situation for an endless amount of time, she reached the conclusion at the very next moment.


    That was one mystery solved, however, as for ¡®where she was?¡¯ the pulsating star being the only other thing around, Ria decided to take a look at it. It might have some answers or her. Just like before, even though it took her an endless time to reach the star, the moment she reached it, everything in between seemed to evaporate leaving her with the sensation of having teleported directly in front of the star. Perhaps, the journey was just a reenactment of her mind and not something physical. As for the star, it was none other than the marble she was the master of. It shone like never before; almost blindingly bright.


    Above the marble floated certain glyphs which Ria couldn¡¯t read but the meaning of which she unimaginably understood.


    I can take you back to the past if you hold me. It said.


    An understanding arose inside her heart as the meaning imprinted upon her soul. She held the marble in her hand and some familiar scenes went past her head.


    Do you want to go there? It asked.


    And, yes, she replied.


    The darkness evaporated around her like clouds the moment she agreed. Everything which she had lost came in strides to fill her. First returned panic and the ghostly pain and feeling brought upon by suffocation. Then returned her sensations and with them returned her sight. She slowly opened her eyes and the world expanded around her. Light entered her pupils and a green world blinked into existence in front of her.


    A sea of vines everywhere; the monster plant lay dead beside her; a ring-shaped mark was visible on the palm of her hand; the emptied monster core rolling away from her.


    She was back in the garden.


    ¡°It really brought me back¡­¡±


    Somehow, not only had the marble brought her back to life but also in time.  She knew she had died. Somehow she wasn¡¯t repulsed by the notion of death. She guessed it was the result of being subjected to the idea of death being everywhere, and now she was simply accustomed to it. Being brought back in time, however, felt odder to her than being brought back to life.  Who hasn¡¯t thought about being able to travel back in time to their childhood once again, to live like a genius, to rectify the mistakes of their past?


    ¡°But why here in the garden, why didn¡¯t you take me back all the way to the time I was still in my home. Before I had stepped in this sewer? Why not that time when my brother first forced me? Why here and now?¡±


    She wasn¡¯t being angry or questioning her life, rather emptying her mind of the poisonous thoughts she knew otherwise they would keep haunting her of possibilities which could have been, even though she understood in her heart they never were.


    Understanding that this fluke of a miracle she had just been thought was the act of her marble. And it had only brought her back to the time it had accepted her as its master. Maybe that was its limitation or whatever, but this was her end of the line. She didn¡¯t have the resources to waste thinking about what could have been. Ifs and buts weren¡¯t important now. She was given a second chance; it was her responsibility to make the best of it if she wanted to get out of the sewer.


    Then the lines from the prophecy went through her mind reminding her that even the goblin didn¡¯t know anything about the marbles huge potential; otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have given the marble to her, no matter whether it could provide him a strength of his desire or not.


    It cages death, a cycle stopped; it can free life and bring you hope.


    The marble really brought her hope. There is no doubt about that.


    ¡°Because the goblin never died thanks to his partial immortality, he never got to know the real power of the marble. He only knew it can give boons! ¡­So stupid¡­¡±


    Now that she knew her death wouldn¡¯t have resulted in a happy ending for the goblin, a little understanding of fates fickleness grew inside her mind. The difference between her and the goblin was not just of seniority but also of knowledge and intelligence; however, even after owning the marble for decades the goblin understood next to nothing about the marble; while she, who hadn¡¯t even had the marble for a whole day yet, now knew more about its capabilities than her counterpart.


    ¡°Maybe, there is a limit to how many times it can bring me back?¡± And her understanding of the artifact would now only grow with time, not decrease. As for the prophecy, she repeated it a few times then gave up on that front fairly easily.


    ¡°No need thinking about something I don¡¯t understand. If prophecies could be decoded so easily they wouldn¡¯t be made so confusing in the first place. I can think about the marble and its abilities later, but first I need to figure out what to do about the next some stages.¡±


    With her mind free of useless thoughts and fixed on the mater, her progress rate skyrocketed. She knew the bastard whom she had saved from the Croc was waiting for her in the grave and he didn¡¯t have good intentions. I¡¯ll be swift with him. She thought.


    Her first time with him had been rough because of his magical ability. One can basically say he surprised Ria and that made her hesitate. This time he would have nothing on her. Knowing the limits of his ability made him an easy target to dispose of.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    She had noticed a few things about his ability the first time she had fought him. One was his need to point his palm in the firing direction. And another was his weak physique. Guns and bullets work out fine even though the bullet can only travel in the direction the muzzle is pointed, but not only did the man needed time to create the ball of fire, furthermore, the ball was slow to boot. And not only that, he could only fire three to four times- as demonstrated by his pleading at the end of their fight. If he could attack continuously then Ria wouldn¡¯t be alive right now. She would have died to him once and then either died to the hands of the goblin or the Croc and how death a second time might have worked up for her only the marbles creator knew.


    ¡°That¡¯s one done.¡± She said raising her index finger. ¡°As for the goblin . . . I need to get him before he drinks his yuck. I have to say he¡¯s one tenacious monster to be able to drink his own . . . Ah, right, he can¡¯t be hurt until he drinks and starts transforming. I¡¯ll either have to hack his body into pieces before forcing him to drink the glass full or bind him in one way or another. Otherwise, it will be the repeat of what happened previously.¡± Saying her face became solemn. ¡°As for the Croc¡­ ¡±


    There were many things wrong the way she had died to the Croc. Not only was the water back in the tunnel, but she was ambushed.


    ¡°Do I have to defeat her too? Is that even possible?¡± There is no way to know for certain. Ria could bring torches with her to counter the darkness, but the sewer remains the Croc¡¯s turf and it knew exactly how and where someone was supposed to come out from. That¡¯s just counting the arena, as for its physique, Ria wasn¡¯t even on the same plane with the Croc. It was too strong. A simple show of its anger had easily broken the square dinner table into two. Moreover, it had a few millimeter thick scales covering its whole body. And let¡¯s not forget about a guardian¡¯s partial immortal: making, killing it, nothing more than a daydream.


    ¡°No wait¡­¡± she muttered. ¡°The door to the garden is already open. I¡¯ll just have to distract her for long enough to slip through the door.¡±


    She was right. The door to the garden was really open. Meaning, she wouldn¡¯t have to fight the Croc. And it was a logical explanation. How would she, a human, win against an old monster? The goblin was one thing, but to fight the Croc in its natural environment, Ria had more chances of defeating the goblin in his crazy state ten more times than winning against the Croc once.


    ¡°About the distraction¡­¡± She made her plans. She took her time to repeat her plans until she had creased out every visible wrinkle. The marble did attract her with a net of safety, but she decided to take her new life as her last one. Because to rely on the marble to help her in case of a slipup would be like giving up before even getting starting. The marble, in the end, was just another variable which depended on a variety of foreign factors. Death might not be the only factor responsible for it to work. She probably had unknowingly checked a variety of hidden factors making it work out for her the first time; the same might not happen a second time. Hence, her decision to forget about the marble until its mystery remains hidden.


    Although the Croc¡¯s stage ruffled Ria¡¯s feathers, the rest of the plan excited her. She tore a long piece of vine from nearby and removed all the barbs to bind the goblin. The vine was green and elastic, yet, strong enough to remain unbroken from her pulls. While Ria was at it, she also cut another decent-sized vine and worked at it before warping it around her torso to cover her breast. The vine rubbed against her skin but felt the protection a necessity. Once done with these minor tasks, she started walking.


    But as she neared the tree stump her eyes fell on the fruits that grew hanging from the braided branches near the ceiling. Greed rose inside her heart telling her that she should bring them along. Her rapid breathing made it disturbingly difficult for her to consider the idea. It was only thanks to her experience that she somehow managed to control the emotions in the end and decided against stealing.


    Even though the fruits could bring someone out of death with one bite and held the magical power to strengthen one¡¯s body, she also understood their significance. Their number hadn¡¯t changed since the beginning. There had been six of them the first time she had stepped into the garden and now only three remained hanging above her head. She had eaten two of the six; as for the one missing, she had no idea. the one she needed to end this stage. There was also the relation between the fruit and the grave to keep in mind; the door to which only opened after the fruit¡¯s consumption. If she was to take the last one of them along then how would she leave the next time around?


    Anyways, done with the garden, she bound the vine around her waist like a belt and took a few steps, when she heard a voice.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you take the fruits?¡± The familiar child-like voice said.


    ¡°Em¡­ is that you?¡±


    He didn¡¯t answer.


    ¡°Very few invaders have resisted the temptation of the fruits. Why did you decide against it? Don¡¯t you regret your choice.¡±


    ¡°Because I think I won¡¯t be able to leave if I take more than one.¡± She said, suspicious of the voice¡¯s owner. It sounded so much like Em¡¯ but- ¡°And I have already taken one. There I answered your question, so can I see you now?¡±


    Em, however, ignored her request and spoke again.


    ¡°You are right. The fruits are the key to open the door to the next realm. But there are three fruits here and there is only one floor left after this one ¨Cas you already know-¡°It said matter of factly. ¡°So why don¡¯t you take one? Who knows where it may come in help.¡±


    To tell the truth, she hadn¡¯t thought about that. She didn¡¯t know how many floors were left after this one. She knew from experience there was at least one more, but now that she was told there was only one floor left after the second, it will be wrong to say she wasn¡¯t tempted, but she denied the request anyways. The deal felt too good to be true to her.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to take the fruit, now that you are insisting so much. Maybe the next time I come, I will. So thanks but no thanks. Anyways, you aren¡¯t Em¡¯ are you?¡±


    ¡°Oh!¡± It said in surprise. Then the voice changed into a heavy rumbling tone- like the world itself was speaking.


    ¡°How did you find out?¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t answer me when I asked you whether you were Em¡¯ or not.¡±


    ¡°You were able to make the judgment on such a simple basis?¡±


    ¡°I have always been an exceptional judge of character.¡± She said then remembered the man she had saved. ¡°Or so it thought.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know whether to call you worthy of being a leader or simply stupid. I guess all leaders share the same qualities. They all recklessly believe in their stupidity.¡±


    Ria didn¡¯t know how to follow up with that. Was she reckless and stupid? She hadn¡¯t thought twice before agreeing to drink from the goblins glass at his shallow promise of freedom and hadn¡¯t wasted much time before splitting with her fingers, either. So yeah, maybe she was recklessly stupid.


    ¡°So¡­ I should get going.¡± Ria finally said, breaking the silence, but was stopped once again. The mimicker seemed to have not talked with anyone in a long time because it surreally wanted her to stay for a bit longer.


    Its next words, however, perked her ears in interest. ¡°Don¡¯t you want to see Emanuel?¡±


    ¡°You mean Em¡¯? His name is Emanuel? That¡¯s a nice name. Where is he, is he alright right?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s simply tired and sleeping.¡± It said and stopped talking again. It might be an omnipotent God of the garden for all Ria cared, but it was a lousy talker.


    It was her once again who had to continue the conversation because the voice¡¯s owner sure as hell was adamant about talking in turns. ¡°And where is he sleeping?¡±


    And the voice replied, ¡°Inside one of the fruits.¡± Making Ria speechless.


    ¡°So¡­¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s a good kid.¡± The vice said warmly. As for how Ria knew it was speaking warmly . . . because this time its voice didn¡¯t rumble. ¡°And I want you to take him with you the next time you come around.¡±


    ¡°Can a guardian leave the stage?¡± She knew that wasn¡¯t right. If that was so then the goblin wouldn¡¯t have cooked such an exaggerated plan to get out. But the voice removed her distraught.


    ¡°He¡¯s not a guardian and neither am I.¡± It said and the light suddenly became brighter around Ria, as if the world was going to break, but nothing of that sort happened. The light also soon returned to its previous brightness.


    ¡°The roof?¡± she asked dumbfounded and the voice chided her.


    ¡°Not the roof. I am the spirit of the world tree.¡±


    Ria looked at the tree in surprise.


    ¡°The world tree can speak? I don¡¯t know why I¡¯m surprised about that¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes and no. That thing is not me.¡± It said. ¡°It has been transformed into something else, something dangerous. I feed on the world energy, while that thing feeds on the devil¡¯s breath. The difference between us is larger than hell and heaven itself. Anyways, it¡¯s about time for you to leave. But promise me, you¡¯ll take Emanuel along the next time you come- No matter what.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I can take him then I definitely will.¡±


    ¡°One more thing,¡± The spirit said, very seriously. ¡°The time will come when you¡¯ll have to decide between yourself and a slim chance at hope. I hope you¡®ll be able to see past the shackles of your life and believe then.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± she asked, but her query went unanswered. She waited around for a couple more minutes then walked through the hole into the world tree¡¯s trunk.


    This was her first and the last conversation with the spirit of a world tree; the importance of which she would only come to understand far in the future while making the biggest decision of her life.

 17: To the future once again

    Ria walked through the door and entered the tunnel. Not a single soul in sight. The spirits words though haunted her still; she soon put them to the back of her mind and concentrated at the task at hand. She¡¯d grown up. Back, in the outside world, she used to get distracted easily and hesitate a lot. The sewer helped sharpen her instincts and grind away everything unneeded form her character.


    With a renewed mindset, she walked through the tunnel and into the open chamber beyond. Torches similarly lit up around her upon her emergence. The tombstones tiling a path on the dirt floor read the same words as before under torchlight. And when she stopped at the foot of the circular platform, the backstabbing man she had saved once again stood on the other side. There were no surprises and wouldn¡¯t be any either. The man might have managed to dupe her the last time, but he had nothing on her this time.


    ¡°Nice and easy,¡± she mumbled as the man called her from the other side of the platform. He played his act and she played her part. They talked and he acted social and friendly. Ria eased up to give him a false sense of victory and make him comfortable, and he soon came to stand on the platform just a few steps from her. She similarly played along, agreeing to his comments as much as she needed too, and waited.


    She noticed small changes in the way he talked and moved his hands, but nothing big enough to warrant her vigilance.


    ¡°Why would you cover such a magnificent bosom? It¡¯s like you knew you would be meeting someone soon.¡± He said, giving her a smile.


    ¡®Does he know?¡¯ she thought. ¡®No, that¡¯s not possible.¡¯


    Taking a deep breath she got ready to act. It was time. She faked a smile and stepped onto the platform.


    I hope the actor in me won¡¯t betray me to the enemy. And that¡¯s just what happened. The man must have noticed something because he hid his hands behind his back- possibly to use his ability and hide the glow from her eyes. But he didn¡¯t let his confusion or rather vigilance show on his face. To Ria he looked very at ease; even though deep down she knew he was getting ready to attack. So she stopped a few feet away from him, giving herself just enough room to be able to notice his actions and attack without losing her chance.


    The stalemate didn¡¯t continue for long. The man broke the silence. ¡°I¡¯m Raj.¡± He said slowly lifting his arm with his palm facing away from her. If Ria was still oblivious to his ability then she wouldn¡¯t have seen anything odd with him coming to her for a handshake. This time she knew the slight glow radiating his hand was not because of torchlight, but a ball of fire which he would unleash at her within the next couple of seconds. And just like she thought, like a typical villain he said ¡®sorry¡¯ raising his hand to her chest height and flipping his palm towards her.


    His lips curled up and eyes squinted in joy, but what he thought was a sure shot win became his last magical act. Ria dodged to his left and as the fireball whirled past her head, she pulled her knife ¨Cwhose handle was already sticking up- out for her jeans front pocket, slid to a stop at his feet, stabbed the knife into his liver and tore a long gash across his abdomen. As he stumbled backward stupefied at the sudden turn of events, Ria pulled the knife out of his body and stabbed it into his heart.


    Once again there were no surprises from him or hesitation from her. She swiftly attacked and ended him- right there and then. They stood in such close proximity to each other that the man ¨CRaj- got no chance to stop her once she started moving.


    By the time Raj hit the floor he was a dead man. He fell awkwardly, spurting blood all over the platform. There was nothing gracious about his death. Well, Death isn¡¯t supposed to be gracious in the first place. It¡¯s either swift or drawn out. If its comes swift then neither the person nor their family suffers much; but if it drags on for months and years, then death really challenges the emotions and morality of everyone connected.


    At least she didn¡¯t make him suffer.


    The gate to the Goblins room appeared with Raj¡¯s death. Ria didn¡¯t forget to rob the corpse of the essentials like pants and boots, before leaving the room, dragging his body behind.


    Yes, she took the corpse. This was a part of her plan. A method she had come up with to challenge the Croc. She was hoping that returning its stash of food -The man named Raj- would calm it down and help her with the mission.


    Well, that was the gist of her plan. Now, whether her plan would work or she¡¯d have to tussle with the croc in the sewer tunnel, time would tell. For now, she still had another living-breathing matter to take care of.


    The goblin was pacing up and down in the room when she stepped inside. Her sight released his anxiousness but the bloody corpse she dragged into the room made him frown. She did have a plan B ¨Cin case the corpse couldn¡¯t be brought to the next floor- but everything worked out nicely for her and she sighed in relief.


    ¡°That¡¯s some next level of pervasive shit. Can¡¯t say me hasn¡¯t seen that one before. Though, me didn¡¯t think you would fall that low.¡± he said puckering his lips and flaring his nostrils as if disgusted by the sight. ¡°Tell me, does its tool even work?¡±


    She didn¡¯t indulge him. Rather pulled the stretch of vine she¡¯d bound around her waist and tied one of its ends to the hilt of her knife. Under the goblins watchful gaze she next directly went to his chair, pulled it behind him and pushed him to the seat.


    ¡°Me bones are very soft - please be gentle.¡± He said standing up. Ria, however, stabbed her knife into the center of his chest, starting him back to the chair. Next, she made brisk work and tied him to the very chair using the vine. She bound his arms to the armrest, looped the vine around his chest a couple of times, then made a loop around his neck and pulled the vine from under the seat to tie his feet - so that excessive kicking would pull the vine around his neck, suffocating him. Finally, she pulled her knife from its chest and tied the two ends together, fixing him motionless to the chair.


    When she stepped back to look at her artwork, the goblin was tied such that he couldn¡¯t even get his ass off the chair''s seat, much less move about on it. His eyes were about to pop from the pressure at his neck, but his struggle only made her happier.


    ¡°Me don¡¯t care  . . . what you are thinking,¡± he wheezed out the words, clearly in anguish. ¡°. . .  but this is not going to help your case. Binding me . . . won¡¯t help you escape. Me is also a . . . a prisoner of this place. Just like you. Me asks you to stop your foolishness . . .  and . . . let me go. Or¡± he said gritting his teeth, ¡°or I won¡¯t give you your next task.¡±


    Finished saying his piece, he stopped talking and started staring instead. With both of them quiet, only the sound of him struggling on the chair and the fire crackling in the fireplace filled the room for the next few minutes, creating a different kind of mental pressure. Ria hoped he would beg to be untied so she could laugh at him, but he did no such thing. He was one tough nut to crack. He didn¡¯t voice a sound nor speak or even blink, only stared. He was challenging her. Unfortunate as it might be, Ria decided to move along.


    Next, she tried to hack his limbs, but her actions failed to produce any result. She stabbed him once or twice in the heart and the brain, but the wounds would close before she even got to look at them.


    ¡°You really are half immortal aren¡¯t you?


    The goblin finally smiled and worded, ¡°Me . . . told . . . you.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I have just one more thing to try.¡± She said walking toward the dinner table and coming back with a fork.


    ¡°Sure . . .  give it  . . . your best shot - Bitch.¡± He said and snorted.


    Smiling, she pried his jaw open and kept it as such by jamming the fork inside. Once done, she shook the grim of her hands and nodded at her work. The goblin looked splendid, gagging now at them. Under his watch, she pulled out the glass full of his cum from under his chair and tilted it to him.


    ¡°Now be a good boy and chug it down, will you?¡±Stolen story; please report.


    His eyes ran wild inside his socket; fear finally started getting under his skin. He made unrecognizable noise while Ria emptied the contents of the glass into his mouth. And then she waited.


    Just like before, his transformation started right after the last drop of the dirty white goo entered his stomach. She started attacking his body at the first signs of change. Unlike before, his skin darkened first. But the wounds didn¡¯t appear until his skin darkened completely and his eyes turned blood red. His skin became awful hard to cut, however, and his growing strength really tested her tenacity, but she pestered through.


    While the goblins conscious remained stable his body remained immortal, but the moment his conscious waned and his eyes turned red, the first wound she made at his arm spurted out blood.


    Ria picked up from there and directly went for revenge. Her hands shook violently the first time she cut into the goblins skin, but her hesitation disappeared like snowflakes does under burning fire when Nicky¡¯s face passed by her mind. With renewed determination, she tried to hack his limbs and make him beg for death just like Nicky, but she had to abandon the hate when his growing strength put a damper to her plans. After a minute of trying to sever his arm, she gave up. The cut simply wouldn¡¯t hold. Moreover, the vines didn¡¯t sound too good either. Understanding that she might have miss-judged the creature¡¯s strength, Ria went directly for his heart.


    ¡°Sorry Nicky . . .¡± she mumbled working through the muscles of his chest. ¡°I won¡¯t be able to put him through the same misery you went through. But I¡¯ll get him for sure. I promise.¡±


    A single stab wasn¡¯t enough to shear through its growing muscles. She had to cut a hole in its chest to reach the heart before the growing muscles could fill the gap. But just when the giant beating heart came into her sight, the vine snapped and her heart skipped a beat along with it. She steeled forth. The tip of her knife pressed onto his heart, she screamed and pushed with all her might, but the knife refused to puncture the beating muscle. Pain shot from her arms and Agony burned through her mind.  The beating heart grew further and further from her knife as she was pulled from the arms and lifted from the ground.


    ¡°NO!¡± she floundered to escape the creature''s grip while it stood up from the chair snapping free from the vine.


    She was raised to its face level and their eyes met for the third time. Waves of amusement churned inside its deep red eyes. It roared at her in excitement, throwing a mix of slimy spittle and snot at her face. Its grip tightened around her biceps, pressing the bone and making her hiss in pain. It snorted and pulled its arm backward ¨Cto throw her at the wall- and she scuttled to grab a hold of something - anything. Her fingers gripped around something warm and trembling, but the strength behind its throw was such that her hanger itself was torn from its position, and she flew through the air spinning uncontrollably like a kite forced by high winds.


    She gasped at the sight of the wooden wall quickly coming toward her and tried to shield her head, but the collision happened before she could do anything about it. Her sight blacked right after. Her pain, thoughts, the sight, the room and light, the goblin, and everything in between disappeared ¨Cas if cutoff. She fell to the floor spurting blood from her head, knocked out cold.


    She woke up again in the darkness thinking she had died again, but then her vision returned in fuzzy fragments, bringing along a headache of unbearable proportions. As if the darkness was keeping her safe, its removal by firelight brought a ringing which filled her ears, accentuating the pulsating hurt ¨Cwhich as she located- originating from the back of her head. Forcing open her eyes allowed her to make sight of her location. She was still in the goblin''s room- an assumption made after considering the bits and pieces she saw fallen or standing here and there.


    A sense of urgency forced Ria to her feet, but with a feeling of ants crawling in her entire body and no sense of balance, she faltered back to the floor moments later. Abated by pain and weakness, She groaned in defeat hitting her hands on the floor, splashing them in some viscous liquid- probably her blood- and saw a figure sprawled on the floor in the middle of the room over a pool of red. At first, the figure worried her making her hold her breath, but then its motionlessness relieved her and she sighed; though she didn¡¯t take her eyes off the body.


    A touch at the back of her head told her about the reason for the pain and the blood.


    ¡°Hopefully, it¡¯s not a cracked skull . . . I don¡¯t think I would be up and about so easily if it was that. Not that I can do anything about it in here. If only I had taken the fruit.¡± She sighed, feeling pretty worn down.


    The door leading to the Croc¡¯s den silently stood to the right wall at the foot of which lay her knife. That was the place where she had died. And it was time to make a decision again. She had only made plans about the backstabbing man and the goblin, and both situations hadn¡¯t taken long to swirl out of her control. Because the man hadn¡¯t been strong enough, he wasn¡¯t able to change the result much, but the goblin had almost sunk its teeth into her neck. She could have died - again.


    Hence the urgency forcing her to think of something to deal with the croc, or at least, take care of her wounds before walking through the door. There was still a stage left after the croc¡®s den, and Ria had a feeling the real guardian of the garden would be making an entrance during her visit. She wasn¡¯t sure what she would do about that.


    ¡°But how to close the wounds . . . if only I had taken a fruit . . . wait,¡± she looked at the goblin and her eyes glittered with hope. ¡°THE GEM . . .  He might have the gem. But if he didn¡¯t have one . . . No, no-no, I have to try and see for myself.¡±


    She picked up her knife and hurriedly crawled to the Goblins body, which no longer looked like a creature of chaos, and turned him over. His eyes were no longer red but they were wide open and dilated, reminding Ria of the corpse she had first woken up with. The Goblins body might have reverted back to his previous scrawny self but the hole in his chest still remained gaping and empty, missing the heart.


    To her surprise, she found it lying near the wall she was flung toward, indicating that it was she who had ripped it out of the creature¡¯s chest and killed him.


    ¡°How did that happen?¡± she mumbled and clicked her tongue. ¡°Focus girl. Focus. Don¡¯t think about useless stuff and find the gem.¡±


    She held the knives edge above the goblins bloodied chest and paused, took a deep breath, exhaled, and made a box cut across his chest to remove the thin layer of skin and muscles. She retched at the sight of his internal organs and globules of fat, but steeled her heart and struggled through. She explored his whole body form his brain to his balls but didn¡¯t found the gem anywhere. She was hoping to find the gem, hoping her conjecture about the relationship between starlight and healing was right, hoping she would be able to absorb the starlight from the gem somehow, and hoping that it would heal her head wound. Yes, she had too many hopes. And it wouldn¡¯t be a surprise if one or none of her hopes came true. But to hope for the best was all she could do in her circumstance. Because Ria would be committing suicide if she went to the Croc¡¯s den without healing first - Corpse or no corpse.


    Her arms and hands were completely drenched in the goblin''s blood by the time she retired away from the mess which was once a proper body. She didn¡¯t find the gem. The goblin didn¡¯t have it. She went through so much trouble for nothing. ¡°What now?¡± she said, resting with her back on the wall. She tried to rub her face but her blood-covered hands made her groan first then scream. She was in real deep trouble. No gem meant no healing, which possibly meant death.


    Ria was under a lot of pressure. The pressure of her safety alone was one thing, but the promise she had made to the garden spirit also wore her down. She was yet to keep a single promise with anyone. Be it Nicky or herself, she hadn¡¯t been completely truthful to anyone.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to break another promise.¡± But there was nothing she could do about her situation. She had tried and would still try to force through the Croc¡¯s den. It¡¯s not that she had absolutely no chance of making through the next stage, but her chances were very slim. She was too weak and had lost too much blood. If it wasn¡¯t for her restructured body, she wouldn¡¯t even be breathing right now.


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter,¡± saying so, she looked up from her hands and her eyes fell on the heart lying near her feet. It was the only organ of the goblin''s body she hadn¡¯t checked. She silently stared at the pineapple sized organ for a few minutes before she made up her mind. ¡°Might as well do it,¡± she said, picked up the heart, tore into it with her knife, and found the gem shining inside.


    It was not bigger than the size of an almond and held a marginal amount of starlight inside compared to the fruit or even the plant monsters core. Though there was some dissatisfaction on Ria¡¯s face, at least she found the gem. She held her emotions in check though couldn¡¯t help and released a smirk. Now she could proceed to find a way to absorb the starlight inside without having to eat the gem literally.


    The thought to break the gem was abandoned easily and so was the idea to cook it on the fire. Having not much information to begin with, Ria decided to engulf the gem and deal with the consequences later.


    Ria doused it with wine and cleaned it with table cloth and engulfed it. She crossed her fingers and hoped for the best. Not a second later, warmth grew from her stomach and spread through her body. It didn¡¯t heal her rather freely roamed inside. Its intensity slowly decreased. And as it did, faint light streamed out of her pores. The starlight was dissipating. She could feel it.


    ¡°No, no-no, don¡¯t go. Please, please, please heal my head. Please!¡±


    She begged it to heal her head wound and the energy coercing through her body listened. The warmth which was distributed through her whole body started flowing toward her head, slowly warming it. An itch grew from the wound urging her to scratch, but she held back. A few minutes later, her head stopped itching and the starlight ran out. The touch of her trembling hand told her that the wound had stopped bleeding and had mended significantly.


    That wasn¡¯t all. The energy also refreshed her mind and cleared her thoughts. She was still tired but in a much better condition otherwise. She looked at the man¡¯s corpse she had dragged from the grave and thought about checking whether his heart also had a gem or not, but decided against it.


    Finally done with the goblin and his schemes, she dragged the man¡¯s corpse and passed through the door, leaving behind a messed up room, some bad memories, and her fear.

 18: Exit

    Ria rushed through the door and slid to a stop in the light-filled clearing.


    The solid, uncaring sight of the tunnel beyond the door made her flinch. Two glowing yellow blobs stared back at her from past the invisible membrane separating the two stages, unmoving though they remained, then the doors closed and collapsed upon itself, vanishing as if was just an illusion in the first place.


    Ria shuddered at the door''s disappearance, remembering the fear she had felt upon finding herself back into the site of her first death. And though she had survived this time, it wasn¡¯t by the act of her own struggle, but at the Croc¡¯s benevolence or rather a fulfillment. It robbed her of the corpse, and then, surprisingly, removed itself away from her path hence, giving her an opening to run through and cross the death trough. She had found herself failing to take a single step, let alone make way through to the other side of the light spilling door, but she had done it ¨Csomehow- and was now alive without a mark of mar suppressing her health.


    With a look of the grim undertaking, she said, ¡°Why?¡± Hoping that something would pinch her out of the shock by revealing her struggles weren¡¯t worthless, but it remained a sane request till late, for none of the inhabitants ¨Cdead or alive- paid respect to her confusion. Though a vile confounding thought did subject her mind to the question, whether it was possible to pass every other trial of the sewer without any suffering, that remained a painful splinter deeply lodged which she wasn¡¯t given time to remove.


    As the saying goes, ¡®Don¡¯t act smug on the distance traveled, the road is long ahead.¡¯ The ground she stood upon itself shook in the next moment with the intensity of a herd of elephants passing-by, bringing Ria to her knees. Her hands flayed up and down with the ground, making it impossible for her to keep balance. The structure made up of dried husks of once green vines cracked and broke with the trembling; its sound muffled by the roaring ripple passing through. Vine dust and dirt rose in various places, obscuring the clearing and the giant, ceiling pillaring tree beyond.


    The shakes reminded Ria of the great earthquake which had demolished a part of her family mansion during her childhood. Her caretakers had her rush out into the garden and she had watched one of her hiding spots, an alcove hidden behind the service quarters, come tumbling down, bringing with it a crackling sound of demise. The loss of her hiding spot and her small collection of perfectly smooth and naturally patterned stones had brought along a change, without which she might not have decided to fight back, after all. That was a change much needed, but such a change took too long to come this time.


    Spiritless to the current happening, she had only just noticed a rift in the ground snaking toward her with harmful intentions when a panicked voice called out to her.


    ¡°Look out!¡± It said in a much heavier rumble than even the quake, allowing her precious moments to drift away from the collapsing ground. A grey, dirt-covered root ¨Cthick as her arm and agile as a snake- whipped out in her wake and rose into the air. It would have done a great worth of hurt if she hadn¡¯t dodged, such was easily distinguishable. Ria¡¯s eyes wandered to find her helper, but the swooshing sound of the root cutting through the air and falling toward her made her curse under her breath and witlessly move away from its path.


    She must have rolled or stretched awkwardly because she felt breathless when she came to a stop with the shaking increasing in intensity. The fallen root pulled back into the ground and in its place, the shaking intensified further. Ria had no idea what was happening when the ground she held bulged up. She screamed, trying to find purchase on the crumbling dirt and found herself rising ten-fifteen feet into the air, lying on the curved portion of a trunk size root. It really was just another root, for it had branches and root hair, which she held tightly to save herself from slipping off and falling to her death. The height of her rise was such that none of the shakings from below could reach her, but the sight of her surrounding wasn¡¯t any less shocking.


    Not only was the whole clearing in tatters and suffocated by a dust cloud, but there also were shadows moving about in the background, roots danced in the air, and the ground was no more. The whole of the ground had crumbled way into a dark-deep void. All above that, a screeching rumble stole her attention for a moment to announce the shattering of the ceiling above; a collapse which had started from the very edge of the clearing and was quickly making way toward her. Branches were spiking into the void from above following a rain of sharp crystal shards and hefty slabs. How to survive this tragedy was beyond Ria, but the voice of her invisible friend helped her once again.


    ¡°Run to the Fruits!!¡± The voice urged her and she crawled to a start. There were small, almost indestructible growths, all over the root which hampered her crawl, seeking blood whenever possible. Ria hurried anyways, keeping a brisk pace, relying slowly on her ability to take the pain, rather than risking a fall by standing up. But she had to stand up anyways, not to run but to jump, when her root sharply rose behind her and tumbled her forward toward the pit below.


    Screaming, she frantically grabbed about and obstructed her fall by holding onto a branch, which cracked at the same moment from her weight and broke right after. She fell through lone branches gaining scratches and shallow wounds and fell amidst a group of branch roots, cushioning her fall. The danger wasn¡¯t over however, for the gigantic primary root was going for a spin and folding upon itself, quickly positioning her another fall or a crushed burial if she was unlucky.


    Smaller roots whipped about her like crazy fanatics enjoying their first time above the ground. Ria couldn¡¯t think before her hands caught one such agile roots and flew away from the root giant. It took her screaming away from the pit and into the air, flew her helplessly and slammed her into the middle of the clearing where the ground was still sturdy. She pushed and crawled out of the roots way which stabbed and tore through her shadows. She scampered back up only to trip once again and be buried beneath a quick cover of root netting. She had to cut her way through screaming only to find the collapse right upon her. The breadth she had attained thanks to her escape sapped away at the sight.


    At this moment, just a few paces away, another one of the large prime or secondary roots rose out of the ground and pushed against the ceiling. It tore through and kept rising, bringing with it a shower of crystals and dirt. She looked back at the avalanche of death falling toward her and picked up speed. Slicing through whatever she could and using the newly rising roots to gain higher ground, Ria held the growing primary root and watched the ground gave away beneath her feet. A torrent of dust blasted past her, throwing mudrocks and stones, pieces of vines and whatnot at her, but she held on, held onto the branches with one hand and swung away to the other side. There she somehow managed to stand upon a Branch jutting out of the elevating root and toward the giant tree; she ran on the platform without watching and almost fell into the void following the end; there was nothing else between her and the giant tree. Everything else had already given way: the ground was gone and so were the vines. If only, the braided branches were left hanging from the ceiling; and Ria knew even they wouldn¡¯t stay for long. She hesitated at the sight but made the jump when the thundering sound of the collapse clawed at her back. She didn¡¯t get to see behind her, but the ravenous sound of a thick piece of wood cracking and falling away into the void, breaking everything in its path, was a dead give away to the happening behind her.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    The sounds disappeared around her as she sailed through the air, reaching out with her arm and fingers stretched for the braids; It was a moment of desperation but she trudged through by the sheer willpower. Her senses returned in a rush upon colliding with the braid, taking it for a ride with her momentum, and almost slid away. Thank god for the ridges at the braid''s surface where she was able to fit her fingers, if it wasn¡¯t for them, she would have been a goner. The sound of the collapse made it at her back; a cursory glance proved her just shy of being shattered beyond recognizable. It was a fountain of solids scraping at the air covering her back. The collapse closely followed behind her as the braid swung with her momentum. She needed to jump following the braids swing; there was no time for redoes; it was a make or break moment.


    The braid swung like a pendulum and slowed to a stop at its farthest point; her heart skipped a beat when she let go of the braid and once again flew with death all around her- but the lifeline hung from a crumbling ceiling, just out of her reach. Her fingers snapped close against the tendrils at the very end of the following braid, which swung her forward a few inches away from the collapse then broke, giving her to a long fall.


    ¡°NO!¡± She screamed, clawing at the air as her body slanted further and further away from the tree and into the void. The promise she had made came back to her mind, reminding, or, rather, scoffing at her for not fulfilling another promise she had made, making it her fourth one. She had promised the tree spirit to save Emanuel, but here she was falling to her own demise.


    When was the last time he had felt so helpless? It surely was against the Croc, just an hour or so ago; and surely the fight against the goblin hadn¡¯t been an easy one either; and what about the skeleton or the zombie, had they been right up her alley? It is not wrong to say that she only did great against one of her kind, everything thing else had given her struggle, made her give more than her best.


    This time, however, she was really done for. With no support to climb out of the hole and the ceiling itself coming at her, there was no way out. Yes, the marble might give her another offset chance at life, but what good would have that been? Another chance would mean another fight with the goblin and pass through the Croc¡¯s den. Ria really didn¡¯t want to face them again if she could.


    As if being mocked by the giant controlling her life, the shards of glowing crystals, branches and everything else came upon her in the next second, just in reach to scrape the flesh off her bones.


    The heavy debris swirled and swished past. ¡°I was so close.¡± She said and closed her eyes. Then a moment later she opened them right back again and squinted at the scattering pieces falling at her. There, in the middle of the smoldering shards and crystals, were falling three fruits which glowed stronger than everything else beside them.


    ¡°I only need the fruit¡­¡± She said, absentmindedly at first, and then with renewed vigor. ¡°I ONLY NEED THE FRUIT.¡±


    They were so close to her too, all three of them. With hope rose her heart rate, and fear returned. She frantically searched around for a lifeline and found it in the shape of an unfamiliar root, dimly lit under the glow of smoldering crystals, which were slowly losing their starlight. It was coming toward her at a brisk rate, some due to its own weight and some because of the pressure plowing it down from above.


    She waited for it to come close, then jumped upon its face and started running up. There was a sudden realization of weightlessness while running because they were both falling, but she ran upon its snaking surface and jumped. A jump here and another there, a few climbs and she was just at the fruits. They were falling beside the root, just outside her reach. As she jumped toward the fruits, a horrifying thumping ran out below her. She didn¡¯t get to see what thing it belonged to, but she caught two of the three fruits; the last one brushed against her hand and spun away, bouncing upon a pile of large glowing crystals, it hid behind them.


    The sound increased below her, and to her eyes, she saw the floor littered with an amazing amount of rubble quickly rising toward her. At one point she argued whether there was even a floor below and now it had quietly sneaked up on her. Horrified, she almost ate the fruit, then remembered her promise with the tree spirit. Groaning, she fell in the direction of the last fruit and crashed at a large cluster of crystals. The uneven surface scratched at her flesh, drawing blood, but she didn¡¯t stop there. She couldn¡¯t stop there. The floor was coming. Death was coming. Pushing open a path, she found the fruit tumbling inside a whirlpool of debris, heard the thundering sound grow insurmountable below, peered at the fruit, decided and jumped. Not again, she thought, flying toward the fruit through the whirlpool.


    Everything around her came crashing down onto the ground.


    The debris continued falling into the pit for another half an hour before the stump of the largest tree one could¡¯ve ever seen also fell and got buried under a layer of soil.


    As for Ria, There was no sign of her in the pit but . . . tucked tight among the ceiling of a very dark tunnel, a door opened; through which some debris, something glowing, and someone screaming fell out. Ria rolled out of control on the unevenly dangerous floor gaining injuries and stooped with her face looking up at the ceiling - visible under the scrutiny of the crystal glow which had fallen through the door with her.


    With one of the three fruits in her hand, she nimbly stood up showing no signs of her previous struggle, possibly the effect of the starlight coursing through her body. She looked about and found the cause of her concern buried to her left, the glow leaking from the cracks giving her a clue to its position. She lifted the crystals and saw through the branches to hold the warm pineapple-shaped fruit in her hand; inside which, she could easily make out the shape of something slumbering like a fetus.


    Breathing the silence she finally looked around, condemning her luck. ¡°The grave¡­¡± It was the tunnel leading her to the grave, putting her tired mind through another one of the sewers follies. But this was it. The Goblin had said so, and so had the tree spirit. This was the last floor. And an exit lay at the end of it.


    Weaving a make shit bag for the fruits, she trudged through the debris toward the platform beyond, but much to her surprise, what welcomed her wasn¡¯t the glow of torches lighting a path made of tombstones, but a ray of orange sunlight falling straight into the sewer tunnel, lighting something metallic.


    Rounded walls where green algae grew, and sunlight from a hole in the ceiling lighting a rusted iron ladder leading up and up and out¡­


    For a moment Ria thought it as just a dream or another one of the derange tests plotted by the devious sewer, but then a rat came to stand under the spotlight, destroying whatever clutches held her back. She ran the quickest she ever had. There was no hesitation, only relief, a bit of fear, but much-much more anticipation in her heart.


    ¡°No way . . . No way . . .¡±


    She reached for the ladder and climbed out of the hole. Stinging sunlight welcomed her and brought her to tears. There it was: Clean paved road and all too familiar box-shaped building; Trees lining the road to her sides and the bustle of shadows past them.


    She was out of the sewer and back in the city. She had done it. She had survived. She had kept her promise with the tree spirit and with Nicky.


    However, there was but one minor thing of concern . . .   the city burned.


    The END

 Author Note

    I don''t have much to say, but there are still things which are needed to be said:


    1. At 25 chapters, 203 pages, 55789 words, this book is over; but Ria''s adventure isn''t.


    2. This was not a standalone novel, but a part of my ongoing Devil fall saga (new name), including Lust uncontrolled and Is that a T-rex outside my cave.


    The series goes:


    #1.1.0 - Lust uncontrolled (Which introduces the enemy)


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.#1.2.1 - Is that a T-rex outside my cave (Introducing Third main character)


    #1.2.2 - Down the sewer (Introducing Second main character)


    #1.2.3 - Letters to my beloved (Unwritten) (Will introduce the first main character)


    #1.3.1 - An untitled zombie apocalypse Novel (Introducing the world after the change)


    #1.3.2 - Devil''s Fall (Last book in which everyone will come together)


    Yes, all of them work great as standalone novels, but it was decided shortly after finishing Lust to bring everything together. While two of the six planned books are written, Is that a T-rex which is a half-finished book will be reworked starting next month.


    Well, that''s it. Bye.