(A/N: This part might seem short, but it's only because I split the last two parts up bc its too long of a story to digest in one or two chapters) WC: 1534

iv

The cave was incredibly damp and musty, the strange musk of death and mold invading my unsuspecting nostrils. It smelled worst then the sewers in which I hid my climbing gear, it smelled as if somebody had died ten times over in this cave, and then some. It was so putrid, I couldn't even begin to properly describe its full aroma.

It was also extremely humid, sloppily made torches littered the ground and poorly made sconces made of what looked to be trash. Random stripes of soot and ash was smeared across the uneven walls, water puddles covered the floor in a seemingly random patterns, and the sound of dripping water echoed through the rocky corridor ubiquitously. The feeling of trepidation and the hot coils of anxiety slowly started to build low in my gut, but I still pressed on.

A new scent grew stronger the longer I padded down the hallway, a scent I had yet to distinguish and put a name to, but it was almost overbearing as I neared what seemed to be the end of the corridor. The light grew brighter and brighter until the narrow corridor opened into a massive dome shaped room, light casting shadows across the room from the giant toppling towers of trash that beleaguered the room.

Moldy food, sopping wet cardboard boxes, torn plastic trash bags that spilled out its contents like gutted deer, and sharp aluminum cans on top of broken beer bottles were just some of the items that made up the trash mounds. All the scents formed an unadulterated sonata of bile and foulness far beyond the point to were I could ever scrub the odor from my mind.

My jaw dropped as I passed by the mounds, craning my neck to attempt to see the peak of such accumulations. Though the tops of the mounds disappeared into the darkness to which the torchlight could not reach, only their shadowy lumps serving as a rough guideline.

I was so in shock, that I unknowing went deeper into the cavern. Too deep.

As I went deeper, I saw varying sizes of holes in the rounded wall. Each leading deeper into the cave system, or maybe even to the outside world. I went towards a smaller mound, it seemed to be one of the smaller ones I had come across, something glinting near the summit of it. The bright flashing was blinding me, and I knew it would kill me if I didn't find out what it was.

Before I knew it, I was reaching up on my tippy toes trying and reach the glinting item. My short stature cursing me yet again as I attempt to use a broken nutcracker as a foothold. I finally grabbed onto the item with a last-minute little hop, before stumbling down, cringing at the crash that echoed painfully loud in the round room. I felt my stomach drop as I snapped my head to the side, surveying my surroundings. After what felt like an eternity of silence in return, I looked down at what I had grasped.

It was a dirtied pendent, worn and weathered with age. I opened the locket to see a picture of an established looking Who and his wife who was holding their young daughter, they looked like a happy family. It made me wonder how the locket ended up here, and why I hadn't seen these Who's around.

A puff of hot air ghosted across my bare neck and I stiffened, grasping the necklace in a death grip as I tried to remain as still as possible. The thing continued to sniff my neck and down my back, a low guttural growl escaping the confines of its throat and shaking me down to my bones.

I slowly turned around to come face to face with the misshapen, squashed head of an overly large-sized mutt. Its milky white eyes unseeing and ghastly, its stubby coffee brown ears perking at even the slightest sound. Its head was far larger then its actual body, and a loose chain was wrapped around its neck where the fur was missing. A chunky piece of grey steel etched out the scratchy name of Max where it hung off the length of chain, and as I lowered my gaze to his paws, I saw yellow dirt-covered claws that were probably the length of my whole palm!

I slowly backed away, Max sniffing after me. And as I pressed myself up against a wall, Max continued his advance, his twisted black snout inches away from my face when-

He stopped.

I watched in horror as his ears twitched, once, twice, then nothing. After a few moments, the mutt started to back away, but I couldn't even let myself become relax before a deafening bark resounded throughout the room. It took a few moments before I realized they were coming from Max, foam leaking from his overgrown jaw that snapped viciously. Its white eyes crazed as it snapped its head side to side, slobber being flung everywhere as his head just couldn't stay still.

I stood stock still as my ears were no longer being assaulted by silence and my own quiet breaths, but shrill barks, growls, and the oh so deafening howls that sounded distressed and pained. I felt panic grab a hold of me, shaking me and shrieking at me to run, run as far away as I could and do it as fast I can. Yet, my feet wouldn't move, as though they were made of lead. No part of me could get over the shock, nothing filtered into my mind as I just watched in horror as the mutt jutted its jaw and became even more crazed.

Then, then a long shadow reached across the furthermost wall. Its two arms wrapped around its overly hunched figure, and then, another set of arms sprawled themselves out from its body. Its thumping footsteps almost as loud as my own pounding heartbeat as the shadow grew larger, blood roaring in my ears as one thought finally popped into my head.

Run.

v

I turned on my heel and booked it to the nearest hole in the wall, hoping it would lead to somewhere to which I could hide from such beasts. The shadow of it was burned onto the backs of my eyelids, its outstretched arms reaching out towards me-

I heard a second pair of footsteps clamoring behind me, they were faint, but still there.

I pushed myself harder as I let my imagination run wild with what that thing could possibly look like beyond what I saw in its shadow. All the results pushing me to go faster, cursing at myself for my slow start. I made sharp turn after sharp turn, until my foot caught on something and I tumbled into the wet and rocky floor. I let my coat scrap against the floor, but the impact left my lungs empty and my head spinning.

I glanced up with teary eyes and I couldn't help but choke on a scream when I met gazes with the scratched, milky white skull of a Who, its broken and bare bones not far away. Its empty sockets stared right back at me as I stumbled back up, pushing my gloved hands beneath me as I broke eye contact with the thing. I only panicked further when I saw that that wasn't the only skeleton, but a smaller part of a whole pile of bones that was stacked one on top of the other right behind it, its end unseen due to the expanse of darkness that hugged it like an old friend.

The stench of death and excrete was so strong in the outcropping that I felt bile rise forebodingly in my throat, before I started to backtrack. Running away yet again from the scene that had been laid before me, a new image to become engraved in my scarred mind.

I couldn't think of the future consequences of how this night might permanently scar and alter me when I was so worried thinking about just surviving against the blood lusting creature behind me. I was starting to fret over the fact that I might just be running deeper into the mountain, when a gust of cold wind bellowed through the humid corridor. It washed over my flushed face and chill ran down my spine, I pushed harder then I thought humanly possible at the thought of getting out of this mountain.

Soon, I was barreling through a thin veil of ice and stumbling forward as I tried to prevent myself from tumbling down the steep decline in slope. I stopped myself right at the edge of icy rock overhang that gave the perfect view of ivory, untouched snow that covered the mountain and its surrounding hills head to toe. I gulped as I surveyed my surroundings, there was only one way out.

Up.

(A/N: Last chapter is next...aren't I so productive during the Christmas season?)