In Darkness

"It was supposed to be a simple expedition..."

These were the words uttered by Jonathan, our leader and head archaeologist at the Apex University. The remainder of his group sat silently around the flame of a makeshift torch, their last ember of hope. Only the four of them remained, everyone else having been swallowed by the darkness around them, the screams still echoing through the dark tunnels.

The medical expert, Cherise, was shakily bandaging the bloody stump where Jonathans leg once was, her breathing ragged and panicked. The torch holder, Shay, stared into the darkness stoically, understanding the hopelessness of the situation the intrepid explorers were in.

The only one who still seemed to be recording everything like a proper scientist was Randal, his shifty eyes following his pencil as he marked down every little detail and sound he heard within this dank, cold cavern.

"This... this is truly a remarkable discovery! Do you all understand how thrilling it is to be the prey for once?! We can finally understand the visceral fear of our food! What true terror this is! I feel at peace knowing my death is a part of an even greater food chain than humanity was aware of! Hahaha!"

Randal was quickly silenced by Shay, a rather firm kick meeting his chin, knocking the pencil from his hand. The broken scientist simply stared at the fallen writing implement, shaking ever so slightly, before picking it back up and continuing his mad scribblings. Cherise finished wrapping Jonathans wound, sweat dripping from her forehead in spite of the chill in the air. She had signed on to bandage minor cuts and abrasions, not this. Not a chewed off leg viciously stolen from it's owner.

Everything had started so brightly. The group of seven ventured down into an unmarked cavern armed with nothing but some geological survey equipment and enough rations for a day. It wasn't until they lost one of their members, a young student named Julia, that things started looking so grim. The young girl was eager to impress Jonathan, perhaps in more ways than one. She was a Freshman in the Archaeology college, and looked up to her professor with great admiration. This of course led to a few rumor's about the pair becoming intimate. The girl was always around her dear professor, at least until he scorned her clinging and told her she was nothing more than a student to him, and that she should seek out her own path instead of following his so closely.

Perhaps it was her grief that sent her into the darkness alone. Or perhaps she was seeking out that path for herself. Either way, it was her screams that started the long chain of grisly disappearances and deaths. The group chased after her calls for what felt like hours, finding nothing but a mangled up corpse with it's mouth wide open by the time they reached her. But the screams, those horrible, grisly screams wouldn't cease. Jack, another student in the field of Geology, wanted the noise to stop so desperately, he even attempted to close the mouth of the corpse, not realizing that the very act of touching it would cost him dearly. A shadow, black as night, leapt out at him, ripping his fingers from his hands, causing him to immediately start screaming himself.

The rest of the group witnessed this with stunned silence, staring on as the shadows wrapped around the poor lad, twisting his various limbs in unnatural and painful directions. Jacks screams soon joined Julia's in the darkness, the pair of corpses lying side by side in their visages of agony. The rest of the group, already panicked by the first death and now witnessing a second, fled in all directions, becoming separated in the darkness with nothing but their lanterns and the supplies they carried.

Tobias, a foreign exchange student from Britain, had wandered in the dark aimlessly after losing his group. No one knows what happened to him. Save for Shay, who found him curled into a ball and mumbling something incoherent. He stood when Shay tapped him on the shoulder, and the two of them began to walk together.

"We are all just food for it... We cannot hope to escape... We must join it's chorus..."

Tobias' words didn't immediately register in Shay's mind, not until he had been struck in the back by a pick, Tobias's screams now loud and clear amongst the others. The corps of Tobias, now cracking and creaking into a twisted marionette, lunged at Shay, who was barely able to pull his climbing axe from his belt and slice the young mans head off. A malicious laughter filled the room, as Shay now understood what he'd done. Tobias' body slumped to the floor, twisted and lifeless once more.

Cherise had found herself wandering in the dark, much like Tobias, however she was able to keep herself calm and sane by reciting medical procedures and various anatomical facts. It wasn't until she had found the picked-clean corpse of Julia, mysteriously alone once more, that she began to lose herself. Her trembling could be felt through the cave floor, as she began to examine the bones of the poor girl, hoping to understand what they were dealing with.

"Severed spinal column... Various small punctures to the back of the skull... Dear god, it's like something sucked out everything from inside of her...!"

The patterns along the bones indicated that they had been forced to bend by the muscles themselves, and the holes in the back of the skull, still stained with the liquified viscera, almost indicated a suction of sorts took place post-mortem. The most odd thing, however, was a large, perfectly round hole in the spine, right in line with the nervous systems pathways. Perhaps whatever was hunting them could somehow influence their bodies to move uncontrollably...?

Cherise stood, offering her respects to Julia, before walking into the darkness once more. Her lantern flickered, her heart sinking as she knew she had forgotten to fill it to full before entering the cave. soon she would be in complete darkness, totally vulnerable to whatever might be hunting her.

Luckily for Cherise, the only thing that found her was her long time friend Randal, who looked as cool and confident as he ever did, his round classes reflecting the light of the flame in his lantern, giving his face a borderline otherworldly appearance.

"Ah, Cherise. There you are. You look simply rattled. Find something... odd?"

Cherise was slightly taken aback by the question, but explained her findings regardless. Randal pushed his glasses up onto the brim of his nose, the light shifting to reveal his dull green eyes, almost resembling s a corpse.

"Fascinating... This "creature" seems to be feeding on us. Nurturing itself with human flesh... simply remarkable..!"

Randal chuckled slightly, before pointing his lantern towards a rather narrow gap in the cave.

"This way. I believe I heard voices ahead. Hopefully it will be Tobias and the others. With any luck, my little brother has found his way back to Jonathan..."

Shay had sat in front of the corpse of Tobias for what felt like hours after removing the pick from his shoulder. He heard scrapes from the rock behind him, but knew that he was powerless to stop anything that attacked at this point. And so he waited for the end, his lantern burning out... When light once more filled the cavern he was in, he was given pause. he turned to see Jonathan, looking stunned at the state Shay was in, covered in blood and kneeling before a dead student. Jonathan was quick to tend to the young mans wounds, but was more tentative to ask what had happened.

"Tobias... he attacked me... Said something about joining with.. I don't even know..."

Shay, the normally confident and calm spelunking expert, was still in shock at what had transpired. Jonathan nodded, not quite sure if he believed the man, but seeing him as non-threatening. The pair sat in silence for ages, Jonathan taking the time to look around at the cavern walls. Oddly enough, they were perfectly smooth, as if carved by a stone mason. It was so incredibly delicate and fine that tracing a finger along the surface was almost effortless. the professor had to wonder: just what manner of creature were they dealing with in this darkness...?

Cherise finally managed to squeeze her way through the gap, albeit not without some scrapes along her belly. She reached through and grabbed the lantern from her friend, waiting for him to join her. after some more time, and an even greater effort from Randal to squeeze through, the pair found themselves facing a great hole in the center of a large chasm. Randal picked up a stray pebble, tossing it into the pit to measure its depth. No echo was heard, giving the pair ample reason to avoid the center of the room and continue on towards a second tunnel across a thin ledge. Randal produced a climbing rope from his pack, tying one end to his belt and the other to Cherise's, leading the pair onto the ledge.

"Cherise... do you think this is some new kind of species...? Unobserved for millennia and forced to live underground?"

"I... wouldn't see how that's relevant at the moment, but... I suppose it's possible."

"How far down do you think it travels...? Perhaps to the bottom of this pit? Perhaps further than that?"

"Randal, why are you asking such things...?"

"Perhaps I am curious to see what the creature might do if there were some kind of bait thrown into this hole. Will it give chase...? I would like to test this very much."

Cherise felt her blood run cold, as Randal stopped along the ledge and turned to her.

"Cherise... my dear friend... did you think I meant you?"

The question gave the young medic a jolt of shock.

"I-I don't understand the question, Randal. We've been friends for years, w-why would you do such a thing..?"

"Precisely."

The pair shimmied the rest of the way across the ledge, reaching the mouth of the tunnel they were seeking. Cherise untied the rope from her belt, as Randal began undoing his end and wrapping it back up.

"I would never harm a friend, Cherise. An acquaintance, perhaps, but never a friend."

The young man chuckled, leading the way further into the tunnel, Cherise following in confused silence, nervous about the state of her friends mind. Wen they arrived into the next chamber, they were greeted with a shocking sight.

Jack sat in the center of the cavern, turning to smile at the pair as they entered. However, that smile quickly grew wider, and wider, until his cheeks were slip, and his jaw hung open in a visage of twisted joy. Black tendrils quickly pierced every office of the boy, his flesh melting away and his eyes becoming liquid before the entirety of his flesh was ripped from his bones, leaving a broken skeleton, the same as Julia's.

Cherise vomited onto the floor, her stomach flipping from the grisly sight. Randal simply stared on, his eyes wide, but not with shock. No, his expression was pure scientific fascination. He quickly began writing down every last detail of the process, ensuring that no step was missed. he then pocketed his journal and tapped Cherise on the shoulder.

"Come on Cheri. We have to keep going. I think... I think I hear voices somewhere close."

Cherise, still in shock, stood and held on to her friends hand, as he led them past the bones of the young Jack, now eternally smiling at the void of darkness that filled in behind the lantern.

Shay did not expect to see the light of a lantern coming around the corner as he held onto Jonathan by the arms. The professor had been foolish enough to touch the corpse of Tobias, giving the shadows a chance to attach themselves to him. Be it out of curiosity or whatever possessed Jonathan, he was now shrieking in pain as sinews tore from his leg, tendrils dragging at him to join the void. Randal and Cherise found Shay holding the professor and pulling as hard as he could, joining in at the last moment to wrench the man from the grasp of the darkness. The screaming died down, as the tendrils retreated, however they did not leave empty handed. Jonathan was lying in a pool of crimson, his right leg ripped from his body, the man quickly going into shock.

And thus, the group found themselves completely surrounded, Shay quickly using the last of Jonathans lantern fuel to light a torch, Randal's lantern burning down to a small ember. Cherise got to work bandaging the professors leg, his words quiet and fading.

"It was supposed to be a simple expedition... It was..."

The professor lost consciousness before he could finish. Randal however, broke the silence left behind with a shriek. Shay turned to see him staring at the corpse of Tobias, now picked clean from the tendrils that had stolen Jonathans leg.

'T-To... bias...? Y-you can't... no... h-hah... hahah... hahahahahhaaahahah!!!"

Randal's maniacal laughter filled the small room, causing Cherise to jump while she wrapped up Jonathans wound, causing enough pain to wake the poor professor, his screams joining the laughter.

"S-stop at once, Professor Randal! They will come back!"

Randal ignored his colleagues request, simply pulling out his journal and writing down everything once more. over and over he wrote the process of the creatures eating. His journal messy and unstable.

Cherise looked to Shay, who simply stared into the darkness. Jonathan coughed, his wound staining the bandage crimson far too quickly for Cherise to stop. Everything was falling apart around her, and as the torchlight flickered, she knew that hope would die with the flame. And as that darkness crept closer and closer, the screams of the dead echoed with it.

Until, in darkness, there was nothing.