“Shouldn’t you be sealing the exits?” I ask even though it will raise questions. At this point, my only hope is to confuse him while the others escape. Gotta buy time! “Where’s your friend?”

“You know about Zena?” His gaze changes and a faint trace of killing intent spills out. “Who are you? Did Nigel get a message to you, somehow? System Messages shouldn’t work this far from the city…no…who are you?”

“Hei? Are you okay?” The person I least want to hear right now, pokes her head back into the tunnel. “Aren’t you coming?”

Sierra, why didn’t you run?

Damnit DAMNIT DAMNIT!

It’s all screwed!

“Hei? That’s your name?” Crimson-cloak raises an eyebrow as he sees Sierra holding Rita at the entrance. The back of my neck is sticky with sweat. I can see it going through his head. “Ah…the rest of you are still here. That’s good…”

“What?” Sierra’s face wrinkles up and I reach inside my coat and whip my cleaver out.

“RUN SIERRA! JUST GO AND DON’T COME BACK!” I charge the high-level who stares at me from under his cloak. Not a hint of panic enters his expression.

Only disdain.

“I don’t like the look you’re giving me, Rat.” He sneers and a sword appears in his hand, long, crimson, and bloody. “Giving yourself up for your friends? I suppose there is honor amongst animals.”

“DIE!” I can’t resist saying something useless as I raise my cleaver back and swing. Despite all my experience, I have no hidden techniques, no overpowered stats, no System Skills. Just Basic Combat Proficiency. Against someone possibly over fifteen levels higher, without the element of surprise, or even a real sword, this is the purest form of bluff. It’s no surprise that I’d lose…

*Puchi*

*Puchi*

“ARRRGH!”

Oh my god. It hurts.

My world goes dark completely-

He hits me twice so fast it feels simultaneous.

I can’t see.

When I fall to the ground, everything is black.

Not gray, not red, just black.

But I don’t wake from this nightmare-

He took my eyes.

I roll around, writhing in pain, like a worm in the mud. Choking, drowning on nothing.

Owowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowow!!!!!!!

“That’s better. Little rat, scurry around in the darkness where you belong. Be good and stay here while I fetch your friends.” His words are not lost on me. Despite all the blood leaking from my face, I pull through the pain, the agony, to yell out.

“RUN! GET AWAY! HE’S COMING!”

I don’t hear anything from Sierra or Tepis. Just the high-level’s footsteps as he walks up the tunnel. Well, that and my own screaming.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-!”

My broken voice devolves into coughs which do nothing but make the pain worse. Drops of blood stream down my face like tears and splatter on the ground below. I try to catch them, hold in my life, but I can’t see them fall. Desperation makes me try to touch my eyes. I wish I hadn’t.

Oh god. OH GOD!

I won’t describe it. I can’t describe it. That spongy feeling, the terror of holding the window to your soul in your very own hands and knowing it’s wide open.

CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP!!

MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP!

I wish I was still numb.

I wish I just came out of the void prism.

I wish I couldn’t feel this!

Even with the pain, some part of me, the Black Butcher inside, or maybe something…something else is still thinking rationally. It knows that I need to get away. That whoever did this is going to come back. Without thinking, I just…go.

I creep.

I crawl.

I squirm.

Anything and everything, I can’t see where I’m going.

It’s all dark.

All black.

Gone!

All I can do is follow the lay of the land.

Down Down Down

Down Down

Down

It’s like I’m leaving the land of the living. And wriggling down through the dirty earth into the underworld. I have one singular goal.

Get away. Get away. GET AWAY!!

However much time I have bought the others, they now return the favor as the high-level chase them down, up above. Rage should be filling me right now. But without my eyes, it’s like being back inside the void prism. The instant feeling of helplessness paralyzes my mind. All I can think of is the horrendous pain in both my eye-sockets. Sometimes I wonder if I should just stop and kill myself.

But I dropped my knife.

An even worse fear bubbles up in my mind-

Oh god…if I…died, right here, right now. And I reanimated without eyes…wouldn’t I be lost down here…forever?

The realization drives me to wriggle harder. I squirm as hard as I can. I don’t know for how long or for how far I go. All I’m aware of is the twin lances of agony searing through my face every time I hit a wall or smack into a rock. The gravel cuts through my elbows and knees, and I’m amazed I can feel such small details when my eyeballs have been stabbed…

I hate this.

Let me out!

I don’t want to be like this anymore!

CRAP CRAP CRAP!

After a while, it feels like I’ve descended an entire floor. The knowledge of how far I’ve gone doesn’t stop me. I just keep going. As far as I can.

RUN RUN RUN!

GET AWAY!

AWAY!

The blood from my eyes is still coming. It’s still warm. Or maybe that’s just the nerves dying. I can’t tell.

I think that’s another floor.

Keep going.

KEEP GOING!

At one point, I roll off a precipice and start falling. My temple smashes into the ground and the jarring impact makes stars explode which light my night. Even though it’s all in my head, seeing something is better than nothing. For several minutes I just lay there, panting like a dying dog. Hope leaves me as the stars go away and return me to darkness.

N-No!

Stay!

Don’t leave me here!

I’m talking to sparkles.

I’m going insane…

My hands rise up, a final panicked effort managing to get me to my knees once more. I have no idea where I am. What floor I’m at. How far I’ve gone. I just roll. Downhill like the blood squirting from my eyes.

GO GO GO!

Oh god it hurts!

I think bits of rock have gotten in the sockets. I can’t get them out. It doesn’t matter.

Have to keep going!

#

*Gurgle*

At first, I think the noise is me. Maybe I’m moaning. Or choking. It wouldn’t be the first time on this trip to hell that I wasn’t able to control the sounds coming out of my mouth. Terrible fear has taken root in my heart.

What if I can’t get out?

Did I get away?

Is that even a good thing?

What if I just stay down here until I die of starvation or blood-loss?

*Gurgle*

Water.

That’s what it is.

I’m near water!

I don’t know why it excites me. However, it’s something. A source of survival. Dragging myself painfully towards the sound, I make my way to its source. Eventually, my probing-fingertips find something wet. It’s running, if only just.

A tiny stream.

Eagerly, I dip my hands inside, washing the blood, grime, and muck away. The cool water soothes my burning palms. Then comes the scary part.

This is going to hurt.

Steeling myself, I press both palms into the ground and haul myself closer. Then when my head is directly above the burbling water…I submerge everything.

AHHHHHH!

Soundless bubbles escape as I scream into the water, but after the initial chilling stab of the icy water against my eye sockets, it begins to get better. I stay under as long as I can hold my breath. But when I try to come up, something stops me.

MMMRPH?

I push back, hands desperately trying to get enough leverage to get out of the water. There’s something heavy on my back-

Shoving me down.

Holding me under.

I’m drowning.

MRRRRRPHHH!

LET ME UP!

I CAN’T BREATHE!

Finally, when I’m about to black out, my right wrist buckles. That changes the angle of my back and the foot on it slides off. I roll away to the side, the world turning from icy water to bubbly air over and over. When I finally stop and can take a breath, I hear someone laughing.

“Hahaha! Run Rat! RUN! You really took me on quite the journey. Didn’t think it’d be so hard to find you after I found your friends.”

No!

“Hurk…not you. Stay back!” I manage to gasp out only to have someone’s boot press down on my chest. The weight abruptly disappears and a sixth-sense tells me I’m about to get stomped!

*BOOM*

I roll sideways fast and the boot explodes down onto the cave floor with a bang. If I was under it when it landed it would shatter every rib in my body. I throw myself any which way, trying to get away.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOOOOOOM*

“Come-on then! Let’s see how long you can dance!” The man who’s trying to stomp the life out of me doesn’t let up. He’s hitting the ground so hard the whole tunnel is shaking. I roll over something wet and squishy.

Flesh.

Tepis?

Sierra?