The cold air is heavy and leaves a strange taste in my mouth. All around me, the cave's walls loom as if waiting for my decision. There is a certain kind of stillness in the air, the static type that precedes the discharge of change.

I hesitate. All around me, there is darkness. The only light present in this place comes from the hole up above, in the stone ceiling. It is a crevice that lets me know I am not that far from the surface, but still, can't reach it. It works as both a motivational factor and a disheartening development. So near and yet so far.

By now I have tried to climb the walls to the surface multiple times, unsuccessfully, as I expected. The walls are slimy with moss and the angle is too vertical for climbing.

The only other way I can go is towards where I am looking right now. But if around me there is darkness, what I am looking at could only be described as an abyss.

The little amount of light coming from above that allows me to see myself and my surroundings is completely swallowed down into that path. The sound of running water, flowing through the gaps in the stone, also seems to disappear, further down there. Even the moss that infuriated me so much during the time I was trying to climb up the stones seems to avoid those clean, grey stones.

And still...

Why is it that I feel so attracted to that place?

Ever since I've woken up in this cave, I have been feeling strange. It is not just the bizarre, supernatural circumstances that have brought me here. Nor just the strange, almost spiritual awakening I've had just now when remembering about my death. It isn't even the unnatural freshness of my body, that seems to have forgotten about all my years of alcoholic abuse and sedentary lifestyle.

No... there is also something else. A fundamental change. It is in the air I breath. It is on the stone floor I stand. And in the darkness that surrounds me. It is also inside me, and even more, it is down into that hole. That abyss.

This thing, this energy, it fills me with jubilation, ecstasy, and something I can't describe. Satisfaction. Yearning. A high stronger than that of any drug. It is as if I have fulfilled a goal I had been hoping for all my life, without even knowing. As if the gaping void that haunted me most of my life had finally been filled. A thirst quenched.

It makes me smile. A genuine, happy smile. Something I thought I had forgotten how to do.

And it also makes me want to abandon all caution and delve deep into that abyss, looking for the source of this energy, to take it for me and never have to worry about losing this feeling ever again.

But the Survivor awakened in me says no. It advises caution above all. To think it through. To preserve my life, no matter what. It will help me endure and I will help it survive.

And thus I hesitate.

My situation is not pretty, I know. I've heard of stories of alpinists way better prepared than me trapped inside stone crevices and dying in environments very similar to mine. Be it from starvation, thirst, or injuries, death rarely fails.

Fortunately, there is water here, so at least one of those deaths I can avoid. If any of what I've read in my life stands true, just water can get me through at least a few weeks. That doesn't mean I will be strong enough to take action, however. I have no idea where I am, or if anyone is coming for me. I don't even know if I should want people to find me. I sure as hell don't want to see that rainbow man ever again. If he is the one that put me here, shouldn't I strive to get away from here the fastest I can? Even if police found me, I don't think they could do anything against someone that can survive orbital impact unharmed and then rip people's hearts barehanded.

Besides, I am naked. For now, the temperature is completely endurable, even nice, but I have no idea how it will be during the night. It may soon become cold enough that I will have problems without something to warm myself up.

So, in the end, reason stands that I should take action. The thing is...

This abyss goes down. Not straightforward, not upwards. Downwards.

I think the chances I have of somehow ascending to the surface through that way are very, very slim. Most likely, from what I know of grottos, I will just end up facing even deeper holes and more maze-like pathways. Maybe I will even have to face bats, rare insects, reptiles or other strange critters...

Oh. And that lights up a metaphorical lamp in my head. Critters may actually be a solution for my food problem.

Usually, I would be the first one to scoff at the notion of eating insects or something like that. But now... it feels actually pretty natural. A very small thing inside the array of actions I would be willing to take to stay alive. Very, very small.

I can still hear the echos of what I've experienced with that... enlightenment. Survive at all costs. Endure.

If I focus on it I can hear even smaller murmurs... hints of something deeper, that keeps escaping between the fingers of my conscience when I try to grasp it.

Fuck, look at that. When did I become such a... spiritual guy? Always an inbred atheist with a skeptical outlook of all things, now talking about an ethereal source of knowledge and power as if it was a natural thing. Just because it feels so... right.

Currently, that is just one more thing in the long list of things I don't understand. For now, I will just have to go along with it.

I look up again and try to see the sun through the hole in the ceiling. I don't quite manage to find it in the sky, but the light coming from it still seems pretty bright. I should have at least a few more hours of daylight before it starts to get dark.

With that knowledge in mind, I decided I should use those hours to at least make a quick trip downwards, in order to gather more knowledge and ascertain the true nature of the abyss. Maybe it actually curves upward further down and my worries end up being for nothing.

Yeah, right. As if life ever made things easy for me.

Nevertheless, I have made my decision.

So, preparing myself by taking a drink from the small water stream - hoping with all my strength that there isn't anything bad on it - I start my descent.

Within my first steps, the air grows heavier and colder. The walls start becoming narrower and the places where before there was the greenish of fungus are replaced by grey, hard stone. The little stalactites on the cave's ceiling start to grow bigger and bigger, dripping occasional drops of water on my tense face.

Soon, darkness envelops me fully and I have to start to use the walls for support and guide. Missing a step and falling by myself would be kind of embarrassing, even if there is no one seeing. Considering that I can't even properly see the ground anymore, that is a very real possibility.

After some time, surprisingly, the ground evens out. Patting my surroundings with my hands I recognize the markings of a tunnel. It seems the abyss was actually a slope leading to a straight tunnel. The passage is about my size, both in width and height, requiring only that I slightly lower my head to enter it. But before that, I stop.

Looking backward, to the top of the slope I came from, I frown.

That is the only source of light here. By now, the hole looks to be no bigger than a glowing golf ball, but it still offers a sense of direction.

If I enter this tunnel, however, I will be truly walking blindly. I was never one to be scared of the dark, but still...

Shit.

Steeling myself, I resign to my previous decision. I have already determined that this is the optimal course of action for survival. Going back now would just be me sacrificing a chance of freedom for fear.

So, touching both sides of the tunnel with my hands, I go ahead. Soon, I am relieved to sense that the tunnel is really straight, with no curves or side paths. If I need or want to go back, all I will have to do is turn around. There is no chance of me getting lost.

Knowing that, my confidence is renewed and I forge ahead, confidently.

Step after step, the minutes come and go, blurring into each other. After an unknown amount of time - an hour, maybe? - the terrain changes again. This time, the ground is actually going up.

Excited about the prospect of approaching the surface, I dash ahead, only to find that the tunnel is also getting narrower. A little further and I start to have to crouch and then crawl on all fours.

Just when the claustrophobic experience starts to get a little too much for me, I notice something that makes my heart skip a beat.

Light!

Up ahead, the tunnel seems to open up into some large cave complex. The angle I have is pointed to the ceiling, but the distance between the tunnel's mouth and the top of the cave still seems to be far. Really high and far. The stalactites that were of the size of kitchen knives back where I woke up, looks to be of the size of trees up there.

More importantly, though, is the fact that all of them look to be illuminated by some orange, constant light.

Fuck yeah!

Civilization!

Could it be that I am inside a coal mine or something? Light usually means people, and the only kind of people that I can think of that dwells inside caves are... Well, miners.

Other than that... Serial killers, maybe?

Hahaha... Ha...

There is no way there will be a serial killer at the end of this tunnel, right?

My question, however, is soon answered by the visage that assaults my eyes as I reach the tunnel's mouth and look down.

Down into...

... What. Just... What...

This.

No way. No fucking way in hell.

No. Just no.

Fuck you.

Fuck you, eyes of mine.

So I crawl backward a few meters like a fucking scared cockroach and wait a few minutes. Am I hallucinating?

After some time, I crawl up again. And what I see...

No!

What the fuck?

There has to be something wrong with me.

So I stay frozen there for a long time, absorbing everything I am seeing and hoping as hard as I can that somehow it all turns out to be a joke. When I feel that I've had enough and that what I am seeing is not going to change, I crawl away.

Crawling backward, this time I go all the way down.

Then, when I reach the straight tunnel, I stand up and turn around. Absentmindedly, I walk carelessly and mechanically, all the way back to the moss cave, where I woke up.

When I reach there, I notice there is still light coming down the hole, albeit fainter. Then I just sit still, looking with a blank face to the running water.

Hahaha...

I guess I've found my answers about my newfound spirituality. I must be insane. Hopefully.

Because the only other possibility is even worse.

Do you doubt? Okay. So I will tell you what I saw there and you take your conclusions, all right?

Long ears. Pointed outwards.

Stub-like arms and legs. Skinny but with wiry strength.

Rags for clothes, or none at all.

Huge-ass noses. Like, really big and ugly.

Do you see where I am getting at?

No?

Well, then there is more.

Pointed teeth. Hairless heads. Creepy glowing red eyes. Clawed hands and feet. Green skin.

Yep. That is right. Fucking goblins.

Shit. I never thought I would say that word out loud.

"G-O-B-L-I-N-S", I say.

It sounds strange in my mouth. That word belongs to games and movies. Get the fuck back.

Even worse, what I saw was not just one or two green fuckers, but a whole colony of them. The tunnel gave into one of the multiple holes on the ceiling of a huge chamber. Some kind of weird ventilation system, I suppose.

Down there, there were torches. Lots of torches. Then there were disgusting mounds that were what I assume to be sleeping mats, made of moss, scraps, and other unidentified materials. Dozens.

Most of those mounds had goblins sleeping on them. Only the few standing around gave me the apt description of what I was seeing.

Fuck.

Do you see? If what I saw is true and I am not absolutely insane, then it means that there is something seriously wrong with this place. Dangerously wrong.

If any of what I've read, watched, and played about these creatures is right, they are vicious little assholes with a perchance for cruelty and raping.

Maybe entertaining on fiction, but definitely not something I would ever want to see in real life, where they can actually hurt me. Or worse.

I shudder. I am definitely not getting raped in this place. No way in hell.