Ethereal

~Charlotte~

I forced myself to enter the dark cave, feeling my whole body resist. At first I though my reluctance was the instinctual fear I had of dark places that could be potentially crammed with spiders. My arch nemesis. But it was more than that.

 Every fiber of my conscious being was telling me to stay in the warmth of that strange forest, as though the air was grasping at my very soul. Still, I pushed myself to put one foot in front of the other, there was no way I was going to be left a lone with the glowing mushroom. Harmless he might be, but the little thing still gave me the creeps.

WOOOOSSSHHHHH!!


I let out a shriek as both Marcie and I were thrown forcibly forward. The ground beneath us was shaking like a leaf , and I had a bad feeling it was about to collapse .

"Keep your head down!" I shouted, hoping Marcie could hear me over the cracks and thuds that sounded like falling rocks. So much for an adventure I thought we didn't even make it a mile. 


And then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. Silence settled over the now pitch black tunnel, broken only by the occasional sound of shifting rocks.

"Ouch!" I heard Marcie's voice say from the darkness. I heard her get up and start feeling for the wall. I sat up too and attempted to make my way in her direction.

"The entrance has completely closed up" I heard her calling from farther away "How cliche. You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine!" I called back. "Do you think it caved in?"

"That's the funny thing about it, the wall is smooth as though there had never been an entrance here"

"Are you sure your at the right wall? I mean, it is completely dark in here."

"No I'm sure of it. Come see- er feel for yourself"

I made my way over to her on my hands and knees and ran my hand over the supposed entrance. She was right completely smooth.I

"Well what now?" I asked sitting with my back against the wall.

"I guess we just keep following the tunnel, and see where it leads."

I opened my mouth to argue,but I realized there was nothing I could say.

"Alright, well down the dark sketchy tunnel it is then" I said, getting gingerly to my feet.

"Aren't adventures fun?"

"Mmm"

"Here grab my hand or something so that we don't get separated in the darkness." Marcie said

"Alright"

We started down the tunnel, but the going was painfully slow, on account of me tripping every few seconds. Story of my life.

"What do you think Mushroom meant, when he was going on about blue eyes and night and gold hair?" Marcie asked after a while.

"I dunno, little buggers probably mentally unstable"

"Charlotte, he spoke in prose. That's gotta be something."

"like I said, mentally unstable. S'what happens when you live your life resembling a mushroom"

But the truth was that little golden eyed goblin had unsettled me. What did he want from me? More importantly, why me? Why not Marcie? She was the brains and beauty, so why me?

"What I want to know is what Sub-Terra is." I said to change the subject

"I know. It's been bothering me too." There was silence for a moment. I mean it's obviously a place... I guess"

"Do you think it's where the tunnel leads?"

"No Idea, but I hope it leads somewhere."

I felt Marcie stop

"What is it?"

"Charlotte look!"

"Where?"

"There! Straight ahead of you! See look!"

"Marcie... I don't see anything"

"It's light!"

I squinted my eyes, and searched the black for some sort of change. There it was! I could see it! It was tiny, no bigger then the point of a needle. But it was there. Light!