I edge closer, the walls closing in as I finally get a glimpse of a low green light. I can’t stop now, so I shove through, my skin scraping against the stone as I push toward my beloved.
“Hey, hey, come on!” She can’t seem to catch her breath. “Please, don’t you need a friend?”
“A friend?”
“Yes, you know, someone to talk to, to have fun with, to share things with? I could be your friend. Just keep those claws to yourself.”
“Friends?”
“Yes! You and me. Besties. We can, I don’t know, talk about guys or girls or things we like to ea—err, do. Stuff like that. Friend stuff.”
“I had a friend once.”
“Yes! See? That’s progress. Okay, so how about you back out of my cage and let me sit down, and then you can tell me all about your friend?” Her tone is coaxing and kind, only a hint of terror in it.
I squeeze through the black stone until a ledge appears above me. Green light pours from it, and I can sense Beth just beyond it.
“My friend.” The cold voice whispers past.
Reaching up, I suck in and yank myself free of the narrow walls, my fingertips the only thing keeping me from plummeting into the pit below. But even though my muscles ache and my hands are shredded from the climb, I can’t slow down.
“Yes, just tell me about your friend. Okay?”
“Tell you about my friend? All right.”
“Wonderful. This is good.” She claps.
I pull myself over the ledge as silently as I can and find a small cavern with a glowing green fire near the back wall. A pile of bones rests to my left, and a metal cage is to my right. Beth is pressed against the back bars as the creature stalks toward her. It’s a swirl of darkness, but I can see the bone-white claws, the tips sharp enough to mar the rock beneath my feet.
“What did you two like to do together?” Beth’s voice quavers, and she can’t see me as I creep up behind the creature.
“Eat.”
“Back to food, eh?” She laughs, but it’s strained.
“Yes.”
“Anything else? Did you play games? Or maybe talk about lady troubles? Stuff like that?”
“No.” It scrapes its claws against the bars, the sound eerie and ugly as it reverberates.
“So, um, where’s your friend now? Out getting some snacks?”
“No. He’s not here anymore.”
I can hear her swallow hard as I stalk behind the monster, my sword ready to stab through its black heart.
“I’m sorry to hear that. What happened to him?” Beth still doesn’t see me. The monster is too large and dark to see past.
“I ate him.” As the monster says it, his maw opens. That’s all the creature is—a gaping mouth of fangs and hunger.
Her scream is like fire in my blood, and I lunge forward, my blade striking true as the creature shrieks and whirls on me.
The mouth disappears, and in its place, blackness swirls.
“Beth!” I rush forward, but the darkness fades as suddenly as it came. The cage is empty except for Beth, her eyes wide as she rushes toward me.
“Help me.” She falters.
