Kaytlinn might have been a troubled individual, an emotionally unstable person, ever since I’ve known her. She always avoided conflict whenever possible, preferring instead to try and damage control the situation only after the danger was already gone. I’ve known this about her ever since we first met, even when I was too young to know better. It was plainly obvious to see for anyone. However, there is a ‘but’.

  As much as she hated fighting, as much as she had always tried to protect herself from harm’s way, she still put the needs of other people above herself.

  Clumsy as she is, my memories of her never portray Kate as someone who would sacrifice someone else, be it a friend, lover or a complete stranger.

  Though despite this, despite everything I’ve said, there should be one thing to consider: people change.

  “I don’t want to hear about your customs, myths or legends, Koshak.” Kaytlinn said, getting her face closer to the miner.

  “What is happening to these tunnels, and how do we get out of here?”

  With my feet planted firmly to the ground, I watched as she interrogated the weak, dying man. He looked at her with his peripherals, his chest rhythmically raising and falling with each ragged breath he took, unable to even keep his eyes open for long periods at a time.

  I had never seen her this hostile towards anyone. Usually, I would’ve blamed this on the bizarre occurrences, on the gravity of the situation, but that wasn’t it.

  The miner laughed.

  “You.” He said, then paused, swallowing hard, before continuing. “You north man all the same. Raspelia, Andonia. You not respect the sacred, not fear God.”

  His head turned away, looking towards the pitch blackness ahead of us.

  “But he come for you, he always does. He always see where you are. He always find you.”

  Slowly, he turned to look at us again.

  “Markus feed me, but Markus Raspelian, and Raspelian kill us. Markus good man, but I a coward. I betray first before betray me.” He explained. Kaytlinn's head twitched slightly at his confession.

  “T’Salla.” He sighs. “T’Salla knows, T’Salla cry for Markus, T’Salla trap me in tunnel. To escape tunnel, punishment need end first.”

  Kaytlinn reaches towards one of her sleeves. “...Let’s end it, then.” She murmurs, as she takes something out from it.

  Upon saying those words, within a fraction of a second, she throws her arm towards the miner’s neck, sticking something into it.

  I take a step back, my body clenching and stiffening at the sudden motion, before hearing the gurgling sounds of the man, trying to lethargically reach his hand towards his throat. Yet, he’s unable to.

  Kaytlinn stands back up, watching him intently as he falls over, hitting his head against the rocks. Red trickles from his wound, and soon enough, he stops moving entirely, as the sound of him drowning in his own blood finally ends with a couple of small coughs.

  “Kaytlinn?” I ask, audibly fearful of what I had just witnessed.

  “Don’t. I did him a favor.” She explains, convinced. “He would’ve not recovered in his state.”

  “Is that really what this was about? Mercy?”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “I said I did him a favor.” She replies firmly, adjusting her sleeve and turning towards me. “This was about Markus.”

  “Great.” I say, fear being replaced with frustration. “We could’ve asked him where he took his armor, his weapon, since clearly neither Markus or our new friend here were wearing them.”

  “Is that your concern? You think a layer of steel would’ve helped protect from whatever could be haunting this God-forsaken hole?”

  “What I think—” My voice grows louder, raising my fists up to my ears in frustration, before letting them down again.

  “I think that being armed with a sword is better than facing a ploughin’ boogey-man butt-fucking naked.”

  She scoffs, annoyed. “You do not seriously believe his story do you?”

  “Well, clearly there’s something to believe here, Kaytlinn!” I start yelling.

  “You saw what happened, can you explain it? Don’t fuckin’ think so.”

  “There’s an explanation to everything. This is not about you, Ans, what you saw back on the battlefield was a hallucination.”

  My eyes widen. It feels as if a string that had been tense up until this point, stretched to its absolute limits, has finally snapped.

  “Don’t start giving me your bullshit, woman! I know what I bloody saw!” I angrily scream, slapping the air with the back of my hand.

  “We’re living it. Open your ploughin’ eyes, there’s nothing about this that can be rationalized!”

  “No, fuck off.” She replies, emphasizing her words. “I’m not gonna hear it from a fanatic of the church—I’m not going to drop to my knees and start praying it away, we need to—”

  “This is not a theology debate! I’m not trying to convert you or whatever other shite you think this is. What I saw back there could have something to do with whatever this ‘Zala’ is; this man clearly knew more about what was happening here than us, and you went up and killed him! What if we can’t get out of here now?! It would be all your God damn fault!”

  “Ans, listen to yourself.” She annoyingly tells me, as if me being wrong was already a given in her head.

  “Even if his words ring true, the curse—the ‘punishment’ will be lifted after his death. There’s nothing left to punish.”

  I step closer to Kaytlinn, closing the distance between us.

  “And what if we get punished for murdering him?! Whatever is out there could do the same to us, and we’d be back to the very beginning!”

  “You would’ve rather let him—” She interrupts herself, shaking her head. “Watch him die his slow, painful death?”

  “Oh don’t talk to me like you cared about him all a’ sudden!” I yell even louder, getting closer to Kaytlinn. She instinctively starts backing away.

  “If it got us the hell out of here, I would’ve tortured him with my own two bloody hands! I’m not going to die here, not like him, there’s simply too much I need to find out before my time comes.”

  “Like—I—want to die here?!” She fights back, her voice suddenly becoming as loud as mine. She steps closer to me, putting her face mere inches away from mine, to the point I can feel her hot breath on my skin.

  “I don’t know what the hell is going on, okay?! I don’t know why things suddenly stopped making sense. I don’t know if what he said was true. I don’t even know whether to believe you or not, if what you said was also true, if you’re even real. If I shouldn’t have avenged Markus. I don’t know anything anymore! Maybe I’m crazy, maybe I’m hallucinating too. Maybe I died hit by one of those fucking arrows back there, and this is my brain trying to cope with that in my last dying moments. I don’t know!” She starts sobbing uncontrollably, her expression gradually shifting to one of despair. “I don’t know! I don’t know what I should do, I don’t know what’s happening, I don’t know!” Her fist bumps against my chest. “I don’t know.” She now repeats, over and over again, as she starts hitting me in desperation. They’re not hard hits, she’s not trying to actually hurt me, likely just letting out her anger at something.

  My fury subsides, turning into uncertainty, as I just stand there, unable to think of what to say next or how to deal with the situation.

  Hesitantly, I wrap my arms around her. She flinches, but doesn’t slap my arms off again. I let her get comfortable enough to the sensation, then gently pull her closer to me, her face buried in my embrace, her tears staining my already dirty gambeson. Her whimpers grow louder, but I let her cry.

  We stand in silence for a while.

  Kaytlinn might be a troubled individual, an emotionally unstable person, but there’s something that I hadn’t fully thought of up until this point: she’s human.

  Something is clawing at her, it had been long before we stepped foot in here, but I was too self-centered to give it more of a thought besides just thinking she’s scared, perhaps even a little childish for her age. No, she’s more than that. In certain aspects, she is much braver than me.