They Who Entered – A Dungeon Tale

  Chapter 1 - The first time

  My phone rang continuously. I had only just gotten into bed after working into the later hours of the day. To say the least, I wasn’t happy in the slightest. I fumbled around a bit on my bedside table for the light switch and even after the light was on, I had to collect my will to get out of bed for my phone. I shuffled over to my phone on the floor where I dumped it half an hour before and I had just reached my phone when the ringing stopped. I was more annoyed than surprised at that.

  I opened my phone and noticed not one but five missed calls from my friend Patrick. Perhaps that should have been obvious enough that it was at least somewhat important, but I simply couldn’t have been bothered then. I shuffled back to my bed and fell back on the covers, too tired to get under them again.

  I was quickly woken up again by my phone’s ringtone and a buzzing in my hand. I pushed myself up off my bed and looked at the phone in my hand. I had obviously been too tired to even notice I still had it in my hand. I should have put it on silent for that matter as well. “Blasted pighead.” I cursed before accepting the call from Pat.

  “Yeah?” I made out weakly. In the background I could hear people arguing, some even shouting. They all quickly quieted down by someone shushing them, though some obviously ignored it.

  “Ath? By the hells man, what took you so long?” I removed the phone from my ear and actually took a proper look at who called me. It was Patrick, a good friend of mine that was quite fond of parties. I half managed to remember that he had one that night.

  “I was trying to sleep. It’s stupidly late to call me; you know I was really busy tonight.” Slowly some life crept back into my voice, but it was still a painful affair to me, I really only wanted to get back in bed.

  “I know, I know but this is really important. This is serious. I need your help.” Pat’s voice was less accusative when he spoke then, but he still sounded somewhat desperate to me for some reason. “Bring a spade and a first aid kit. You remember where I held the party tonight?” I nodded. When no reply came from the phone I quickly realised he couldn’t see me.

  “Yeah I do. Fine, I’ll see you there, it should take me at most half an hour.” I then replied

  I heard a sigh of relief from Pat across the phone. “Thanks mate. Try to hurry though; some of the others want to call the police otherwise. As I said, it’s serious. Thanks again!” Pat enthusiastically responded. I couldn’t help myself but get anxious for thinking why they would want to call the police. What had Patrick done this time?

  I picked my clothes back up from where I had dropped them in a pile and dressed myself in a hurry. I knew I had a shovel in the shed outside but while I was also quite certain I had a first aid kit somewhere, it might just as well be anywhere else than where I looked. Luckily for me, and I guess Patrick, I found a good enough kit stuffed in a cupboard with only a few things missing. Not wasting anymore time after that, I took my keys and wallet and stuffed them into my coat pockets before leaving my house. I locked the door behind me, no one else was in the house; my brother and sister both left the house with one in university and the other lives abroad, my parents themselves were enjoying their retirement.

  I walked over to the shed and brought out my bike. I strapped the first aid kit to the back of my bike and hurriedly set off. Two minutes later I came back, with a pained expression on my face, having forgotten the shovel just then. I left my bike outside as I hasted over inside the shed to fetch the shovel and set off again. By then, ten minutes of the promise of thirty had already passed.

  It was late into the night, technically morning already, and there were but few cars on the road as I cycled with the shovel in one hand and holding the steer with the other. The relative quiet helped as I sometimes ignored the red traffic light when there were no cars around and neither were there a lot of cyclists. That saved me from any weird looks the shovel and the first aid kit would have caused.

  As I cycled, nearing both the twenty-five-minute mark and the destination, I couldn’t help but imagine the reasons Pat would need both a shovel and a first aid kit. None of them were pleasant in the least and if it actually were one of those situations and I was affronted of being an accomplice… I was trusting Pat a lot here, I then realised. I knew he would have called for the police if someone gotten hurt, seriously that is, and not just me with a shovel. Nor was the first aid kit going to help much if they needed serious attention.

  I shook myself out my thoughts. Not because I thought they were baseless but rather that I would have missed the house otherwise. I didn’t know the place well, but Patrick had been there often enough, enough to know that who ever owned the place was not coming back anytime soon. Still, it was easy to miss if you didn’t pay attention. That was because it was in a very secluded neighbourhood, nearly out of town in fact, and a forest of trees covered the front of the house. Then again, the few cars parked, and all the bikes dumped nearby, gave it away I suppose.

  I cycled up the small dirt path through the trees, cursing here and there as branches whacked me in the face and nearly managed to pull the shovel out of my hands. As I came out of the trees into a small garden and the house beyond that, I was surprised there were even five bikes there with what a pain that path was to cycle. I put my bike and the shovel against the garden’s fence and took off the first aid kit.

  But before I went into the house I took a moment to consider it. The garden was quite small and didn’t actually go around the entirety of the house, stopping at the sides and probably some more behind. The house also had a small fence, around a meter high or so, that separated the garden from the clearing. It was actually quite a nice house, with two floors and a massive living room. Pat was especially happy when he found this place, as he noticed the front door was unlocked. He has had a few parties there since.

  As I stepped into the house, I immediately noticed something weird. While I could still hear the music, quite loudly actually, the sound of people dancing or talking was strangely absent. “Patrick!” I shouted over the music. I heard heavy footsteps coming up a stairway from a nearby door, getting louder and louder. Just as the steps seemed to be at the top, the door swung open and Patrick and someone else’s faces appeared. Patrick seemed worried and the other guy, who I then recognised as Emmet, seemed particularly pale.

  “Mate, you were nearly late. Come on down, we have to hurry if we want to keep them from calling the police. Hey, where’s the spade?” Patrick grabbed me by the shoulders and dragged me down the cellar in as he talked to me. Somewhat confused and surprised myself I could only lamely stutter as I walked down the creaking stairs. “Eh, I left the shovel at the fence. I didn’t think you needed it inside.” I said while switching from making sure I didn’t fall down the stairs and looking back at Pat.

  Pat bit his lip as he stood on the stairs in thought, but then he quickly moved back into action. “Emmet, you’ll go outside and fetch it. We’ll go down and put everyone’s mind at ease. The fact that Ath arrived with a first aid kit should be good enough. Do hurry though, I don’t want to go in there without it.” Emmet nodded to Patrick and ran back up the few steps and through the cellar door. I couldn’t help but stare at Pat. “What do you mean? Go in where?” I asked.

  The cellar stairs didn’t lead directly into it but instead ended to a door to it. That was where Pat stopped and looked at me. “Look mate, I don’t even know what happened, only that now half the party is gone. ?And not gone home I mean.” Pat then opened the door and stepped into the dimly lit basement, despite my obvious confusion at his words. At first, Pat had stood in front of it but when he stepped away from the door towards a small group of people, the sight of it took my breath away and shattered whatever I had previously expected to see. “Gods almighty, what the hell is that?” I swore.

  Mouth agape, I stared at the massive hole in one of the walls, within it was a vast ethereal darkness that seemingly swallowed the flashlights of the people here. “What the hells is that?” I barely uttered out. “No clue. Aldric and a few others went in to check it out, but they didn’t come back out. Neither did Joe or Susan, who went to check up on them.” A guy, who previously peered into the depths of the hole, answered my rhetorical question. He turned around to face me and I saw it was Noah, someone who I didn’t really like but tried to be neutral towards.

  Noah then turned to Pat. “Melanie went in after Aldric. We tried to stop her but she ran in anyway. No one went in after her and no one came back.” From where I stood, still staring at the hole, even I could hear Pat’s teeth grinding together in frustration. “For god’s sake, how stupid is she?” Patrick said back.

  “Hey!” One of the other girls also there exclaimed. “He’s her boyfriend, okay. Asshole.” Patrick only rolled his eyes in response, something that was faint enough in this light so that only I could notice. “Doesn’t change that we are now missing fourteen people.” Noah remarked coldly. I couldn’t believe my ears as I heard Noah say that. In comparison, there were only eight people left down there, including me, in the cellar with four or so still upstairs, mostly unaware of what happened I presumed.

  “And it also doesn’t change that we should call the police before it’s too late to save them. I’ll wait two more minutes and them I am calling the police.” She shouted, her voice having gone louder and louder. A guy next to her tried to calm her down but that only made her angrier. “Get off with your stupid calm down. Doesn’t anyone realise how serious this is?” She then shot a particularly vicious glare at Patrick. “And you don’t mind risking their lives if it means not dealing with any responsibility. You’re only going to be in for more with the police if we or they find them dead because we waited so long.”

  At that moment, Emmet came out of the door leading back upstairs out of the cellar with the shovel in hand. I could hear a relieved sigh from Patrick although I was nearly completely sure of it that he wasn’t even aware that he did it. “Thank god, we’re are set to go in now. Let’s hurry while we can.” Pat took the shovel from Emmet and quickly walked into the hole. The others reluctantly followed him but soon quickened up as the dark fog, despite the phone lights trained on him, obscured his form.

  Another of the girls stopped at me however, while I was still taking it all in. “Ehm, could I have the kit please?” She asked hurriedly. I looked down at my hands and noticed I was still holding the first aid kit in them. While I was still wondering how I managed to zone it out, the girl inquired again. “I have some experience with it, it’s fine.” She looked back at the group led by Patrick all going into the hole in the wall. She seemed to be about to grab it out of my hands when I gave it to her. “Yeah sorry. It’s just going a bit fast and different than I expected.”

  The girl gave me a hurried reserved smile before going into the gap as well. I heard a fake cough behind me and turned around to see Noah shooing me on. “Go on, you are coming with us. I don’t care if you brought the shovel and the kit, you are still going along to help if you have to.” He said, with his disregard for my opinion clear in his voice. I held my hands slightly up in mock surrender and walked into the hole as well. “Calm down mate, I’m here to help.” I intoned back to him. Noah didn’t bother to reply though, only giving me another shove.

  As I stepped into the hole, I could immediately feel that even the air was different there than back in the cellar. The dark fog itself seemed to push against me from all sides. I quickly took out my phone and activated its flashlight, then rushed to catch up with the others.

  “No, this is stupid. It’s creepy and they are nowhere to be seen.” I heard someone complain and though I couldn’t see who it was, the feminine voice was familiar. “I am calling the police.” She continued. One of the flashlights vanished and the group stopped. I saw the flashlights up front turn back around and shine on the girl from before, who was already holding her phone to her ear. I heard someone snort and Patrick’s voice soon followed. “You do know that we have been walking downwards right? Good luck with your connection.” He then walked back on. The flashlights went back to the forward’s path, the other people simply following Patrick. From the faint outline that I could make out of her, the girl was still trying to call the police as Noah and I passed her as well.

  As Noah passed her however, he stopped for a second and told her off. “It might be dangerous to go back alone. And didn’t you swear to wait until we found them before you would call the police?” That time it was the girl’s time to snort. “As if that matters when they might be dead already. I should never have listened to you all.” I could see Noah only shrug to that and then he walked on as well. I spared one last glance at her before the fog obscured her in its twilight.

  Fog rolled over the ground, only slightly disturbed by our steps and still far too thick to see through. It was some ten minutes after when the girl went back that we stopped again and not because we had found the missing people. “Hey Pat.” One of the guys in front of me said. Patrick kept walking but did look over his shoulder at him. “Yeah what?” The guy, I had seen him before at school but never really picked up his name, turned off the flashlight of his phone and then looked back at Patrick. “You see that?” I could see a look of confusion of Patrick’s face. “What do you mean?” He asked back and stopped, halting the entire group.

  “Couldn’t we only barely see anything when we walked in? Now we barely need our phones.” With some surprise, I noticed he was right. It had gotten progressively lighter but somehow, I hadn’t noticed. Not before now. “Eh, guys. Aren’t we walking on something soft now?” The girl that took the first aid kit from me spoke up. I bent down and touched the ground. My hand felt many small tendrils and grasped them. “Yeah, this is grass.” I said, as I opened my hand to reveal them.

  The confusion on Patrick’s face only increased. “What? No. I am very sure we were walking downwards this entire time. And what were we walking on before then?” He asked but was met with only mumblings and shrugs. “Okay, that’s weird but…” Pat began but a hard and unnatural wind scattered his words away and pushed back the heavy fog from around us and revealed… A forest. A forest underground as much as I couldn’t believe it. “What in the hells?” I sputtered out before anyone else said so much a thing.

  One of the guys didn’t say anything at all and just turned back into the fog. Noah didn’t even stop the guy as he passed him. I didn’t think anyone was ready to continue when Patrick spoke again. “Wauw. I messed up. Like hells that we should have called the police.” Yet, no one really replied to his comment, nor did I think did he expect it.

  The girl who took the first aid kit from me spins her head around, looking for someone and the look on her face was enough to tell the worry that she felt. “Iris.” She said, addressing the only other girl still with the group. “Where’s Henry?”

  The last guy here that I didn’t know, since that ‘Henry’ left, broke out of his stupor and looked around as well. “He was here just then. Didn’t he walk to the back of the group? He must have gone back into the mists.” The group seemed to have shaken off the fact that they were suddenly in a forest and instead of coming to terms with that, they all started to deny the situation to themselves and focus on finding Henry instead. No one made even so much a step further to the forest or even into the mists they were peering into for Henry.

  I glanced over to the others. Patrick and Emmet were just sitting on the grass while Noah was making his way over to the nearby trees. I couldn’t be bothered to say anything to Noah as he walked away, the ass could have gotten himself lost for all I cared. Instead, I turned toward Patrick. “Fantastic. Next time sort it out by yourself I’d say.” Patrick turned towards me but didn’t seem phased by my words in the least.

  Suddenly we heard a shout break the previous weird sense of calm we had. “Henry!” Gordon exclaimed. I turned around to see Henry slowly become visible again and then step out of the fog. By his face, I could see he was half confused and fully fed up with this. “I really have finally turned crazy, haven’t I?” Henry said. I heard Patrick snort loudly from nearby me and turned to them to see Emmet also nodding. “If so, then it must be all of us that have snapped.” Emmet mumbled, although everyone heard him. “Or else, I think we’ll also be lost, just like Aldric, Susan and the others.” Everyone was especially silent at that.

  Henry pressed his eyes with his hand before letting out a deep sigh. “It’s pretty bad. I don’t know what happened, but I walked back through the mists in a straight line and came back at you guys.” That sounded just as unbelievably to me and thought for a second that he might really have gone mad. Then I of course remembered everything was already crazy and messed up, so I gave up on judging the situation rationally. “Guess we really are stuck. I suppose we should follow Noah into the forest. Can’t be too hard to catch up on him I think.” I said back at Henry and the group.

  Iris then cocked her head towards the forest and cupped her hand to her ears. “Does anyone else hear that?” She asked. I stilled my breathing and listened to anything that she might have heard. Then, I managed to pick up what seemed like Noah’s voice. “Monsters!” It was faint but him, and it didn’t bode well. “Oh shit.” Said Emmet as he stood up together with Pat. Patrick lifted the shovel in his hands that he had lowered to the ground before, ready to swing it at whatever would come out of the trees.

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

  And then with only some rustling as warning, Noah came running out of the trees. At first, I thought he came out alone but as the disturbances among the trees continued, I quickly came to realise that there were small green forms following him, creatures I could only really describe as goblins, with a few of them having weapons in their hands. “Ohhh, nonono, damn that.” Henry stuttered out as he ran back into the mists. Gordon didn’t even say anything as he followed his friend. “Gods dammit, stick together!” Patrick yelled at them. Henry and Gordon were soon no longer distinguishable from within the mists. “Bastards.” I could hear Pat mumble.

  The goblins slowed down as they saw their prey join a bigger group than they had expected but swiftly continued their hunt as they saw some of them running away. They were no longer at Noah’s heels however and he passed the group straight into the mists as well. Iris followed him as well and soon there were only Patrick, Emmet, the girl with the first aid kit and me. Against what looked like six goblins, I couldn’t help but be somewhat petrified myself. Luckily Patrick was more prepared than and gave the first goblin, the only one with a knife, which neared us a great whack into its face. With a satisfying clank and a crunch, the goblin crunched up.

  That was all we were going to get before another goblin jumped on the wide-open Patrick, as he couldn’t swing the shovel back in time before the thing clawed at him. Emmet tried to get a punch off, or maybe it was a kick as it was bad to the point that it was hard to discern, but he missed the little green monster and got the thing’s teeth sunk into his shin in return. As two goblins neared the aid girl, she too ran off into the mists, not that I blamed her as I would have joined her wasn’t it for that my mates were currently being attacked.

  I ran up to Emmet and kicked the vile thing off him. Emmet screamed as the goblin tore a chunk of his leg off at the same time. Emmet gave the goblin a desperate kick that completely knocked the thing’s out from under it. As hard as I could I stamped on the goblin’s neck, but I didn’t manage much as it had already started to scamper back up. I then only got a few more kicks off, it still twitched however, as the last remaining goblin charged me.

  It knocked me over as I tried to get one last kick off on the prone goblin below me. Luckily, I managed to get my arms up to hold it off as its tiny claws scratched my face only centimetres away from my eyes. The goblin isn’t too strong and certainly doesn’t weigh a lot; otherwise I am sure it would already have gotten me. Still, it meant that I couldn’t try to hold it off with only one hand. Desperately I glanced over at Emmet, only to see him limping to the mists as well. “Come on…” I wheezed out between quick breaths.

  Out of nothing, an arrow lands right next to my head but does not startle the goblin that was on top of me in the slightest. I only managed to spare one quick glance at the new threat, one of the two goblin that ran after the aid girl who had vanished into the mists by now had unslung a bow and started firing at me, before I had to push the goblin on top of me especially further away to save my eyes.

  I heard another whistling and with the last bit of strength of my tired arms, I rolled the goblin near to where the first arrow struck. A scream of pain, this time of the goblin, swept through the small field. With one last push, I got the thing completely off me and scrambled away. Yet, even with an arrow in its back, it was still unexpectedly fast and tackled my legs. Tired, I could only scream as tiny claws rend open my lower back and legs.

  I heard a rush of footsteps and suddenly the vile goblin was kicked off me. I kept lying there on my stomach as I heard a struggle behind me followed by a sickening crunch, after which the struggles stopped. I tried to roll myself over to see what was happening but after a flash of pain shot through my back with the movement, I just gave up. I still heard Emmet whimpering and the fight was still going on closer to where Patrick was, but the goblin archer stopped firing at me. I could only imagine there were now more important targets.

  It was a minute later than someone sat knelt beside me. “I’m so sorry.” The girl with the kit stammered out between tears. “They came at me… and I just couldn’t stand there. I’m sorry.” I made managed to make out from what she said. Despite the pain, I managed to take on a smile, not that she saw that with me being face down on the ground. “Please, just use the first aid kit.” I whispered out, talking hurting a bit. I heard a fumbling and she pushed up my shirt. She let out a grunt of effort, because of what I couldn’t see, and wiped at the cuts with a coarse cloth.

  “What happened?” I managed to utter out. The girl was so focussed on my wounds that she not so much as gave any sign that she heard me. After dipping some disinfectant on my wounds and some plaster spray, she nodded furiously. “Yeah, hopefully that is fine. It should be. Are you okay?” She asked me. She stood up and held a hand out for me to get up with. With pain flaring in my back, I got up. I finally got a good look around us again and saw the corpse of the second goblin nearby with a big stone in its caved in face.

  My lunch threatened to come up, but I managed to keep it down, although my throat burned from it. I also noticed that the girl purposely neglected to look in the corpses’ direction. Unfortunately, Emmet was still curled up pitifully over there. “Hey.” I said to the girl. She didn’t respond as she was rooting in the first aid kit, seemingly shocked to her very core. “Hey.” I said again, this time also shaking her. She suddenly shook as if surprised, despite that I was nearly right in front of her. “Oh what?” She stuttered out.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, my voice laced with hurried worry. She nodded slowly, still absentmindedly rooting through the kit. “I… think so. Again, I am so sorry for running, but I just couldn’t… My name is Ailey. Thank you.” She let out. I could see her eyes starting to tear up, but she quickly wiped the moist away. A truly pained, tongue-biting groan came out from behind me, focusing me back to my initial point. “Ailey, Emmet is in serious need of your attention. He got it worse than me I think…” I stopped as I saw Ailey had fallen back into repeatedly checking the first aid kit. I shook her again and knelt down to look her in the eyes, despite the pain and stretching of the plaster layer. “Ailey, Emmet needs help. Go over to him.” I said as clearly as possible. I got from her a weak nod, but just in case I led her past the goblin corpses as she trembled, and I hobbled.

  After that, I walked over to Patrick, Henry and the other guy that had followed Henry into the mists. I could see Noah standing a bit further on near a goblin corpse with a bow in hand and trying to take off its quiver. I slumped down on the ground next to the other guys just as a piece of the fog wall retreated to uncover Iris huddled on the floor. She looked up as the mist suddenly disappeared and saw us looking at her. Rapidly she was back up and quickly made her way over to Ailey, although her eyes seemed red as well even from a distance.

  I then took a good luck at Patrick. Although he didn’t seem to be as chewed on as Emmet was, through the rips of his shirt I could see the red and white of bloodied bandages. My injuries hold up well enough with only that plaster spray stuff, or so I thought until the third guy whose name I forgot spoke up. “Dude, are you feeling alright? The back of your shirt is drenched in sweat.” Gordon, that was his name, said. I felt the back of my shirt and found a small sticky wet patch. As I held my hand before me, it was read as I expected. “I don’t that is sweat mate.” I told him.

  “Oh damn.” He said. Then he guiltily looked to Patrick and spared a glance over at Emmet. “I… I shouldn’t have run, but…” Gordon rambled but his words died out as he saw Patrick’s angry countenance. “Shouldn’t have? We nearly damning died! And you idiots ran away. Do you think this would have happened to us if you had stayed and fought? Do you think that those cursed… monsters… those goblins… from a forest…” Patrick’s angry rant sputtered away as he was reminded of the absurdity of the situation. In the end he just held his head in his hands, a grimace on his face as the pain and panic tried to get to him.

  We didn’t dwell on it too long as soon Noah walked over, fully kitted with the weapons of the archer goblin. Patrick looked up at Noah, who gave a nod in return, before he stood up and pulled a thick knife from one of the nearby goblin corpses. He then offered it hilt first to Noah. “You saved me. Here, I know you used it already but it was from the goblin I killed. So you can have it.” Noah looked coldly at the knife Patrick held out to him before shaking his head.

  “I am fine with the bow and arrow. Give it to Matthew or Henry.” Noah told Pat. Pat considered the knife again and then simply shrugged. Henry sent a swift glance over at me, I couldn’t bring up the effort to want the thing after that fight but neither did I want to be defenceless, but Henry saved me the choice by immediately reaching for the knife when I hadn’t moved. “Thanks, I appreciate it.” Henry said with the knife in hand. I felt slightly annoyed at him for taking it before anything was decided but I could only smirk in satisfaction as he realised he had nowhere to put it.

  “Guys!” We heard someone yell. I turned around and saw Iris near a goblin corpse, the one that I had killed. Killing, it was still a strange concept to me then, as it was something that I had done. I suppose I saw those small green monsters, with long fingers and toes, a slightly hunched back and sharp faces, as not something I had killed but rather swatted. I hadn’t dwelt on how those goblins weren’t even supposed to exist before but when I looked over at Iris I saw the green corpse next to her slowly start to dissipate into mist, not unlike that of the fog barrier. I looked at the other goblin corpses and they too were starting to deform into mist.

  “What the hells?” I heard Gordon exclaim. “That is impossible!” I stared at Gordon incredulously, appearing outwardly unfazed and calm which seemed to cover up my inner mental turmoil. “Truly?” I asked Gordon. “That’s what is impossible? Not this forest, the people that vanished, the no exit fog and the goblin’s very existence?” I took in a deep breath to calm myself before I veered myself at Patrick. “So, how did the other… Goblins, get taken out?” I asked him.

  Still looking defeated and tired, he nodded at Noah. “While I was barely holding the thing off me with the shaft of the shovel, and the little green dump still got me, Noah came back and stabbed it in the back with the knife from the other one. When I was back up, Henry and Gordon were back as well and dragged the one that was on you over. I finished that one with a drop of the spade. Noah got that archer though.” Indeed, the shovel’s head was covered in murky red-green blood that slowly dripped into the grass.

  Noah spoke up from where he was standing. “The archer stopped trying to fire arrows as soon as I was relatively near. They are not that smart. But there are probably still more of them in the forest there.” Henry made a polite cough, sufficient to capture our attention. “Then maybe we would need a plan? I say that we still might find the other groups that went in, especially if we walked along the edge. Not to mention that those things came from the forest.” What he said made sense, but I didn’t like it simply that it came from him. While apparently he had helped and me especially, I still couldn’t forgive him or Iris for having run. Gordon… I am not sure yet but at least he did seem sorry and I had no clue what Iris felt.

  Regardless, if we were going to plan then it’d be best if we did it as a whole group. I turned to the girls, cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted at the girls. “Guys! Come over.” I turned back to the other guys, not waiting for a reply from them. I took a glance at Gordon as the girls walked over, Noah ran over to help them carry Emmet back. With a sigh I told him what was on my mind. “So… Thank you Gordon, if ye hadn’t taken the goblin off me I’d eventually have been done for.” There was a short silence before Gordon nodded apologetically. “Yeah sure. I would have done so anytime. It was only that, well, those monsters that I ran…” I waved the end of his sentence off. “Mate, don’t worry about it. It’s fine.” I told him.

  In the corner of my eyes I could see Henry stop trying to twirl his new dagger and look up at me. “You know, I also helped.” He said. I didn’t return his look and instead just nodded generally. “Thanks I guess.” I mumbled, not directly at him but clearly enough that he couldn’t complain further. I hadn’t known this Henry too well before tonight but I already didn’t like him. I stifled a yawn as I sat myself down. We stood or sat there in silence as we waited for the girls to come over. Iris seemed to hold herself together far better than Ailey in comparison, but then again she only really saw the corpses and while disgusting, they hardly inspired the same fear as seeing them about to claw your eyes out. Up close of course. It didn’t surprise me that she ran, but I couldn’t help but be angry all the same at Iris.

  “Have you guys seen that? Those things are simply dissolving!” Iris exclaimed. She was further confused when she saw our general lack of reaction to that. We, mainly Patrick and me, were too tired to care and the others were less surprised at the dissolving corpses than they were at the situation as a whole. Iris simply blew this small extra weirdness out of proportion. “Yeah, we saw.” Noah told her. Her confused expression only got worse as we left it at that.

  With a grunt, Pat sat up and pulled the shovel back up in his hands. With a thunk, Patrick sank the shovel’s head into the ground. He folded his arms over each other and looked over into the forest. “We need to have a plan. At least an idea of what to do. I say we should go into the forest. We’re tired and while its day here, it was dark before and I, for one, am stone dead tired.” Whereas before Patrick was all energetic and filled with a type of desperateness, now you could see that he was nearly all gone. “In the forest there must be a place to sleep, but certainly not out here in the open.” Pat continued.

  The group was silent and I could see both Ailey and Henry look at the forest with a fearful gaze, although I couldn’t help but associate Henry’s reaction with cowardice. Noah was more thoughtful as he spoke up however. “When I was in it just then, the only warning I had from the goblins was an arrow hitting the tree next to my head. If there are more in there and equally hard to spot, then it could quickly become deadly.”

  I grunted in response. “The only reason the goblins nearly got us, was because most of us ran and that they then outnumbered us. Also, like Patrick said, we need some sleep and here is one of the worst places if more come out of the forest.” I said. Weariness and pain were truly starting to seep into my very soul as my eyes got heavier and heavier. Nonetheless, sleeping there and then might have been as much a death sentence as a blessing.

  Iris seemed very dubious at it all. “Why bother though? I mean, we are just going to be back after we wake up. It should have worn off by then.” Everyone, except for Ailey who was still slightly out of it and Emmet who was grinding his teeth in pain of course, looked at her strangely. “What should have worn off?” Gordon was the first to ask. Iris seemed to think that through for a second but then shrug. “Oh, I don’t know. Whatever Lizzie had.” It was hard to imagine, but a collective groan sounded out. “What?” Iris exclaimed.

  “Nothing.” Henry said as he turned away in slight disgust. Regardless, Patrick turned to Iris. “You think this is some drug induced hallucination? I admit, I was wrong, we should have called the police ages ago because this is serious. This is not a game, not some fantasy where we simply have to kill the monsters and get to get out here swimmingly. People have vanished! Actually vanished into a place where there be monsters and impossible forests! Who knows, maybe those arses are actually dead and we’ll never see them again!” Patrick ended, from moderately calm to progressively louder until he was screaming at Iris with spittle flying out of his mouth. Yet as soon as he stopped, even for so much as to take a breath, the furious energy left Patrick again. Once more was there a Patrick that was struggling to stay present before us. He simply sat down again and rested his head in his hands, rubbing out his eyes, leaving only a shocked and stammering Iris.

  I leaned down to pat Pat on his back, in a ‘we will deal with it kind of way’. He briefly looked up and gave me a reserved smile in gratitude as well as a nod. Iris however was simply left there, still at a loss for words as Ailey was in an even worse state, Henry didn’t seem to care too much for her and Gordon was too awkward for anything but a pained visage as he glanced between Patrick and Iris. Myself, I didn’t care too much about Iris either as I barely knew her but I tried to hold in consideration that we would have to work as a team to survive. Then again, it didn’t help that she ran and stayed cowering away in the mist when the goblins came. “Iris, it’s fine but… just don’t lose your grasp on reality, despite how much it is looking like we already have. We can’t deal with that right now, not for a whole.” I told her eventually.

  Gordon lifted his hand. “So, we are saying that all this… fantasy is real then? I mean…” He said, afterwards just gesturing to all around them and the nearly completely dissipated goblin corpses. Noah snorted. “What else would you say then? That all that we saw and felt, down to our blood dripping onto the grass, is all fake? Or simply an illusion like Iris thinks? Tell me, when, to your feeling, did we take so much a step upwards?” He responded coolly. Noah smirked as Gordon tried to stammer out a reply.

  “It doesn’t matter does it? All we need now is to find the other groups, get out and get some rest. Mainly the last before we can’t do anything else as we die from exhaustion.” I told them. Gordon was about to reply in defence when a soft, mechanical ticking noise was heard. Once again, we all turned to Iris. “You have that sound on? How can you stand it?” Henry said in mocking bepuzzlement. Gordon’s eyes however lit up in excitement. “Yes! Iris, do you have connection? We can call the police or maybe just the other groups!” He immediately starting fumbling around, looking for his phone.

  “It’s no use.” Noah said. “There are clearly no signal towers here.” Regardless, Gordon still took out his phone and pressed to call someone. We quickly lost interest as it showed to not have worked if the look on Gordon’s face was anything to go by. “We can’t wallow here in indecisiveness. When it gets dark there could be far worse things out there.” Patrick spoke up. He stood up and took a step towards the forest before turning around again with a sigh. “But neither can we separate. We have to stick as a group, that nearly our only advantage so far.”

  “That’s quite a tactical consideration.” Henry said. Patrick snorted and gave Henry a steady glare. “And do what else? Whatever stupid and insane rubbish happens, you have to stay before it if you don’t want to sink in. Think on that, it might make you less of a fool if not less of a coward.” Henry took an angry step forward but is quickly held back by Gordon, who had put his phone back in his pockets with deep disappointment. “Whoa, calm down Henry. We’re a team remember.” I caution Henry. Henry roughly pushes Gordon off him but doesn’t make any movements to Patrick. “Why don’t you tell your friend that instead of aiming at me the whole time. Besides, better a coward than have been gouged open by a goblin.” Henry fumed.

  I could still remember the claws of the goblin digging into my flesh, scraping off blood and skin. My dislike of Henry couldn’t help but to have risen once more. “Mate, you have no bloody clue what you are talking about. We stood there because otherwise they would have gotten us all. They would have found you in the mists but then you would be all alone. So what about some gratitude now.” I said with clenched teeth at him. “Gratitude? That’s what you w…” Suddenly Henry’s eyes widened drastically, almost comically, and he stopped not even mid-sentence from what I saw of his anger. Yet despite that he suddenly lunged at Iris, knocking her down.

  A shadow shot through our group, crossing the spot where Iris had been standing not one second ago. A gust of wind barrelled me and Gordon over, both of us having been knocked aside. A quick gasp came from Ailey and I could hear a curse from Patrick. I got myself up and looked at where the shadow had darted from. Up in the sky, there flew an impossible sight. A unnatural combination of both bird and woman, or at least that was what it seemed, that should never even have been able to fly in its life was circling above us. Instead of arms it had brown wings and talons in the place of legs. “A gods damned harpy.” I stammered out.

  Iris and Henry scrambled up, the latter clutching his shoulder painfully. “Into the damned forests. Now!” Patrick bellowed, quickly making a decision for us. I grabbed Ailey’s arm from where she was shivering in fear and ran to the forest with her. I glanced back to see the others following, Noah was even starting to run ahead of us, but Patrick occasionally had to stop and turn around to swing at the harpy as it took a dive at us. The harpy swerved around the heavy shovel each time it made a pass, the tool not even coming close enough to rustle its feathers.

  I let Ailey go and she seemed aware enough again to continue running, so I turned around to Patrick. I grabbed a large but still throwable stone from the ground as I did so and just as the harpy swerved around Patrick’s shovel, I threw the stone at it. Still, it managed to avert from the stone but it couldn’t cut its talons into Patrick as it had planned to before. Quickly, the monster rose back into the air. “Patrick! Hurry up, if the others get too far ahead it will just pick on them!” I yelled, although I wasn’t too sure why since Pat was reasonably nearby but the situation just seemed to warrant it.

  Patrick nodded but sweat streamed from his forehead and he took every step with a heavy grunt. It was only when the pause in running I had taken set in, that I could clearly feel all my injuries torn open again from where they were starting to scab already. With one arm I took Patrick’s shovel from him and with the other I supported him so that he could kind of hop by leaning on me instead of the attempted sprint from before.

  With furtive glances, we barely managed to cross the treeline. We hadn’t been too far from the forest but we had been closer to the fog on account of embracing the better known. That was a weird concept of itself, as a wall of perpetual fog was hardly the standard of the mundane I knew. The harpy flew down, a gust of wind following in its wake, and as I swung my shovel at the monster, the thing grasped the shaft with its talons. With an audible snap, the shaft shattered into splinters and those very same splinters dug into my hand. A scream escaped my throat through clenched teeth but with several more steps we crossed the tree line into the forest. With a final horrendous screech, the harpy took off into the sky again and circled overhead above the trees.

  Both me and Pat were panting as we reached the others in a small spot next to two large trees. “It’s still out there.” I managed to say between breaths. Noah and Gordon stood up to take positions around the spot, eyes targeted at the forest canopy and both armed with either an knife or bow and arrow. As I placed Patrick sown against the tree next to Henry, who was being treated by Ailey. Ailey still had the first aid kit somehow and she was finally starting to come out of her shock to treat the two again. I turned the spade head, luckily I was holding that end and not the rest of the grip, over to my other hand that suffered from a greater lack of splinters. As I joined the vigilance together with Noah and Gordon, each breeze or gust that swept through the canopy.

  Quickly, I already heard snores from behind me. With a glance I saw that Iris had fallen asleep against the tree trunk. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sound. Gordon however sighed. “It is probably gone. We have been standing here for, what? Twenty minutes already?” He turned around and was about to lie against the tree when Iris’ snores were surpassed. With a ear-piercing screech that reverberated through all our heads, the damned harpy dove into Gordon’s unprotected back. Talons tore through his shirt and just before they were to sink into his neck, an arrow shot through the air into the thing’s wings. With only a few paces I myself was ready to bash its brains in with a one handed swing of the shovel head.

  Though injured, the harpy still managed my clumsy attempt at a swing but had to hit against the floor to do so. I finally had a chance to see the monstrosity from close up and it looked even worse than from afar although that shouldn’t have surprised me. The more human part of it was scrawny and thin, her face protruding like a beak but otherwise human enough. Well, apart from the countless tiny pointy teeth that was. It gave off a shrill shriek but another arrow from Noah made it transition into a wet sputter. With an arrow in both its wing and its chest, it could barely bring itself up off the ground anymore. Seeing me closing in, the harpy gave up on its escape and instead jumped at me, with its jaws wide open.

  Its jaws snapped around my ear, after I dodged from its aim at my throat, and with a heart wrenching, ill inducing sound that could only come from hearing bodily harm, the thing ripped a bloody chunk of my left ear off. With a guttural roar of pain, I smashed the spade head into the thing. I saw it twitch and thus I smashed into it again and again. And again. I tore into it with a fury that could only come from a desperate man until its blood evaporated into mist, leaving only my own behind.

  I was still lost in my mind as someone entered my view. I looked up in surprise to see Noah and glanced behind me to see Ailey treating Gordon as best as she could while the others just stared at me. Except for Patrick, he had fallen asleep again somehow. Noah bent down and picked up the two arrows, one of them completely smashed up under my onslaught. I stumbled backwards, dropping the now once more clean spade head. “Just go and sleep. I’ll keep watch.” Noah told me. I could have commented on how exposed we were or that Noah couldn’t possibly take down a group of goblins or a harpy alone but instead I just silently walked over to where the others were lying and swiftly joined them.

  Ailey was still going over Gordon and if I were honest, I’d agree that he needed it more than I. It didn’t help quell the anger at being untreated however as my ear continued to bleed. I didn’t want to further ruin my shirt by using it to treat my ear, so I could only lie against the tree next to Henry, my grasp on my ear weakening and weakening until I had well and truly dozed off. I didn’t even wake up when Ailey looked me over again later.