The Caves

Elijah woke up with a smile upon his face. He sprang out of bed and rummaged through his chest and gathered two apples, three torches, a shining gold sword, and a minecart. That was all he needed to begin his journey. Elijah hadn’t seen his friends for a long while, and ever since he had received a message by a parrot inviting him to a celebration with fireworks, he was very excited. He opened the door to his house and stepped outside, breathing in the fresh Summer air. The sun bathed him in a warm, aesthetic radiance to which he stood still and let a cool breeze wrap him up in a relaxing sensation.

Elijah then strolled toward the railway system which stretched East and West. Elijah was going West. Elijah placed the minecart carefully on the tracks, it wobbled a bit as he slowly climbed in. The minecart jolted forward and he was off, zooming through forests and deserts. As it became nighttime, Elijah was trying to keep himself awake. The minecart made its way onto a bridge hanging over what Elijah presumed to be a ravine.

Suddenly, a silhouette caught Elijah’s attention. A green figure wandered in front of the minecart which was getting closer and closer. Elijah’s eyes widened, the creeper spun around and began hissing and then expanding. It exploded, creating a big gap in the bridge, he and minecart fell forty or so blocks down. Elijah hit a small pool of water with a large crack! He hit the underwater surface, he kicked his legs furiously which propelled him upward until he reached the surface, coughing up water.

He crawled onto the cold stone ground and looked up, the only source of light was the moons glow coming from the whole that Elijah fell from. He looked in his inventory and cursed. He had no blocked he could stack up with. He was trapped. He whipped out his gold sword, gripping it in his right hand, ready to fight any monster that came his way. He held a flaming torch in his left hand. I’m going to get out of here, he thought, I know I will…

He was truthfully scared, but he kept his thoughts focused on escaping the darkness of the caves. He thought about his friends and how much he was going to enjoy seeing them again. It almost made the walk through the caves seem adventurous and fun.

As Elijah walked, he listed for the sounds of nearby monsters. But the only thing he could here at that moment was the small crackling flame dancing on the tip of the torch and his footsteps echoing throughout the tunnels. He suddenly heard something crunching beneath his left foot. He stared down and clamped his hands over his mouth, holding in a scream. There was a skull. Not from a bow-wielding skeleton but an actual human cranium. He backed up against a wall and began breathing heavily. He then realized how afraid he was. He shook his head, trying to get rid of any horrific thoughts that would stop him from moving forward.

He walked away from the remains of someone who once lived. He tried focusing on something else like before, but all that raced through his head was, what happened back there?

Before long Elijah simply wanted to curl up in a ball and hope to wake up from the supposed nightmare. But he pressed on, holding the torch in front of him and slowly making his way deeper into the caves, holding is his sword as well. The darkness grew more, surrounding Elijah as the torch was burning out. He threw it aside and pulled out his seconed torch. Then he hummed a toon that he didn’t recognize much, but it made him feel a little better.

That’s when he heard it: hysterical crying. Elijah wasn’t sure if he should run in the other direction or investigate. Curiosity got the better of him and he rushed toward the sorrowing sounds which led him into a cave, Elijah expected to find someone there in the cave, but he was alone. He continued sprinting and he tripped over a dislocated stone coming up from the ground. He hit the cold surface and lost hold of the torch. The torch rolled over to a dead end, the flame still active.

Elijah scrambled over to the torch and picked it up, the light from the flame revealing something on the wall. Further examination led Elijah to see drawings of some sort, made from a dry red substance which Elijah hoped wasn’t blood. The drawing was of four or five contorted humanoid beings, looking down at a small character with its arms covering up its face as if it was afraid of the creatures surrounding him.

He ran the light along the walls to see if there was anything else, and upon the sight of the shadow of a strange figure standing behind him, he spun around and yelped. Nothing was there. At this point Elijah felt like he was going to go insane, he hollered for help. Then he heard the hysterical crying again.

“Get the fuck away from me!” Elijah roared, and he threw the torch in a random direction, the flame immediately blew out and Elijah was engulfed in darkness. He started panicking and quickly lit his last torch by sticking it against the stone wall. Suddenly, he heard footsteps. They were getting louder and louder. Elijah closed his eyes, expecting a zombie or any other monster to come out and attack him. After three minuets which to Elijah seemed like forever, he slowly made his way out of the cavern. He saw a trial of redstone torches leading down a 4x4 hallway which made Elijah feel very unsettled. ''How did all this get here? Could there really be sombody else in the cave with me?''

That’s when he realized. His sword wasn’t with him.

“No, no, NO!” He looked around in all directions. He assumed he dropped it somewhere, but he was to afraid to go back. It was no use. The only thing he could do was go forward. And forward he went, paranoid as ever. He saw that the hallway turned left, and as he got closer he could see the shadow of a person, he could also here them rehearsing the same toon he hummed from before, their voice was scratchy, and it echoed eerily.

“H-hello?” Elijah called out nervously, the humming came to an abrupt stop. And the shadow disappeared.

“Hey, wait!” Elijah yelled. He quickly chased after his stalker, adrenaline driving him faster. Within ten seconds he found himself in yet another cavern. He could see the person about twenty blocks away from him, facing away from him. Its cloths were torn, and its hands were a bloody mess.

“I-it’s okay,” Elijah assured the stranger, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Suddenly, the mysterious humans neck craned upward, bending and twisting in an unrealistic fashion. Elijah could here the sound of bones cracking and he stared in horror as the human-like figure’s head turned upside down and faced him, the rest of its body still facing the wall. Its eyes were closed. But then they snapped open revealing two blinding white lights which erupted from its sockets. Elijah now knew it wasn’t human. He covered his face to escape being blinded by the fluorescent white eyes.

The creature let out a blood curdling scream and dashed toward Elijah. Elijah rolled out of the way. The rest of the creatures body then snapped back into place and resembled a completely normal human, its eyes still beaming however. Elijah was to afraid to even think. All he could do was shriek in horror.

The creature lunged at him and began tackling Elijah. Elijah kneed the creature in the gut which seemed to catch it off guard for a few seconds. Elijah then proceeded to elbow the creature on the sides of its head until it fell over practically unconcise. Elijah then scrambled to is feet and began running, he couldn’t see exactly were he was going without his torch though and he ran straight into a dirt wall. The creature quickly got up as well and pounced on Elijah again. The eyes were blinding to Elijah, but he could make out claws shooting out of the creature’s hands. The creature slashed Elijah’s stomach once. Elijah screamed in agony.

Elijah managed to fight back and stick his fingers in the creature’s eyes. The creature responded by yelping in pain. Elijah stuck his fingers in farther, he could feel the creatures blood gushing out from the eyes and running down his arms. The creature then teleported away. Elijah slowly made his way onto his feet and clutched his abdomen as bine raised in his stomach. He vomited. He wiped his mouth and stubbled out of the cavern.

A short time later, Elijah could see the suns ultraviolet rays swarming down into the entrance of the deep cavers. Adeline and hope surged through Elijah’s entire body and he rushed out, falling onto the surface of the overworld. The taste of grass and dirt finding its way on the tip of his tongue. It began to rain. Elijah felt the rain hit his back and dribble down. He never felt so happy to be alive.

Then he heard somthing familiar which made his heart skip a beat. As he pressed his ears harder onto the ground, he could here the humming of a toon he would play himself every so often. The voice was eerie and scratchy.

Elijah couldn’t help but hum along.