“Hold on a second.” The leader stopped them all. “We lost most of our gear, so I want to know what we actually have with us, including weapons. I had to let my sword go to not drown.” She looked back at them. She was really cold and wanted to start moving. They hadn’t asked her to stay. She was about to turn around and leave when her gut told her to stay. A second later a weak wave reached her, and she shivered. She looked at the scout, he wasn’t looking or concentrating at her. He was distrusting her. The feeling he expelled was buried beneath the others, but it was also the one she knew the best.

She bit her lip and started thinking. She had completely disregarded the potential danger the team could become. The torch was considered extremely valuable in this situation. They outnumbered her, and she didn’t like the odds if they decided she couldn’t be trusted holding the torch. With the torch every one of them could see where she was if she ran. She assumed the scout was a good runner.

She sighed, she wouldn’t be in this situation if she hadn’t let go of her beads in the water. She sighed again, realizing the beads wouldn’t have helped, the torch would still have been visible. She didn’t like to wait, didn’t want to wait, she wanted to get rid of them. To run and hide somewhere. They knew she was a witch, she had every reason to want to run away. The odds told her that it was better not to do anything impulsive.

She didn’t move, instead she listened with one ear as the team members made a list of what they had and didn’t have. Food was one of the things they didn’t have. She cringed, and put her bag down on the ground, earning the immediate attention of the scout. She opened it and grabbed a package of jerky. In this situation, sharing resources was safer than keeping everything to herself. If she insisted in keeping everything to herself she was bound to end up with nothing. She was reluctant to share, it was after all her things, but she didn’t feel like she had a choice in the matter.

She walked up to their shivering circle, and offered the package to the closest person with a simple “here” and walked off. They were about to thank her when she interrupted, still her back turned to them.

“Eat quickly. I’m cold and I want to get moving.” She didn’t like the situation she was in and made an effort to ignore them. She didn’t want to know what they felt. She didn’t want to listen. She definitely wanted her beads back.

While they ate she didn’t look at them, instead she tried to ease her mind and focus on the tunnel ahead. From what she could see from here the tunnel was wide enough for all of them to walk in a row but the ceiling was threateningly low in a few places. The further in, she could see the flat floor turn into chunks of rock in different sizes. It was cold, dark and damp. There was no life from what she could tell. She told herself to remember to keep her sixth sense active, it could be useful.

In the beginning, she had a hard time finding footholds and standing upright. She felt uncomfortable to have everyone behind her. She kept having chills down her neck exposing her back to the team her brain had deemed as “possibly dangerous”. After a while she got too tired to care. She had not slept for an entire day and the extra boost she got from being hunted had run out. She found moving forward and staying awake a much more challenging task than worrying about what could kill her. Things had their priorities and her brain agreed, focusing only on not falling and keeping her sense semi-sharp.

Since she could focus properly she couldn’t block the feelings of the team behind her. Her charm kept them from affecting her, which was a little bit of good and little bit of bad. They were several people and they all felt a little different, but their sharp and alert waves couldn’t help her stay awake. They were much in a much better condition than her, it made her want to complain. It wasn’t their fault they had more experience pushing their limits than she had so she kept silent.

The exhaustion was taking its toll. She became dizzy and lost her balance. Before she could hit the ground a strong hand grabbed her arm and kept her upright. Her world was spinning and she fought to keep her feet under her. The owner of the hand said something but she couldn’t make out what he said. They were worried.

“I’m fine,” she said after her vision stabilized. She straightened up, and looked into the face of scout. He frowned at her in disbelief. Even when he was so close his core felt like a blur, it annoyed her.

Before she could yell at him an acute sense of danger washed over her and she looked up. The moths were flying here and there along the ceiling, the stones were threatening to fall. The others around her got on edge and looked up. They couldn’t see anything but that did little to ease their uneasiness. She pulled away from his grip.

“I’m fine,” she said lowering her voice. She bent down and picked up the torch she had dropped. She staggered a few steps but didn’t fall. She rubbed her eyes once then continued onwards. She tried to ignore their worry and silence. She didn’t know why they even bothered to feel worried about her. She was a witch, no one worried for the health of a witch. She felt it more reasonable for them to be worried about themselves. Yes, she though, that’s how it is.

She shook her head and almost regretted it instantly. She had to grab hold of a tall rock not to fall over. She turned her head and watched them. She squinted her eyes and frowned. They had said something but she hadn’t been able to make out what. She must be really tired if she was starting to hear things.

“We’re not far below ground. We only need to make sure we don’t go downwards. There should be an opening somewhere. There must be.” She muttered the last one. She didn’t know who she was trying to reassure. They had to get out. She couldn’t focus. All the waves were blending in to each other and she had a hard time keeping her eyes open.

Something woke her up. She stopped and listened. It was something very dangerous at the edge of her senses. She sighed when she realized it came from below. She scratched her head. Thinking a bit clearer she continued onwards.

“Look out where you step. You fall down a hole you’ll be eaten.” Being eaten alive was much more terrifying than stepping in a hole and sprain an ankle. She could feel them stepping closer to her and the light of the torch. Better safe than sorry.

After some time the tunnel started branching of in different directions. The first time it occurred the group had wanted to stay and discuss which way to go. The witch, who was too tired to hold a conversation, kept walking. In the end, they had followed her. She naturally picked each tunnel, never missing a step. Except for the times she slipped on smooth stone.

When she finally found an exit most of her clothes had dried. The others had started to show exhaustion but they were still alert. She was impressed, if she hadn’t removed her necklace to feed from their energy she would have rolled over long ago. The feeling was quickly replaced by annoyance. The exit was blocked by relatively small chunks of rock and gravel. She knew it was the exit. Right now she was too worn-out to know why she knew it but she did. There was moths crawling all over it, the problem was she didn’t know what could be done.

She put her bag and torch down and started to move the rocks. She didn’t think much, all she knew was she had to get out. With all of them helping out moving the stones it didn’t take long until they poked a hole through the other side. She started laughing. She packed off and grabbed the torch. Through the gloom in her head she remembered that the arrows weren’t hers.

“You mind the arrows break?” She asked, not caring if he minded or not. She grabbed the bottle of liquid from her bag and was about to pour it on the torch before she realized what a stupid idea it was. She wanted to blow up the opening so they didn’t need to dig. However, that would most likely cause a cave in and invite any aggressive beasts or monsters. She felt a bit dejected as she put the bottle bag in her bag.

“What were you about to do?” The one with moths hovering around him asked.

“Uh, kill us.” She could almost hear his heart stop. “Relax, I understood it was a very bad idea so it’s not going to happen. Dead people can’t get out alive.” She said absentmindedly. She could feel herself losing a piece of her. She couldn’t remember the last time she was too tired. She yawned. The moth guy was still staring at her.

“What?” He had asked a question and she had answered. She grabbed bag and torch and headed to the exit that was now big enough for people to crawl through. Well outside a forest greeted them. Some stars were visible where the clouds didn’t reach. The clouds were thin enough to let the moon shine through.

“It is much warmer out here.” Someone said. She was out, that was all that mattered to her. She had planned plant her knees on the ground but when she fell down she didn’t have enough strength in her to stop. She lied there in the grass looking up in the sky. All her thoughts and cares disappeared from her head and her body numbed. She felt it was a miracle she had lasted so long. She wondered why she had lasted so long. Her mind didn’t work so she came up with no answer.

She felt someone scoop her up in his arms right before she fell asleep.

She opened her eyes. She was lying on the stone floor in the cave. She stood up and looked at the exit. It was blocked again. They had left her. She threw herself at the exit, digging at the rocks with her hands until they bled. The faster her hands moved, the less progress she made. She could feel the darkness creeping closer. Urgency filled her. She needed to get out. Urgency filled her and she remembered her mentor’s words. Never to stay in the dark, there lies the nemesis of all witches.

She didn’t know what he meant but she knew it was dangerous. The darkness was coming ever closer and she could feel it crawl up her legs. She tried to move, to scream. Her gaze was stuck looking at the rocks in front of her. Escape was just away from sight, but she couldn’t move. She panicked as she felt the darkness drain her of her lifeblood and replaced it with something darker, something more sinister, something that wasn’t her own.

She could feel the hungry monsters waiting to eat her up. She was going to die here, all alone. No one was going to help. The darkness filled her eyes and extinguished all remaining light.

She opened her eyes and gasped. She sat up and looked around. She was in a forest with the others. The sun had risen and she could see the opening to the tunnels from where she sat. She felt tears drip down her face and wiped them away immediately. She only had a nightmare. There wasn’t any meaning behind it. It was only a bad dream.