The pain was powerful and overwhelming from the moment I regained consciousness. It was dark and cold and the only noise I could hear was a drip of water hitting a hard surface off in the distance.
I had no idea how much time had passed, but before I was here, I was with a couple of friends exploring and taking footage of the forest.
We had just crossed the short-river and come to a clearing when the ground beneath us began to shake. The sinkhole formed almost immediately, and we were dragged underground by the crumbling, decaying earth that once stood strong.
I looked up in sceptical hope, searching for any means of escape, but it took less than 10 seconds for me to realise that I would never, ever be leaving this place.
The shock hit me faster and harder as I began to scan over my body. The blood quickly drained from my face and my eyes widened beyond belief as the sudden realisation hit my brain.
My legs, all the way up to my pelvis, had been completely pulverised; Flattened and crushed under a boulder the size of a truck. The longer I was there, the more I wished the boulder had crushed me completely.
My eyes began to adjust and I could see my surroundings quite clearly now. To my left was nothing but dirt and to my right was a small, cave-like hole, with several small rocks in front of the entrance.
Wait…What’s That?
I squint my eyes as I struggled to make out the dark lump in the far corner, just to the left of the cave entrance… It looks like a body…
…It is.
It’s my best friend, Sam!
“Sam?…Sam?!”
There was no doubt about it, she was already dead, but I thought I’d try anyway.
Suddenly, swift movement from the corner of my eye made my heart skip a beat and I completely stopped breathing.
I hold my screams with my hand as I hear a hollow-scuttling sound echo all around me, and my mind starts to envision a puppy-sized spider with long fingernails.
The scuttling sounds were everywhere, making me flinch in all directions, and I managed to catch a silhouette of one of the creatures as it scuttled past the caves entrance. It had the most horrendous and unsightly features: my minds interpretation of the noises it made, was pretty spot on; a terrier-sized creature with whispy, unbroken fur, and eightlegs with pointed, sharpened ends.
Another one passed by, followed by another…then another…then another. Before I knew it, the room was full of the creatures, all of them gnawing, biting and clawing away at Sam’s lifeless body.
I didn’t breathe the entire time and they eventually drag her body away. They haven’t returned to this area in a long time now, but I can still hear them; shuffling and scuttling around in there…there must but thousands of them.
Honestly, I hope I die before they realise I’m down here too.