Chapter 4

Rory’s POV

My eyes fluttered open as I layed soaking in a rocky cave. I shot up and started coughing up water. “Ouwww..” I held my head, everything was spinning. My breaths were short, and shallow as I studied the area around me.

       I could barely see anything, I lost my glasses when I fell into the water. It’s a miracle I even survived. I could hear dripping all around me. It’s like it was mocking my every move. It kept getting louder and louder until I couldn’t bare it anymore. I covered my ears and curled up into a ball, pulling my knees up to my chest. And then, I heard footsteps on the rocks, creeping nearer and nearer.

       “D-don’t hurt m-me..” I squeaked out. I didn’t move from my position, but I did close my eyes. It didn’t matter anyway as I lost my glasses. “I’m not going to hurt you…are you okay?” I calmed down a little and sat back up and opened my eyes looking at what was standing in front of me. My legs were still up to my chest, and I hugged them closer. I couldn’t really tell who it was so I still kept my guard up. “I.. c-can i tr-trust you?.. wh-who are y-you..” my voice was quavering, but still echoed through the cave.

       “My name is Fin.. Fin Fischer.. and yeah.. you can trust me I promise.” He crouched down and put his hand on my knee. “Woah what happened to your ankle? It’s bleeding.” I spread out to look and Fin moved aside, sitting on my left. I looked down and I could barely see a smeared blob of red that covered my ankle in the darkness. I hadn’t realized before but as soon as I looked it started to throb. Must have been the adrenaline. I winced in pain as I pulled it close to my body. I had kicked my shoes off to try to float up and it looks as if I lost my socks too. I groan..

       “I-I.. I don’t k-know…I got, I got pushed in and-and I got p-pulled un-under by.. by something!” I tried to explain what had happened and that’s when I realized that this was the same leg that got grabbed and pulled under.

No POV

         Fin looked at Rory’s ankle, the blood that was smeared all up his leg. Slowly he took his hoodie off and sighed, shivering at the dampness of the cave. He slid his hands along the rocky floor until he found a rock sharp enough to cut though the fabric. As carefully as one can, he ripped through the bottom of the hoodie making it look like a crappy cut crop-top. “Here.. I’ll be right back, okay? Don’t move.” Fin ran off, slipping the hoodie back on and holding the strip of fabric in his hands. He ran off, leaving Rory in the darkness. Rory sighed and slid down into a lying position until Fin came back.

       When Fin returned he held the black strip away from himself so he wouldn’t get water all over his clothes. He once again knelt in front of him. “Here, sit up.” Rory did so looking into Fin’s eyes. He could barely make out the green blobs that were meant to be his eyes. Fin’s touch was gentle as he used the wet rag to wipe away the blood. “It looks like some sort of tentacle with razor sharp suction cups grabbed you.. must of have what pulled you down.. but I’ve never heard of anything like it..” Fin sighed as he rung out the rag and tied it around his ankle tying it tight. The fabric wasn’t quite thick enough so some of the ring shaped cuts were still visible, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. He stood up admiring his work. “Oh! Here, need some help?” He smiled as he held his hand out for Rory to grab. Rory accepted the offer and used Fin to pull himself up. His ankle really hurt so he favored his right side as he stood. 

       “You never told me your name..” he smiled and looked at Rory. “Oh-oh.. it’s-it’s Rory..” “ooo sweet name! Oh and I have a question.” Fin looked at Rory. “Have you happened to see a girl version of me? Like looks exactly like me except with longer hair and no hat.” Fin pointed to his hat. “Oh.. Uhm y-ya know.. I-I can’t re-really see-see any-anything.. I-I l-lost my gla-glasses when I-I fell..” “oh.. I’m sorry about that.. you see, I don’t actually know where I am.. I was riding down a water slide and before you know it, I’m here.. I’ve been here for about a day now and I think she’s worried about me..” “wait.. y-you just like-like.. woke up-up here too?” Rory asks, hoping someone had the same experience as him. “Uh.. yeah.. I uh.. I guess so..”

       They start walking around the cave, Rory limping on one leg, and Fin dodging rocks. Both were barefoot so they had to be careful on where they were stepping, Fin occasionally having to push Rory out of the way of rocks because he wasn’t able to tell they were there. Rory thought for a second and tried to start a bit of conversation. “S-so.. you said yo-you were on-ona water slide.. but-but you h-had a h-hoodie on?” “Oh yeah.. I don’t swim with a hoodie on though. I found this when I walked by some sort of camp. It looked abandoned though.” 

        “Oh.. woah-OH” SPLAM! Rory groans, sprawled out on the ground. “WOAH are you okay!? I wasn’t paying attention.. sorry..” Fin apologized a few more times before Rory used his arms to prop himself up. “It’s ok-okay..” Rory could feel the blood start to drip down his face from his nose. “Here..” Fin frantically pulled Rory to his feet. Fin noticed something.. it was the thing Rory tripped on. Fin picked it up and held it out to Rory as he wiped the blood from his nose. “I don’t know what or where this is or came from, but you tripped over it so it’s yours now.” He thrusted a journal of some sort into Rory’s hands as he looked away, his face flushed red. 

       “Y-you okay?” Rory asked, clutching the book. Fin nods and walks in front of Rory rather quickly.. like he’s trying to hide his face. Rory shrugged it off and followed quickly behind trying to keep up. His leg hurt really bad and he had to sit down. “W-wait… Fin.. can-can we sit down?”

      Without even looking back, Fin slid down and sat on the wet ground. Rory sighed and sat down also.

Fins POV

      Oh man.. don’t look at him.. you made him fall.. he got hurt because of you.. now you’re ignoring him? You said sorry. Look at him! I put my hands down onto the ground and put one of my hands right into a puddle. I groaned and pulled it out, realizing the color. I immediately stood up.. what’s going on with this place. I heard the sound of something moving through the cave. I whip my head around to look at Rory. His face was pale. He heard it too. I fix my hat and run up to Rory.

       “We ne-need to g-go” I stuttered trying to lift him up onto my back. His ankle was bleeding again and I could see the Dark gray fabric turning more and more red as the seconds passed. He didn’t look well, and was definitely fighting to stay awake. He looked like he hadn’t slept in a while. “Ow… be-be careful..” He whined. Eventually I pulled him onto my back. He slowed me down but I ran through the cave as fast as I could, trying not to slip in the puddles that were dying my bare feet a deep red color. “You’ll.. be.. okay.. Rory..” I huffed, out of breath. 

       I reached a dead end. I sighed in relief, hoping we didn’t run into whatever we heard. SMASH- I turned around looking for whatever that was. 

No POV

       Fin looked before him in horror. The thing he dreaded was standing right before him. “Uh.. F.. Fin..?” Rory didn’t understand why they stopped. All he could see was a dark red blur in front of him. He was tired and his ankle throbbed.

       Fin slowly slid Rory down onto the rocks below, setting him down softly. He didn’t take his eyes off the monster looming above them. “It… It found us.” “Wh-what found u-us?” What sat in front of them was a huge, red squid that stood 8 feet above Fin and 9 and a half above Rory. It stomped closer. And closer. So close that it was right in front of them. Fin just looked up in horror as it lifted up its tentacle and wrapped it around his leg, pulling him up to eye level. 

      “Fin? FIN!” 

Fins POV

        There I was, eye to eye with the beast. I was also dangling at least 5 feet in the air. By the leg. Upside down. I was too stunned to move or speak. For now, I’m stuck in my head. I could barely hear Rory calling. WAIT RORY! “R-Rory? Are..” that’s all I could get out.

       To be fair I’ve taken this quite well. I’m about to die and I haven’t screamed once! Well, I can’t look like a coward in front of… uh.. nevermind it.. it doesn’t matter. My thinking was cut short when I got swung across the length of the cave and collapsed on the smooth- yet- bumpy ground. It felt like all of my skin got shredded off. Then, I instantly stood up. “R-Rory, RORY!!!” I shouted. I hope he isn’t hurt… he was already hurt when you first saw him! Now you’re making it worse.. Rory was still sitting on the ground unharmed from what I saw but his ankle was even more red, like the blood bleeding through the fabric was a marker. 

           “F-Fin! O-ow…” Rory winced, standing up to give me a hug. He pulls away and sits back down. “You’re.. you’re b-bleeding” I wipe my face and look at my hand. It was stained red. “How.. How bad?” I ask. Trying to keep steady on my wobbly legs. They felt like jelly and after a few seconds, I collapsed under my own weight.

       “Uh.. pre-pretty bad.. It looks like you got hi-hit pretty hard on-on your four h-head. It’s the worst. It’s-it’s all o-over your face.. and arms.. and uh.. l-legs.. it’s jus-just everywhere..” “I uh.. I need a second..” I sighed and slid into a lying position on the cold ground, soaking in my own blood and sweat. 

       I saw Rory standing above me staring into my eyes, he looked concerned about me. I could feel my face flush red. “W-what?” My voice was unsteady and weak. 

       “L-look.. I may b-be small but that s-squid is so-somehow destr-distracted..” Rory glances at the huge squid that was now focused on a little pond filled with some sort of sea creature in it. He looked back at me and held his hand out for me to grab. “Come on…I’ll-I’ll do my b-best to help us-us out of here..” 

      I grabbed his hand to help steady myself as I stood up slowly. I wiped the wet blood that was still dripping down my forehead and we set off to leave this cave.

      “Wait.. how do we even get out?” I asked, I looked at Rory and saw him shrug.. 

To be continued=)