Paths, so many of choices. Growing up people tend to ask you what career,or trade, your going to take and sometimes you don't really know until last minute when your faced with the choice. Children especially will sometimes say they want to be what one of their parents are, wholly disregarding the fact they are ignorant of what it entails. Sometimes though we don't have the luxary of choice and you are forced into something we didn't choose. These four young adults were facing such a situation with heartache as the gazed upon the path denied to them.

The cave split into three seperate paths, that however was not the cause of their heartache. The one on the uttmost left and the middle path led into further tunnels similar to the one they were traveling earlier. The path to the utmost right clearly led to a paved brick stairway leading upwards with visible light raidiating from it. It was also blocked by sturdy metal bars. No matter how much Alex and Eian heaved and strained they couldn't bend it to cross through. They tried yelling and screaming for help, but no one came.

"This is some fucking bullshit!" Eian was red faced and breathing heavily from exersion as he lay down from sheer fustration.

Alex grated out a growl. He had lost his compusure at the brief glimpse of hope which was quickly and cruelly dashed. His throat itched and the growl caused his throat to tear and he spat out some blood.

"ALEX? ARE YOU ALRIGHT? HELLO!! HELP PLEASE!! HELP!" Jessica continued yelling looking disheaveled and desperate.

"Alex try not to talk too much your throat is still raw from your ordeal, and Jessica, stop yelling you're hurting my ears. If anyone was coming we they would have by now." Sarah shook her head and spoke deadpanned.

"Fuck! WHAT NOW?" Eian was trying to calm the burning rage he felt in his heart, it wouldn't help him in anyway at the moment.

"The only thing we can do. Try another tunnel and hope they lead to another exit." Sarah sighed even as she lamented the thought.

They bickered over the details for a minute until it was decided they would go with the middle path. They had not encountered any spiders since Sarah's tattoo blinked. That soon changed, but only one measly spider was backed into a crevice and Eian killed it easily as it had nowhere to escape. The problem came after as his tattoo once more began to blink. This time however only Mind and Spirit were blinking, while Body remained its abnormal highlighted color. He attempted to re-select Body, but nothing happened.

"My tattoo started glowing again." Eian stated ominously and frowned again.

"What did you pick?" Sarah quickly asked noticing his distinct lack of reaction.

"Nothing yet. The red Body's not blinking, just the other two. It won't let me reselect the red." Eian had his eyes focus on his options.

"That's strange. I think you should chose Mind, we can't afford to have you screaming like Alex right now." Sarah shrugged.

Alex grunted at the graff and frowned slightly.

"Shhhh.. don't make sounds. Sarah stop it." Jessica murderously glared at Sarah.

"Sorry. I'm not trying to offend you Alex. I'm sure what you went throught justified the screaming. I just don't think it's a good idea to have Eian do the same right now." Sarah wrung her hands and apologized to which Alex nodded.

Discussion over Eian selected the Mind:3 on his tattoo and felt the same brain freeze effect begin at the top of his head and spread to his crainum. After quickly comparing the results with Sarah they confirmed it was the same effect they both endured. They still had many questions about the strange situation they found themselves in though.

"At least now we know for sure, that none of the effects are lethal to us." Sarah had her index finger up and Alex grunted at her with a smirk on his face.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Yeah I'm not looking foward to selecting Spirit though. I'm hoping Body goes back to normal so I can reselect it. How long have we been here anyways?" Eian said with a frown on his face as his eyes darted about the place.

"I'd say about four hours, more or less, since we woke up till now. We spent quite some time washing outselves. Feels like a lot more though." Sarah had her eyes to the ceiling, while thinking back to the beginning.

"Four Hours? You sure? It feels like five or six at least." Eian's eyes widened and he stared at her.

"Pretty sure. I have a good internal clock." Sarah smiled with a hint of pride.

"Wow, for sure I thought it was more than that. Anyways lets keep going. Want not, waste not." Eian shrugged and he didn't even know how that applied right now.

The group marched on through the dim lighting and eerie vibe. They had already grown used to expecting the minor danger the spiders posed and they had already discovered that they only posed a risk in big numbers. They could swarm you and the bites weren't bad unless they caught something important, like an artery or a hamstring. They encountered something soon that had them cautious however. The skeletal corpse of a lone child warrior armed with nothing but a tiny spear, which couldn't be much longer than two feet with just over an inch in diameter thick. It lay on the floor scattered in pieces and something had obviously picked the corpse clean. After a small session of swearing and saddness at the poor childs death they discussed what the corpse implied.

"So... I'm guessing this means we're not the only ones whom have been brought here." Eian frowned with narrow eyes, he believed he had his voice steady, though on the inside he was resisting the urge to vomit.

"Why would anyone bring a child here? That's so cruel and sad. Whomever is doing this is a murderer." Jessica was shaking.

Alex nodded along with her, disgust written on his face.

"Eian take the spear. Your the one in the best overall physical condition, give your stick to Alex." Sarah swallowed nervously, she wanted to get this over with.

"Sure. Here Alex have my rod of glory. It's drentched with insecticide" Eian smiled to which Alex rolled him eyes in an exaggerated manner.

The continued walking for a while.

"You think there may be more people here? Like right now?" Jessica eyes brightened with hope, despite the circumstances to which Sarah sighed.

"There might be, but encountering other people could actually go very badly for us. Especially if the group is bigger than ours, maybe even if its the same size with the condition in which we're in." Sarah shook her head with a sad face.

"She's right you know. We have no idea how long those people could have been here and I've watched enough cannibal movies to know people are sick." Eian looked over his shoulder as he rubbed his belly which felt a bit odd now.

"Well there's also the issue that they might be only, oh I don't know, MEN. We have two girls here and we're not exactly ugly." Sarah held her hips and leaned forward with extra emphasis, to which Eian winced and Jessica paled.

"Thanks Alex." Jessica replied, while trying to smile at the consoling pat and smile Alex gave her.

"I'm hating this more and more. It's not like we need people problems to top everything off." Eian sighed dejectedly.

As they continued onwards they began to notice more bones hap-hazardly scattered about the place. A tiny skull here, a pelvic bone there and so on. None of the bones appeared to be adult sized and a few thick strands of webbing were appearing more often. No other weapons were found however and the molty crew began to worry when they heard some crunching. It didn't take long for them to learn what was making the noise.

"Fuck me! That has to be the biggest fucker we've seen yet...." Eian remarked and grit his teeth.

"I think... I think it's eating another spider...." Jessica whispered fearfully, while clinging to Alex tighter.

"It must be a female. I think......they eat their mates sometimes." Sarah lectured as she tried to peer deeper into the darkness for a better look.

"Wow... talk about a man-eating cradle-robber. The bitch is almost thrice his size." Eian remarked shook his head.

"Male spiders are always smaller stupid." Sarah rolled her eyes and waved one hand dimissively.

Eian ignored her remark, he had a job to do and slowly he edged closer. Surprisingly Sarah followed shortly behind him for which he was grateful. As they neared the spider turnt and reared its front legs threatheningly. Eian felt conflicted by his new weapn while happy it had a metal pointy end, it was noticably shorter, which meant he had to get closer for a kill.

The beast jumped at him and he realized he couldn't dodge or Sarah would get hit. He reattempted his previous tactic and speared the spider with it's own weight. The spear sunk in almost completely, but its weight threw him on his ass with the spider over head. The spider thrashed in it's attempt to bite him. He bearly held it at bay bearly, by grabbing its upper torso and pushing upwards with all his might. Sarah being a saint with a heart of gold at the moment was bashing at the foul bitch. It succumbed to something eventually, but by then Eian didn't care who killed it.

'I need a better job, maybe playing damsel in distress isn't so bad.' Eian sighed, shook his head and got up.