She groped in the dark. Every touch of the wall's surface was slimy and uncomfortable, but it was her only option for navigating these dark corridors. Her senses screamed at her and the sounds became louder due to the absence of light.

A few hours ago (at least she thought they had already passed) she tried to light the wood, the remains of which were still hanging on her side. Even in the dark she could feel that it was broken, but at least she had it with her. She always carried her quartz in her pocket, but the moisture that was kept underground swelled even the little dry wood, and no matter how hard she tried, the wood would not ignite.

After her unsuccessful at least a hundred attempts, she gave up.

And so now she was glued to the walls, fumbling her way with every step. Sometimes she tripped over something, jumped back, and only then continued. What if there were traps? Maybe it was a stupid idea - after all, the minotaur was supposed to be the main trap down here. The minotaur who - as far as she knew - wasn't down here. But she didn't want to risk it.

She only touched things on the ground once. She didn't want to know what it was, but it made a disgusting squelching sound when she touched it. The sound raw meat would make after being left in the sun for a week by someone less experienced. She didn't want to know.

There was salt through it all. Salt and water that splashed here and there under her feet. For a while, she waded almost up to her knees in it. She was tired from dragging her heavy, tattered tunic behind her just out of inertia. Selene did not taste the water. She could smell the saline concoction just from breathing it in with each step, and after what she found on the ground, she was sure enough that she would get another disease in her body had she attempted to have a drink.

She had prayed again. Thrice. With each time, her vocabulary became more desperate - a plea where otherwise she’d use a request, promising anything and everything that she didn’t have… Again, she was met with silence, only interrupted with the same tapping of water that had already eroded a hole in her mind.

Selene collapsed.

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Perhaps it wouldn’t be long until she became one of the things on the ground she dreaded to touch, preserved to last longer than they should under a blanket of gray salt and gray mold.This was a pathetic ending for her - that much she knew as her eyes fluttered to a close. She could sleep with her eyes open and it wouldn’t make much difference. But her eyes hurt, as if the tiny salt crystals entered her eyes. She just needed a short rest. Just for a moment.

⁓Ψ⁓

She woke up with the feeling of blood in her mouth. She spat it out on the ground and with a joy that slowly turned into terror, she discovered that the blood did not belong to her. Where she had previously imagined a relatively clean underground slush was instead a stream of blood. The entire floor was covered in blood. Selene looked down at her hands and dress. They were dirty, but the blood did not stick to them - as if it bounced off the fabric. And...wait, why could she see herself? She was underground only a moment ago.

''...Am I dying again?'' she whispered.

''Probably not, Miss.'' Said the half-decomposed skeleton next to her.

Selena backed into the wall behind her with a sharp movement. The wall which - as she imagined - was plastered with a strange moldy growth...

The skeleton continued to look at her with drooping eyeballs and seemed to be examining the terrified person opposite. After a moment of silence, the skeleton snapped its half-broken jaw and continued: ''So they're looking at you too, huh? The standard has fallen over the years it seems...you look terrible.'' And the male voice that came out of the skeleton laughed with a sharp bark again and shook its jaw.

''Says the skeleton - why are you...what happened to you?''

''What do you think happened? I died! Very tragically, might I add.''

She stopped. ''I...okay if it's a traumatic memory, I'm sorry-''

"No need, miss - and it isn't."

She thought for a while, waiting for him to speak. He didn't continue, so she approached the man's corpse. If he once had clothes, all that remained were leather scraps. Likewise, some of them from his own skin. Those pieces that she could recognize, however, looked like uniforms of a warrior. She dared to ask. ''Who are you?''

''Well...now I'm a corpse...and before I was a fool.'' He replied. ''A fool who thought he was a hero.''

''Because you died alone in the underground? ...Did the minotaur kill you?''

''Certainly not- er miss I'll give you some advice." The skeleton frowned. Even though his performance only deepened the shadows on his haggard face. ''When you can see at least five steps ahead here, stop by my place. Maybe I'll help you more dead than alive.''

She could feel the watery blood below her knees bubbling and dragging on her dress. Time was out. ''Hold on-''

The corpse leaned against the wall again and slid down- almost below the surface. ''And watch out for the one up there...and here too, actually.''

And then she awoke in the darkness that smelled like salt and not blood again.