Blair came to his senses in a stale and dark place. He had hardly any memory of what happened. His current situation was ominous. All he saw was a light flicker in the distance like a firefly. He fumbled around in the darkness careful to not bump his head against something. Wet stone was beneath him, not enough to slip, but enough to make the place quite nasty.

His memories began to slowly come back. He remembered a ghostly man and his strange and sudden loss of consciousness. A simple punch that worked wonders and a mind-numbing fear. That guy should have been an cultivator. There was no other way. Then just why did he do all that? Blair would have become his disciple ether way. Was that still earth? He assumed it to be unlikely, but he couldn’t be sure.

While pondering, he had come ever so slightly closer to the light. His heart beats faster as he was right in front of the exit. The light shined through it, making the exit look like a bright portal into another world. He took one more step forward. The brightness intensified even more. His vision came slowly back, and fresh air rushed through his nose. As his eyes fully recovered, he was at a loss for words. The view was magnificent, but at the same time dreading. He stood amid an enormous crater. Below him was a mix of slopes and thin pathways winding down. Innumerable holes penetrated the walls like Swiss cheese or a New Yorker gangster, who experienced an untimely death in his favorite restaurant due to being served too much lead to his favorite steak. The paths and holes continued upwards until they were cut off by a steep cliff. Just the view upwards was daunting. The solid rock had been tempered by water for eons.

Blair rubbed his eyes. He barely saw the sky. The entire situation was too enormous to comprehend. His eyes stared spellbound at everything as he heard a noise from his vicinity. He carefully peeked around the corner of his tunnel. At first, he only saw more stone and rubble. “Is there someone?” His voice was faint. The entire situation was new, and he didn’t know what lurked in here.

He waited for a while and then repeated the question. This time with more strength in his voice. A head poked out next to him. A man who was just as perplexed as he, looked back at him. “Yes, and you are?”

“Blair.” The stranger pulled out his phone and showed the screen to Blair. The picture of a model in a bikini smiled at him.

“I don’t have a signal here. The internet isn’t working either.” The stranger said. He then came out of his cave, carefully crawling along the thin path. The deep slope sometimes kissed his shoes. “I am William. Man, I was just about to come back from my work as a waiter, and then boom. I wake up here. How did you get in here?” The man's actions and manner of speaking were like a torrent.

“It was similar to you. Let me ask you. Where from did they kidnap you?” Blair asked. The boy in his ill-fitting clothes didn’t move his head away from the wall he hugged. “Cologne.”

Blair needed a moment to comprehend his word. Then he remembered. “The German Cologne?”

“Is there another?” The boy retorted.

“Not sure, I am from Spain. That is wild.” Blair said. He already thought about the implications as another voice came from below them. Soon a torrent of voices came from all over the crater. All the caves had a person in them. Blair’s thought quickly refocused on getting out of here. A thin smile crept onto his face. “We have to find an exit. Search the caves.” He bellowed with all his strength. The boy in his buggy clothes yelled the same thing again and then gave Blair a nod and a thumb up. “Nice idea.”

“Thanks,” Blair said.

The voices rumbled a bit. People spoke to one another, and in the end, everyone vanished into the tunnels. So did Blair, searching his own tunnel. He looked at every cranny, crawling on all fours as to not miss the slightest hint. From time to time he touched an insect, but that was all. In his tunnel was no exit or hidden path. So he left the place and explored the crater some more.

The outside was calm. Some other people had come out just like he did, but they seemed hesitant, waiting near their tunnels. Meanwhile, Blair used the time to search the bottom. There were unusually large boulders at the walls. They created many dead corners where something could be hidden. He was just about to move forward as the sound of crunching rocks in front of him made him stop. His body tensed up for a moment, but a gentle-looking woman appeared in front of him.

Blair instantly relaxed. “You surprised me.” He said with a smile.

“Good for you that I wasn’t an evil kidnapper,” The woman replied.

“Sure is. Right now I couldn’t have more luck,” Blair replied. The woman raised an eyebrow. “Is this a lucky day for you?”

“It’s the worst but you just made it bearable,” He said with a charming smile. That caught her off guard, and she giggled. “How much did you search? You did search for an exit down here instead of something indecent?”

“What do you expect from me?” Blair asked.

“Just a test.” She replied, smiling innocently. Blair pointed to the place he had begun his search. “I started there.” The woman did the same. “That leaves only that place.” She pointed at the opposite side of the wall. “You can search together with me if you want to.” Blair enjoyed her playfulness. “Sure. My name is Blair, just in case you care.” She put on a thoughtful expression. “More or less. I am not quite sure, but I will tell you my name as well. I am Emily.” She chuckled slightly.

From there on they searched together. The result, however, stayed the same. No exit. By this point it became certain. They were trapped inside a moldy dumpster. Blair turned his gaze towards the sky and the upper walls as they stood in the middle of the pit. “You can't,” Emily said. Blair was baffled. “What can’t I?” Emily put on a coquettish smile. “You can't climb out. I climbed semiprofessionally and let me tell you. Those walls with the slippery stones are impossible for me. You shouldn't even think about it.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Well that’s a bummer,” Blair admitted.

Emily followed Blair for the day as nether of them had an idea what to do. They spent the night at the bottom of the pit. Other people joined them. It made them feel save to be with other people. Being alone would have been frightening. Now they shared their worries and hopes. Even the guy in the buggy clothes was there. Emily kept her distance to him.

The next day started off with some of them behaving strange. They left the group, not a word of goodbye or anything else. Blair found it odd. Their eyes were murky. The people with fear and desperation in their eyes turned into blank sheets. Emily was already out and about, also closely monitoring the awkward people. Meanwhile William was still asleep. He lolled about a little later, looking around. When Blair got a glimpse of his eyes, involuntarily tensed up. They were murky, thoughtless mirrors of his soul, or at the very least Blair felt that way. As Emily saw him, she wanted to ask him what happened to him. However, William grunted and snarled, showing his teeth like a wild animal. She instantly stepped back. Shortly after that William retreated to a dark corner away from the group, and left Blair and Emily dumbfounded. Blair kept his eyes on him, catching him babbled incoherent nonsense from time to time. He felt uneasy. Something strange was going on here. It was like a curse. Blair and Emily left the pit, dreading the place as they didn’t know what caused the people to go insane. They collected water and insects. Emily did a surprising good job of gathering and eating them. She did close her eyes however and her face distorted into a surreal grimace every time she ate one.

Days passed and the situation got worse each day. The sane people started to fight over tiny matters as their nerves were on edge. Whereas the number of insane people rose. No one knew how they transformed and that made it so much scarier. Everybody could change any day. Everyone, sane or not, had retreated to the tunnels.

At some point only Blair and Emily were left as the last normal persons. Even though he was sure that isolation brought him to his limits. He has begun stacking rocks on top of each in his free time, and he sure had a lot. By now the cave entrance was covered in stone towers. He and Emily had talked about every possible topic. All the time was really hard to spend. It was like he had known her all his life. However, she got weaker each day, and during the last days she rarely said a word. Gathering food had become a problem. Their cave was empty and the others were occupied with hostile madmen.

It was one morning, Blair had just woken up that Emily snuggled up to him. She pressed her shoulder against his, and looked with her dear eyes into his and his soul. Her face showcased an expression of fear. Blair carefully stroked her head. “Everything will be alright.” He wanted to believe his words. However, deep down he knew they were lies. They were trapped inside this crater. The exit seems so near and is yet so far away. His hunger was an insatiable beast. It drove him crazy, but a shred of hope. It always did.

Emily fell ill with fever the next day, and that was just the beginning. Soon her eyes turned blank and muddy just like a dead fish. Worse, she growled, and snarled at Blair. That day his heart broke, but he had to leave her. She had turned into one of them. The next days he did even wanted to get up.

This god forsaken place had claimed too much. He hid in the darkness of his own tunnel. Only that gave him the resemblance of safety, as nothing around him made any sense. That was the first time true despair and helplessly ravaged his mind, and from this day on nightmares of battlefields haunted him.

However, as strange as it sounded, the dreams were a relief to him. His body was revitalized in them. He run, hacked, and slashed. It was thrilling made him feel good for once. That was something he need the most. Even cutting through his opponent made him rejoice. Their screams were like an orchestra to him, and he fell even deeper into the dreams madness. It got to a point where he wanted nothing more than to finish the day and fall asleep. It was his escape from reality.

Every night he sank deeper into the dream of endless killing. That was until he realized that his thoughts slowed down and that his feelings were distorted. He didn´t care about survival or flight anymore. No, the only thought repeatedly humming through his brain had become, hurt something, and kill someone. He even caught himself absent mindedly staring outside at the people. Something inside him wanted to hurt them.

That was the moment that Blair realized the foul play. It was like a spell had started to transform him. For a brief moment his mind cleared up, and one thought sprung up inside him. Resist the nightmare, and resist the changes. Never would he allow himself to enjoy his strength in the dream again.

It was difficult, but his will regained its unwavering determination. Every night he fled the battlefield, took the hits, but never retaliated. His face warped every time he got cut. At the he would wake up, look at the place he got wounded at and smiled as he was unhurt. Then he would go deeper into his tunnel and drink from the puddles that refilled every day. That became his routine, and with time he accepted it.

The days turned into leaves of a booklet, passing by. Until something unbelievable happened. Blair nearly thought he was caught in a fever dream, but an cultivator actually descended into the cave. He gathered his strength and crawled to the exit of his tunnel, looking at everything that happened. From there he saw the cultivator's face for a brief moment, and he halted in his tracks. Cold sweat run down his forehead. It was his kidnapper. The worst motherfucking bastard Blair had ever seen. He would recognize him after a thousand years.

The transformed people emerged from their tunnels and crevices, like sheep flocking to a Shepard. The cultivator stretched out his arm once he was at the bottom of the pit, and breed rained to the ground from his hand. It came out of thin air. The sudden urge to go into the pit overcame Blair, but managed to stop himself.

The cultivator had an ice cold face, not as frightening as Blair remembered, but bad enough. There was no pity in his gaze as he observed the people scrambling. They fought, and shoved each other. It was the most brutal display of madness he had ever seen. The people fought, not even for the food but out of joy. Whereas some munched down chunks of bread. Others quickly used the opportunity to kick them down, grabbing their food. Just to continue fighting. It was utter madness. Hundreds lay on the floor, twitching like near dead insects as the fight wrapped up. The strongest people carried lots of food away. The view went shivers run down Blair’s spine as his stomach growled. Meanwhile, the cultivator observed everything. It was clear that he wasn´t here to safe anyone. No. He was their jailer, finally feeding the prisoners.