I turned up the brightness on my phone to make sure I was seeing things right. Unfortunately, I was.

The chamber I had just entered was like some sort of junction: in the photo I could see at least four passages. For all I knew, there were even more outside of the shot’s frame.

To say that my mind started to distract itself by thinking about other things would be an understatement. At first, my thoughts were still somewhat related to the situation. Scenes in movies involving elaborate mazes, video games with or without convenient in-game maps, Greek myths, video games inspired by Greek myths…

It spiraled from there, and took a sharp pain to snap me out of my reverie - I had started to shift my weight onto my injured leg. Using that pain to help me focus, I looked at the photo again to see if any of the passages looked more promising than the others.

There was something odd at the bottom of the image that was only partially in frame. It appeared small and lumpy, but had a slightly different color than the rest of the cave. Zooming in didn’t help. I would have to check it out with the flashlight.

I turned on the light, keeping my thumb over it so I could reveal more or less as-needed. I kept it pointed at the ground directly in front of me and took a few cautious steps into the chamber. After a minute, I felt confident enough to angle my phone to shine the light further ahead.

The odd shape from the photo was another one of those big rat-opossum-things. Opossrodent? Ratsupial? I’ll settle on something eventually. Fortunately, it was dead - nearly cut in half, and it seemed like it happened somewhat recently. The wound was something only a weapon could make… unless there were other strange creatures here with that sort of capability.

Okay, let’s assume that an actual person went through here not too long ago. Maybe I can track them down? Not sure what kind of person goes around in caves, slicing up animals, but I’d probably be safer with them than alone.

Much less concerned about being attacked by any rats in this chamber, I started shining my light down the various passages to see if anything stood out. Sure enough, maybe fifty feet down one of them, I saw two more dead rats. Okay, they went this way… or is this the way they came from?

As if answering my question, I saw a light moving from left to right at what must have been an intersection even farther down that passage. It was only for a moment, but it was good enough for me. What are the odds that I’m being lured by the cave-monster equivalent of an anglerfish? …I tried to avoid dwelling on that possibility.

Wanting to catch up to the person with the light, and feeling safer seeing the dead rats, I practically jogged down the passage. Only the pain in my leg prevented me from running. The silence was interrupted by echoing sounds coming from somewhere ahead, sounding like clanging and possibly voices, although it was hard to tell.

The sounds stopped as quickly as they started. I reached the intersection at the end of the tunnel before long, and shined the light down both the left and right sides to be safe. There was nothing of note on either side, so I went in the direction I saw the light move.

A minute later, I passed another dead rat… or mostly dead, as it was still twitching despite having its guts spilling out. I gave it as wide a berth as I could, given how narrow the passage was… which seemed to be getting even more narrow the further I went. Thoughts of being literally stuck in a cave while monstrous rats started eating me alive were unavoidable, but I knew that someone had just passed through here.

My wishes for the passage to widen were soon granted, in an “ironic genie” sort of way: it forked into two separate tunnels. Fuck it - just pick one and go. Only a few steps into the left tunnel, however, I heard the same kind of sounds as before, coming from the opposite tunnel. I doubled back and took the right tunnel, as the echoing noises grew louder.

There was the clanging of metal on stone, the snarling of one of the rat-things, and the unmistakable sound of voices yelling out. At least two people were fighting another rat up ahead. I planned to get as close as possible to actually confirm what was happening, and then wait until it was over. Barring that, I would just stay out of harm’s way.

By now, I could see torchlight flickering as it reflected off of the damp cave walls, as well as the occasional shadow. The light seemed to blur, and then everything went a little blurry, and I felt light-headed. I pointed my light down at my left leg. The strip of fabric I had tied around the wound was already dark, but it was obvious that it had become completely soaked in my blood.

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If I hadn’t been already leaning against the cave wall, I would have collapsed. Continuing to use the wall for balance, I Maybe it was the blood loss, or maybe I was just that curious, but I dragged myself the last few feet towards the chamber. Just as I peeked around the corner to get a good look, another snarl filled the room, much louder than before.

Two people were fighting an absolutely enormous rat monster. The smaller rats had been disgusting enough, but at the size of a sedan, this mother-of-all-rats was significantly worse. Warty growths bulged from various parts of its body, while the rest of it was covered in fur that was caked in various disturbing substances. Its tail was at least as long as the rest of its body, whipping back and forth threateningly as the creature snapped at its opponents. Spit sprayed from its long snout with each snap, and I’m not kidding when I say that sometimes I can still smell it.

The closest figure was in front of the rat: a petite young woman, around five feet tall, with tan skin and golden blonde hair. She was wearing a breastplate, as well as some armor on her arms and legs, all of which looked a little too big for her. Brandishing a sword in one hand and holding up a small wooden shield in the other, there was an unmistakable look of fear on her surprisingly attractive face.

Scared or not, it was impressive. Holy shit - she’s right in that thing’s face! Occasionally, her expression would turn from fear to pure determination - and then right back again. The rat swiped its claws at her, but the petite warrior raised her shield at the last second. The creature’s claws slammed into the shield, and the young woman’s cry of pain made it clear how much that had to have hurt her arm.

The other combatant was as far back as possible from the armored girl and the rat, and was holding the torch that I had been following. It was harder to get a good look at her, between the distance, poor light, and my occasionally-blurring vision. Her occasional groans of frustration made me fairly confident that she was a woman. She was wearing baggy white robes that reached the ground, with the hood pulled up.

The robed woman had one hand raised in the direction of her companion. I thought I saw a tiny bit of flickering coming from her palm - probably just embers from the torch - before she closed her hand into a fist and angrily shook it. “What the– THIA!”

Thia, as the blonde woman was apparently called, made another attempt to move away from the giant rat’s jaws. Instead of smaller steps, Thia sprinted around to the monster’s side, putting the creature between her and the other woman.

“Don’t move out of my range!” Growling in frustration, the robed woman dashed in order to reposition herself - or that seemed to be the plan. Almost immediately, she fell hard to the ground, dropping the torch. It clattered and slid out of her reach, but fortunately, remained lit. “Fucking robes!”

This caught the beast’s attention. Instead of turning after Thia, it moved to face the prone woman. Now it was fully facing away from me, but I could see that it was slowly opening its jaws, its long, slimy, tongue sliding out, with buckets of drool oozing onto the cave floor.

Breathing heavily, Thia ran towards the rat’s flank. She swung her sword - a direct hit - and the monster let out an ear-piercing screech. Some blood splattered on her face, not even coming close to marring her beauty. In retaliation, the creature’s long, hairless, tail whipped through the air and struck Thia, knocking her over.

I saw a pale blue glow in my peripheral vision and looked towards the robed woman. She hadn’t moved off the ground, likely trying not to draw the creature’s attention again, but her hand was slightly raised. There was no mistaking it this time - the glow was coming from her palm, but was flickering in and out. The woman groaned with exertion. Suddenly, the glow filled her entire hand, then shot towards Thia, who was struggling to stand.

None of this seemed to concern the giant rat. After screeching, it seemed angrier than ever. The woman tried to roll away, but the rat grabbed her with its paws, which held her down as she struggled. Its snout moved in for the kill, but then started to shake. Tiny, but numerous, sparks of light were flashing directly in the creature’s eyes, distracting it. Even in just the span of a few seconds, the sparks seemed to be fading out.

The fact that my mind hadn’t started thinking about anything else felt like proof that none of this was real. I didn’t want this to be real. I was obviously imagining it! But the pain, not to mention the terror, I was feeling… those felt genuine. I was going to die here, either from my wounds, or from the monster.

Another surge of pain made me tense up. I felt the dagger in my hand. It wasn’t much, but…

If I’m going to die anyway, I may as well do something. Give them a chance to get out of here.

My heart was pounding. Holding onto the wall, I pulled myself to my feet. The pain, the dizziness, the fear - it all became white noise in my head.

There were barely any more sparks around the rat’s head, and I could hear the woman panting and grunting. The creature emitted another piercing shriek, which helped muffle my footsteps as I ran into the chamber. With as much strength as I could muster, I stabbed the dagger into its back, next to the base of its tail.

The monster’s head shot up, gurgling and screeching even more. I was shocked at how easily the small blade pierced its flesh, and stabbed it again, and again, and again.

The sound of a woman screaming in rage drowned out the rat’s squeals of pain. I turned my head just in time to see Thia thrust her sword fully into the monster’s side. Grunting, she pushed down on her blade. It slid through the rat, spilling blood and guts all over the floor… and herself.

The creature’s cries turned to gurgles, and then its head fell onto the robed woman with a thump. She gasped as the wind was knocked out of her.

The adrenaline wore off all at once. I couldn’t stand any longer, and I slumped against the now-dead body of the giant rat-thing. Its upsettingly moist fur squelched as it broke my fall, and I hoped to pass out as soon as possible.