I had gone out to the forest when I was a kid. We live on a small island with lots of woods and vegetation (largely unexplored). There is regular naval traffic to our island from small fishing boats, and people frequently fish on the coast. To get to the mainland, there's a travel vessel that comes around every month or so. You can pay for a ticket to get back to the mainland or one of the other islands on its route.

Out in the forest in the centre of the island, I discovered a cave. Not unusual in this type of place. I went to explore as kids do. The cave was dark and mystic. My juvenile mind was racing with fantasies of finding pirate treasure or mystical, magical artefacts. I had no idea then how right I was.

Mindless of the dangers of an unexplored cave, I fell into a shaft while playing fencing with sticks. Fear and a sharp pain in my back were all I felt before everything went black.

I woke up on the ground with some pebbles poking me in the back. Thankfully, I hadn't landed on any larger or sharper rocks. I lifted my hand towards the back of my head and felt a hard stickiness. From what I could tell, I wasn't bleeding. The bleeding must have stopped while I was passed out.

I wondered how long I had been out. The pain in the back of my head wasn't bothering me too much, but I needed to get out and back home. The problem, it was pitch dark. I could barely make out the top of the shaft where I fell off. The wall was quite smooth. I don't think I can climb it. Next to me, there appears to be a small tunnel leading further down. If I follow it down, perhaps I can find my way back out. It's risky. I could potentially endanger myself even more, and without a light, there's no way...wait! My back pocket! Yes, there it is. I still have my lighter. At least now, I will be able to see a little bit.

I know the safest option is probably staying here and waiting for help, but few people travel this far into the woods. It could take them days, maybe weeks, to find me. That doesn't sound too good to me. Besides, I want to see where this tunnel leads. Perhaps it has some cool stuff in it. The last cave I explored had bones from a dead bear in it, and I've found other cool things in other caverns.

Eager to explore, I bent down, lit my lighter, and crawled into the narrow tunnel. Usually, I'm not very excited about my small size, but this crevice was very thin. I could just barely make it inside.

I had been crawling for the better part of an hour when I started getting tired. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. I had long since put back my lighter in my back pocket. No reason to waste light here.

I laid down or, since I was already laying down, simply stopped crawling. I put my ears up. Maybe if I could hear a breeze or a sound of running water, I could determine if there was any worth going forward. Yeah, aha, yup, absolutely nothing. I couldn't hear anything at all. I tried smelling; maybe I could pick something up with my nose. Nope, just my own sweat.  I need a shower.

I lay there for a while thinking. But I have never been very cautious by nature and decided to risk it. I kept crawling. I kept crawling for another three hours until I heard something. At least that's how long I think I spent crawling, there's no way to tell the time in here, and I'm not wearing a watch.

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I kept crawling. The sound was becoming louder. I could hear running water with some other faint sounds. Hopefully, I'll reach an opening soon.

I finally got out. The narrow tunnel opened up into a new space. I tried to stand up. I could. I pulled out my lighter and lit it. The new room looked pretty significant, but my flame wasn't big enough to spread the light far enough. I kept walking until I found the stream, all the while looking around this huge cave. I bent down to drink some water. It was fresh and cold, quite thankfully. This had certainly been a fun adventure. But unfortunately, I hadn't found anything remarkable yet.

I could hear a strange sound above the stream. It was a thumping sound. It could be footsteps. Maybe there's some animal in here. It has a rhythm to it. It almost sounds like a drum. It could be an exit. 

Looks like it was time to keep going. I made my way across the stream, trying to locate the sound. I walked slowly, watching the ground before every step. No need to fall into another hole. It took me about ten minutes to narrow down the direction of the sound. 

I managed to walk through several tunnels before the sound got louder. I held my hand toward the wall for support. Ahead I could see a corridor. The corridor was made of bricks. It must be a man-made construction. I could see a faint red and block glow coming off the entrance to the corridor. For some reason, it gave me chills and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. 

I stuck my head inside. The passage went in two directions. I could see only a long brick corridor leading nowhere and slowly fading to blackness in the rightmost direction. When I looked left, I again the bright red and black light. It also appeared to be where the sound was coming from. 

I walked into the left passage. I needed to find out what that light and sound was. 

I reached the end of the corridor after walking for another ten minutes. It opened up into a room. In the middle of the room was a black fire burning bright. Hovering in the air at the back of the room was a giant pulsing heart. Around the heart hung a necklace with some kind of coin pendant. It was difficult to tell. But I think I could see the markings of a skull on the pendant. 

My hair stood on end, it was hard to breathe, and the aura from the heart was so strong it felt like someone was stabbing knives into me all over my skin. Yet, I couldn't help but feel excited. I had finally found something worth bringing home. 

The heart could be dangerous. I didn't know enough about magic to tell what this was. I didn't know anything about magic. I know there are some schools on the mainland where they teach it. But it's extremely expensive and hard to get in. 

I couldn't help but feel attracted to the heart. I wanted to get closer. I wanted to reach out and touch it. I took a step into the room, and it was like walking into a lake of syrup. The air became thick and hard, and it was hard to move around. 

I kept taking steps toward the heart. The air started burning my skin as I got closer to the heart. I didn't care. I needed to get closer. I kept walking until I was right next to the heart. By this point, the air was so hot it felt like I was bathing in lava. It was more pain than I had ever felt before. It was more pain than I ever knew I could feel. 

I took the last step and reached out. There appeared to be some kind of aura around the heart preventing me from touching it directly. I could only feel with my hand around the aura until I snagged onto the necklace, and it leapt into my hand. 

Blinding hot pain radiated from my hand. I could the gold metal coin melting in my hand and shooting inside my body. Black flames engulfed me. Flesh melted off my bones. Gold strands of metal intertwined all my bones. The pain was beyond what I could imagine. I knew I was dying. I knew I going insane. All I could feel were the pain. Before everything went dark, I heard the scream of a woman, or maybe it was me, and a burst of dark laughter.