Nar came too slowly, air still roaring past him.

He had fallen to the floor, and had lost the others.

“Jul?” he croaked, tasting blood.

“H-Here…”

“Tuk?”

“Also… Here.”

Quest participant’s HP/Stamina points restored.

Quest participant’s pending gains have been applied.

Quest, Follow the arrows, will proceed.

“Crystal,” Tuk muttered. “My eyes…”

His [Sight] must have been unblocked. Nar still remembered his own [Sight] unlocking. It had felt like someone had repeatedly stabbed his eyes, over and over again.

“Are you alright?” he asked the trugger.

“I… Yes. I think so.”

Whatever they were on top off, started to slow down, and Nar was able to get up to one knee.

“Is everyone still here?” Kur’s voice asked, from somewhere to their left. “Everyone reply!”

“Here!” Tuk said.

“Here,” Jul said.

Nar, Mul, Gad and Viy, all replied back. But a voice was missing.

“Cen? Cen!” Mul shouted.

“Here.”

“Fucking… Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Sorry. I’m here.”

“Is anybody hurt?” Kur asked. “It doesn’t sound like it, and we just got that emergency whatever, but asking just in case.”

There was a chorus of negatives, with Cen’s trailing last.

“What now?” Gad asked.

“I mean, I guess we need to wait until we stop,” Kur said. “Jul, anything?”

“Nothing, sorry.”

“That’s fine. Let’s just wait for now then.”

Their ascent continued to slow, until finally, with a heavy clunk, they stopped.

Around them, there was nothing but absolute pitch darkness, and silence lay heavy over the party.

“Well, isn’t this great,” Mul said.

“Shhh… Please?” Jul whimpered.

Tuk shifted next to Nar. “It says to follow the arrows, but…”

“Just wait,” Kur said.

A long stretch of silence passed by.

“For how long?” Mul asked.

“I don’t know. Just wait. And be quiet.”

However, the silence just went on, and nothing happened.

Stolen novel; please report.

Eventually, Kur sighed.

“Fine. Jul, Nar? Do you guys sense anything?”

Nar shook his head. Then realized that the party leader couldn’t see him.

“I can’t see anything. It’s too dark,” he said.

“I-I think I see something,” Jul said. “Walls, maybe. Like a corridor.”

Tuk breathed in relief. “At least we’re not out in the open anymore.”

“Are there any holes at our feet?” Kur asked.

“Not that I can see. But I can’t really see much.”

The sound of someone hyperventilating reached Nar’s ears.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“It’s Viy,” Gad said. “Viy, calm down. It will be okay.”

“I-I can see…”

“Yes, none of us can. It will be alright.”

“No! I can see. I can see them!”

A shiver ran down Nar's spine.

“What the fuck is she on about?” Mul asked.

“Shhh,” Kur said, silencing the brawler. “Viy, everything will be alright, okay?”

The spear woman didn’t reply, but her panicked gasping didn’t slow down either.

“I think I see something!” Jul shouted. “I think there’s light…”

“Where?” Tuk asked.

“In the direction behind Kur. I can barely see it, but I think it's there.”

Nar still didn’t see anything.

“It must be really far then,” Kur said.

“Do we go?” Gad asked.

“It’s probably better than staying here. Nothing has happened so far. No arrows, no nothing,” Kur said.

“I think we should go,” Jul told them.

Mul groaned. “I hate when you say that. It’s not that I’m being mean! It’s just that it usually means bad things.”

“I know… It-It’s okay.”

“Does that mean it’s a bad thing?” Tuk asked.

“I don’t know. Only that we should go,” Jul said.

Kur drew out a long exhale. “That’s enough reason for me. I doubted your senses down there, and look what happened. I’m sorry. I’ll apologize properly once we're somewhere safer.”

“It-It’s alright!”

“No, it’s not. Anyways, for now, let’s just go. What's the floor looking like?”

“For now, it’s clear. I’ll guide you.”

Following her instructions, the party slowly moved in the direction of the light she saw.

It was a long while before Nar managed to just about notice a difference in the darkness. And a while later, he was sure that he could see it too.

“I see it,” he whispered to the others.

“Good, let’s keep going,” Kur said, in the same tone.

They continued for another while, along that long corridor.

Little by little, Nar started to discern the walls around them. They were in a nondescript 10 by 10-feet corridor, like many they had walked through before.

However, as they approached the light, he started to get the feeling that something was different.

Jul suddenly cried out, muffling it with her hands

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I heard it…” she breathed, her voice quivering.

“Heard what?” Kur asked.

“Them. They’re real…”

Nar’s breath caught on his throat.

No… It can’t be!

“We need to run,” she said, crying now. “We need to hurry!”

“Is it bad now?” Mul asked.

“Yes! We need to run!”

They burst into a jog, speeding down the corridor towards the light.

The closer they got, the surer Nar became, until he was certain.

“That light is not yellow. It’s purple.”

“What? What does that mean?” Tuk asked.

“We’ll find out once we get there. In formation!”

Nar’s sword was on his hand with barely a thought.

The light grew and grew, and suddenly, they burst out of the darkness, and the party came to a halt.

“Well, we found the arrows…” Tuk whispered.

The corridor they were in was another 10 by 10-feet square. However, almost every inch of it was covered in arrows.

Purple arrows.

They all pointed towards the right, somewhat. They were thrown together in a haphazard way, their angles shifting up and down, none of them actually pointing straight.

“I don’t like this,” Gad said. “I don’t know why. But I don’t.”

“No. Me neither,” Kur said.

Their faces glowed eerily under that purple light, as they looked around them.

Jul cried again, and covered her antennae.

This time, Nar caught a bit of it too.

“I heard something,” he said, pushing his [Hearing] to the limits.

“What was it?” Kur asked.

“I’m not sure… It was very far.”

“Should we follow the arrows?” Gad asked.

Kur shook his head, shrugging. “I-I don’t know. Something about this doesn’t feel right. What happened to our yellow path?”

“You don’t think we’ve gone off the path, do you?” Tuk asked.

“Crystal…” Mul muttered.

There was a sudden moan and they all jumped.

“Viy?”

Viy was by the wall. She moved her hands over the arrows, as if to caress them, making that strange moaning and croaking sound.

“What’s wrong?” Gad asked, approaching her.

“I see them…” Viy whispered. “I see them!”

She banged her head against the wall, screaming.

“I see them! I see them! I see them! I see…”

Cen screamed too, but Gad had already pulled Viy back from the wall.

Kur crossed the distance in two long steps, and tried to help Gad with Viy.

“Viy, calm down!” he shouted. “Everything's okay!”

“I see them! I see them!”

Nar stared in horror at Viy’s mad expression, as she struggled against their hold.

“What the fuck?” Mul whispered.

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, she stopped, and dropped in Gad’s arms, breathing hard. A bruise was already forming on her forehead.

“Viy?” Gad asked.

“Please, don’t let them catch me. Tell them I didn’t know… I didn’t know…”

Then she passed out.

“Almighty Crystal above!” Tuk whispered. “What in the pile was that?”

Sound reached Nar’s ears again. But this time, they all heard it.

“Crystal have mercy!” Cen murmured.

The echoing sound was loud and clear this time. And closer.

There was no mistaking it for anything else.

“We need to go,” Nar said, grabbing one of Jul’s hands before she could curl into a ball. “We need to go now, before it’s too late!”

“Yes… Yes!” Kur said. “Let’s go!”

“Where?”

“After the arrows! Where else?”

Gad scooped Viy into her arms and ran without a word. The rest of the party followed after her, running after the strange mismatched purple arrows.

Jul cried behind him, tugging at his hand to break free, but Nar didn’t let go.

Unbidden, the stories he used to hear as a child came to him now.

Beware, beware, the laughter in the dark…

Behind them, the corridor echoed, full with the sound of laughter.