River stood. She stared into the dark passageway. The skeleton wasn’t visible yet, but she could hear it approaching. Each step it took clattered its old bones against the stone.

  Clack… clack… clack…

  She tightened her hands into fists and glared into the darkness. Her eyes burned with unshed tears, but she shook her head.

  River wasn’t going to be eaten alive again. She wouldn’t allow herself to suffer that pain a second time. Never again. Never.

  There was still fear in her. There was a great deal of fear, but she bit it back and turned it into something else. Anger. Blind fury had a kind of bravery unto itself, and that was what she needed right now.

  River bent down and picked up a rock. It was heavy in her hand.

  Clack… clack… clack…

  The skeleton stepped into the dim light and a shiver ran over her skin at the sight of the thing. Fresh fear bloomed in her chest, threatening to drown out the rage that she had deliberately cultivated. Again, she shook her head and glared at the skeleton, fuming as her hand shook.

  When the skeleton came close enough, River drew back and hurled the stone as hard as she could at the monster. The rock struck the thing’s sternum, cracking and shattering the bones of its chest and sending fragments skipping and skiddering across the stone floor. The skeleton inclined its head to look down at its own body, then looked back up to stare emptily at River with its hollow eye sockets.

  It quickened its step, walking faster with that hollow, insistent clacking of its skeletal feet against stone.

  River knelt, picked up another rock, and chucked it at the skeleton. It crashed into its left arm, shattering it at the elbow. The monster lurched forward, its one hand reaching for her. River shouted inarticulately and punched the thing directly in the face, sending the skull sailing off its skeletal body and clattering down the hallway. The rest of the skeleton immediately fell apart into a pile of bones.

  River stood there for a moment, staring at her own fist in surprise. She had actually beaten it! She-

  There was a hollow rumbling sound as the skull rolled out of the darkness, heading straight for the pile of bones at River’s feet. “Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me!”

  She ran forward to intercept the skull, drew back her leg and stomped it under her boot. The old bones cracked and broke underfoot, but River wasn’t satisfied that it was finally dead until she had jumped and stomped on the thing to the point where it was just dust and fragments. Then, for good measure, she pushed all the rest of the bones far away from her.

  Finally, she collapsed into a heap under the sunlight leaking down from far above.

  The adrenaline shakes were still playing tricks with her muscles, but she finally had a chance to calm down.

  River drew deep breaths of cool air and laughed. She wasn’t feeling happy and nothing about this was funny. Her knuckles hurt from when she had punched the skeleton.

  But she was alive, so she laughed. She wanted to go home. A couple tears ran down her cheeks and she rubbed them out of her eyes. No more crying. She’d already done enough of that. It wouldn’t help anymore.

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  Hours passed at the bottom of the well. River sat and stared into the dark passageway across from her. Occasionally she would look up at the sky far above and watch the clouds pass by.

  At first she had tried to climb her way out. That was as much an exercise in futility as she had ever seen. The stone walls of the vertical shaft were smooth to the touch, devoid of any cracks or imperfections that could serve as a handhold.

  River had been hesitant to try and call out for anyone who might be able to help her, hopeful that someone aboveground might hear and come to her rescue. She had been afraid that more skeletons might come and attack, but she eventually came to the conclusion that it was worth the risk. No one would rescue her if they didn’t know she was down here. She shouted and yelled for hours, but no one came.

  It was getting late, now. The sky had turned into sunset shades of yellow, pink and orange and River knew that the dark navy blue of nightfall would soon follow.

  If the skeletons attacked her in the night, would she even be able to see them? She would hear them, sure, but how would she defend herself if she couldn’t see? The worry and anxiety gnawed at her. It gnawed and bit at her, and she shuddered, folding in on herself.

  River had long since given up on making sense of all of this. Everything she knew about the world had been turned upside down by the mere existence of a skeleton moving on its own. Well, that paired with the fact that she had actually died and come back to life. All that she could surmise was that she was somewhere else. Somewhere that skeletons could walk around and eat people. And through some kind of fate or magic or cosmic accident, she had been brought here.

  To the bottom of a well, where she had been eaten by a skeleton.

  River sighed and buried her face in her hands.

  Night fell and the stars stared down at River as she rested her chin on her knees, arms wrapped around her legs. At some point she fell asleep in spite of her earlier certainty that sleep would be impossible. She dreamt of gnashing teeth.

  Morning brought birdsong, bright sunshine and screaming. Mostly screaming for help to anyone who might be close enough to hear. Mostly.

  It was midday. River was already getting hungry and she hadn’t even been down here for a full day yet. Her stomach rumbled angrily, but she had nothing. Only her clothes, a pile of bones that she still refused to get anywhere close to, and a couple good sized rocks.

  All in all, this was about the worst equipment anyone could start out with. Well, at least she wasn’t naked. Silver linings were important, especially on cloudy days. The thing was, River wasn’t feeling very optimistic given the most likely prospects of being either, A, eaten alive, or B, starving to death.

  But hey, at least she still had her winning sense of humor, right? River gave a self deprecating smile to no-one in particular before hanging her head.

  She knew what she had to do, she was just putting it off. Every time she tried to psyche herself up at the edge of the tunnel leading into darkness, she remembered the pain and the teeth. It was an ugly fear that poisoned her mind and she knew it. It was useless, holding her back. She knew that she needed to go, she knew that no one was going to save her.

  But every time, she went back and sat at the bottom of the well. She wasn’t that hungry yet, after all.

  Night came and went. It was a cold, shivering affair that chilled River down to the bone and sent her teeth chattering through the cold hours of moonlight.

  Just one moon in this sky, River thought to herself. How cliché would it be to have two?

  Morning came again. River hugged her stomach. She was so hungry, and this was only two days without food. She’d never felt this hungry in her life. Her stomach groaned loudly, painfully.

  Midday. She was finally at the end of her rope, so to speak. River stood in the passageway, past the point where she had pushed the remains of the skeleton. Any further would be a walk through pure darkness. The sun was directly overhead, shining straight into the well. This was the most lit the tunnel would ever be.

  She had no choice. That wasn’t true, of course; it just wasn’t a very good set of options to choose from. River did have a choice: she could either stay and starve to death like a coward, or she could swallow her fear and try to survive.

  She’d already chosen. The darkness swallowed her as River stepped into the unknown.