A tear fell down his face as he whispered,

“You stubborn old man… Why did you have to be wrong?”

After some time passed, he turned around and walked down the path towards the small wooden cabin at the base of the cliff. The nine year old cabin was well built and still functional even though he and his father had built, before Jake had even turned 20. Neither of them had had any experience in building at the time, and it had taken them a little over a year to put it together. It had been a hard project and it came with a lot of cussing, and smashed thumbs but it was satisfying after they had finished it.

He took a quick look over his shoulder towards the horizon between the trees before opening the door and stepping inside.

Setting the now empty urn on a shelf, he took a look around the cabin. All of this was his now. He had figured that eventually he would have inherited it but it was just too soon.

Moving to the bathroom, he looked into the mirror while gripping the sides of the sink.

“Man, don’t I just look like utter shit?”

Looking back at him through a pair of glasses was a tired and young-looking man with short messy brown hair and a pair of green eyes, puffy and bloodshot from the crying. Black bags underneath his eyes showed a lack of sleep. Even with his strong jawline he couldn’t really see what it was that Mare seemed to see in his looks. He thought that he might be considered handsome if it wasn’t for the pockmarks from his childhood acne. Though he wouldn’t complain if she liked it. 

Jake turned the faucet handle so he could wash his face. The only thing came out was a couple drips and the sound of air blowing through empty pipes.

“Well fuck” he sighed.

Jake had not prepared the pump to the well last night when he had gotten in. Having gotten in late and being mentaly drained, he had just crashed.

“Well, let’s go get it done. Afterwards I really should call Mare, otherwise I'll end up sleeping on the couch when I get back. She’s prolly already pissed with me from not calling last night…” grumbled Jake.

On his way out of the bathroom he noticed something wrong. It was eerily quiet, no birds, no insects, not even the wind could be heard. Then that changed. Every bird launched into the air at once squawking in fear, a second later a deep rumble reverberated through his body and chest as if he was standing in front of a subwoofer.

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“What is….”

Before he could even finish his words everything started to shake and fly off the shelves. Before Jake could react, a pitch black maw opened up underneath him in the middle of the cabin and swallowed him and plunged him into darkness.

“SHIIIIIIIIT!!”

The loud cracking of snapping branches could be heard as he smacked into the ground. The only problem was, there were no branches. Groaning, he grit his teeth and looked around. From the little light that was coming in from the hole he fell through, and a few other holes that seemed to lead outside, it appeared that he had fallen into some sort of a cavern. It was dim and a little obscured from the dust in the air but from what he could see he had fallen at least 10 meters(32 ft) down. Looking down at his legs he figured out what the cracking noise was. They were angled in not only the wrong direction but in multiple directions, blood was slowly pooling underneath him. It felt as if he was a spectator though, as he couldn’t feel anything. 

“Well I’m not walking out of here,” Jake spoke with a nervous giggle. He fished his phone out of his pocket, which ended up being more of a chore than he thought it would be. He was having trouble feeling his hands as well. When he finally got it out of his pocket, he looked it over and luckily the screen didn’t look cracked or broken in any way. That didn’t mean it worked though, the damn thing wouldn’t turn on. 

“FUCK!!” Jake heaved the phone at the wall in a fit of rage. At least that's what he tried to do, instead it slipped out of his numb hands causing it to skid into the darkness and out of sight. He grimaced, realizing how stupid he was, attempting to smash probably the only thing that might save his life. Even though it didn’t smash into anything, the chances of him being able to crawl and find it were low. 

“Woosahhhh woosaaaahhh,” he tried to take a few deep breaths trying to calm down, but this just caused him into a fit of coughing which tinged his lips red. After he stopped coughing he had calmed down. 

Of course he was going to die in an earthquake… Couldn’t he have gone in a more interesting way, such as on a toilet or something? The fact that he was having these weird thoughts instead of freaking out was probably due to the blood loss.

That’s when things seemed to go from bad to worse. The ground started to shake again. At the exact same time a small black crack in space appeared in the shadows outside his line of sight as well as a much larger one deep in the earth below him. Out of the small crack a small ball of misty light shot out and straight into his chest. It happened so fast that he didn’t even notice it. At the same time a wave of energy so thick it looked like liquid shot up out of the large crack and surged to the surface as it passed through Jake.

It would have been quite beautiful if not for the surging pain that shot through his body with the wave of energy. Then the screaming started. Not the screaming of panic but the scream of a man in excruciating pain, a scream so severe that his vocal cords started to tear. A pain so deep spread through his body and soul. He was torn apart and rebuilt by every element in an endless cycle. There seemed to be no end in sight. Was it seconds or had it been years? He was unsure. Then silence. Jake muttered out, “I’m sorry Mare,” before darkness took him.

As Jake laid in the fetal position unconscious, a crevice opened up and swallowed him whole before closing back up. At the same time, a small intricately carved opening appeared in the wall of the cavern.