The first thing to enter the cave was light. Faye wasn’t about to let herself drop in blindly. Still, she had to be quick about it. The goblins had seen them, and seemed particularly eager to catch up with them, but considering how the humans in that world treated them, she didn’t think the creatures were ready to roll out the welcome mat, hand them a map and some food, and send them on their way.

She swept the light from the flashlight around the interior of the cave. It would be a tight fit, particularly for Owen, but she was relieved to see that it was empty. She could see a passage leading deeper into the cave. If they needed to, they could retreat further inside.

“It’s clear,” she announced, then swung her legs into the opening and slipped inside. Emma followed in suit, using her own flashlight to light up the inside while Faye helped Owen climb in.

“It opens up more down here,” Emma mentioned, looking down the passageway. “Looks clear.”

“What about bats?” Owen asked after he got inside.

“Bats don’t eat people,” Emma replied.

“If those things are goblins, who’s to say vampires aren’t things we need to worry about?” Owen pointed out.

Faye thought it was a fair question at that point.

“It’s clear,” Emma repeated.

Faye only gave Owen a silent shrug, then followed Emma deeper into the cave. The cave walls were thin, but oddly straight. Even the floor, while extremely uneven, was level. They followed it as it led down, until they found themselves in an expansive cavern. While it was cool inside the cave, the air was thick with moisture and the smell of mold. She again swept the flashlight around, illuminating the room and its collection of stalactites. Down the center of the room a small stream flowed, going down deeper into the cave. She got the sense that the cave went on for quite a while, but couldn’t decide if that was a good or a bad thing.

How long would they have to hide there? How would they know the goblins had left the area? What if they knew about the cave, or could track them there? Were they smart enough to track them?

She could tell even from a distance they wore clothing. One of the goblins was wearing a hood, and the tall one wore what looked to be a toga.

Was the tall one even a goblin, or was he more like the hobgoblins she’d seen in comics and video games? His-- was it even a he?-- skin was more tan than the others. Were they the same species at different ages, or was he an entirely different creature?

The questions flowed through her head as she looked around inside the cave, and it almost distracted her from actually considering what she was seeing.

But thankfully, a face staring at her from the darkness caused her to leap back to reality. She stopped on a dime, and let out a short scream, drawing the attention of the others, who added their light to hers in the darkness.

It wasn’t a face. It was a drawing of one-- or rather, some sort of tiled fresco embedded into the curved ceiling of the cave wall.

“Jesus this isn’t a cave,” Owen commented. “This is a ruin.”

It suddenly made sense. The ridge showed no evidence of a ruin on the surface. But beneath it, she could see the structure. The level floors. The large room with the curved ceilings. The narrow passageways. He was right, they were in a ruin.

And the fresco that she had been so frightened by, it was a face. But not a human one. At least, it didn’t look human. It was round and dark, with yellow eyes and a long lower jaw. Most of it had faded away, the remnants of the tiles on the floor for countless years. She shone the flashlight around and found other places the fresco hadn’t faded away.

She examined them with the innate curiosity she’d been cursed with as a child. There were more examples of the face she’d seen earlier, with their bodies. They were tall, dark and incredibly thin. They appeared to walk on all fours.

But another section showed one with cupped hands, dropping water onto a red flower. Another one appeared to be carrying a block of stone or wood.

“You guys, look at this one,” Emma called. She shone the phone’s light onto a detailed fresco near the center of the room. Faye looked to it, and realized she’d seen it before.

“Shit that’s the portal tree,” he said.

Faye agreed with his assessment. It looked exactly like the tree they’d passed through to get to where they were.

“So wait,” Faye added. “Does that mean these guys have something to do with that tree?”

“I didn’t see anything that looked like these guys. Reminds me of slenderman,” Emma said.

“Can we not invoke horror movie monsters while we’re underground?” Owen asked.

Faye continued down toward a small alcove on the far end of the room. The years had covered up what might have been a small fountain or basin and made it indistinguishable from nature, but the shape was there.

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Wherever they were, at some point it had been inhabited. Was it by humans, or whatever creatures they saw adorning the walls? She ran her hands along a flat area just under the curve of the ceiling. There appeared to be some pattern on them-- small designs.

Symbols. She could barely make out some of them, but could tell some were repeated. They looked like nothing she had ever seen before, but they had to be some sort of writing. She wondered if the symbols told the story of the tree.

If they did, it was unlikely she’d ever know. For all intents and purposes, it was in an alien language that had been dead for so long it turned their temple, or whatever that place was, into a tree-covered ridge.

Faye held a passing interest in archeology. She might even have pursued it as a career if she hadn’t found out that most of their time is spent brushing dirt away from broken old pieces of pottery.

But that place would have been any archeologist’s wet dream.

A noise disturbed their study of the walls suddenly. It came from the passageway leading to the entrance. The light that managed to spill out toward them was suddenly interrupted.

“Shit,” Faye said quietly. The goblins had found the cave entrance. She looked to the others. Emma and Owen quickly turned off their phone flashlights and hib behind a broken pillar between her and the passageway. Faye followed in suit, tucking herself into the alcove and keeping her eyes peeled on the entranceway.

She could hear voices-- high, chittering sounds and quick speaking, muffled by the rocky entrance.

Then she heard a single voice, clearer than the rest.

The goblins were entering the cave.

They needed to think-- if they ran, there was only one place to go, and that was further in the cave. At least it was dark in the cave, but could the goblins see them? What if they had eyes that allowed them to see in the darkness? If that was the case, there would be no hiding. No running.

And if they just camped outside the cave, there would be nowhere for them to go.

Faye’s heart sank as she heard a second goblin’s voice clearly, then a third.

And then a single deep voice spoke from the entrance to the cave, followed by a slow, deep laugh that caused the very hair on the back of her head to stand on end. The hobgoblin was inside the cave.

“Owen,” she whispered. “Get the taser ready.”

There was just enough light creeping in from the entrance to the cave that she could make out four distinct shapes moving toward the expansive room they were in. Faye tried her best to control her breathing. To her, the sound of her breath was deafening. But could the goblins hear it?

The first goblin entered the room and raised his head, looking into the darkness. It raised its nose in the air, then turned back and spoke aloud.

The tall one then moved forward, knocking the first goblin out of the way. She could see its head turn, but couldn’t make out the creature’s features. It moved methodically into the room, then paused.

A moment later, it laughed again.

Faye suddenly realized it could smell them.

It moved closer to them, sniffing the air.

“Oolyeh,” it said. “Oooolyeh.”

It was drawing closer and closer by the moment. How was it so confident moving into the absolute darkness? Was it navigating by smell alone? She was looking right at it and didn’t get the sense that it saw her. Behind it, the other goblins fanned out.

Faye pulled back the closer it got, and closed her eyes, focusing on the sound. It took another step, then another, then paused.

And began to laugh once more. It was between her and the others. She could hear its voice turn away from her.

Owen and Emma were right in front of it.

That’s when Faye realized she had no choice. They weren’t going to be hunted.

This was going to be a fine.

“Hey, ugly!” she yelled. The creature grunted in surprise, then began to roar as it turned in her direction.

That’s when she turned the flashlight back on. The unexpected light struck the hob directly in the face, and it recoiled in surprise and quite possibly pain, covering its face instinctively.

As it stumbled back, she could just make out Owen’s arm striking up toward the creature, the telltale shape of a taser in his hand.

He made contact, and the hob stiffened up in an instant, then fell directly to the ground.

Faye wasted no time. She tossed the flashlight toward Owen and straddled the creature, picking up a nearby rock with both hands and beating it into where she assumed its skull was.

The hob screamed out in horror and struggled after the first strike. With the second he struggled beneath her reaching out for her.

With the third strike, she heard a wet, disgusting sound. The creatures arms still reached out for her, but didn’t seem able to find any purchase, weakly grabbing on to her shoulder.

The fourth strike saw the hob go limp.

The fifth, sixth and seventh were met with more wet sounds, and then silent.

Owen shone the flashlight hob. Its face had been caved in. If it wasn’t dead already, there was no way it would survive through that.

As if to punctuate the thought, a long gurgling sound escaped what was left of the creature’s face, and then it fell silent.

Owen shone the flashlight toward the other three goblins. They stood there, wide-eyed and uncertain of what had just occurred.

“Go on, scram!” Owen yelled.

As if on cue, all three of the scrambled toward the cave entrance. Faye watched as Owen kept the lights trained on them, breathing heavily from the ordeal. The first and second goblins took off without a look back.

But the third-- they third she recognized. It was the one she had seen earlier. It looked back at her, its eyes full of concern but also… something else.

Eventually it, too, left.

After a few moments of silence, Faye managed to catch her breath. Both Emma and Owen could only stare back at her.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Faye demanded.