Chapter 2

They’re beyond disgusting. Completely green, with red eyes, and black surrounding the parts that should be white. Nails so long and sharp they could be considered claws. Short, with round bellies, wearing minimal clothing so their… bits, hangout. And the worst part… the teeth. Rows and rows of teeth with saliva falling out of their mouth, so when they smile or make noises, fear gets instilled into their enemies.

Or at least that’s what happens to me when I see them talk.

Goblins. Yep, they have to be goblins. There is no other explanation, right?

When I stepped through the blue portal-circle, which is now what I am calling it, I landed in a dusty room. The walls of the room were made of a grey stone, with cracks running all around. The walls were curved and bent in random places, almost as if it were made in the side of a mountain. In the room there was a table with nothing but a small glass jar with bugs that were glowing strong enough to allow enough visibility to see where I was stepping. I noticed in the corner of the room there was a small wooden chest.

This is really trippy. Where the hell am I?

I walked over to the chest, and tried to open it. Dang, it’s locked. I move to inspect the lock that keeps the contents of the chest hidden and notice it is rusted over. I try prying it some more, and with a bit of force it surprisingly breaks open.

Aha! Screw you dream world. I’m the best.

I peek inside the worn down chest and am greeted with my findings. The first is a piece of wood with a string attached on one side. I pick it up, and when I hold it by the string, I realize that it is reminiscent of a shield. It’s shoddy, small, and it would probably never hold up in a fight. It’s something that a kid would make in his backyard during a summer break.

I place the shield to my side and pick up the other item. It’s a small sphere that fits into the palm of my hand. It’s perfectly round, with no bumps or scratches. It is mostly see-through, however there is a small dot in the middle that is purple in colour. I look at it some more, and shake it. Nothing happens. I place it into my pocket and pick up the shield, holding it with my left hand.

I stand up, and walk towards the only other thing in the room, the door. It is made of wood, and also completely run down, as there are big chunks missing from it. I look for a handle, and when I do not find one, I try pushing the door. It doesn’t budge. I then grab from where there is a big hole in the wood, and pull, and it loudly begins to creek. I stop moving it before it continues to make more sound.

Right, I have no idea what’s going on. Probably should not make a lot of noise.

I take one last look around this weird cave-room, and I do not notice anything else. I turn back to the door, and peek through one the big holes that is in the wood. It’s quite dark on the other side of the door, but there are some small pockets of light illuminating different parts of the ground. I notice the light is coming from more of those bug filled jars that are either placed on the ground or hammered into the stone walls with strings attached. I wonder who put these all here? As I continue to look, I come to the realization that this is most certainly a cave, as the walls in the next room are still made out of rock.

The place I am in must be underground? Or maybe it is carved from the side of a cliff? Who knows. I keep scanning through the hole in the wood to see if I notice any movement, however the minimal lighting makes it very difficult to tell. It’s not like I can just stay where I am at, so I begin to once again open the door, this time opening it much slower so it doesn’t creek as bad.

Once the door is open wide enough, I slip through it and enter the next room. The wood door remains partially open, as it doesn’t have a latch to swing it back closed, so thankfully I don’t have to worry about anymore noise from it.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The first thing I notice is how cold it is. There is no wind, but I even feel the cold through my shoes.

The room that I transitioned into is a big open circle, with many different dark pathways leading out of it. If I had to guess, the room I am in now appears to be some sort of central room? The door that I came from is the only door that I see on the walls of the cave. There are no markings or exit signs telling me where I should go or which path I should take to leave, so it seems to be some sort of guessing game.

There are four paths. Three on my left, and one on my right. They all look similar, and have the same spurts of light, so there is no telling which path is correct. The problem with me… is that my luck is shit. I don’t mean like bad or unfortunate, no, I straight up mean shit. I have never once won a game of rock-paper-scissors, never got a lucky roll in a game of Monopoly, nothing. I have straight up the worst luck ever.

I start biting my fingernails while looking at the four paths, debating on how much my crap luck is going to screw me over this time, when I remember I don’t need luck! For the first time since acquiring it, I place the sword I received from the white room on the ground. Honestly it… feels weird letting it go. Strange. I reach into my pocket and pull out my phone. I have forgotten about it this entire time. Yes, I may not be the brightest in the book. I unlock it, and look at the signal. Nothing. Not even the satellite figure shows up. Great.

I move to my text messages to try and send a message out in the off chance my phone picks up a signal, and as I hit send to my mother, the message disappears. Usually it would just load and not send until I got a stable connection, or you would have to move it from iMessage to SMS, but it doesn’t even go through. It’s just gone. I type the same message that pleads for help and hit send again, and it too disappears. I try messaging others, almost everyone from my contact list, and it still does not go through.

Very weird. But, typical, with my luck.

“Hey Siri,” I say, and the small circle in the bottom-middle of my screen appears, “I have four paths in front of me. They all look the same, which one should I choose?”

I think fuck it at this point. It can’t possible get worse from here, so let’s let Siri make my decisions. Siri takes a moment, and tells me to pick path #2. I place my phone into my left hand - the hand that is still holding onto the small wooden shield - and turn the flashlight on, allowing me to see a little better than before. I pick up the sword on the ground, exhale to calm my nerves, and start to walk towards path #2, the second path on the left.

To be honest, I’m freaking out. This is definitely still a dream… but it’s really creepy. For some reason, my body won’t stop shaking, and my heart keeps pounding in my chest. I am trying to push those thoughts to the back of my mind, but they keep resurfacing. Freaking out now will do me no good, so I continue to take deep breaths and put one foot in front of the other.

I shine my light down path #2 as I reach the opening. It’s big, just like the other paths, and is wide enough as to easily allow two cars to drive side by side. As I begin to take my first step down the path, I quickly jump backwards in surprise, as that damned screen appears once again.

Just like before, it is floating in the air, although this time it no longer stays in the centre of my vision. It’s quite see-through, but the way it floats in the air makes it seem as if it is trying to block my path. I notice once again it has words written on it.

[Quest: Defeat 3 Goblins]

[Rewards: Blue Exit Portal]

Excuse me? Defeat goblins? What is this thing even talking about?! There is no such thing as goblins. Goblins are just from folk tales and video games. I raise an eyebrow at the screen, but then notice my right arm that is holding my sword. It’s trembling.

I gulp. Looking back at the screen I read it again. What does it mean by defeat 3 goblins? Like… I have to kill them? This dream is pretty dark if so. Where would these goblins even be, and why am I getting ‘quests’ to defeat them? This makes no sense.

Oh! And what is this screen? It’s really getting on my nerves.

On top of that, I get a reward for completing this quest? It says I’ll get a blue exit portal… so I am assuming that means a portal similar to the one I took in the white room. But where will that take me? Will it wake me up? Or will it take me somewhere better?

I shake my head. There are too many unknowns. I furrow my brow and take my first real step down the path I chose, while tightening my grip on my sword. I keep chanting in my head that this is a dream as I do. If… or when, I’m supposed to come across these goblins… Ill be fine, right? It’s a dream, and there is no way a goblin could be stronger than me in a dream, right? I glance behind me when I am a few steps further down the path, and notice the floating screen is gone.

I continue to walk, and as I do, I stay close to the right wall. I read online onetime that if you are ever lost in a maze that you could put your hand on one wall and at some point you will find the exit. God do I ever hope that’s true.

No, I don’t believe everything I read on the internet. At least most of the time I don’t…

I walk for a few more minutes down the path, noting how many jars of glowing bugs I pass by. My phone is still shining bright in my left hand, and I think to turn my phone on power saving mode, as who knowns how long this will take. But it is a dream, so does it even matter? This is what I think as to almost convince myself.

When I pass by the 19th bug jar, I freeze. Sound. The entire time I’ve been here, it’s been quiet. Not as quiet as the white space, but quiet enough to raise a red flag. The things I am hearing sound like… grunts?

I start breathing heavy. What if I come across a bear. This is a cave, so what would I even do. Do I just die? What happens when you die in a dream? You’re… fine, right?

I squint my eyes to try and see further into the distance, but am unsuccessful in locating the source of the noise. I quickly turn my flashlight off, even further diminishing my light source, and continue to listen. I start to take small steps towards the noise, making sure to be as quiet as can be. The stone under my feet makes small crunching noises, but nothing loud enough to alert any animals.

As I creep my way deeper into the cave, I freeze when I see what a glowing bug jar illuminates up ahead. Oh my god.

They’re beyond disgusting.