Chapter 3 NO WINDOWS

Prologue

Trapped in the depths of the cave, the group's sense of reality begins to unravel. The darkness closes in, a suffocating shroud that threatens to consume them whole. As they struggle to find a way out, they're forced to confront the darkest corners of their own minds.

The sound of dripping water echoes through the cavern, a steady heartbeat that reminds them they're not alone. But what else lurks in the shadows, waiting to strike? The group's fragile grip on sanity begins to slip, and the lines between reality and madness start to blur.

As they stumble through the darkness, they're drawn toward a faint light in the distance. But what will they find when they finally emerge into the light? Will it be salvation, or something far more sinister? The darkness seems to be watching them, waiting for them to make their next move. And when they do, there's no turning back.

episode 3

He's head aches as he's thoughts begin to waver he's mind is in an absolute daze, memories are near but distant at the same time, he begins to move his limbs as his eyes wringle in a strainious manner while still closed.

*slap*

'Please don't be dead, please.' A very sad echo of Andrews' voice reverberates through the cavern

'he..he..hello?' Drake manages to spill out as he leans forward, groaning as his eyes remain closed before forcing them slightly open

'Don't fucking scare me like that dude' Andrew says with he's head bowed down and fingertips on the center of his nose bridge.

There is an odd silence that lasts just a slight bit longer than it should.

'where are we drake?' Andrew says 'and where's the others?' He adds

'I have no clue' *sigh* 'all I remember we where standing guard at the top of the sinkhole watching jannette when the freaking ground closed up'

'that wasn't a dream?'

'of course it wasn't and somehow we've ended up here'

thier voices begin to muffle out of tune, out of place, as thier voices drown out and echos, a dark outline of something just out of reach, something just like a shadow, something... out there...is seen crawling, moving, breathing?

a few minutes later...

Andrew and drake walk along side eachother. Andrew is a bit of a shy guy, he's wearing some standard camping jeans, a tanktop with the markings "LOVE DADDY" he's hair is outright puffy and unkept but somehow it works for him, he's eyes are just shy of blue and he's skin is litered with dirt on ever side.

Drake on the other hand is a mixed race Canadian guy quite built for his age and anything but shy. Drake is more eccentric and energetic in everything he does. Highly inconsistent in his blatant mannerisms of either optimism or persimissim.

the two advance towards nothing, just more endless trauting with no means to an end it seems. The duo walks silently, with Drake's eyes on every bio illuminacent lighting and Andrew's on every rock he kicks forward.

The two seem more distracted than worried I should say.

'Realistically, Andrew, what do you think happened?' Drake says to cut off the silence

'Honestly, I don't remember much of anything,' Andrew swiftly replies

'Neither do I, but we'll make it out here. I just know it' Drake says

'Well, first things first, we gotta find mr Matthew right?'

'Well, of course, dude, but all this aimless walking hasn't gotten us anywhere honestly we might be screwed'

'You literally said two seconds ago that "We will get out of here i know we will",well, which is it?' Andrew says

'Umm..'

'You know what, don't answer that, i think I heard something,' Andrew says while hovering his index finger over Drake's lips with his right hand while looking to his left.'You hear that?' Andrew asks, not facing Drake.

Muffled, distant yells of the words 'jannette, Hermia,Andrew,Drake,James,Peter and Isabella' are bouncing off the walls in an eerie manner that sends chills down the spine

'Yes, I do' Drake responds to andrews question.

'Should we go near it?' Andrew asks

'bro, im only half black, and I know enough to conclude that when you hear scary sound, you DO NOT!! FUCK!! With scary sound' Drake responds while holding andrews arm tightly

'that sounds like...' another yell is heard before Andrew could finish his sentence

'....Mr mathew!!?? I'm going follow me' Andrew forces himself out of Drake's grip and runs towards the sound

Drake flays his arms in the air to express an emotion of dissapointment before letting them back down and runs after Andrew.

meanwhile....

******************************************************

Hermia wakes up to... but she's all ALONE. The others got lucky, and at least they had somebody with them. Well, Hermia and mathew were the only ones to wind up alone, but she was COMPLETELY alone, even if she walked around a mile, no body would be seen. Her fear is beyond all shadow of a doubt justified, it's the raw kind of fear, the deepest kind, the kind of fear that makes you scream when you were locked in a dark room as a kid, the kind of fear that makes you pray as an atheist, the kind of fear that makes you wanna die just to escape the nawing feeling of absolute

hopelesseness that curls deep within you.

everywhere Is foreign to poor hermia, like a droplet in a dessert, slowly drying up as time goes by. Hermia didn't move for the longest time, until she saw.....well, something, like the glimpse you get of a shadow your mind just can't configure, just can't place and arrange the pieces of what you just saw

Just then, her mind activates into the primal instinct within our neural cortex, she goes into flight or flight, and fortunately for her standing still isn't part of the programming. she bolt's out of there, not paying an iota of attention to what her eyes laid upon, but whatever it was, it wasn't normal.

she keeps running, running and running, tears dripping from her eyes and sliding across her cheeks as she runs, she feels like she's going to die here, she feels its actually over, she starts thinking of her family and that only draws more tears from her sockets.

'please God give me a chance just one more chance I can make no promises but I will try to be better' Hermia says to herself as she slowly runs out of breath, she dosen't know for sure, but she can FEEL whatever is chasing her directly behind her, she can FEEL the hairs at the back of her neck slowly stand up

As she is about to give up, she spots a very bright light, and just then, there comes hope again.

She runs with all of her might, pumped full of adrenaline and-

*******************************************************

Back to the boys....

footsteps draw nearer as little bits and traces of water bounce off the ground and splash around their boots and shoes as Drake and Andrew rush towards the voice.

"Mr MATHEW!!!' Andrew yells at the top of his lungs.

'hold o-' Drake is cut short of his words when suddenly they both crash into someone. The two get up slightly dased, looking up, and to Drake's greatest surprise it was indeed mathew.

No words are spoken now as the trio embraces each other once again.

'I'm so glad to see you guys again. Are you guys alright? Hope you're not hurt,' Mathew says while checking Drake's arm 'Ok what happened to the others? Where are they?

'If we knew they'd be here,' Andrew says 'we got here as soon as we heard your voice,' he adds.

'How long have you been searching?' Mathew asks with a concerned look on his face

'foreEver has to have been like four hours' Drake responds.

Realistically, the boys had only searched 30 minutes, which had felt a world longer due to the inconvenience of the concievability of time in the cavern.

Before too long, Andrew, Drake, and Mr. mathew are on a scout for the others, and before too long, they are drained of energy.

'You know something we all haven't thought about yet?' Drake asks the both of them.

'What?' Both Mr mathew and Andrew ask at the same time

'w a t e r' he says inunciating ever letter as he speaks 'because I Don't know about you guys but I am parched' he adds.

'Well, hopefully we won't have to worry about water because we WILL get out of here, now come on let's keep searching, if things get to bad we will have to start a fire because it seems to be getting cold' Mathew says.

The boys Don't say much of anything and are happy to oblige, but something about Mathew seems noticeably off. He seems razor focused but also not dased or worried about the bazzare phenonmena going on in his wake's, like this dosen't faze him like he really doesn't belive what's happening is actually happening.His behaviour dosen't seem like confidence it seems like ignorance mixed with confidence.

the time is 3:30 in the afternoon, and none of them have gotten any food or water.

Just THEN, a bright light to the furthest north of the trio is observed by Mathew,

'Oh my God boys, it's LIGHT!!' Mathew exclaims.

But unlike the others before them, the trio walk towards the bright glow rather than run, and something seems out of place. You see, this glow isn't normal, it dosent look like the average natural light at the end of a cave it's more like a bright glow, like the phase between your eyes adjusting to entering a bright room but your eyes just never clear the image, your brain just dosent interpret the information it's being fed completely.

Mathew walks toward the bright glow when Drake drags his arm backwards

'something dosen't seem right about this' Drake says to them with squinted eyes

'yh this dosen't seem like it goes anywhere, why is the sun so fucking bright?' Andrew adds to Drake's statement with the exact same expression on his face

'what are you guys talking about? this is how we get out of here and NOW! You second guess?' Mathew says 'you guys have been stuck in this hell hole for so damn long you Don't even know what the sun is anymore'

seeming like a reasonable counter to thier doubts Mathew convinces them to follow him. As they move forward, the share intensity of the light only results in all of them shielding their eyes with their hands as they approach little by little.

suddenly a felling engolfs them in what can only be described as, a feeling of inpending doom.

The same thing happened;

with hermia,

with james,

with isabella and peter

and now, same with Mathew and the boys. could they be in the same place?

SUDDENLY Mathew is in a room all too familier. There's no doors or windows, it's all white, EVRYTHING the floor, the ceiling, the walls, like a nightmare come true this hellish environment dressed in white is indeed in exact one to one ratio with Mathew's first dream at camp

why? Why mathew? Why him?

Mathew's head is pounding like an earthquake just hit within the compartment, which is his brain. He is in agony. Fortunately, Mathew's agony doesn't last too long, and his mind slowly recovers the worst part is that he is hot and there's NO windows.