2 Test

When Kai opened her eyes again, the innocence that he once had in those gray orbs were long gone. It was calm—too calm that it could have easily scared his uncle if he were with him.

It took Kai a couple of minutes to realize that he was no longer sitting under the tree. The waves that surrounded them before he closed his eyes were no longer there either. Instead, he found himself lying inside… a cave?

The coldness inside the space was a stark contrast to the brilliant sun that surrounded him earlier. He shivered as his hands immediately hugged his body. A small flickering sound caught his attention.

Kai turned his head. 'Where was he?' He wondered as he turned towards the only source of light in the space. It was a small candle that flickered a few feet away from him. Its light was unsteady, flickering from the non-existent wind inside the cave. Frowning, Kai took a step towards the candle, his body unconsciously moving towards the only thing that could give him the heat that he needed.

For a few seconds, Kai stared at the candle before he let out a low growl. His hands immediately made its way into his throbbing head. Kai felt sweat immediately start to trickle down his forehead, his back soon was drenched, his face contorted into an ugly scowl.

He opened his mouth into a silent scream as he fell on the floor with a loud thud. Then it began. Unforgiving pain battered his system, rushing from his head to his navel and then through his limbs.

He howled in pain, curling into a ball, hoping It was enough to ward off the onslaught inside him.

Seconds then minutes passed. To him it was an eternity. Lost in his own pain, Kai writhed in agony, his face pale, hands gripping tightly on to his short black hair. He could feel his consciousness dwindle. Like the flickering candle next to him, Kai's consciousness started to flicker on and off.

He knew what was coming next. He knew he wouldn't be able to contain the pain. Soon enough… darkness overtook his senses.

.....….

The next time that he woke up, the cave was completely dark. His grumbling stomach jolted him up. He widened his eyes while trying to adjust to the darkness around him. "Uncle?" he heard himself say. The grumbling in his stomach only intensified.

Kai shook the daze out of his head before trying to stand up, using the walls of the cave to support himself. Leaning against the hard wall, Kai examined his surroundings again. The cave was dark, and small. He steadied his legs as he tried to grab his knapsack that was placed near the now dead candle. However, Kai's body was still weak. He easily stumbled, grazing his knees and hitting his head to one of the sharp rocks that was on the floor.

Kai let out a hiss before he reached out for his bag. Hoping to eat the bread that his uncle had given him. To his relief, the bread was still there. Ignoring the fact that the bread smelt different, Kai unceremoniously shoved it inside his mouth. Just as he expected, the bread tasted different. Did this mean he had been inside this place for more than two days?

Surely, two days should not be enough to change its taste right? Sighing, Kai finished the bread before he examined his body again. The pain that he remembered when he woke up was long gone. His body seemed fine on the outside. No wounds, aside from the small one that he received from the rock earlier.

"So that potion…" he carefully thought about the things that he had seen after he lost his consciousness. He saw himself, only this time he seemed to be older, bulkier and obviously taller than his current five foot eight frame. Based on the type of clothing that he was wearing, he immediately concluded that the vision that he saw was not from the future. Could it be from the past?

The vision showed him his life. It was him except his name was not Kai. Now that he thought about it. He couldn't seem to remember that name of the man that looked like him. For a long time, Kai thought about the vision and tried to remember what the man was called.

He couldn't.

In the end, Kai decided to give up and hoped he would remember the man's name once he was out of this cave. Sighing, Kai stood and used the walls of the cave to guide him. Slowly, he treaded forward, carefully avoiding the sharp rocks and holding into the walls in an attempt to guide him outside. A few hours passed this way.

Finally, Kai felt something that immediately made him smile. The air inside the cave had changed! Surely it meant something was disrupting it, right? Full of hope, Kai hastened his steps. However, what he found immediately made him disappointed. It was a dead end.

In the middle of the dead end was a small lake surrounded by white sharp rocks that were neatly arranged around the lake. To get to the water, one must walk on the sharp rocks that could easily cut anyone's skin. However, unlike the previous darkness, a small light seemed to come from the water, illuminating the whole space.

Kai shook his head in defeat as he sat near the sharp rocks and let out a sharp cleansing breath. What kind of joke was this? His mind immediately took him to his uncle as he wondered what happened to the older man. Was he safe?

For a few seconds, silence surrounded him. However, this silence didn't last as he realized that something must have been inside the waters. Or why would it illuminate like that? Was it possible that the water was connected to an outside river? Or the sea? Smiling, he immediately stood and walked towards the opposite side of the wall. When he heard nothing from the walls, the smile on Kai's face immediately vanished.

How could he be this stupid?

However, this is not something that would make Kai give up. After a few minutes of contemplating, Kai decided to go to the small lake to check. He immediately checked the water, trying to see if he could spot something black inside that could mean that a demon was lurking around.

When he saw that the water was absolutely clear, Kai smiled and approached the small lake. Without second thoughts, Kai stuck his hands in the water and found out that it was not as cold as he thought it would be. The water was not hot either. It was warm, more like comfortable for the human skin. After a few more minutes, Kai took off his clothes to see if he could swim on the bottom where the light was coming from.

He immediately went to the water, adjusting his body to its temperature before diving towards the bottom. Surprisingly, the lake is not really that deep. Feeling the excitement rush within him, the naïve Kai didn't even examine his surroundings as he continued to explore the shallow lake. All he thought was following the light, hoping it would guide him out of the cave.

That was until a tentacle grabbed his leg. Kai immediately panicked. He tried to make out of the tentacle before he started kicking it furiously. It was futile. Instead, the tentacle wrapped itself against his whole left leg, pulling him down towards the light at the bottom of the lake. Kai opened his mouth, air bubbles surrounded him as he used his hand to remove the tentacle from his leg.

Again, it was useless. However, his effort made his head bobbed into the surface of the lake, gulping at the air of the cave. However, this did not last too long as the tentacle pulled him down. He sank faster as his heart started to drum even faster against his chest. He tried to hold his breath as long as he could as he let out another kick towards the tentacle.

Alas, he failed.

Soon, his head pounded as every nerve of his body screamed for air. It was as if his chest wanted to explode from the pain, from hopelessness. Then for the second time inside the cave, he lost his consciousness. This time… all illusions of survival were lost along with it.