- Case File - 001 - The Smiling Creature - 04 - Encounter

Alex was falling for what felt like an eternity, but in reality he had been falling for about a minute. Alex's life flashed before his eyes, his family, his friends, his achievements and his failures. "What a lame way to die?" Alex miserably thought to himself. But then, all of a sudden, Alex was cold, no Alex was wet.

{SPLASH}

Alex couldn't see in the abyssal darkness, but he knew from the sound and feeling what had happened, he had fallen into an underground pocket of water. Relief (and water) washed over him.

[Alex]: "HELL YA, I SURVIVED, AND HERE I THOUGHT LADY LUCK HATED ME!!"

But then Alex realised he was moving, faster by the moment, then it hit him he hadn't fallen into a water pocket, he had fallen into an underground stream.

[Alex]: "Oh what the hell!"

Alex then felt the ground under him not be there anymore and he felt his body drop. Then once again fall into water, this time he went under the surface, his nose filled with liquid and the impact of hitting the water at a high speed winded Alex. Then out of nowhere...

{BANG}

Something hit Alex on the side of his head, it was hard, it was cold and the impact hurt like HELL. He had definitely hit his head into the wall. Then the side effects of the impact kicked it, a burning sensation, sharp stinging, numbed limbs and darkening vision. The feeling of hope he had felt from landing into the stream was once again replace by that of dread as Alex mind faded and he fell unconscious.

***

[???]: "ALEX!"

Darius' voice pierced the air and drew most people's attention attention. Attention which was immediately then drawn to the falling figure of a boy and a hole it the wall.

The instructors sprinted to the cavity at a speed which could only be called superhuman. They stopped right at the edge of the wall cavity then turned around, to jump would have been suicide.

The instructors pulled out a walkie talky looking object out of their bags then both pressed a bright red button at the top.

[Mr. Éclair]: "No one panic, everyone leave the cave in an orderly fashion, the instructors have sent and emergency message to rescue team.

And so most people shaken proceeded to leave the cave. The instructors explained that the signal was sent to specialist teams that would be there in under an hour and that, due to the sounds they heard from the cavity, Alex had fallen into an underground stream, a stream that would hope fully lead out of the cave but still rescue efforts would be mounted in the cave itself too.

All student were told to wait within the coach.

***

Alex awoke with sharp pain in left side of this head, he felt it, he opened his eyes and was met with. Light? Yes light, it was definitely light!

Alex got up, he looked at his hand (no blood thankfully), and then looked around, he was in a cross section in the cave. Behind his was the stream that had brought him here; to the left and right their were dark rooms and in front of him was a room brightly lit with torches.

He began to walk towards the room with the light, when he lost his balance and fell face first to the floor.

[Alex]: "What now?"

Alex got up then looked back to see what he had fallen over. A small wooden pillar, it had a symbol on it. The symbol was a deep crimson, it had curved lines protruding from the top of the \ /.

[Alex]: "Damn that's shady, best to not stay in this room then".

Alex entered the lit up room, it was another cave room but it had torches near the around the walls, and in the centre there was a gapping hole, easily 10 metres in diameter. Alex picked u a small stone and dropped it in and waited to hear it hit the bottom. 3 minutes later and the sound of collision still couldn't be hear, "best to not jump into it" Alex thought.

Then he heard it shuffling, it was coming from one of the dark rooms, Alex's heartbeat picked up, adrenaline rushed through his veins and he mustered the courage to speak.

[Alex]: "Hello, is anyone there?"

The shuffling stopped, a voice spoke, it was deep and masculine.

[???]: "Hey, finally found you, I'm here to rescue you, just come here and I'll take you to the way out"

Alex's eyes began to fill with tears, he had been saved he began to walk toward his saviours. That's when Alex realised something he hadn't before, the floor of the room was covered it large dents leading from the hole to the room with the voice. Alex became vary and continued his approach with caution, driven by curiosity rather than hope. Something felt wrong.

He then remembered his hardhat it had a light on it. Alex turned on his hardhat light. What he saw scared him to the point where screams refused to leave his throat. He saw a face, the body remained invisible, one that in to imagination or mind could have been one of a human.

The face was a ghoulish grey, it had a smile, a smile that was just a little to large to be human, its hair was long, wavy and unkept, teeth that shone bright like knives-shaped like daggers and then there were its eyes. They were deep red; blood-shot; held open by sliver clamps, two for its top eyelid, two for the bottom eyelid, that weird symbol from the pillar imprinted upon its forehead and perhaps most disturbingly they, it's expression, hungry, terrifyingly hungry, the kind of hunger that could only be present on the face of one starved for years.

A noise echoed through out the cave, quiet at first but it got louder, fast. The noise was definitely laughter, a blend between that of a man, women and child, horrifying. It didn't expect me to check it with a light, it wasn't mad though, it was clearly amused.

Alex ran, his legs moved on their own, he didn't know where he was going, the only thought on his mind was that he couldn't be in the same room as that 'thing'.

{THUD, THUD, THUD}

It was following him but it was slow or at least it was pretending to be for now.

Turn, Run, Turn, Run and Turn

That's all Alex did as he didn't know where he was going. But he felt it it was getting warmer the ground that elevating, he saw it an opening leading out. Adrenaline pumped and Alex ran faster that he had his entire life. Alex reached the exit to the cave.

His vision was consumed by white...