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My own emotions go out to the faceless and the terrible death he suffered. As the feeling of empathy leaves me, I feel that same warm light from within me, slowly reaching from my chest toward the creature.
The silvery light envelops the faceless, and the creature is replaced by a man. His hair is long and braided down his back. His face sports the same runes that are inked across his body.
Viking. I found an honest-to-goodness Viking.
A hot one, too.
My excitement would have been longer lived except for the feeling of ice-cold water in my shoes. Turning my phone’s flashlight to the ground, I realize the ground is now covered in over an inch of water.
Crap.
Switching back to my timer app, I see that, sure enough, I don’t have more than a few minutes left to get out of the caves.
Otherwise, I’ll be filling in the now vacant position of ‘idiot who stayed in the caves too long and had their soul trapped for most of eternity.’
No thanks.
Spinning on my heel, I start running back the way I came in. In hindsight, I did not leave myself much time to get back to shore.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I keep cursing as I run faster, always remembering to turn left when I meet a split in the cave.
Rounding a corner, I step on a particularly smooth stone – funny thing about wet, smooth stones. They’re slippery. And with that wise realization, I go down, falling into the water that has now very quickly risen to at least six inches.
The fall doesn’t damage me, but the same can’t be said for my smartphone. As I fell, I tried to grab the wall and accidentally launched my phone into the water.
Evidently, smartphones and water don’t work so well together. My phone is now hidden in the steadily rising water, and I can’t see any hint of its light.
While I would love to paw around the dark water to try and find it, I really don’t want to die today. So, instead, I pull myself up and start running with one hand against the left-hand side of the cave wall. I try to keep a mental map open of how far I am from the cave entrance.
I know I must be getting closer. The water that swirls around my feet feels stronger, but I can’t trust the currents. Who knows how many eddies and other swirly water patterns are created when tides enter underground caves?
I sure as hell have no idea.
Faster now, I keep moving. Without my phone, I have no idea how long I’ve been in here. But even with my flashlight, I knew I would need to run to get out of here on time. I’m much slower without the light.
I fucked up.
Pushing ahead, I see a faint silver glow.
Moonlight!
I feel almost giddy at the sight and flat-out run towards it, splashing through now foot-deep water.
Disappointment hits with a ferocity when I realize what I’m seeing isn’t the moon. It’s the hot Viking ghost.
Well, shit.
My mind races. Did I skip a few tunnel turns when I ran towards him?
I don’t have time to turn back. I don’t have time for much of anything.
Even though I haven’t communicated with any freed faceless ghosts since the woman in the woods, I shoot my shot.
“Please help.” My tone is pleading. Hopefully, that breaks through any language barriers.
The Viking ghost says nothing. He disappears until I see his faint glow up ahead. I take off running again towards him.
