The Lost Phantom

[Tiberius Fireskull]

Before you read this, I made a little edit to the fourth to last paragraph of my last chapter to include a little detail. After you read that, go ahead and read this next one. I hope you enjoy it. Its an interesting one.

Chapter 16: Darker than Black

Pitch blackness was not enough to describe the darkness around him. It was so dark, that it seemed that Davy could not even see the blackness. The tunnel he had escaped into from El Patron’s crumbling tomb was different than any other. It didn’t feel like a mining tunnel like the mine that he and his crew had come through. This one was more seemed more roughly dug out, as if it were not part of the actual mine. Davy couldn’t examine the area around him, but he was able to get a feel for his surroundings by feeling the ground and walls around him. It didn’t give him much, but he was able to deduce those descriptions

After getting sealed into this tunnel, Davy’s legs gave out from underneath him, sending him falling to the floor. He crawled until he felt a wall, and sat upright, his back against one of these walls. He was breathing heavily and his clothes were drenched in sweat and blood. He noticed that the object that had embedded itself in his leg was a piece of metal, likely a sword fragment. He had countless other cuts and scratches from objects that had hit him during the battle, and most of the scabs that he had gained from previous fights had opened back up from heat and strain during the battle.

The pain was beginning to hit him now. He gritted his teeth, trying not to cry out in agony from his wounds, afraid that he would wake some sleeping beast in these dark tunnels. His leg throbbed with massive waves of pain from the shrapnel that had embedded itself there. His whole body stung from burns and cuts. He could do nothing but force himself to bear with it. Davy sat in that one spot for what felt like hours, bearing with this pain until he finally fell asleep.

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Davy was unsure how long he had slept, but he woke up feeling somewhat re-energized. He still felt weak, but he had the energy to weakly get up, leaning against the wall for support. He groaned with pain as his leg screamed in agony. Davy weakly felt around his left thigh for the piece of metal. Once his fingers brushed against it, he gently grabbed hold of it so in a way so that he wouldn’t get cut too badly for what he was going to do next. He took a deep breath and bit his lip, and then pulled. He screamed in agony as the metal cut through his muscle and tissue, no longer caring if he was heard. He could feel blood pouring from the wound, dribbling down his leg. Davy let go and breathed heavily, grunting from the injury.

Deciding to end his suffering, he grabbed the metal, and yanked it out the rest of the way. He let out a pained howl as the horrible burning spread through his body. He shut his eyes tightly and bit his lip until it bled, fighting the agony. After a few minutes, the agony dimmed down to a painful throb, and Davy commenced to bandage himself. He tore off a portion of his damaged shirt and tenderly wrapped it around the wound. Once he was done, he tightened it, tensing up from the pain.

Davy sat back down, taking deep breaths. He wasn’t one that was normally scared, but he was now. He was alone in complete darkness, where some unknown assailant could sneak up on him. He was injured and could barely walk, let alone fight. Not to mention that he was without his sword. All that he had left was his dagger, but that wouldn’t be much help should he run into a crowd of ghosts.

After resting once again for a few minutes, he struggled to his feet once again. Davy looked around him instinctively, but saw nothing. No light came from anywhere in the tunnel. He sighed and started limping forward.

If this tunnel doesn’t take me somewhere… Davy thought to himself. Well, best not go there.

For a while, the tunnel just continued straight ahead without any changes. As he walked, Davy felt the walls of the tunnel and was able to verify that it was a roughly excavated passage, without any wooden supports like there were in the mine. There was absolutely nothing but stone in this space. No burnt out torches, no sarcophagi, not even any skeletons as far as he could tell.

Slowly, the path started to slope upwards and Davy had to slow his pace due to his injury. He carefully made his way up the tunnel, but quickly tripped and fell to the ground. He cursed and thought for a moment about how to go uphill with his bad leg. He had no walking stick, or anything to put his weight on for that matter.

Davy realized he had to just continue stumbling along, and that was what he did. He weakly got up and kept at his path, falling over every once in a while. He kept at his painful pace for a good half hour before he heard movement. It wasn’t hard to hear in the silence of the passage, so Davy picked it up almost immediately. He looked around him, but he couldn’t see anything.

I suppose that’s also something that aids me, Davy thought to himself. If it’s some sort of assailant, they shouldn’t be able to notice me.

Davy stopped moving, not making a sound. He held his breath, and carefully looked down. He noticed the brown stone beneath him, with several small pebbles scattered around it.

Wait a moment, Davy thought frantically. Then he felt the dust trickle down from above him. Davy gulped, and slowly looked up to see the source of light. Ghosts had found him. Glowing with their dim orange light, it was just enough light for Davy to be able to see just a bit of his surroundings. He hadn’t noticed the change in lighting because it had been so gradual. The ghosts, who had been clinging to the stalactites above, dropped down around Davy. They cackled and slowly drew their wicked blades, surrounding Davy.

Terrified, Davy drew his dagger. He knew that this was going to be the end. Darkness wasn’t a problem now; the ghosts produced plenty of light. But he was beyond weak, was surrounded by a good six or so ghosts, with only a dagger for a weapon. The odds were not on his side at all, so Davy did the obvious move.

“Bring on ye dogs!” he bellowed fiercely, swinging his dagger. The first ghost threw a knife at him, but Davy ducked and it flew right above his head. Another ghost with a sword charged him. Even with his bad leg, Davy was able to block his first sword strike and sidestep the next one. He cried out in pain as his leg burned with agony. Davy delivered a gouge with his dagger straight to the ghost’s collar. The ghost shrieked in pain, but returned the gouge with a slash that missed Davy’s face by a hair.

Davy knew that the ghosts were toying with him. He was able to dodge their blows simply by shifting a little bit. He couldn’t help but feel humiliated that he would die this way, being amusement for the dead. Finally the ghosts, as if from some external order, became much more hostile and their attacks were actually ones that could kill. Davy couldn’t dodge these as easily. Finally, one of the ghosts cleaved down at him. Davy had no choice but to leap to the side to avoid it. Unfortunately, it was his left side he had to jump to, and upon landing, he was forced to put all of his weight onto his injured leg.

Davy screamed as his leg exploded in agony. He fell to his knees, and out of the corner of his eye he saw a ghost smash the flat of their blade against his head. He crumpled weakly to the floor, dazed with a trickle of blood oozing from the new cut on his head. Davy weakly reached for his dagger, which had fallen in front of him, but a ghost snatched it away before he could reach it. Trying to blink away the stars in his eyes, Davy attempted to get to his knees, but a ghost gave him a powerful kick in the ribs and he fell back down, groaning from the pain. The ghost gave one more kick before stepping back. Half conscious, Davy waited for the end, but instead of a sword going through his back, he heard swords sheathing.

What are they waiting for? Davy thought to himself. Then he felt icy cold hands wrap around him, and soon he was hoisted onto the back of one of the ghosts. Even though when he was this close to the ghosts, their glow was actually quite bright, it provided no heat. If anything, it froze the air around them, chilling Davy and making him feel weaker than before.

Davy tried to stay conscious, but he was too beaten up to keep focus. He could feel that they were heading uphill, along the path that Davy had been traveling to start with, but nothing more. Struggling was futile in his state, so he could do nothing but listen to the sound of his captors’ footsteps until he drifted off into an exhaustion-induced sleep.

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Trapped in a dark tunnel, being dragged along by ghosts... what is going to happen next? Stay tuned, and please give comments!