Jastun was a young man living in a mining town with his family. He had loving parents and a younger sister whom he cherished more than anything. Every day he and his sister would go out after school to explore the woods and play around the older abandoned mine entrances, tossing rocks and shouting to hear their echos.
“Come on Nicole!” He called to his sibling, jumping across gaps between boulders while she chased after. Their laughter filled the area and not a care was given.
“Alright!” Jas announced as he hopped off the boulder and landed in front of Nicole.
“Today we’re going to explore this mysterious cave and find some treasure.” He crouches down and whispers, making Nicole giggle as she nodded.
“What kind of treasure Jassy?” She leaned closer, excited to be spending time once more with him.
“Don’t know! That’s the fun of it though right?” He stood up and grinned holding out a hand to his sister and leading her into the cave, pulling a flashlight from his pocket. This wouldn’t be the first time they had gone exploring into the mines, but it would sadly be the last that they would do so together.
No one could have predicted that an earthquake would hit that day, and of the many mine entrances it would collapse no one would have guessed one of them would have been the one Jastun and Nicole went into... Their parents never found the bodies.
When he came to consciousness the first thing Jastun did was quickly look around for Nicole, fumbling around in the dark until he found his flashlight. Flicking the switch did nothing at first, but after shaking it and slapping it in his hand the light would flicker to life. The lens was cracked slightly, but it was otherwise perfectly fine.
Looking around frantically he would spot his sister, eyes closed, blood dripping from her head, and one leg pinned under a large rock. He would scramble over and quickly shove it off, expecting her to groan in protest at least but not a sound left her lips. He pressed his ear to her chest and listened... A faint heartbeat and she was still breathing thankfully, but just barely.
“It’s ok Nicky, it’s ok. Jassy’s got you.” He would tear his shirt and make a bandage for her head. There wasn’t anything he could use to make a splint for her leg so that would have to wait. Lifting her up onto his back the young man would look the way they had come, now sealed with rubble. A sigh left his lips before he turned and made his way deeper into the caverns.
He was lucky. Jastun had managed to find a few forgotten lunch boxes and some roots the he remembered were edible from his classes. Rationing them there was enough food for about a week now, of course most of it went to Nicole, who still hadn’t woken up. He had to pre-chew the food and kiss feed her for each meal, rubbing her throat to help swallow. If anyone was going to survive, it was going to be her!
Sadly, the maze like mine system had given no clues as to another exit. Not even a breeze, though thanks to the drilled air vents he didn’t have to worry about suffocating.
Jastun’s stomach rumbled. He was barely finding enough food to feed Nicole, mostly roots and the odd moss clump but at least it kept her full. He would take the bare minimum but even that was starting to dwindle to almost nothing.
He was starving, but he hoped that someone would come find them before both of them died... He hoped a lot of things these days.
Jastun woke up to silence, which was very eerie for some reason. He was used to the tunnels being quiet, but today’s felt so much worse but he couldn’t tell why. Slowly he sat up from the dirt floor and looked over to Nicole. He’d fashioned a makeshift bed for her out of burlap sacks and moss he’d scavenged. With a smile he made his way to her to start the day as he always did since the earthquake.
“Hey Nicky, you ready to get up?” He was rather chipper today since he had managed to find a cluster of edible mushrooms yesterday and had filled both their bellies after so long.
“Come on rise and shi-” Her skin felt far too cold as his hand came in to cup her cheek. Quickly he tossed the burlap away and pressed his ear to her chest again...
“No no nononononono!” he set to work, thinking back to all the classes on CPR and first aid. He began chest compression and resuscitating Nicole to the best of his ability. Tears streamed down his face as minutes passed. He bundled her up and dashed madly through the mines.
“Help!” He screamed at the top of his lungs which were burning from the hectic sprint.
“Please anyone! My sister needs help!” his voice echoed through the caverns finding only his ears.
Screaming until his voice was hoarse, running until his feet were raw, Jastun eventually stumbled and fell to his face, clutching his sister close and began to tremble and sob... Nicole wasn’t going to wake up.
He had given up, simply sitting in the darkness now, holding Nicole’s cold body and waiting to die along with her. The cold kept her from rotting thankfully... Or unthankfully? He wasn’t sure what he should have been feeling.
Jastun was just about to drift off to unconsciousness once more when a sound reached his ears. His stomach rumbling. He was so hungry now but he couldn’t be bothered. Why should he try to survive when his only reason had left him?
His eyes drifted closed and the blissful void took him, and he dreamt.
He was wandering an endless maze, guiding Nicole by the had as he always did when they explored. Turn after turn lead them nowhere, and he was starting to grow tired and hungry.
“You should eat Jassy.” He turned to look at his sister who was looking up at him with cold emotionless eyes.
“I would, but I don’t have any food left.”
“You have plenty of food silly.” She would giggle, but her eyes remained cold and dead.
“What do you mean? We ate the last of it a few days ago, what could we possibly have left?” He let go of her hand to stand in front of her, arms crossed as he pondered her words.
“ Yo҉u̷ h̨av҉e pl̵eņty ͟o͜f ͢f̷ood ...” Her voice was becoming warped and hard to understand.
“Where? Point me to it and we can share.”
“ Y̴͡o͜u̷̵͟ ̢͡͠h̛͡͡a̛͠v͜è ̛̀͠p̷̷l͡ęn̶̵͟t́y̡͞ ̢̨͜of͜ ҉̕f͢o̷̸͟o̡̢d͡͝ .” Nicole started to smile unnaturally wide, exposing sharp jagged teeth, and her eyes were dimly glowing red.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN!” He shouted and shoved her away into the darkness. A sickening thud and crack was heard from where she landed. Jastun rushed forward, about to utter apologies but was greeted with Nicole still smiling and looking up at him. The only difference was her body was limp and unmoving.
“ Y̶̛̛͘o̶͟u͠͡ ̴h̸͏́͟͡à̸̧͝͠v̶̵̵e̵ ̷͠҉p̧͝l̸͏e҉͘̕҉̢n͠͡t͢y̶̡͘͟͟ ̸̛́̕̕ǫ̴̕͘f͜͞ ̶̧̕͟͟f̸̸̸͠ó̶̴҉o̶̴d̢͏͟ ̶҉̴͘J̵͞͡a͟͝͞͏̸s̕͏s̨͟҉ý̷̧,̛͜͞ ̷̢̛̛ń̸o̸̶w̕͞ ̵̵̡͜ę̶̸a̡͟͟t̕҉̷̢͠ ̧̕̕͠ư̛͜p̡͘̕͟͢.̷̴̶͞ “
His eyes shot open and he sucked in a ragged breath of air. How long had he been asleep? A minute? An hour? He couldn’t tell, but what was apparent was the fact his stomach was rumbling so loudly now. Jastun had an unshakable ache deep in his gut that needed to be satisfied somehow.
He clutched Nicole’s body close and swallowed. She would be so disappointed in him if he gave up on his life here.
“I have plenty of food.” He repeated, tears starting to fall once more. He took her hand in his and kissed her small fingers one last time.
“I’m sorry Nicky... I promise you’ll always be with me.” And with a sickening crunch, began his meal and sated the ache for a brief time.
She was gone now, every scrap except the skull which was place in a small little niche on the wall. He would occasionally cradle her in his arms and hum a meaningless song to her when the never ending night of the tunnels grew lonely.
He had found a small cavern deep in the maze and had decided this would be his home, and eventually his tomb. It was fitting that he should find a good place to rest for them both after all. Then came the voices.
He would sit upright and listen... Were these the voices he had begun to hear sometimes in the silence? No, these were too clear and rang with familiar sounds. He would dash from his nest and weave through the corridors that he had long since memorized, growing closer and closer to the voices.
Miners had reopened the tunnels, they spoke of possibly finding some missed veins of metal somewhere deeper in. Their lights made them easy to spot.
There are only two of them, that would last him plenty of time.
““You have plenty of food.” He repeated into the tunnel, making the men jump.
“Is there a little girl in here?” One of them said just before the beast pounced and knocked him out by slamming his skull into the cave wall, and the next was grabbed by the neck and choked with one hand. Gasping and clutching at the beasts new growing claws he would look into the face of a monster as it spoke once more in the voice of a young girl.
“We have plenty of food.”
