It was his fault.

  He shook his head to clear his mind. It seemed the horrors of his mind had returned in force ever since he saw her in the market. Of course, it wasn’t her because she was gone, and he would never have her again.

  He looked around and was surprised to see that he had travelled quite a distance while lost in his thoughts. The distant mountains were still far, but the little town had been reduced to a small, isolated smudge on the landscape.

  “One foot after the other”

  He thought as he continued towards the mountains, the old mantra drilled into him by his father. A man of few words, a hard man, but he had provided him with the skills that had set the course of his life. A life of which he had now abandoned. A life of violence, heartbreak, and pain, from which nothing good ever came. His thoughts once again wandered to the women he had seen in the little market square the previous day. She was strikingly beautiful; the type of beauty that makes you falter in your step. The type of beauty that sounds like a choir of angels. Dark hair, a large smile, the deepest blue eyes, which seemed like a storm raged on within, but it was her laugh that truly struck him. It was her laugh after all that had made him turn. The most wonderful sound he had heard in a long time, it was innocent and sweet to his ears.

  It was most curiously like the laugh of someone he had lost a long time ago. The features were not precisely the same but were uncannily similar. It was seeing the women in the market that had once again sent him spiralling into another one of his deep depressions. Something which he had thought he had escaped, but it seems he had not. Now, once again, he was attempting to get away from it all, into the mountains.

  The locals had mentioned a hidden waterfall deep in the mountains where one could go to cleanse their sins. However, to reach it, he would have to confront the evil spirits that guard it. Of course, he didn’t believe that it would cleanse his sins, for they were numerous, and he did not believe the story of evil spirits either, but his sense of adventure compelled him to find this secret waterfall just to gaze at its supposed beauty.

  The small animal path he was now walking on was overgrown with branches and plants, scratching his exposed arms, leaving small red marks, but nothing he couldn’t deal with later. His progress began to slow as the vegetation grew thicker; the sound of animals calling to each other and birds singing intensified. The large jungle canopy began to block out the sunlight in some areas, causing his eyes to constantly adjust to the different levels of light.

  As he approached the base of the mountain, he realised the sounds of the jungle had ceased, leaving him standing in an eerie silence. His mind was instantly sharpened as he knew danger lurked nearby. He unsheathed his knife from its leather scabbard in his belt and slowly continued onwards, not wanting to be caught in the open by whatever had alerted the jungle's inhabitants. He quickly thought back to his early morning departure. Had anyone seen him leave and thought to follow? He didn’t think so, but a life of danger had taught him never to dismiss the possibility.

  Continuing, he came to a dead end. A cliff face of smooth rock blocked his path onwards. Attempting to double back, he heard the sharp crack of a branch snapping to his left, instantly twisting his body to face the direction from which he heard the noise. Breathing slowly, he concentrated on his surroundings. Once again, he heard another branch snap, this time behind him, causing him to turn in the opposite direction. Quickly evaluating his options, he knew he was being surrounded by multiple threats, which meant he could either blindly run straight forward to try to escape the tightening noose or return to the cliff face, which would cover his back and allow him to engage the threats head-on.

  Not knowing how many of whatever it was out there, he decided to head back towards the cliff face and to try to find another possible exit route. Returning to the cliff face would not take long; his ears strained to hear any noise which might alert him to the whereabouts of his supposed attackers.

  Once again reaching the cliff face, he looked to his left and right, trying to find an escape route out of the situation. It was only his intense concentration that allowed him to notice a small rectangular hole in the cliff face, which had been covered by overgrowth from the surrounding jungle. Without thinking further, he carefully moved the overgrowth to the side and climbed into the rectangular hole. Once inside, his eyes began to adjust to the darkness around him. He saw it was not just a natural cavity in the side of the cliff face but a tunnel that seemed to lead downwards.

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  His curiosity, getting the better of him, urged him to continue onwards. About to take the first step down the tunnel, he heard the crashing of foliage behind him. He turned his body in the small space to peer through the little undergrowth he had left, which he prayed would prevent the cause of the noise from seeing him.

  Three men had burst out into the clearing surrounding the cliff face. All three were heavily built, dressed in heavy jungle gear, and carrying large assault rifles. Scanning the cliff face around them.

  “Where the fuck did he go?” the largest of the men said.

  “He ran this direction, I swear,” another man answered.

  “Do you think he is out here looking for it?” he continued.

  “I don’t fucking know.”

  The man who hadn’t said anything yet then spoke, “Whoever he is, he shouldn’t be out here, and we need to get rid of him before he finds something he shouldn’t.”

  All three men turned back into the jungle at that point, still speaking to each other but at a distance where he could no longer make out their words.

  His mind was buzzing at this point with questions as to what he had heard. Before he could think, he took deep breaths to calm his shaking body. Thinking back to what he had heard, he asked himself what that was about. Who were those men? What don’t they want him to find? These were questions he currently didn’t have the answers to, and he didn’t try to dwell on them, but he knew he had just stumbled onto something much bigger than his simple, leisurely hike to go see a secret waterfall.

  Curious now about where this hidden tunnel led, he took out his torch from his rucksack and decided to venture further into the cramped darkness, as he didn’t know how far away the three men had travelled. Thinking it best to come back out when it was dark, he shuffled further down the tunnel.

  His pace was slow in the cramped space. The air was damp and stale. His torch beam seemed to light up only the area surrounding him. Looking around at the tunnel walls, he saw they were unnaturally smooth and symmetrical, confirming his thoughts that this was not a natural tunnel but rather made by people. As he continued to shuffle through the tunnel, he felt a dull ache in his knees from shuffling in the cramped position. He decided to get down on his stomach and crawl rather than tire out his legs further.

  After about ten minutes, he began to worry that his torch batteries would run out and he would be left in the stifling darkness. This caused him to briefly panic before he remembered he had charged the batteries for a full day before leaving. Pushing his panic aside, he decided to carry on for another five minutes before turning back. Glancing at his watch, he saw it was only just past three in the afternoon, meaning he still had plenty of time before it got dark, as the sun only set well into the evening here.

  As it was approaching his self-set cut-off time, he began to see a faint light at what seemed to be the end of the tight tunnel. Continuing towards it, he also began to hear a soft hum of an unnatural sound. Turning off his torch so as not to alert whatever was at the end of the tunnel, he quietly crawled closer towards the light. His eyes adjusting to the light, he saw he was about two meters above a small room with nothing in it but an old, rotting chair in disrepair and a few chests.

  The light seemed to come from within one of the chests. After a moment of thought, he decided to climb down from the tunnel into the room, wanting to further explore it. Taking a chance, he took out a piece of rope and stretched to tie it to the ceiling of jagged rock, which would allow him to climb back up into the tunnel if he needed to escape the way he came. After a few tugs, he was confident that the rope would hold his weight and started to climb down into the room.

  Lightly touching down onto the floor so he didn’t make any noise, he looked around him. The walls of smooth rock matched the tunnel, confirming to him that this was once again not a natural cave. Other than the singular broken chair, there were only two large chests in the room. The small glowing chest seemed to be the cause of the soft hum he had heard. Deciding to investigate why the small chest was glowing, he hesitantly walked towards it. Knowing this could easily be an old supply room of one of the nearby mines and could contain old, dangerous explosives, he took out his knife to cautiously open the chest. He slowly started to open the surprisingly heavy lid of the small chest, ready to leap back if it was anything dangerous. However, once opened, he was surprised to see that inside there was a singular glowing medallion with eight jagged sides. It looked to be made of gold, and as he peered closer at it, he could make out a picture of a man holding two swords with his shadow walking closely behind him. There seemed to be an inscription around the edges of the medallion as well, and wanting to get a closer look to make out the inscription, he reached out to grab it.

  As his hand touched the medallion, there was a large explosion of light, and the world went black.