Inextinguishable

Quill slowly took a step back, trying to be as quiet as possible. His eyes were still locked with the single iris of the lizard, refusing to break eye contact in fear of what might happen.

He was much higher than the lizard, but with it's speed, even a single second wasted could mean the difference between life and death. For a fleeting second, he though about whether the lizard could climb the tiny steps leading to the cave, only to remember that lizards could usually scale up walls with no problem.

Throat dry, hand gripping the torch tightly, Quill was almost near the entrance. One step after the other, Quill was coming closer to the cave. 

He didn't have any clear plan, but getting out of the mangled lizard's field of view sounded like a good idea. 

'...It still hasn't moved.' Quill should have been happy at that fact, but the eerie lack of movement terrified him. It was as if it was waiting to see who would make the first move. 

Forcing himself to breathe normally, Quill stepped slightly to his left. This way, half of his body was hidden behind the rock wall, while the other half peered at the lizard.

The entity itself was dead still, as if frozen in place. Even the pupil was frozen, locked in a stare with Quill. 

With a deep breath and one fluid movement, Quill rolled over to his side, hiding in the darkness. Without wasting a single second, Quill dashed over to the curtain of moss in the backside of the cave, darting through it smoothly.

He ended up rolling on the ground, but he was on his feet a second later. When he had first arrived here, he had noted that the cave was much lighter than the front cave. Sure enough, there were quite a few holes both near the roof, and more curiously...

On his left was something that looked like a pillar, but when he looked closer, it was two passages, separated by a column of rock. 

'...No sound from outside.' Quill had stood still for a moment, listening for any sound that might be an indication of the lizard moving, but instead got an eerie silence. 

Quill did his best to quell the doubts in his mind, before dashing towards the passages, taking the left one. 

Skidding forward on one foot, Quill belatedly realized that he in fact, did not have a source of light with him. In a dark cave. in an unknown area. While there was something to kill him.

'...Im really great at staying alive, huh?'

Grimacing, Quill tried to discern his surroundings from the faint slivers of light he was getting, only to conclude that there wasn't anything else except for rock. 

However a second later, his eyes narrowed as he spotted a faint stream of light in the distance. Picking up his pace, he started running faster, each step echoing through the narrow passage.

The silence still unnerved him. Even when he was standing in the cave after waking up, there was the sound of water dripping and leaves rustling.

Quill's pace got faster. Another gut feeling. However for a second, he seemed to debate looking back.

And at that very moment, Quill's head seemed to dislocate from his body and turn back, All while his body kept moving on. Everything seemed to frozen for a second, and there was a loud buzz.

A second later, Quill stopped to catch a breath, and everything was normal again. Quill slowly raised his eyes upward, where he could see a hole in the roof of the cave. Light streamed in, making him squint his eyes slightly as measured it's width.

'It's large enough for me to fit.' Quill pondered for a second, then raised a hand to grasp the rim, before slowly pulling himself up.

A second later, Quill had grasped the other side of the rim as well, slowly bringing himself up. With a strong pull, Quill was off the ground, desperately searching around for an area to put his foot on. Finding a ledge, he raised himself up, groaning at the effort.

'...Should've taken those damn physical training classes...'

Raising his left leg up, he hooked it around the rim, and eventually managed to hoist himself up, only to get greeted with moss tickling his face.

Collapsing on the ground, Quill took in a deep breath, looking around from his viewpoint. It seemed like he was on the side of the mountain cave. The land area wasn't exactly flat, but it was enough. 

He was hidden between shrubs, but even from that point, he could see the forest. Groaning, Quill pushed himself up to his elbows, eyes narrowing as he searched for the lizard, while still making sure to be hidden.

However, even after sweeping around the forest landscape a few times, he saw nothing. The silence wasn't didn't make the situation any more pleasant. Dead silence, even when he could clearly see the rain coming down heavily, and trees rustling.

Quill swallowed, and for a second, when he looked to his side, he expected to see that one mutilated eye staring at him. Instead, the shrubs greeted him, rustling, even when there wasn't any wind.

'...How are they moving without wind...?'

He crawled over, staying low, and carefully observed the dense foliage as if hoping to find something inside it, but it was all quiet. The leaves were indeed moving, but they were soundless.

Instead, he silently gripped his torch, and slowly made his way back down to the hole.

After all, once he looked to his right, it was quite hard to miss the lizard greedily observing him, barely a few feet away, perched on one of the jagged ledges above the shrubbery.

---

Quill didn't dare acknowledge its existence. So far, it hadn't given any indication it had noticed him. The hole wasn't large enough for the lizard to fit through, so as soon as he went down, he would be safe. At least much safer than being in direct sight of the lizard.

However, his plans were beautifully ruined a second later, as his hand slipped, dropping the torch. Quill desperately tried to grasp it in his crouched position, but it was all too late.

The torch dropped down the hole, making a loud clunking sound as it hit the rocky floor.

Quill didn't waste a second, Dashing forward, skidding on his knees and desperately trying to jump in the hole without breaking his bones. 

All while a maniacal scream rang out, and the eerie silence was broken, being replaced by pure chaos.