Alex began to crawl, every motion immensely straining his body and mind. Yet his eyes remained steady. He dragged himself along the rocky dirt floor until he found a wall. Once he found the wall, he made sure to stick to it, ensuring he didn't crawl in circles. The wall itself was made of rock, which gave Alex clues to his location.
'Underground. I have to be underground. This darkness, the echoes... I must be in a cave,' Alex concluded.
Alex was no longer wondering how such a thing could happen. He decided that any thoughts other than how to survive were useless.
He scraped his body forward without a second thought. Hours passed with no change other than the occasional rock piercing his skin.
"I will find something. I have to," Alex whispered, forcing himself onward.
Then, after hours of dragging his broken legs through the rocky cave, he heard it.
A faint drip of water.
Alex lay still. He had been the only source of noise—until now.
"I knew it," Alex said, a confident glint in his eyes.
He located the noise, tracing it to a narrow passageway. It was just big enough for him to fit through, barely. He felt the jagged rock lining the passage but wasn't deterred. He knew the risks of stuffing his broken body into the hole, but not an ounce of hesitation crossed his mind.
'It's about time I had some water. Hopefully, there's enough for me to take a bath,' Alex joked with himself as he pushed his head into the tight crevasse.
He squeezed his shoulders together and inched forward, moving only with his arms, which added another layer of difficulty.
After a while of squeezing forward, Alex stopped in his tracks.
The faintest blue glow registered in his vision.
At first, he wasn't sure if his mind was playing tricks, but as he continued, tears started welling in his eyes.
He could see.
All the uncertainty about his vision, which Alex had pushed down and ignored, was put to rest.
He could see.
Happiness overwhelmed him, and tears flowed from his eyes. His pace quickened. Alex never thought he could be so happy to see himself in a claustrophobic place.
'I think my new favorite color is blue.' Alex stared at the stone stained blue from the light.
He hurried through the crawl space. With each pull of his body, the light seemed to intensify while the pain and exhaustion faded away, until finally, he saw the end of the strained tunnel.
Crawling through the opening, Alex saw the source of the blue light. Moss covered the roof of the cave and the stalagmites. The sight was breathtaking, even if Alex had not just had his vision restored.
Alex reminded himself of the reason he was in the cave: the sound of water dripping. He listened closely and moved towards it.
The new cave was fairly large, almost as big as the underground roads back where he lived.
Once Alex had dragged himself over to where he heard the water, he relaxed. In front of him was a spring that glowed blue. The moss closer to the water seemed brighter than the moss he had first seen.
Alex moved towards the water, stopping to look down at his reflection.
"Lookin' good as always," Alex said with a chuckle. The truth was that Alex's lips were cut and parched, his eyes were sunken, and his face bore several cuts. The rest of his body followed the same trend. His green eyes, however, remained sharp with focus.
He lowered his parched lips to relieve his dehydration and drank. Alex sipped slowly at first, but once he confirmed the water was safe, he let loose. He gulped as much water as he could until his stomach felt like it would burst.
After drinking his fill, Alex climbed in.
Splash!
Luckily, the water was shallow, and Alex didn't sink to the bottom. His swimming abilities weren't at their best right now.
Alex slowly relaxed in the water. It was cold, but not dangerously so. The pressure on his joints and muscles disappeared, letting his body finally relax. The water felt like a godsend to Alex. Along with his body, his mind eased.
Though Alex was hesitant to close his eyes, he couldn't keep them open. He had dragged his crippled body through the cave for hours, expending enormous physical and mental energy. The exhaustion hit all at once, and Alex fell asleep in the shallow spring.
His battered body floated peacefully, illuminated by the blue glow of the moss.
Alex awoke to a noise that sounded like someone grunting in a foreign language. His eyelids were heavy, but he wrestled them open.
"Thank God, I'm saved," Alex said sleepily and closed his eyes again.
The noise stopped after Alex spoke, but he was overwhelmed with the thought of this nightmare being over and didn't even notice.
'I think it's alright if I go back to sleep now. I'm exhausted, and help has arrived. Hopefully, they won't mind moving me—'
Squelch!
Hot pain flooded Alex's mind, confusion following. His eyes jolted open to look at his abdomen, the source of the pain. Alex saw a small hand connected to the hilt of a knife buried in his stomach. He looked up to see who would do such a thing.
Alex saw the blue face of a man with an abnormally large nose, as well as long, pointy ears. The man was small, no larger than a 10- or 12-year-old child. He wore leather shorts and had a leather strap diagonally wrapped around his torso. Finally, Alex's gaze made its way to the man's eyes.
Fear.
The man's eyes told Alex that he was afraid of him. As Alex continued to stare into the man's eyes—mainly out of shock—the man started shaking, panic creeping into his face and eyes as Alex continued to stare.
The small man with strange features pulled the knife out, causing Alex to gasp in pain. He raised the knife overhead with both hands, ready to sink it back into Alex.
Just as he was about to stab Alex again, another one of the small men tackled him into the water while shouting at him.
Alex looked down and saw blood pooling out of his stomach into the water, darkening the area around him.
Then Alex passed out.
Alex woke for a moment and looked up to see two of the small men dragging him by the feet along the cave. The lights were no longer blue, and he could see that the men's skin was green. They seemed to be passing by carved rooms that were filled with more small green people, all staring at him.
'Must have been somethin' in that water,' Alex weakly chuckled to himself before passing out again.
Once again, he gained consciousness, this time to hear an argument between a bearded and much older, but still small, man and the man who had tackled his attacker. The argument ended with the older man gesturing at Alex. Six men surrounded Alex and started holding him down—one on each limb and two on his torso. Alex felt too weak to resist whatever they were about to do.
He started drifting unconscious again as the old bearded man walked up and began chanting strange, unintelligible sounds. Alex's eyes reopened when they sensed a sudden increase in light.
To Alex's astonishment, the crazy bearded goblin was glowing. Light surrounded him, then it surrounded Alex.
That was when the pain flooded in.
Alex screamed; his entire body felt like it was being burned. His broken legs and stab wound in particular seared with white-hot pain. Alex flailed as best he could, causing the two goblins holding his arms to be thrown back, but four more quickly replaced them.
Alex was immobile and forced to withstand the searing pain, tears flowing from his eyes. His expression twisted into horror and rage. Before this, Alex had no idea humans were even capable of perceiving this much pain. His nerve endings felt like they were being twisted, poked, and played with.
What, in reality, was probably no more than 30 seconds felt like an eternity. The second the light faded from his body, he was out.
The goblins tied Alex's body and once again dragged him through the cave. They arrived at a hallway with barred rooms. The rooms themselves were filled with goblins, some holding multiple prisoners but most containing only one. They marched down the hallway until they found an empty cell, untied Alex, and pushed him inside.
"This can't be real," Alex assured himself quietly. He didn't know how much time had passed since he last blacked out and, at this point, couldn't believe what was happening to him.
'First, I fell from a park bench into a cave and broke my legs. Then I got stabbed by a small blue man. Then finally, the funniest part, a goblin used healing magic to fix my broken body.' Alex recounted the events that led to his incarceration.
At some point, while the goblins were dragging Alex to the healer, they stripped him of his clothes and equipped him with a simple leather kilt. It was a bit too small but very breathable.
Laying down, he looked around the cell that held him.
'A single stone bench? Or maybe it's a bed for goblins. Probably that,' Alex continued. 'Metal bars. This really is prison. Ugh, is that a bucket?'
The cell itself was surprisingly clean. The floor and the walls were made of cave stone, and there were no stray rocks on the floor. The size of the room was not the most accommodating. Goblins would find the living space cramped, and Alex wasn't a goblin. He could stand up fully, but the roof was only an inch or two away from his head. Luckily, he could lie down fully on the floor, as long as he didn't stretch out his arms.
Alex heard steps coming down the hallway toward him. It turned out to be the goblin who had put him through that torturous healing spell. Alex stood up and grabbed the bars.
"Fuck you, I'm gonna kill you for what you did to me, you little green rat," Alex threatened his savior. The old goblin didn't seem to understand and instead started casting another spell, but appeared frustrated when the light fizzled out.
"Just a little closer so I can squeeze your head through these bars. After I'm done with you, I'm gonna track down every last one of you fuckers who held me down. Oh, just wait till I find that guy who stabbed me," Alex continued with a blood-lusted smile. The goblin ignored him, focusing on his spell.
"That's right, I'm gonna kill you and everyone you love—no, everyone you know. And after that—" Alex was abruptly cut off by the goblin mage, who had finally succeeded in casting his spell.
"Oh, thank goodness it's working now. What were you saying?" the goblin spoke.
"…" Alex had to wait for his brain to restart. "I think I really am going crazy."