Ghirahim's POV

After the child was out of my line of sight I giggle inwardly and had to suppress those giggles from escaping to the outside world. I had to be a professional and all mighty demon lord. My giggles would draw unwanted attention and I can't have that.

Anyways I have much to do, but I take a moment to think about what the boy will experience down there. The catacombs aren't entirely abandoned and it is something I should have mentioned before Link left to complete the task at hand. Oh well. It's such a guilty pleasure. Let's see how the boy fairs down there and if he'll come back in one piece with the item I want.

Link's POV

Once I step foot on the bottom of the stairs, I look back up to the way I came to see the entrance to the catacombs reseal itself with the dry earth of the demonic realm. I hold up my arm to cover my eyes of the dirt that makes its way in and cough a bit from the dust that invades my lungs.

I turn away and look back in front of me. It's completely dark inside the catacombs now and I can barely see. I rummage through the pouch and find a small torch. And not just that, I can't see what they are but there are a lot more things in this pouch than I would have ever thought possible.

I pull out the torch and focus my energy into lighting it. I control the flames that burst from my hand so instead of some inferno, I get a small flame like the very first time I played with fire. The torch instantly ignites and I can see much better.

I see I'm in a narrow hallway. I could hear water dripping from afar but it was so faint I strained to hear it. I saw dirt and pebbles falling from the ceiling every so often, leaving dust clouds in their wake. The air was thin which made it somewhat hard to breathe and not to mention the heat made my lugs constrict making it even more painful for whatever oxygen was down here to flow into my system. I was already beginning to sweat. Goddess the heat was so awful. Why in hell would anyone keep an item inside a place like this? I think I would rather be in the dungeon that is said to be haunted than here. At least the dungeon despite its own heat and foul smells didn't make it painful to breath.

I sigh, already hating this task. I start walking down the hallway and check the sides for the map; Master had mentioned it should be hanging on the walls.

The hallway comes to an abrupt end and splits into three passageway. I check the walls again and see no map anywhere. Did Master lie just to give me some form of confidence?

I quickly shake that thought away. Master would never lie. He hates liars and hates hypocrites. Maybe it has just been so long the map fell off years ago and Master didn't know it was gone.

I choose the left path to go down and find a rusted iron door. I cautiously enter. I look around the room and see a bunch of bones and skulls inside the walls. It smells disgusting in here, a little worse than the dungeon. There are mounds of mud and who knows what else here and there. I look for another door but find none except for the one I came in from. Of all passageways, I chose the one with a disgusting dead end first.

I put my hand on the handle of the only door in the room and try turning it. It won't turn. Maybe it's stuck? I start pulling and thrashing at the door, hoping to open it. After a few moments of fighting with the door, I give up my attempts. It's no use anyways. I'm locked in.

I step farther into the room and grasp the hilt of my sword, ready to take action if needed. I see nothing around. I'm the only living thing in here but something inside me tells me otherwise.

A few more steps in, a hand bursts from the ground and grabs hold of my neck. I am shocked and paralyzed with fear. I pull out my sword from its sheath but lose grip of it and listen in horror as it falls to the ground. I then grab the hand that is holding me by my throat and try to pry its ugly white and red fingers off me. In my attempt to get away, I realize the hand isn't hurting me, just keeping me in place and in a panic. My instincts then fully awaken and tell me it's a trap.

Through my struggles to get free, I hear something burrow out of the ground and slowly head in my direction. My eyes widen more than they are, if that's even possible.

I finally pry the hand off me and whirl around to see what's coming after me. My face pales when I see the horrendous monster. Keeping my distance from the monster and the sudden hands sprouting from the ground, I can see its skin is as white as Master's hair with red splotches covering its body. It didn't really have any hands, only arms that were angled at its side. Its neck was pointed upwards as it slowly made its way towards me and its mouth was huge! I tried to see what its eyes looked like, but it didn't look like it had any, just a black void.

It's now in front of me and it lowers its head with some kind of grin. It tried taking a bit out of me with its flexible jaw. I jump out of the way in time. I see the torch I was holding was also on the ground next to my sword and it didn't seem like it was going out anytime soon.

I dash towards my dropped items, dodging the hand that grabbed me earlier, and grab the hilt of my blade. I'll worry about my torch later. I slash the hand in my way causing it to flee underground and turn my attention back to the grotesque monster still following me.

I let it come close. The second it lowers its head to take a bite, I slash at its face with adrenaline coursing through me. I felt victorious. Unfortunately, my victory was short lived when it retreated underground and another hand popped out and encases my throat. Goddess these ugly hands are really starting to annoy me.

I don't let go of my sword this time, instead I slice right through it and spin on my heel just in time to slash at the monsters face. Its blood splatters on me. It smells like a rotting corpse. It hides underground once again, and more hands fly right out of the ground waiting for me to run into them.

Not this time!

I dodge an oncoming hand and let my blade sink into its rancid flesh. I watch the other hands carefully from the corners of my eyes but kept most of my focus on the creature coming towards me. I examine my foe once more and realize with disgust it wasn't a living enemy. It was more like the walking dead, well more like sliding dead since it had no feet. Its flesh was decaying and falling off. Those red splotches I thought were a part of its skin were actually rotting flesh, bleeding and coming apart to reveal its muscle and innards.

For who knows how long I slashed viciously at the decaying monster. I was sweating profusely and breathing heavily in the thin humid air. I skin was caked in its putrid blood and my tunic was definitely not spared of its bloodshed. I was also bleeding and I'm pretty sure I reopened some of my wounds on my back.

I slash at the creature one more time and finally after giving a blood curdling scream it fell to the floor with its mouth wide open and died. A chest appears from its rotting remains and I decide to claim whatever treasure was in it even if I had to peal the flesh of the monster away from the chest to open it.

I wiped my bloody hands on my already stained pants and opened the chest. I pulled out the item and found it was a key. I sigh wishing I had something better but then I was glad I had it in case. Better safe than sorry.

I pocket the key, grab my still lit torch, and try the door again. I hear the click of the knob and it swings open with no effort needed. I walk out and head down the right passageway. I find another door at its end. I contemplate on whether or not I should try for it. It could be another trap. I quickly make up my mind and head back and down the middle passage. This time not only do I find a stupid door but it had a lock on it. Well this has to be the way forward, right?

I use the key and quickly enter. I deadpan the second I see what's in the room. Hand, tons and tons of hands litter the room. There even coming out of the walls. I don't know whether I should scream and run or stay and put my life on the line. This is truly a fight or flight situation. I try the knob of the door. Of course, it's locked. Now I really do have to fight. The fight begins just like it did last time with the same kind of enemy.

This one took long, much, much longer than last ones. I could hardly breathe and was bleeding even more now. I have confirmed that all my lacerations on my back are complete opened and are pooling blood, soaking through my tunic and attracting the Dead Hand further towards me. Yep, I gave it a name. With all its hands and its rotting body, I think it suits.

I finally kill it though and open another chest that appears after its defeat. Inside this time is the map. I look at the map and check off where I am. The room I was about to go through before heading back was in fact the right way forwards. In other words, I could be further inside the catacombs and have avoided this creature. I seriously hate this place more and more each second.

I sheath my sword and head back down the right passageway and through its door. I narrow my eyes in rage at what I find. DAMN IT! I just couldn't get a break from these guys could I? I think by the time I done with the task Master so kindly gave me, my Master is going to hear some new words fly out of my mouth and those words are not going to be pretty.

Author's comments: See what I did there? Yes the childhood nightmare Dead hands have returned. Don't we all just love and miss them? Of course we don't. In most fanfics I read I don't see Dead hands showing up. So I decided to be different. Yes they are everywhere and I am evil for putting them there. Enjoy. I'll have next chapter up very soon. I swear it seems when I'm typing theres so much more than there really is. Oh and if I give you nightmares of the dreaded Dead Hand I'm so sorry.