The trio sped down the tunnel at speeds they didn't think themselves possible of achieving, energy fueled purely on adrenaline (and a touch of fear). Their steps clacked against the stone ground rapidly but were drowned out by piercing screams echoing throughout the cave. Squidward's torch lay abandoned on the cave floor, their running blind entirely.

The creature itself was eerily quiet as it moved, or more, glided towards them and yet somehow keeping up with the three. It seemed impossible, the speeds it was going at with how silent it was. It was like a ninja, not the stereotypes that one is used to, always going at their foes head on with whatever typical weapon. No, an actual ninja, dark clothes to blend into the shadows, silent, unseen, and moving quickly to avoid being spotted.

Silent, but deadly.

Squidward was the first of the three to run out of breath, slowing down gradually as his legs refused to take him at a speed any faster than his current one, until his legs simply gave out on him and he collapsed to the ground with a loud thud. Patrick was the one to hear it. He spun around upon hearing something hit the floor and ran towards it in a blind daze.

SpongeBob quickly followed suit, rushing towards the location of the thud as fast as his already exhausted legs could carry him.

Squidward tried to climb to his feet but found them pinned down by some sort of weight. At first he assumed the creature was standing on them, but then he realized something, he didn't feel anything. Well, he felt some odd pressure pinning his legs down. But, at the same time it felt as if nothing was there. It didn't even hurt despite how large the creature was and how much his legs already ached. If anything, he felt a chill where the pressure was. Almost as if he was in a shadow on a windy day, being denied the sun's natural warmth.

It was then that those thoughts were immediately forgotten as something suddenly came down and slammed Squidward's head against the cavern ground, if there had been no sand there than Squidward would've broken his jaw for sure. Once again, Squidward didn't feel anything actually touch his head, more like there was some violent pressure pushing him down, like gravity had somehow grown stronger in that particular spot. That and now Squidward's head was freezing cold.

Soon enough, that cold began spreading to the rest of Squidward's body, slowly his body temperature lowered to the point where it felt nonexistent as he was encased in some sort of invisible icy barrier, unable to move at all as the pressure spread with the cold. Squidward's teeth chattered uncontrollably and he barely managed to call out, "Sp-p-pongeB-B-Bob! P-Patrick!"

Thankfully his cries were loud enough to grab the lost Goobers' attention as they sprinted towards Squidward's location.

Along the way Patrick suddenly tripped over something, something his bare stub recognized to be a cylindrical shape, coral. The makeshift torch, to be more precise.

Instantly Patrick groped around for it in a blind panic until his hand met that same object, still warm. Patrick also knew that the incredibly dry wall was nearby and so he wasted no time and hopping to his feet and practically slamming into the wall like an idiot who'd just figured out how to walk.

Upon meeting its scratchy touch, Patrick scraped the torch against it, pressing it against the wall as hard as he could without shattering it, and almost instantly the upper half of the coral lit up with bright, blazing orange and red, nearly blinding Patrick upon the sudden return of the light, as he rushed back towards the sound of Squidward's cries.

Finally the starfish located Squidward and for one brief moment saw the outline of the creature meet the edge of the torchlight, making him pray that he was strong enough to throw it off.

However, drawing close enough for the monster to look up and see the lantern bobbing up and down, it seemed to yelp before scampering back into the darkness quickly.

It was then that SpongeBob ran to Squidward's side and helped him up while Patrick gave the tow some light, "Whoo, what a relief! Nice work there, Pat! Yah scared it off!" SpongeBob exclaimed in a congratulatory manner. Much to both SpongeBob and Patrick's surprise however, Squidward simply shot Patrick and angry stare, "Great work? Great work?! Patrick may have scared it off, but his senseless bickering is what attracted that mongrel in the first place!" he snapped, glaring at the both of them spitefully.

Taken aback, SpongeBob timidly replied, "But, Squidward, weren't you the one who started it?" he stated quietly.

Squidward looked at him smugly, "Oh no! I'm not going to be blamed for that oaf's temper!" he exclaimed haughtily.

SpongeBob looked at him with a much angrier glare now, "Squidward that's not fair or true and you know it! Now I'm not going to act like Patrick isn't at fault here, but you're also to blame, so don't act all victimized!" SpongeBob retaliated.

Patrick finally joined in, "Yeah, Squid! I shouted too, but you started it you, big meanie!" he responded.

Squidward looked at both of them and just sighed, "Oh, forget it, that thing will probably come back if we don't shut up and start moving, either way."

With that, the three began to move forth once more, eventually coming across a strange opening.

The opening itself was and odd oval shape, surrounding from either side being cage bar formations of interlocking stalagmites and stalactites. Even more peculiar was a note resting in between two of the natural bars.

Curious, SpongeBob approached it and pulled it out from its resting place. As the other two encircled him, he read aloud the red text scrawled crudely and hastily on the clearly aged scroll, "It hates light. It can't get you in light. It lays flat against the surfaces in light." It was then that they noticed that the very bottom text was poking up, but was ripped off almost entirely.

"Hey look!" Patrick said, pointing excitedly over to the other formation. There lay the last bit of text from the scroll hidden away, but poking out just enough to make its presence known.

Quickly SpongeBob ripped it from the wall and looked at the last words of the warning, but failed to understand what they meant, as did the other two when he read the last bit aloud.

"Do not touch it in light, or it will show you its darkness."


Author's Note: Alright guys, here's March's chapter- what's that? It's April?

Crap... I've been playing too much Silent Hill and Five Night's at Freddy's, haven't I? Wait, that gives me some, interesting ideas... *Not so subtle foreshadowing*

On a side note, I'm not going to recommend you play Five Nights at Freddy's because let's face it you already have, but if you haven't played Silent Hill...

PLAY IT NOW FOR THE LOVE OF GOD IF YOU LIKE SURVIVAL HORROR!