Chapter 13 : Into the Darkness - Part 3 : Into the Abyss

Alex POV

I woke up somewhere in a grassland, the trees aren't that much like on the forest, probably we were out from the forest. I lifted my head from the ground and looked around, Sophia and Lily is unconscious and laying on the ground, Lily's video camera fell out not far from her hands. And my flashlight lying beside my arm, I picked it up and pocketed it, I tried to stand, but my left knee felt sore, I checked it and find it has a red cut and blood dripping from it, it was hurt. A lot, so I pulled out my notebook and wrote 'bandage' and cover the wound with it. Well, now it's felt better, I pocketed the rest of the bandage and forced my knee to get up and ignoring the pain. I slowly walked toward Lily to wake her up.

"Lily." I called her and knelt down with my right knee, "Lily?" I held both of her shoulders and shook her to wake her up, "Lily? Wake up."

She slowly opened her eyes and woke up, she got up and rubbed the back of her head, "Huh? What-?" She looked around.

"Oh, it's you." She noticed me, "How long I've been out?" She asked me.

I shrugged, "I dunno, I just woke up moments ago."

I reached for her camera and picked it up, I checked the battery of the camera. Great, only 50% battery left, it must have been left recording last night when we were blacked out.

"The camera." Lily checked the ground nearby and her bag for her video camera, "Don't worry, the camera is fine." I said to her.

She let out a sigh of relief and tried to stand, but she fell again, my reflex quickly held my arms and grabbed her from falling to the ground.

"Ah, damn it. My knee." She groaned, I looked at her knees, the right knee is fine, but the cut on the left knee just got bigger and now it's bleeding.

"Don't worry, I'll patch it up." I said to her and pulled out the bandage, I cover her wound with it. When I did that, I caught her smiling to me, 'Maybe, she just happy because I care for her.' I thought, 'Or, what if she like me?' Came another thought, I'm not expert on judging, but, I admit she was quite... Pretty, to me. Even through she was a bit tomboy like Sophia (I saw her reading a DC comic in her room. Well, most girls doesn't like reading comics. And Sophia, since she joined my group, which mostly consist of boys and tomboy girls. She became a tomboy since then.) Whoa, what hell am I thinking?! And where that thought came from? I quickly shook that out of my mind. I finished bandaged her and threw the rest of the bandage aside, "Can you stand?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I think so." I held her right hand and pulled her so she could stand.

"Thanks."

"Anytime."

She tidied up her clothes and cleaned some dust from her shirt. Meanwhile, Sophia is now awake and rubbing the back of her neck.

"Morning sleepy head." I said to her.

"Shut up." She groaned and sat on the ground, "Where are we?" She asked.

"Don't know, probably out from the forest." I answered.

She got up and flexing her muscles, "Now, what we need to do? We already collected all the pages, but we couldn't save Maxwell yet."

"Guys, I think you need to see this." Lily said to us from behind.

We turned around and saw another large and bloodied message written on the cliff, and it says 'Get to the mine.'

"Who is the one who wrote this?" She asked.

"Well, at least that guy gave us the next clue of Maxwell's disappearance." I answered.

So we headed off to the field and searched the mine that message has told us about, we found a large (and dark) warehouse, abandoned in the field. Containers with 'Underscore Mining Co.' Written on it, barrels, and some mining vehicles filled the warehouse, this warehouse is probably the mine that the message meant.

Once we at the entrance, I found a brown bag and a blue flashlight laying on the ground, I bent down to inspect the bag. That brown bag was similar to Lily's and Sophia's, I opened it and found something that shocked all of us. Sarah's Magic Globe.

"What?!" I was shocked, "No, it couldn't be!"

What if she got captured by Slender Man and turned into his proxy? I can't let that happened to her, I have to save her, and Maxwell too.

"Don't worry." Lily put her hand on my right shoulder, I turned my head to the right and saw her smiled to me, "We'll save her and Maxwell."

"Alright." I put the globe back and slung the bag on my shoulder, wearing it like Lily and Sophia. I picked up the flashlight and gave it to Lily, "Here, maybe you'll need it." I said to her.

"Thanks." She smiled to me.

I smiled back to her and pulled out my flashlight and turned it on, shining the darkness inside the warehouse/mine, we walked inside to find any sign of Sarah or Maxwell. We keep walking until we reached a dead end, "This way." Sophia said to us while opened a door at the right side of the wall.

We followed her inside the room, only to lead into another dead end, but there is another door to the left and Lily with Sophia entered it. Before I enter it, I found an announcement paper in a wall, it says we need to activate six generators in order to activate an emergency lift to exit. "Hey Alex, over here!" Sophia shouted to me from the other side, "Coming!"

I didn't realized I was too busy reading that paper and forgot the others, I quickly catch up with the others, who was gathering near a two-wheeled yellow generator that was set near a lift. "I wonder what if I activate this generator." Sophia rubbed her chin.

"We need to activate at least 6 of the generators to get out from here." I said to her.

"Why don't we just use Lily's globe to get out from here?"

"Well, I'm sorry. I can't use my globe in here because this place is like..." Lily paused and looked around, "I never saw it, it's like it was just created."

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

"It means I can't teleport from the place I never knew."

I sighed, that means we really need to get out from here with activating these generators. I searched for the switch to turn on the generator. After I found it, I turned on the generator. It let out a low rumbling sound and the red light turned into a green light.

1 of 6 generator activated

Some of the lights turned on, and three gates were opened. But the lights weren't enough for us to see without a flashlight, "So, which way to go?" Lily asked us.

"I'd say we go to the nearest gate." Sophia pointed to the left gate with her left thumb.

"Alright, let's go." I led the way to the gate, our footsteps were echoing in this mine. We keep walking until we found a fork, "So, which way?" Sophia asked.

The left one lead to a corridor, meanwhile the right one lead into a large room, "Well, we have two choices. We can't split up, or choose one way." I answered.

"I prefer we go to the right." Lily said to us.

"Yeah, now let's go." Sophia said.

We turned to the right, we followed the way until we reached a large room filled with big shelves and some forklifts. We found a generator right between two big shelves, "Look, a generator!" Lily pointed to the generator.

She and Sophia quickly went to the generator to activate it, but I didn't catch up with them. Because I heard a distance footsteps approaching from behind, I turned around to check it, only to found nothing. Maybe it's just my feeling. But the footsteps just got louder and louder, it was like someone running toward us. I saw someone, and the figure was wearing a dirty white hoodie and pink skirt. I could presume that the figure is a girl, and she was running toward my direction. I tried to have a look at her face, but it was hidden by the hood and she was wearing... A mask?

2 of 6 generator activated

"Alex, what are you looking at?" Lily asked from behind, "And who the hell is that?!"

I was too busy inspecting her and didn't noticed that she jumped and tackled me to the ground, the camera fell out from my right hand. I shined my flashlight at her face, there was two blue eyes shining from the mask eye holes. Wait, the blue eyes, and the pink skirt, they seems familiar to me.

"S-Sarah?" I called her, but she didn't reply.

She pulled out a knife from her back and pointed it's sharp edge at my chest, she held it with both of her hands, ready to stab me to death. But that never happen. Sophia karate kicked her away from me, and she bounced quite far from me. Sophia helped me to stand, I picked up the video camera on the ground and we all run away from her.

"Who was that?" Sophia asked me.

"Don't know, maybe she is one of the Slender Man's proxy sent to kill us all." I answered.

"Well, it's a good thing that he isn't here." Lily said.

But Lily was wrong. By the time we climbed up a stairs to the second floor, I saw him. Watching us from the distance in the hallway. Luckily, we lost him and his proxy. We stopped for a while to catch a breath, "So... Did we lost her?" Sophia asked.

"Yes we did." I looked behind to make sure she doesn't followed us anymore,"Now let's find more generators again."

We started looking for 4 more generators in this large mine. Well, it's not easy through. First, this mine was very large and has a complicated structure and interior. Second, the mine is pretty hot. Making some sweats dropping from my forehead and disturbed my concentration.

"Look, down there." Lily pointed to something at the first floor.

I looked down and saw a generator behind a fence, "Good work Lily. Now let's go." I said to her.

We searched for an alternate way to get downstairs, we followed the hallway until we found another stairs that lead to the first floor. Once we got to the first floor, we searched for a way to reach the generator. I heard a fast footsteps from behind, 'It must be that mysterious person again.' I thought.

When I looked behind, I saw her at the distance. Running toward us.

"Guys, she found us." I said to the group, "Run!"

We started running, I kept looking behind to check how close is she to us. She run pretty fast, I tried to shine my flashlight at her face. And it actually did something, she stopped and blocked her eyes with her arm.

"Guys, her weakness is your flashlight. Shine it at her face." I told the group.

Once we found the generator, Sophia went to activate it. Meanwhile, Lily and I shined our flashlight at her face to subdue her.

3 of 6 generators activated

"Alright guys, let's go!" Sophia shouted to us and we followed her.

We're running, shining our flashlight at the chasing figure, looking for generators for the past few minutes. But we just can't find the generator, where the hell is it?

"Damn, why don't we just kill her already?" Sophia asked.

"No, don't do it." I answered.

"Why? She's so annoying! She has been chasing us throughout the mine for the last 10 minutes."

"Because, I felt something familiar with her."

"Yeah, me too." Lily agreed.

We keep walking until we reached a long corridor, many doors were opened, "Let's search for the generator in these room." I said to the group.

Lily and Sophia nodded and we searched the room one by one, all the room was empty. But when we opened the bathroom door, we found a generator in it.

4 of 6 generators activated

"Alright, 2 more." Sophia said to us.

When we was about to exit the bathroom, Slender Man just appeared in the front of us. We all screamed and ran back to the bathroom, we hid in one of the closet and I closed the door. We turned off our flashlight and waited for the Slender Man to go from the bathroom, I waited for the static in the video camera to vanish. Lily and Sophia sat in the corner of the closet, hugging each other and whimpering.

I shivered down to my spine as I heard one of the closet door being blown open. I just hope the Slender Man doesn't find us. The next door was also blown open, I closed my eyes and waited for the door in the front of me opened and the Slender Man find us. But, nothing happened. And the static in the video camera finally gone, I opened the closet door and checked around. Great, now the Slender Man is gone now we can continue to search the generators. I motioned the other to follow me and we exited the bathroom.

"Phew, that was close." I wiped the sweat in my forehead.

"Yeah." Lily replied.

We turned our flashlight and shined our way to find more generators. We keep walking, only to found that we were back to the first room, we tried to walk to the second gate, it led to a large room. We keep walking until we found a dead end. Luckily, we found two room, and one of them has a generator in it. I went inside to activate it.

5 of 6 generators activated

Our mood lighten up when we realized that we just need one more generator to get out from here. But we all surprised when we saw the chasing figure suddenly pounced at Sophia, but she easily kicked the figure off and we ran away.

"See?! She is very annoying!" Sophia pointed at the figure.

Me and Lily ignored her and we all continue to search the generator again. The figure was chasing us again, it made us need to run again. We keep subduing the figure with our flashlight whenever she got close to us, I ran with all the rest of my stamina and forced my left leg to run faster. Even through my left leg is kinda bit stiff and hurt a lot, I ignored it and kept running.

We finally found the last generator in an empty room, we entered the room to activate it.

6 of 6 generators activated

"Great! Now let's get back to the lift!" I told the group and we headed back to the room where the first generator is at.

When the figure is back chasing us. We tried to subdue her using our flashlight, but it isn't working. It only slow her down a bit, and we used it to get as far as possible from her. Once we got back to the lift. Sophia entered it first and she went to the panel to activate it. I was next to enter it, when Lily was about to enter the lift she was pounced by the figure and punching her face. I approached Lily and punched the figure as hard as possible with my right hand, careful not to break the video camera. With the figure downed on the floor and tried to got up, I helped Lily to stand and headed to the lift. As the lift ascend to upward, we rest for a while in the lift.

I sat on the floor and rested my legs for a while, the left one is now very tired and I almost can't move it. I also noticed a blood stain in my right hand glove, I must have punched the figure so hard and her blood stained my white glove. I saw Lily's right cheek bruised red a bit and some blood spots on her shirt, "Hey, you okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah." She rubbed her right cheek and looked down to inspect her shirt, "Must be that figure's blood."

"So, where are we going next?" Sophia asked.

The lift stopped and showed us a hallway that led to an exit, "I don't know. Maybe to a location where we can find Maxwell." I replied.