EA-LEC: Are You Afraid Of The Dark?

Black. That was the only thing people could see in this particularly place. It was completely in darkness making it impossible to see a person’s hand in front of their own face. It was nearly impossible to navigate in this kind of situation unless you had some kind of light with you.

That was exactly this person did holding up his hand summoning a ball of light inside of it illuminating the area around him. This included himself as it showed a red well-groomed attire with long green hair.

Shannon grunted in disgust as he tried to scan around the area with his magical light in his hand. The ground was actually hard rock and he could hear the sound of dripping water from all over him.

He then glared over in a direction to see a human woman standing next to me. She had long black hair with small oval glasses over her blue eyes. She was wearing a beige cap with a matching short-sleeved jacket with black gloves, blue pants and brown shoes.

“Naza, why are we in this disgusting cave again?” Shannon asked.

The woman looked at Shannon in disbelief. “You got to be kidding me. This is like the tenth time I had to tell you. We are here to see if this cave is safe enough to have a party in.”

Shannon paused. “Nope. Still confused.”

Naza groaned as she rolled her eyes. “Look, Shannon. Not all people like their parties fancy and inside of large mansions. They prefer a more rustic look.”

“Well, clearly they have no perception as to what a party is.” Shannon said sticking up his nose in the air. “Not even my casual clothes would be okay here.”

“Well, good grief, when you wear something frilly every day, of course wearing them in here is a bad idea!” Naza pointed out.

Shannon shook his head. “Whatever. How do you find out this cave is passable? And by passable I mean only those imbeciles’ warped little minds.”

Naza shook her head. “Just look around for any large stalagmites and/or holes. Don’t want anyone getting impaled on them or falling in.”

“Fine…” Shannon said before walking forward. Naza slowly followed after him.

However, neither of them noticed that there was a small red light flashing in the darkness slowly following after them. It was keeping a safe distance after the two people.

Shannon, still unaware of the light that was stalking him had walked over to a part of the cave. However, there was a bat sleeping upside-down in the cave. When the light got close to him, he immediately woke up blinded by Shannon’s magic. Letting out a startled shriek, he flew off the top of the cave flying back Shannon and Naza startling them.

It was then the red light decided to make its move. It ran straight towards Naza before wrapping its arms around her. The dark-haired woman’s eyes widened as she felt the life being squeezed right out of her. Not only was the embrace was hard, it was also quite cold. Naza coughed a few times trying to say something but her words kept coming up hoarse.

Shannon turned around with a raised eyebrow to shine his light onto Naza only to go wide-eyed. There was a well-built man wrapped his arms around Naza tightly nearly crushing her. He was a dark-skinned man with short black hair and wore a short-sleeved yellow jacket over a white shirt with black pants and brown shoes.

The most noticeable part about him was that he was a cyborg with his right arm being made out of metal just like most of the top of the right side of his face with a red glowing eye glaring at them.

Shannon paused for a moment. He then chuckled.

“Oh sure, Leon. Squeeze the life out of your boss. That will prove your worth here.” Shannon smirked.

The cyborg’s good eye widened before letting go of Naza allowing her to hold her chest while breathing heavily. She then whirled around and glared at the cyborg that shrank back.

“What the hell, Leon!?” Naza said angrily between pants. “Are you trying to break me in half!?”

The man stepped back waving his hands in front of him. “I-I’m so sorry! That bat had startled me and I grabbed the closest person next to me!”

“You are able to lift up heavy things with one arm and yet you are frightened of one winged rat?” Shannon asked flatly.

Naza shook her head. “Leon, you can’t keep onto latching onto other people like that. Sooner or later, you may accidentally cripple someone. Or worse.”

The dark-skinned man hanged his head. “Sorry…”

“Naza, why did you bring Leon even knowing well he was a completely coward?” Shannon asked.

“I am right here, you know…” Leon muttered underneath his breath.

Naza was about to say something (most likely to scold Shannon) until she had heard something.

“AAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!”

Shannon and Naza jumped when they heard this. Leon on the other hand literally jumped into Naza’s arm with a terrified look on his face.

“Dolin, is that you!?” Naza called out while comically holding up Leon.

“No, no, no, no, NO! I think it is broken!” A voice called out from the darkness.

Naza and Leon gasped at this. Shannon moved his light over to reveal a pair of shadowy hands. Shannon lowered them down to reveal that there were actually ATTACHED to the back of a crouching man. He had dark brown hair with a brown coat over a black shirt and had on light grey trousers and black boots. He had a trouble look on his face as he clenched down of his fists.

He then opened one of them to reveal a cigarette lighter. Suddenly, he sighed in relief.

“Oh, never mind! It is fine! False alarm!” The man said getting up with a smirk with the others going wide-eyed.

“You were screaming because you thought your lighter broke?” Naza asked in disbelief. “What are you, five years old?”

“So I am addicted to my cigarettes. So sue me.” The man said before pulling out a pack of cigarettes out of his coat pocket. He then proceeded to take one out while flicking his lighter so he could light it. The others looked on in exasperation.

“Honestly, Dolin! I was scared half-to-death!” Leon scolded still holding onto Naza.

“EVERYTHING stays you half-to-death, Leon.” The man said finally lighting his cigarette and put it inside of his mouth for taking in a deep breath and blowing out a puff of smoke. “At least MY fears are realistic.”

“Oh, sure. Must be so scary not to get lung cancer.” Shannon said rolling his eyes.

“Wow, Dolin. You know your priorities are skewed when SHANNON started to make sense.” Naza said. She then looked at Leon. “Um, any day now, Leon.”

“Oh right! Sorry…” The cyborg said with a sheepish grin before stepping down.

Shannon shook his head. “Honestly, Naza, your team selecting skills leaves much to be desired. Bats? Broken lighters? If these two gets frightened so easily, why even bring them along?”

“To be fair, I DID volunteer. Needed an excuse to smoke.” Dolin said before taking another puff.

“You know who you guys should be like?” Shannon asked.

“Here we go again.” Naza said rolling her eyes.

Dolin released the smoke in his mouth to answer. “Let me guess. A mole so we would get down and dirty in the ground.”

Shannon grimaced in disgust. “What? No! Me!”

“My idea is better.” Dolin said. Naza and Leon chuckled at this while Shannon growled.

“Hmph. You are just jealous! But then again, who could blame you?” Shannon asked. “I AM the greatest wizard in the world so naturally I could cast any spell to counter any kind of horror. Demons? Get blasted by holy magic. Bugs? I could make my own very brand of bug-spray. Thunder? All I have to do is…”

Dolin paused as Shannon continued his rant. “Hey, Naza, I think I had seen some very sharp looking stalagmites just now.”

Leon chuckled nervously before glaring at Dolin. “Don’t tempt her!”

“...And that is why even lawyers are no match for me. All in all, there is not one single thing in the world that could scare me.” Shannon said.

“Hey, guys!”

The four turned their heads towards the direction of the new voice and once they did, they all jumped.

To see a demonic-looking face of some kind of cow some kind of new light.

“AAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!”

That was the sound of Shannon running off screaming bloody murder. Out of fear, he had stopped his magic meaning that he was running into the darkness of the cave. The others jumped at Shannon’s sudden shout before looking in the direction of the cow’s face.

It turns out that it wasn’t some kind of demonic creature after all. It was actually a female anthro cow with brown fur on her face along with white spots. She wore a blue baseball cap sideways and wore a short-sleeved hooded jacket and a lilac skirt with black shorts underneath. She held onto a flashlight.

“Um, sorry, guys, did I scare you?” The cow said sheepishly.

“I say you did!” Leon answered.

The cow chuckled nervously. “Sorry about that.”

“Well, just be more careful.” Dolin warned. “After all, you ARE the only known fear that could override any type of spell.”

The cow blinked twice. “Um, come again?”

“Never mind, Tulia.” Naza said rolling his eyes. “Just help us find Shannon before he gets himself hurt.”

“All right, guys. Leave it to me!” The cow nodded before stepping forward in the direction she thought Shannon ran off in with her flashlight shining in front of her.

However, after a few steps, she stopped before gasping. Naza, Leon and Dolin looked ahead only to gape as well. Tulia’s flashlight was shining over a hole in the middle of the cave. It wasn’t that large but it was more than enough for anyone to fall straight in.

Before anyone could say anything, they noticed something rising up from the hole. It was Shannon with purple energy surrounding him so he could float upwards. Despite the slow ascent, he looked a bit shaken. It didn’t take the others that long to realize what had happened. Shannon then went onto his knees panting heavily.

Naza, Leon and Tulia looked in concern realizing that Shannon had almost fallen to his death. Dolin on the other hand had a blank look on his face.

Suddenly, the shadowy hands on his back started to clap slowly while his regular arms were still relaxed. The others looked at him in surprise.

“Congratulations, Shannon!” Dolin grinned. “You had demonstrated why this cave is too dangerous to hold a party in! That is why you on our team despite you being a prick!”

“Hey, Dolin, that’s NOT funny!” Naza scolded.

“Yeah! Shannon almost died!” Tulia agreed.

“N-No! He is right! I had actually gone the hole myself to see how deep it was!” Shannon lied getting up to his feet trying to give a refined pose. “It is FAR too deep.”

“And far too damp judging by what happened to your pants.” Dolin said pointing with his cigarette.

Shannon paused before looking down at himself. The area around his crotch was now wet. His eyes bugged out before immediately going to hide it with his hands.

“Um, right. That too.” Shannon said with his face turned beet red.

Dolin chuckled a bit while the others looked on in exasperation. Naza then sighed before shaking her head. When you are dealing with these guys, who needs to be scared of anything else?