He wasn't sure why but he felt the compulsion to appease the little creature in his dream. If nothing else, maybe in doing so it would grant him a measure of comfort in his own mind. He made his way along the cobbled streets for what must have been an hour. He found himself standing on the edge of the city with a thick forest in front of him. He stood at the forests edge contemplating the best course of action for him. Alex dug into his coat pocket and pulled out the map that he had Emily mark for him and examined it. He oriented his location and turned in what seemed to be the best route to this cave she painted. Alex trudged through the dense foliage picking and choosing the best paths to take as he went. After many cursory checks of the map and careful orientation he found himself, hours later at the base of the two hills. The trees parted slightly as if as in awning around the little valley between the two. Alex pushed forward looking carefully at the hillsides finally spotting his target.

The cave itself was overgrown with ivy and mostly camouflaged to people who weren't looking for it specifically. It was clear that people had found it though, judging by the footprints in the soft soil surrounding the entrance. Alex squinted into the darkness hoping to see something further in, he strained his ears listening for words or whispers from within. After many minutes he finally heard something, a light jingle of loose metal bouncing against metal. As if a possible hiker had a canteen bouncing and sliding off metal parts of their bag. Alex, quietly as he could, ducked off into a small cluster of bushes attempting to not make any noise or rustle the branches too much.

He watched the entrance as a man emerged from the cave, his face obscured by a white facemask devoid of emotion. The man had a gun belt on and it was clear it was mostly for looks as with every step he took the weapon jostled and bounced. Alex mentally noted that was the noise he heard. He saw the man turn back to the cave entrance and call out. "Nothing out here, those damn watchers must be screwing with us again!" He turned around and headed back into the cave heavy foot falls and jingling marking the exit of a very, very dumb man.

Alex moved to stand but faltered somewhat, as an after thought he reached into his pocket and pulled out the small bundle of tobacco he bought earlier and left it in the bush. He then stood up and moved to the cave entrance again, he reached into his coat and went for his pistol, thinking twice of it before pulling it. "I'd rather not shoot in here, might cause a cave in.." He thought to himself. Instead he ducked inside the cave entrance and waited a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.

Alex stayed low, working his way cautiously though the winding passage, he stopped as he heard voices echoing off the walls ahead he picked up on the faint light of a flame around a bend in the passage. He kept on his path slowly, consciously choosing his foot falls to minimize his sound. He finally was close enough to make out the voices and what was being said. One of the voices was of the man he saw at the entrance the other was one entirely unknown to him.

"When do you think they'll be bringing in more of the sacrifices?" The voice of the masked man said.

"I don’t know, they're searching the slums for one right now, they brought that uppity bitch's friend in though. They said it was on her order too." The other voice responded back.

"That's cold hearted, think it was because she went askin' for help?" There was the sound of a kick in the dirt, then shuffling of more footsteps as a third person came into the chamber.

"What the hell do you assholes think you're doing? You're supposed to be guarding the entrance! The watchers said there was someone out there and I come up here to see you idiots talking!" It was a woman's voice and one who clearly carried some authority in this group.

"We're sorry Ma'am, we went up and looked and there wasn't hide nor hair of anyone out there. Just trees as usual. I think the watchers were screwing with us again." The masked man said in response, there was a measure of fear in his tone. "We'll go back up if you want us to."

The woman’s voice had a clear tone of irritation to it. "The watchers don’t just 'screw with you’ they only send word when it’s an actual legitimate threat. The last four times you were sent you said there was nothing. If it happens again I'm putting you to the knife." There was a slight pause "And YOU, you're coming with me. Now. I'll show you 'uppity bitch'"

There was the sound of a slight struggle and the sound of what must've been a hand across the mans face. A soft grumble and then footsteps of two people left. The masked mans voice echoing once more after the footfalls silenced. "Poor sod." The masked man started back up in the direction of Alex. Alex pushed himself against the wall and tried to make as little noise and movement possible hoping the man's eyes wouldn’t adjust to the darkness before getting to him. This was his best opportunity to get answers and he was going to use it. Luck was in his favor as the man walked by him oblivious to the danger lurking in the shadows. With a fluid movement Alex was behind him wrapping and arm around his neck and kicking the back of his knee sharply dropping him to the ground.

Alex tightened his hold around the masked mans neck by using his other arm as a brace at his back squeezing the air from his throat. In threatening whispered tones he asked. "Who are you people? What are you doing here?"

As his grip loosened only enough for the man to answer he choked out. "We're here to release the seal."

Alex squeezed again drawing the air out of the man. "Who are these sacrifices? Where are they being held?"

The man in the mask coughed against the resistance around his throat. "In the back of the caves. You're gonna die, they wont let you get to them. Too many people."

Alex had enough of what he wanted from the man, he would get the rest in due time. He squeezed the mans neck hard, cutting off all airflow for long enough to force him to black out. The dead weight of the man slumped down to the ground with a dull thud. Alex righted himself then removed the mans gun belt he pulled the weapon from it and used the belt proper to secure his hands behind his back he then proceeded to roll the man into the wall to keep him out of sight. He knew he wouldn’t be out for long but he felt he had enough time to take advantage of the situation,

Alex pocketed the mans revolver and started off further up the cave, making his way along the darkness, being care to avoid any light being cast by small torches in the walls of the passageways. When he couldn’t skirt around them he quickly passed through the light and dipped back into the shadows of the cave. After some time of travelling he saw that the cave opened up into a massively wide chamber. Within the chamber sat small ramshackle shacks which looked like they served as housing or cells. In the middle of the chamber was a large bonfire and stone table both sitting in front of a arch of stones surrounded by what looked like amphitheater grounds. Alex looked in awe at the chamber not sure what to make of all of it. He saw plenty of movement down in the chamber various members of this group shuffling around between buildings. Small campfires burned in the darkness.

He then saw a commotion below as one figure was dragging along another one towards one of the buildings below, people were gathering in a crowd around the two only to witness the figure in the lead turn around and signal to two others in the crowd, Alex couldn’t make out what was being said. Without hesitation one of the figures rose what looked like a club and swung it down brutally on the man’s head. There was a raucous cheer among the crowd as the struck man collapsed. With the force of that swing he was surely dead, Alex clenched his jaw feeling he saw enough of this, as he readied himself to leave a sharp pain rolled down his spine and his vision went blurry. Lights shone in his vision as everything faded to black, the last image he saw was a figure standing over him with a club in hand before all went dark.