The door creaked as I stepped into the pitch-black chamber, the last echoes of the wind outside cut off as it slammed shut behind me. My heartbeat hammered against my chest, still racing from the last encounter. Every muscle in my body was tense, waiting for the next horror to come crawling out of the dark.

I paused, straining to adjust my eyes to the suffocating blackness that filled the room. The only sound was my ragged breathing and the soft crunch of my boots on the stone floor. My hand tightened around the knife in my grip, still slick with the blood of that mutant back on the bridge. I didn’t have a moment to relax—the further I went into this nightmare, the worse it became.

Then, something moved.

At first, it was barely a flicker, just a shift in the shadows ahead. But I knew better than to ignore it. Something—or someone—was in here with me.

"Hello?" My voice echoed weakly, swallowed by the black void around me.

Nothing.

I took a cautious step forward, listening intently, my pulse quickening. That's when I saw it—a shadow, darting just out of sight, a fleeting glimpse of something human-shaped moving deeper into the darkness. Whoever—or whatever—it was, it moved fast. Too fast.

Instinct kicked in, pushing my legs forward in pursuit. If this thing had answers, or if it was just another monstrosity waiting to trap me, I had to know. I jogged into the darkness, each step echoing back at me in the oppressive silence. The ground beneath my feet sloped downward into a wide, open cavern, and that’s when I noticed the air—it felt…thicker. Damp. The smell of decay tickled my nose.

I came to a halt as I reached the center of the cavern. Something was off. My skin prickled with an uneasy sense of being watched. A shiver slid down my spine as I scanned the room, catching brief flickers of movement along the far edges of the cavern walls. A sense of dread filled me, thick as tar.

Suddenly, the ground beneath me shifted. I looked down, squinting at the strange, glistening texture covering the floor. Webbing. Pale, sticky strands of webbing spread in all directions. I jerked my foot back, cursing under my breath as the sticky substance clung to my boot.

That’s when I heard it.

A faint clicking sound above me, like the grinding of bones and mandibles.

I froze, slowly tilting my head up, and my heart nearly stopped.

There, hanging above me, descending slowly on a thick line of webbing, was a grotesque humanoid figure. Its body was gaunt, pale, and twisted, a horrifying fusion of human and spider. Eight black, glistening eyes peered down at me from its bulbous head, and its long, spindly arms twitched as it lowered itself closer, closer, dangling from the web that spooled from a grotesque bulge at its lower back—like a mockery of a spider’s spinneret.

Its mouth parted, revealing jagged, mismatched teeth. Its lips pulled back into a ghastly grin, like it was savoring the moment before it struck.

Panic surged through me, but I forced myself to stay calm. My knife wouldn’t help me here. My hand trembled as I reached toward the gun at my side, but I knew there wasn’t time. It was too close now, its limbs twitching in excitement, saliva dripping from its mouth as it prepared to devour me whole.

Just as it dropped toward me, I saw an opening—its lifeline, the thick strand of webbing. Without thinking, I thrust my hand out, fingers crackling with newly discovered power. A desperate idea crossed my mind as the creature plunged downward. Electricity sparked from my fingertips, surging up through the webbing.

ZZZAP!

The current traveled like lightning, the electricity ripping through the web. The creature let out a high-pitched screech, writhing violently as its body spasmed. It jerked and twisted in mid-air, its limbs flailing wildly. Smoke rose from the webbing as the creature's muscles twitched uncontrollably, its many eyes wide with shock and fury.

I took the chance, lunging forward. With all the force I could muster, I swung the knife upward, catching the creature’s neck as it spasmed. A sickening crunch echoed through the cavern as its head snapped to the side, the grotesque figure falling limp mid-air. The creature dangled for a moment, twitching violently before it fell, crumpling to the ground in a heap of broken limbs.

Breathing heavily, I kicked the body aside and looked down. The thick, black webbing twitched and shuddered like a dying organism. I took a moment to gather myself, wiping the sweat from my brow.

That’s when I heard a whimper—a soft, terrified cry coming from deeper within the cavern.

I turned, cautiously stepping toward the source of the sound. My eyes adjusted to the dim glow coming from the now-still strands of webbing that coated the walls and floor. There, bound in layers of the sticky substance, was a girl—no more than twelve or thirteen years old, her wide, terrified eyes peering up at me from behind the web.

She was trapped. Just like I had been.

Without wasting a moment, I knelt down, using my knife to carefully slice through the webbing that held her. Her small, fragile form trembled as I freed her, and she clung to me the moment her arms were free, her face buried in my chest as sobs wracked her body.

"It’s okay," I whispered, trying to calm her. "You’re safe now."

But deep down, I knew the truth. We weren’t safe. Not yet.

Not by a long shot.

I helped the girl to her feet, her legs wobbling as she tried to stand. Together, we stared into the dark maw of the cave that lay before us, both knowing that whatever waited ahead was far worse than what we had just faced.