The bell tower was brightly lit by the cool moonlight coming in through the tall window. Stars twinkled innocently in the clear night sky. A lone bat flapped its leathery wings as it passed between the two figures standing still as statues beside the water-stained old bell.

Tiran stared at the girl as she gaped at him, or rather the space beside him where only his long shadow shaded the wall. He looked at his shadow, it looked normal enough to him, perhaps only a bit distorted by the angle of light from the moon, but otherwise as it should be, so he thought. He looked back at her frightened face.
Why was she so afraid of him? She moved slowly, careful as though she was faced with a ferocious tiger poised to strike her at any moment. Tiptoe, tiptoe tiptoe. His eyes followed her as she slid by him, and as she kept as much distance as possible while heading for the door.

As soon as she reached the doorway she darted through it and out of sight. Tiran was left alone with only the fading sound of her footfalls to tell him that she was gone.

Tiran turned his eyes to the stony window. What was happening to him? It had been a month since the incident. He hadn’t been the same since.

One Month Earlier…

The forest smelled of pine trees and fresh clean air. The sounds of birds flying from tree to tree and small furry creatures scurrying along the ground filled Tiran's ears. Tiran listened absentmindedly to the crunching sound of his feet on the dirt ground of the campsite as he lugged his stuff to the cabin he always shared with his brother. His family spent a week in this forest every year. This year was no different.

The first day Tiran went with his uncle to the stream to do some fishing. Anything they caught would end up as their dinner that day. Tiran caught 2 decent-sized fish and his uncle caught one huge one which Tiran had to help him reel in.

“Way to go kid!” his uncle patted him on the back, congratulating him.

“Hey E Ron when are you going to stop calling me “kid”? I’m in college.” Tiran asked him.

Uncle Eron looked at him with honest eyes. “You’ll always be a kid to me”, said Uncle Eron.

One of Tiran’s favorite things to do in the forest was go exploring. He would find something new each time he came here. His brother used to go with him on his explorations but now he considered it too childish so Tiran had to go alone this time. On one such exploration Tiran happened upon a cave opening he had never seen before. It was about ten feet high, six feet wide and surrounded on all sides by foliage from the nearby trees. It was so well camouflaged despite its size that he nearly passed it up. Before he had a chance to investigate further he heard a voice from somewhere nearby.

“Tiran!” His brother called.

Tiran made a mental note to come back and check it out sometime before they left the campgrounds and caught up with his brother and the others.

The next few days went by with campfires, ghost stories, campfire songs, early morning hikes and swimming contests in the calm river waters. It hadn’t been as boring as Tiran had expected, yet the idea of going home soon was welcome as far as Tiran was concerned.

During the last evening of the trip he finally managed to evade the activities by entirely by telling the rest of the family that he was feeling tired and wanted to get to bed early. Once the rest of them were all comfortably situated around the campfire he feigned a yawn and stood up. Mumbling a “good night” he walked toward his cabin until he was out of sight and then slipped off to find the cave.

It was even harder to find the cave in the dark than it had been to find it during the day. Tiran thought he had already spent an hour just looking for it. Thankfully he had remembered to bring his phone with him. He didn’t get any service here, but at least he could use it as a flashlight. Several times he was startled by a critter crawling on the ground over dead branches. When he was about to give up and turn back he tripped over a tree root and tumbled to the ground. The ground was uneven where he landed so he rolled a few feet from where he had stood a moment before. He stood up to find himself right at the mouth of the cave. It took definite effort to not jump and yell with excitement.

Maybe it is childish he thought and shined his phone's flashlight into the cave and walked forward. Once he was inside he looked around at the walls and the ground to make sure he didn’t trip or get surprised by anything. The walls looked like regular dirt, except the deeper he went the stranger the shape. He was shocked to find that there was writing on them. Bright white writing as if written by a piece of chalk.

Probably it was just some kid playing around, he thought.

He started to read it aloud in a voice almost above a whisper:

“Things are not always as they seem,
hidden by the eyes of many,
you will not expect what you may see,
for in the dark there is many a thing,
and in the light as well.
You have the gift of sight.”

Weird, Tiran thought.

Almost as if in defiance a loud stony grinding sound came from the mouth of the cave. Tiran’s whipped around to look only to just see the last thin line of moonlight disappear as the cave opening closed completely. He was alone in the dark for no more than the blink of an eye until a brightly light fiery torch appeared on the wall in front of him with a whopping sound. The sound repeated as three more torches appeared on the walls making the otherwise circular room seem almost square. In the middle of the room was a fifth torch which gave off a tremendous amount of smoke. Tiran began to wonder if he was going to run out of air but found that the smoke did not bother his lungs at all.

The smoke billowed up and up until it was a revolving black cloud emanating from the center torch. The cloud began to take shape then. First Tiran could make out a human-like body from the waist up, with strong arms and a powerful torso. The head was erect and its face was populated by dark cloudy sockets for eyes and mouth. Behind the head two long horn-like shapes stretched out backwards on either side. From the human-like form’s back extended two large bat-like wings which flapped once before settling into a slightly folded position behind the body. The human-like creature folded its arms and looked down at Tiran. A boom of laughter seemed to come from its smoky mouth.

Tiran fell backwards onto the ground before the smoke creature.

“Gah!” He gasped.

The creature jarred with laughter again.

“Who? Wh-wh-what?” Tiran started to ask.

“Who am I?” the creature finished the question for him. “Why, I am Morteg.”

“Morteg?” Tiran said quietly to himself.

“I have been watching you, Tiran.” Morteg said as he stared at him through those smokey eye sockets.

“How do you-“ Tiran began.

“-know your name?” Morteg finished.

Tiran just stared dumbfounded.

Morteg laughed again. Tiran could swear the walls of the cave shook.

Tiran stood up slowly. Without taking his eyes off of Morteg, Tiran pressed his back up against the wall of the cave behind him. He tried to sneak sideways along the wall toward the entrance, in hopes that it would open when he reached it and he would be able to escape.

“You cannot leave here. There is no exit,” Morteg said.

Tiran stopped. What do I do now? he thought. This whole thing was a really stupid idea. Maybe I have been too childish.

Morteg laughed again. “C’mon now, don’t be afraid. I’m only going to eat you.” Morteg said.

Tiran froze and stared at Morteg with unblinking eyes.

“Now, now. Frightened meat tastes terrible. Just accept it. You will become part of greatness!”

Tiran slowly shook his head but his eyes did not leave Morteg.

Another round of laughter.

“I’ll make a deal with you, Tiran.” Morteg said.

“There are six unique objects in this cave. A goblet, an emerald, a ruby an old blade, a metal coin, and a golden chain. Gather these items and place them before me. If you do so, I will open the cave wall once more and let you leave.” Morteg explained.

“What’s the catch?” Tiran asked, feeling a strange surge of proud skeptical defiance in the face of death itself.

“There’s no catch. I like you Tiran. But you’re smart. I’ll admit, I haven’t been entirely honest with you. If you don’t gather everything before the last torch goes out…” He pointed to the 4 torches along the walls that had lit when Tiran entered. He hadn’t noticed until then but they were starting to flicker and become smaller. The first one was nearly extinguished already. “…then you’ll be mine.”
Morteg’s evil laugh echoed throughout the cave as Tiran darted his eyes around the room in search of the items. The torches were fading fast and by the looks of it he had very little time left.

From the corner of his eye he saw a red sparkle among a pile of what looked like the bones of dead bats. He shuffled over to it and reluctantly reached in between the bones to retrieve the ruby. It glowed brightly in his hand and reflected off of his face as he looked down at it. Pocketing the ruby he looked around for one of the other items that Morteg had listed off.

A few paces from where he stood was an abandoned treasure chest. The lid was wide open but there were many odds and ends scattered about it. Cobwebs caught on his fingers as he searched through the rubbish. Sighing he peering into the treasure chest slowly, ready in case something would jump out when it saw him. The bottom of the chest was full of fine white sand. A shape like a hilt jutted out from the middle of the sand. Taking hold of the hilt Tiran pulled and found a small dagger. The blade was very dull and had many nicks in it as if it had been used by someone trying to cut through rocks.

This must be the old knife! Tiran thought.

A cold breeze sent the thin hairs on the back of Tiran’s neck standing on end.

The first torch was out. The second soon to follow.

Tiran wiped off the cobwebs from his arms and yelled out when he found a spider crawling along the back of his hand. He rapidly threw his hand toward the ground, knocking the spider off and into the dirt. Shuddering at the tickling feeling of the spider’s legs and cobwebs Tiran tried to focus on looking for the other items. He could almost feel the burning sensation of Morteg’s eyeless and smokey sockets watching him.

Next to the treasure chest, Tiran noticed a short pedestal and atop it was the goblet. Tiran snatched it up quickly and examined it only enough to tell it was at least as old as the knife, if not older.

The emerald was hidden in a pile of ratty tapestry that had more holes in it than a hunk of swiss cheese.

The metal coin was cleverly attached to an intricate design on the treasure chest itself. Tiran noticed it when he had stared at it before and realized that it had a slot which could be used to remove it like a sort of key.

The last item remaining was the golden chain. He looked everywhere for it and nothing even resembling such a thing could be found. He was down to the last torch by now and time was seriously running out.

The cave took a small turn into a smaller section where the torches didn’t reach well and which was mostly dim. Tiran decided that this was the last place to check and if he didn’t find it he would surely end up as dinner, or midnight snack by this time.

Around the corner Tiran found only dismay. There was nothing there. Absolutely nothing.

Suddenly an idea struck him. About his neck he wore a chain of gold that was one of his most precious possessions. In a time like this, when it was his life or the chain he would have to choose his life as the more priority. He decided he would trick the smoke monster and offer up his own golden chain instead of whichever one there had been in the cave. It would be his own way of getting back at the monster for trapping him in this cave. Tiran liked the idea.

He carefully took off the chain and gathered some dirt from the ground to make it look like he had found it there where he stood.
He quickly returned to the center of the cave where the monster waited. The last torch was almost out.

He laid out all the items at the base of the center torch from which the smoke monster came from as if putting on a display of wares to sell.

The smoky face smiled in a sly way as if it knew something that Tiran did not.

Tiran waited impatiently as the room got darker, and darker.

The last image Tiran saw was Morteg’s dark smokey smirk. Then Morteg’s booming laughter echoed in his ears as the last red spark fizzled into total darkness.

***

What seemed like no more than a second later Tiran woke to the itchy feeling of grass against his face. His eyes flicked open and he stood up, finding himself in the exact position he had been in when he had fallen over the tree root what seemed like hours ago. He looked down at his watch to find that no time had gone by at all. Gazing up at the stone structure where the cave entrance had been before gave him a rather odd feeling in his chest. There was no entrance to be found.

Had I hit my head when I fell and dreamed the whole thing? Tiran thought.

He felt the stone wall and discovered it to be thoroughly solid. No doorway, secret passage, nothing.

This is silly, I’m really loosing it. I should have actually gone to bed. Tiran concluded.

Carefully, Tiran made his way back to his cabin. He could hear the faint sounds of his mom laughing at something his father must have said by the fire as part of one of his usual campfire stories.

Tiran sighed and got himself to bed.

The whole night Tiran was restless. Sleep was hard to come by and he tossed and turned so much he could swear his blankets must be down to shreds. The last image of Morteg’s smirk burned in front of his eyes like a lingering glow from staring at the sun for too long.

When the morning woke him he forced himself out of bed. He had to pack and get ready to go home to his apartment. His roommates would surely want to know how the family trip went and sleep was not going to come before he had told them everything. He just had to deal with it.

He wandered over to the bathroom, digging his fingers through his disheveled dark hair and yawning widely.

The warm water from the faucet was more than welcome. Tiran splashed his face a few times with both hands full of water, enjoying every droplet. Finally he looked up at his face in the mirror. He looked tired, that could not be avoided. But that was not the problem. His eyes drifted down to his neck where he usually wore his golden chain which he never takes off. The golden chain was gone.