This story below was written with the prompt offered by Lunar Awards, which you can read here. I chose the second prompt, and then ran with it. I hope you enjoy! Here is the prompt,
Write a fantasy short story that takes place inside a maze of cursed catacombs discovered within the planet’s core. They contain hidden treasures and beastly atrocities. Your protagonist is both an explorer and caregiver, torn between the call to adventure and parental duties. Locating treasure will provide for the family, but at what cost? (Optional) The story should be written in third person limited omniscient perspective and your protagonist is accompanied by a child.
Stronger Than Death
It was Dark, he was sweating. He never liked the smell of worried men in the Dark. He couldn't remember the last time he wasn't one of them. He groped to his right, felt his daughter, his Lily, sleeping. He tuned his ears to her breathing. For any father, the rest of your daughter would bring relief, but in the Dark it was another reminder that he had to fight to keep her Lily white. The last he clearly saw her, was in the white summer dress that he and her mother bought for the Solstice.
"Appa?" Her voice, soft as white petals.
"Yes?"
"Are we going to go deeper?"
"Yes, darling."
"Because we have to?"
"That's right."
"For the Light?"
"Yes, for the Light." He stood up then, in the Dark, recalling the Word that tells of where to find the Light of the world.
"Can you say it again, Appa? I want to hear you say it again." She stood next to him, slid her hand into his. Hers was so smooth against his.
"A blight upon the men of the all the land,
Is the Dark that flows from all the pain.
A Light below the depths of earth,
to bring to naught the end of day.
Desolation of home and hearth.
“But if we keep going, darling, we can find the Light and bring it back."
"Then the world will be bright again?"
“Then the world will be bright again." With her hand in his, he felt for his blade with his other. He knew it was there, but worried men reach for their arms.
"Do you know how far to go, Appa?"
"It’s a labyrinth down Below, and we have only been down here for two days, best I can tell. We may have ways to go yet, or it may be just around the corner." He refused to spark the light crystal, saving it for the way out. This was the time he worried the most. The old words had often spoken of the Light from the Depths, but growing up he never believed the old rhymes and stories. Then the Light went out and the world went Dark. People fought, and creatures came up. Snarling, slithering, claws clacking, black scales and hides making them invisible in the Dark. The Monsters who turned were the worst of all.
He had kept those Words with him, in his bag on his back. They said to find the Mouth of the Dark and descend to find the Light for the World.
None of the wizards, magi, or wise men could use their art to bring the Light back. They tried, but all seemed to be parlor tricks. Only the flame now could resist the Dark, barely. So, descend the Dark and bring the Light.
He had to take Lily, he trusted no other man to care for her. His wife and son had already been taken by the Monsters who turned. He would not lose her too, no matter what.
They had entered the Mouth, two days ago, and still they were descending.
"Appa?" Each time she called him Appa, it brought back all the memories family. He liked when his children would call him Papa. Owen caught on quickly to “Mama,” and “Papa,” but Lily struggled to say, “Papa.” She mixed her letters, as kids do, and it became her name for her father, Appa.
He remembered then, when she said it, a day with his wife. His dear Jolene, and his two children in the golden sun at the end of Summertide resting after worship under an old oak tree near the back of their farm. The picnic basket had crumbs and empty bottles in it, the plain board swing was in constant motion. He lay back resting on the smooth tree, Jolene rested on him. The light flitted through the green leaves casting the world in an emerald glow, and the sound of his son and daughter made his heart burst.
"Appa?" Now, in the Dark, his heart had broken again.
"Yes?"
"Should we go now?"
"Yes, I think we should. Let's go get the Light, darlin'." He stood, and brushed his knees, an old habit. The filth of the Dark could not be brushed off. He reached his hand out, and felt the rusted steel door, and placed his palm against it. No vibrations. He placed his ear against it. No sounds.
This is how they had been traveling down, and down. They were not alone in the Down Deep. There were Monsters in the Dark.
He could never know for certain that the way forward was clear, or that they were going in the right direction. He was doing his best, what he thought was best.
The door did not squeak, but let out a deep grinding noise as the rusted hinges crumbled. He closed his eyes harder, and he didn't know why. He could’nt see anything anyway.
When the door was open, the cool air of the black hit their skin and chilled them.
"Take my hand, Lily, and don't let go." In his left hand, he held his daughter. In his right hand, he held his blade. Together they walked, steel leading the way in the Dark.
The floor, silty from years of dust, made scuffing sounds with their feet. It slanted downward, always declining. Some old multi-floored...something. He could smell old blood, as though the hallways were painted with it long ago.
The tip of his blade nicked the wall in front of him and he felt out to his left, and then to his right. Both were open.
"Left or right, Lily?"
"Right again, Appa," she whispered. Feet shuffled in the black. They went right.
Something changed in the air then. He could feel it. There was no noise, no new light, nothing that he could observe, but he knew something was ahead of them. He stopped walking and squeezed Lily's hand, which meant, "Quiet! Down!" She turned her back to the wall, and squatted to her feet.
Whatever was in front of them, it was not moving. It could be an old cart, left in the hallway. It could be an old bed thrown up to block the way. It could be one of them. The smell of a worried man hung on him. More sweat.
He held the blade out toward the oppressive force in the Dark. His left hand went ti his pocket and produced an unlit flame. He used his thumb to push back the metal lid on a hinge, chunk.
Still, the object ahead did not move. If it was one of them, wouldn't it have reacted to the sound of the unlit flame opening? He had to make sure.
Hands dripping with sweat, brow bristling with pain. Lily behind him, and a potential Monster in front of him, his guts wrenched.
His thumb spun the toothed wheel on the unlit flame and it blinked to life, lighting the Dark.
He was hit to the ground with a heavy weight. The snarling rage of the Dark was upon him, dripping saliva from its filthy bleeding mouth.
"Appa!" Lily cried. The blade fell from his hand when the Monster barreled into him. Lily went for it. The flame lay on the floor lighting the hallway.
"No, Lily!" His forearm was under the chin of the Monster holding off its bite. He felt hands grip his ankles and pull him into the Dark.
"Lily!" Something hit his head. A flash of white, then nothing.
He woke in a Dark room, "Lily!" he gasped sitting upright. His head felt like it was going to burst. He could see nothing. He could hear nothing. He had no idea what happened to his daughter. Fear choked him.
"Appa," she said.
"Oh, Lily." He began to cry, and he tried to move to her, but his hands and feet were bound. Was this the end of it all. Did they take his Word? Will the Light die forever? Will they die?
The door to the room ground on its hinges, faint light glowed through the opening crack. A Monster of the Dark entered in, filthy, greasy.
"Now,” it sneered, “what are you two doing down here?" the man asked.
"Please, just let us go."
The Monster man smirked. His teeth greatly exposed from his receding gum line, blood shining black in the orange light.
"No." He pulled out the dropped blade and waved it at him, then at Lily. There were more of these Monsters, another had pulled his legs. But this was the one that lunged upon him, biting at him. He would never forget its face.
"Suppose you tell me why you're down here, and I'll take her alive, let you die fast. Don't tell me, I'll take her alive, you die hearing what I'm doing to her. How about it?"
He strained against his bonds. His fear of what could happen in the Dark was now happening. He said nothing to the Monster, but worked at his biting bonds.
"Alright, then. Come over her darlin'." He beckoned her toward him with the blade.
"Don't call her that," the man said. "Don't you call her that.
"Appa, don't let him take me."
"Appa?” That wretched smile again, “I'll be your Appa now, darlin'." He walked by the man struggling against his bonds, and took the girl in one grimy hand, the blade in the other.
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you all! Let her go, damn you!"
“Appa!”
"I don't think you will, and I don't think I will." The Monster man took Lily to the door, toward the dim light.
"Please, don't take my daughter from me, please. Where is your humanity?" He strained again crying out, drawing blood from his wrists and ankles, trying to get to his Lily. Wishing he was a stronger father. "Please," he began to weep.
“Appa!”
"Humanity?" the man in the Dark asked. "Humanity is dead.”He closed the door and left the man in the Dark, alone.
His mind raced in the Dark, he had no idea what to do. His stomach sank. The bonds were too strong to break, he couldn't untie them. He was helpless, his Lily gone. He could hear her scream muffled in the distance.
He rose to his knees, then he struggled to stand, using the wall for help. He knew what he had to do. It would hurt, but Lily would hurt even more if he didn't. He took a hop forward from the wall, kept his back to it, and slammed himself against it as hard as he could. The pain shot like lightning through his body, but the bonds were just as tight. His hands ached from the impact. He did it again, again, and again, until his hands crunched. The shock of the breaks in his thumbs made his hands go numb. The bonds slipped down his wrists, bloodied.
Gasping, sucking in breath from the Dark, afraid of what he had to do next. He had to put his hands back together, placing the bones back into their proper position. He breathed in and out, trying to set his mind to do it. He put his mangled left hand into his stronger right and was pressing on the thumb. A white hot jolt of pain lanced through him, and he let go. He couldn't do it.
Her scream again.
He shoved his thumb back into place, the bones grinding like broken glass in oil. He roared and before anything else could happen forced his right thumb into place. His breath shot out.
His hands trembled, but he forced them to work. He untied his bleeding ankles.
Groping in the Dark, he found the old metal door. No more caution to hold him back, only love for his Lily, he threw the door open and followed the dying orange light.
Lily's whimpers grew louder, he hurried. He came to the corner where the light seemed to be shining. He heard the Monster man, "Lily? That's a name I haven't heard in oh so long. You'll be my Lily, my flower. Have you blossomed yet?"
"Please, don't!" Lily yelped as though she had been stabbed.
Appa crashed into the room, bloody hands and feet wrestled the Monster to the ground. He bore down on the fiend who held his daughter captive, and pressed his forearm into his grease stained throat, let out a father’s roar crushing, crushing, crushing. The Monster man reached for the blade, and slid it in between his ribs, but he was focused, immovable, killing.
"Appa! Behind you!" Another Monster came through the door, running when he heard the roar. The first Monster lay motionless, dead. Appa grabbed the blade from his side. The Monster saw his dead friend, he saw the blood, he saw Appa's eyes, he turned to run. Appa was the quicker. He caught the Monster's head in his broken hands, wrenched down with all his strength. The neck snapped and Appa drove it into the stone floor cracking the skull. Both Monsters twitched in their demise.
"Lily," he fell on his daughter. "Did...did, he?"
"He was cutting me, Appa, he cut me." She wept in his arms and showed him hers.
He bound her wounds as best he could with the cleanest looking cloth lying around. They spoke to one another quietly, not knowing if any more Monsters were lurking. Appa's spike of strength began to fade. The pain of his body caught up to his mind. He sagged.
"Appa, what's that Light?"
"What?" He had not thought of the Light. When he woke in the Dark, the Monster stood in the door with Light behind him. When he slipped his bonds, he followed the Light, but he was not thinking of it. He was thinking of Lily. "Find it. Let's find it," he got up, with her help. His blood on her white dress.
They found it in the next room. The door was black with a square glass window. The Light dimly shone. The door read: Morgue. He knew what that was, but did not tell.
The handle on the door was unlocked, the hinges were not turning to dust, it opened smoothly and inside they saw the dying Light.
"Appa, is that a star?"
“I think its an angel.” It said nothing, but nothing need to be said. The Light must go up.
He slung his arm around its side, the weight of three wings rested on him. Lily was under his other arm, and it looked like she was holding everyone up. The Light grew stronger. He lead them out the door and then was not sure who was leading whom, but they continued the steady incline. His breath ragged, lung filling with blood.
“Appa, we’re almost there!” Lily pointed with her free hand to the Mouth. His eyes were closed, his feet drawing lines in the dust.