Gigolo Diaries-Chapter 27: To Feel Nothing.

Eros stood before the towering mountain, whose peak pierced the night sky. He was mere meters away from the cave and his senses were screaming that something was wrong.

The cave was dark, an almost impenetrable darkness. Lain, who had entered a few minutes ago, had been swallowed and no evidence of her existence could be noticed from the pitch-black cave. He had expected her flame to illuminate the interior of the cave but the darkness remained undisturbed.

Pale moonlight fell through the night and into the cave, but even that was swallowed up too, doing nothing other than illuminating the first few inches of the cave.

That wasn’t normal, Eros was certain about that. The darkness felt like a physical barrier, a tangible wall that divided the real world from whatever was hidden within the cave. Eros wasn’t afraid of the dark, but even he knew to stay away from something as strange as this.

He was still helplessly weak in the grand scheme of things, so it would be abject foolishness to believe that his newfound strength would be more than a passing wind to the true horrors of the world.

So, even though he was curious, he turned around and left. Leaving the cave that now looked like a gnawing mouth of darkness, without a prey to consume.

Or so he would have liked to believe.

How naive he was to believe that the horrors would let him leave so easily.

The darkness behind him swirled, reaching out from within the mountain’s embrace. Eros noticed something was wrong, but the moment he turned back, the darkness had already swallowed him.

His entire body froze as he felt it take control of his body, enveloping all his senses in a true and primal darkness—this wasn’t just the absence of light that little shadows loved to mimic: it was the presence of nothing.

And the moment it swallowed Eros, he felt nothing.

For a second, Eros thought he was dead. That was only expected as he felt nothing seep into his bones, corroding the something that made him real, his very existence.

Then in that same second, or maybe after an hour—it was hard to keep track of time as that concept wasn’t a part of nothing—he felt it spit him out and he regained his vision.

His vision came back to him as his body hit the cold stone floor. A chill ran down his spine as he felt terribly cold. This wasn’t a result of the cold winds running across his skin. No, he felt that chill as his mind flashed to the sensation he had felt a moment ago, it had felt like he was about to disappear.

Then all of a sudden the feeling disappeared, like he never experienced it. Fading into oblivion.

Eros’ mouth opened and closed in shock. At a point, he finally remembered he hadn’t been breathing for too long a time as he hurriedly drew air in, filling his lungs.

The air was moist, cold and had an oddness to it. Eros would go as far as to say it had an odour. It was more of a feeling, an ancient and dull feeling. His vision was still blurry as he blinked frantically between gasps.

When it got clear enough, he stared at his hand, in an effort to make sure he was still real, and he hadn’t faded into...nothing.

He was, thankfully.

His breathing gradually stabilised as the world around him slowly became clear.

Eros looked around, observing his surroundings. He was in a cave— the uneven surfaces of the rock tunnels told that much.

His eyes twitched as he could very easily figure out where he was. He let out a dry chuckle; It seemed the mountain had no plans of letting him walk away.

Still, he wasn’t one to lose hope easily, he needed to find a way out.

"What is this place?" His eyes flickered about as he received no answer.

Orienting himself in his current chaotic reality, he decided to start moving. After all, it was never a wise thing to stay put, who knew the type of abominations that would soon be on his tail?

He got up slowly and looked around. Behind him was a wall: unlike the other walls in this cave, this one was polished to the extreme, making it surreal to look at. It was also pitch black, like an abyss, absorbing all light that fell on it.

Eros jerked backwards when he saw it, afraid that if he was too close he might get swallowed again.

This wall of darkness, however, was very stable.

Even when Eros finally summoned the courage and went close enough, it didn’t move, didn’t even ripple. Taking a deep breath, he placed his pinky on the wall, ready to retrieve it at a moment’s notice.

But even then the darkness wasn’t disturbed. His hands just slid across the smooth material without any friction.

It was solid, very solid. This was proven when Eros tried to push against it. Nothing happened, not even when he used up all his strength. The wall of darkness just stayed as unmoving as always.

Since the wall showed no sign of giving in, Eros could only turn to the cave that led into the unknown.

The entire tunnel was illuminated by a very dim orange glow, which he guessed was Lain’s flame. He had the urge to call out to her, but he refrained from doing so in the end. After all, he was sure she wouldn’t be the only one he would be calling out to.

The best thing for him to do now was to trail silently behind her.

His steps were soft, he made sure of that as he moved through the tunnel that twisted and turned, making it so he could get a clear view of Lain.

So he just followed the light. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

After walking for a few minutes, he couldn’t help but growl at how unending this cave seemed. "Good thing I ate before coming," he muttered silently. "Imagine facing something like this on an empty stomach." He couldn’t even fathom such horror.

Along the way, the cave branched into three parts. Without even pausing, he went through the path that emitted light. He would surely increase his chances of survival if he followed her.

The walk went on for a few more minutes, before, suddenly the light went out and a deep darkness swallowed him.

Luckily these were just shadows—nothing close to what he had felt before.

Still, he didn’t feel safe without his vision. Using an old trick he had learnt back in the yin and yang sect, he rubbed his hands together using some nexus.

After a while his nexus ignited, producing a purple dim glow.

It wasn’t much but at the very least he wasn’t completely blind.

He was about to continue on the path when he felt something. When he placed his hand on the rough stone wall, he felt it clearly. The ground was shaking.

"Shit." Without the need for a warning, he turned around and began to run in the opposite direction of the tremors.