Hole

Eva goes out looking for her brother.

The footprints in the snow suddenly ended. It made perfect sense, however, once Eva came to the realization that they ended where a giant hole began.

This realization only came after she stepped on the thin sheet of ice that kept the hold out of sight.

It cracked a bit, then shattered underneath her. Its diameter was five- no, ten- no, fifteen- thirty? Forty? Perhaps sixty feet?

That really didn’t matter at this point, though. What mattered was finding out how 1. a sheet of ice as thick as a piece of paper manage to hold up what seemed to be thirty pounds of snow and 2. how ice formed atop a hole with no water in it whatsoever. It was truly a mystery.

For some reason, Eva felt confident that when she landed, it’d either be rather comfortably or hard enough to kill her instantly, so there was no point in panicking.

Unfortunately, she was wrong. She landed atop a pile of faintly glowing ferns, which made her itch terribly. Considering the fact that it had only touched her in areas shielded by several layers of clothing, she quickly decided that she needed to avoid letting the pants touch her bare skin at all costs.

Eva managed to roll off of the glowing ferns. As she did, her finger brushed against one of the fronds. It actually felt quite soft and didn’t seem to bear the same effects as the plants in the middle had.

In fact, the ferns forming the exterior of the circle were glowing much brighter and seemed to be tinted blue. She plucked a few from their roots and used the light they gave off to look around.

As it turned out, her brother was down there with her. He was fast asleep, bound to an obsidian pillar with what appeared to be a stone rope.

“Isaac! Wake up!”

“Don’t be silly, he’s dead.” A small fuzzy worm crawled out from behind the pillar. “I would assume a human would know their own species’ habits.”

“He’s breathing. That means he’s alive.” It never occurred to Eva that speaking to a purple worm at the bottom of a hole that had glowing ferns and obsidian pillars was just a tad bit out of the ordinary. “What makes you think he’s dead?”

“His eyes are closed. Mammals sleep with their eyes open.”

“You’re thinking of fish and dolphins.”

“Oh, please, human. I know what I’m talking about.”

“Is that so? How many bones are in a fully grown human’s body?”

“Well, it depends on how many surgeries the human has received in their life. Some humans have all forty, whereas others only have fifteen.”

Eva stared at the worm blankly. “That’s… that’s not even close to being correct.”

“You’re certain? Perhaps the medical textbook you’re using is outdated.”

“No, I think you’re just making things up at this point. Do you know how I can free my brother?”

“I’ll eat through the rope for you if you’ll admit that I’m right.”

She stopped for a moment, took a deep breath and said, “I don’t think you’re not incorrect concerning the topic we were not speaking of if the roles were reversed.”

The worm stopped for a moment, nibbling its tail in thought. “I’m going to pretend that what you just said not only made sense, but was also acknowledging that I’m superior to you in every way possible.” With that, he crawled up Isaac’s arm and took a bite of the rope. His disturbingly long teeth hit the rope with such speed and force that it cracked and turned into dust, freeing Isaac immediately.

“Say, how do I get out of here?” Eva asked as she picked up her still sleeping brother.

The worm’s teeth retracted back into his gums before he made his answer. “I suppose I could tell you in exchange for something.”

“How’s this: you tell me how to get out of here, and I won’t step on you.”

“But leaving here requires you to step on me in order to- dagnabbit, I just gave it away!” The worm curled up into a little ball, sulking.

Eva nervously approached the balled-up worm, wondering if he had been lying and was planning on injuring her if she dared step on him. “I’m going to leave now.”

“Good for you,” he grumbled.

She delicately placed her foot atop the worm and pushed down. Her foot was pushed into the air by some invisible force, throwing her and her brother out of the hole. The force was not kind enough to walk her and her brother home, so she was forced to drag him all the way back.

For some reason, when she told her mother what happened, she didn’t believe Eva.