"Jazz?" I called out into the dark nothingness, just hoping for an answer. 

I wasn't sure where he had gone, he was here one second and then gone the next. I couldn't even see his flashlight off in the distance.

I heard a loud cracking noise behind me, and I turned quickly. There was a snapped log laying on the ground next to my feet, it had been snapped clean in half.

That cannot be good.

"Jazz? This isn't funny," I said, the tremble in my wording was sadly present.

I shined my flashlight where the branch was cracked and walked towards it to see if it had any clues for me. I squatted by the log.

That's odd.

With another crack, I jumped up and turned around in the same motion, my heart rate racing, I fumbled with my flashlight, and then it dropped to the ground; my first mistake. Then light faltered, and disappeared. I bent down and grabbed at the ground aimsley trying to find my flashlight, once my hand hit the solidity of the flashlight I picked it up.

Could it get any worse?

That internal questioning was my second mistake. The wind's howling grew more aggressive, and the music picked up its eerie, mysterious tones causing me to panic. I mean, I knew it wasn't actually the game that was scary, yet the music that made it horrifying.

Thunder cracked off in the distance, and I jumped about as high as a character in an old cartoon film.

"Good Lord," I mumbled under my breath, collecting myself.

I stood in the midst of the road I had been on with Jazz only moments before, I took one step forward, and then another, but due to the dark atmosphere, I would push one foot out in front of me before sweeping the ground with my foot to make sure I didn't trip or fall into some hole. It was time-consuming, yes, but it was worth it.

After I had made it a ways down the road, the thunder flashed again, lighting up the road, and I froze in petrification. There was some lanky black beast standing in front of me, its red eyes glaring back at me, its white teeth sparked from the saliva dripping from its jaws. I took one step back, and put my arms in front of me instinctively, and that's when I realized the item I had thought to have been my flashlight was something completely different. It was an arm bone that had teeth marks on it. My jaw dropped, and my mouth was agape.

"I'm so sorry sir," I said to the bone as I pulled my arm back and chunked it at the black beast in front of me.

It made contact with the shadow monster and made a clicking noise much like dropping a coin onto a metal floor. The words, "-1 hp"  were shown above its head.

"You have got to be kidding me," I grumbled as I turned from the beast and took off running.

Unfortunately for me, the beast didn't just stand there and act amused after being hit in the head with a bone, it took off after me letting out an ear-piercing screech.

My arms were out in front of me, and I was using them to avoid running into anything permanently damaging, but I knew it was to no avail, the monster was gaining on me. I turned a corner and slipped, falling into something that I assumed to be mud, but when I couldn't move afterward, I knew it wasn't.

Quicksand? How unlucky am I today?!? First I get blown up by my best friend, abandoned in a dark forest, upset an angry shadow god, and now I'm drowning in sand.

I remembered what I had always been told about quicksand in school, even though this was fictional quicksand in a video game, it might have something underneath it. I remained completely still, closed my eyes, and held my breath as my face went below the surface of the sand, and then I fell.

"Ow," I mumbled, sitting up from the ground. I could tell I had landed wrong, my ankle was red and puffy, and it looked broken.

"Stop whining you baby," the voice I hated the most at the moment said.

"Jazz, shut up," I said turning to see the idiotic ginger friend of mine sitting on a rock in the corner of the room.

"It took you a while to get down here dude," Jazz said casually, pulling up his arm as if to check a wristwatch.

"I mean, you could have stayed with me, don't you know people die in horror movies when they split up."
"I mean, you could have stayed with me, and not gotten lost, I'm not your babysitter, I'm the navigator," Jazz said mockingly.

I angrily sighed and laid down on the cold concrete floor. "Where are we?"

"Where are we!?" Jazz repeated ecstatically. "We are in the underground tunnels! We can get straight to the Cottage from here!"

"Are you telling me we might actually have a shot at winning this time?" I asked confused, we were losers, that's just what we did, we lost.

"I'm saying c'mon!" Jazz took off eagerly down the tunnel, his working flashlight leading the way.

I followed after him quietly, he seemed to be excited about this, and I didn't want to kill his mood by telling him I found some super scary shadow demon that we'd never come across before, so I followed, obediently.

"Why did you wait for me?" I asked, silence was a no for me, I couldn't handle it.

"Why would I not? We're partners," he added enthusiastically.

"Yeah, we're partners," I repeated, I couldn't help but smile at that thought. It was sweet. Jazz really was a great person.

I took a bit of time to look at the tunnel while we were walking. It was constructed of some old concrete type brick, very bland, and had no color. Honestly, I felt it was very fitting to the theme of the game, which was dark and spooky. I did come to the conclusion that it would be incredibly easy to get lost in these tunnels, they seemed to go on forever, tiny twists and turns periodically with the occasional tunnel branching off in another direction and the only hint to where you were being spiderwebs on different corners. How could people beat this game on their own? I would go insane.

"Stop," Jazz said, pulling me from my thoughts.

I tried to stop immediately, but stumbled into Jazz, forcing him to fall forward, and dropping his flashlight. I had an unpleasant moment of deja vu when the thing I feared most happened and his flashlight flickered a few times and then went out.

"Shit," I said, grabbing Jazz's arm and helping him up.

"It's all okay," Jazz said calmly, although he didn't sound very calm, it kind of sounded like when your therapist was making you repeat it so that it actually comes true. He wasn't fooling me. I moved over to the wall, and laid my arms out flat, taking up a tiny amount of space so I could avoid the rage of Jazz.

He took a deep breath and let out a simple but long straight of air, his embouchure small. He then turned to look at me and laughed, but not like a 'funny ha ha' laugh, but more of an 'evil scientist' laugh.

I gulped, "You okay...?"

"Hand me your flashlight," he said calmly and very collectedly.

"About that," I said trailing off, and then I started to rant about random things in order to distract him.

"Your flashlight?" he said again, angry this time.

"I don't exactly have it," I said quietly, and under my breath.

"You what?"
"I don't exactly have it..."
He exhaled deeply, and I looked at the ground in disappointment. I felt genuinely bad, I was causing more problems than good.

"Let me guess, you tripped and dropped it?" Jazz said putting the pieces together.

"Yeah..."

"We'll be fine, I hope," Jazz said, grabbing my arm and dragging me behind him.

"Wow, hand-holding already? You're supposed to ask me on a date first!" I said jokingly, I couldn't help myself.

"Ah hah," he fake laughed, "the only reason I'm holding onto you is that when I let go you get lost and I have to wait for like an hour for you to wander back to me."

"Damn, that means no date? But we're meant to be! I found my way back." 

We were walking up to a fork in the tunnels, or at least that's what I could tell, it was very dark but Jazz was able to see somehow, maybe I was just blind.

"Shh, I'm trying to figure out which way to go here," Jazz said seriously.

"Apologies."

He didn't take long to decide before he chose the one on the left, I trusted his judgment, he was rarely wrong about anything.

We had been through what felt like many twists and turns when suddenly Jazz stopped again, but this time I stopped too, I had already learned my lesson on this topic.

"We're here."

"Not to be that person or anything, but where's here?" I asked completely, and utterly confused, it was still just as dark as when we were in the tunnel, and nothing seemed to be different.

"We're at the cottage you idiot," Jazz mumbled, grabbing my arm and guiding me to look in the other direction.

That definitely helped, there was a small dark building with a black fence around it. A crooked gate set on hinges that barely supported it, the wind was blowing it open, and it would slowly go back into place at a semi-closed position.

"Home sweet home," I said with a hopeful smile. I didn't exactly want this to be the home of the creature I'd met earlier.

"So Jazz, I have a question," I said, finally deciding to tell him about the shadow monster.

"Yes?"

"Hypothetically, if I had come across a super overpowered shadow monster that was about 7 feet tall and had giant spiky teeth, and red glowing eyes, you'd want me to tell you about it, right?"

"Yes?"

"Alright good, I saw a shadow monster that was about 7 feet tall, had giant spiky teeth, and red glowing eyes right before I fell in the quicksand hole, it was chasing me, and for christ's sake, it's hella fast," I felt quick relieved after getting that off my chest.

"And you didn't tell this earlier because..?" Jazz asked dumbfounded.

"I didn't want to kill the mood?" I offered.

"Whatever, let's just go see what's in this damn cottage," he took off in front of me, and I followed quickly behind.

Jazz pushed the gate open, its screeching hinges alerting everything in a mile radius of our presence, we weren't going to avoid that creature if it was nearby, I just hoped for our sake it wasn't anywhere close. The ground felt weird beneath my feet, so I turned my attention to it. We were walking on what seemed to be some sort of bone-like structure, the tiles were white, yet felt oddly hard, I didn't want to try and guess what it was. Every single plant or blade of grass the yard had to offer was black, shriveled, and dead.

The door to the cottage was the most interesting thing though. It outshined the creepy path and the horrendous gardening. It covered the doorway, but it looked as if it had been broken many times before in the past and glued back together, cracks ran rampant in all sorts of different zigzag patterns, and the wood was scratched with large claws. A shiver ran down my spine.

Jazz stepped aside on the porch and held his arms out toward the door, "After you," he said politely.

"Ah, y'know, I'm more of a follower these days, why don't you go ahead," I said with a fake smile.

"No, no, really, I insist," Jazz said, shoving me forward into the cottage.

I closed my eyes, but after I took a step forward and realized I was okay, I turned around and excitedly said, "I'm alive!"

"Good," Jazz said, following me for a change, and entering through the doorway himself.

The inside of the cottage had to be the biggest shock ever known to mankind, it almost looked livable. The floor had silver carpet, and wooden furniture decorated what I assumed to be the living room. There was a beautiful glass coffee table with chairs gathered around, and a couch on the left side of the table. A single teacup sat on the table. I walked over to get a better look at it, a teabag hung over the side.

"Jazz..? Someone's been here recently," I said calmly, not to keep him from freaking out, but to keep me from freaking out.

He walked over to where I was standing and looked down at the teacup, he dipped one of his fingers into the liquid, pulled it back slowly, and wiped his finger off on his jeans.

"Someone's been here very recently," he said calmly, and then walked into the next room over. I couldn't see very much into it, but it looked like a kitchen, there were cream-colored tile floors.

I didn't want to ask the question that was eating away inside of me, so I went to investigate a different room nearby. I went down a small hallway that was near a coat rack in the living room. There were three rooms. Two of which had shut doors, these doors much unlike the one on the front of the house. These were solid white, and the only imprints they had were designer lines, and they seemed to close just fine by themselves. The final door was on the right-hand side at the very end, I could hear what sounded to be a TV emitting noise from the room, and a light that was glowing in and out.

I took a single step forward so I could peer around the door and I saw a small black Chihuahua sitting on the bed chewing on an oddly familiar bone. I tried to take another look around the corner, but I went too far, and the dog's attention was directed straight to me.

I started to retreat instantly, running back to the direction in which Jazz was. When I got in the room I was out of breath from a combination of tip-toe running to the room, and trying to hold my breath, I wasn't exactly prepared for what I saw in the kitchen.

"Dude, are you making a sandwich?" I asked, filled with awe.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Making a sandwich."

"Then yes, I'm making a sandwich," Jazz said, picking up a jar of mayonnaise and using a butter knife to smear it onto his bread, which he had laid out on a paper towel.

"I think we need to leave," I said out of breath.

"Why?" he asked obviously not paying me much attention, he was too consumed by his sandwich-making.

"There's a creepy dog here, and it saw me," I said quickly.

And just like it was meant to happen, the black chihuahua wandered into the room carrying its creepy little bone with it. It dropped the bone onto the tile, and it made a small clunk.

Jazz turned to see what caused the noise and started laughing, "that's the creepy little dog?" he asked.

I wasn't amused by his grimace, "dude trust me, that thing is evil."

"It's like 10 inches tall, what's it going to do, pee on your shoe?" he asked hypothetically, but I wished that was all it was capable of doing, unfortunately for the both of us, that wasn't the case.

Jazz walked over and squatted in front of the dog, and reached out to pet it. "Who's a good doggie?" he said in a baby voice.

In response the dog turned its head to look at him, and then its mouth opened and layers and layers of sharp teeth were in it, almost like a shark. Jazz realized the situation he was in a little too late once the dog reached out and bit ahold of his arm.

He looked directly into my eyes, and I looked at him. I simply walked over to the dog and swatted its head. "Bad dog, put the arm down, you have a bone already."

The dog was not amused, in response, it only tightened its grip on Jazz's arm, the teeth piercing deeper and his blood pooled onto the creamy tile making a horrible peach-like color.

"Really?" Jazz asked. "That's the best idea you had?"

"Nuh-uh, don't you get all sassy with me, I told you that thing was evil and you blatantly reached out to pet it," I argued back.

"Yes, that's before I knew it was a demon," he hissed back.

"All chihuahuas are demons!" I hated those things.

"Alright well, I need you to do something before I bleed out because this thing is obviously enjoying itself."

"Uhh I have a small idea, but the chances of success are 50/50," I said scratching my head.

"It's a plan of prosperity isn't it?" Jazz asked completely unconfident in my abilities.

"Try to sound excited please," I said with a scoff.

"It's a plan of prosperity! My life shall be forever saved by you Vik, thank you!" Jazz said quite sarcastically.

"I hate you," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Right back at you babe," Jazz said with a grin, a short one at that, our argument was broken up by the sound of a bone-crunching. The dog let go of the arm, and the part that had previously been in its mouth hung down awkwardly. I had a comment as to what it looked like, but I withheld it.

Pfft, floppy dick.

"That doesn't look too good," Jazz said pointing out the obvious, he grabbed his injured arm with his good one, took off his jacket, and make himself a make-shift sling, although it didn't hurt due to this all being a game, it still would be a pain to deal with.

The dog stared at us as if we were both snacks, I mean we were pretty damn looking lads, but I think it wanted more than just a piece of us.

"What was your plan?" Jazz asked.

"Didn't have one."

"I'm not surprised," he stepped forward, and grabbed for the bone that the dog had previously dropped on the ground, but the chihuahua was faster, and it picked the bone up with vigorous speed.

"That didn't work real well."

"Shh," he bit his thumbnail and I could tell he was thinking.

The dog sat and watched intently, I felt oddly uncomfortable, and yes, the cause was that dog. It almost seemed to be playing with us, and at this point, I was losing faith in us getting out of here with a win.

The dog confirmed those thoughts when it transformed in front of our very eyes, shifting into the large beast I had encountered before, the shadow monster stood before us, and the house changed too, we were suddenly outside.

"Well shit," Jazz said.

"I'm waiting for a smart idea of yours," I said, bouncing from one foot to the other, doing my best to manage the adrenaline.

We were kind of doomed, no matter what plan Jazz could come up with, nothing was going to get us out of this mess, but thankfully something else saved us from wasting our time. My screen went completely black and then a small message in white writing popped up, 'Game temporarily down due to outage on game servers', honestly I couldn't have been more excited to see that message.

"That's a bummer," I said, trying to sound sincere.

"Oh, please, you're happy about that," Jazz said, not falling for my shenanigans.

"I am not, I'm completely devastated due to the fact we were so close to finally beating that game.

"The only thing we were close to was dying, yet again."

"Jazz, you need some positivity in your life."

"I think I'm sleep deprived and an adult."

"That last part was a stab, I know it," I said rolling my eyes, "I'm practically an adult."
"Are you 18?" Jazz asked although he already knew the answer.

"No, but I almost am."

"Next question, do you have a job?" he again already knew the answer to this question as well.

"No, but I'm working on that too," I offered.

"I'm hearing a lot of excuses," he said with a laugh, "don't worry, I'm not trying to give you a hard time, I enjoy getting under your skin every once in a while."

"You mean like every day?"

"Yeah, every once in a while."

I couldn't help but smile, it was just the way this was, whatever this was, a sweet friendship between two people who'd never met, or maybe just the start of something yet to come, regardless, as much as I'd love to sit and ponder over my relationship with Jazz, the alarm clock thought otherwise.

It beeped twice alerting me of the time; 3:29 am.

"Oh shit," I said panicked, "dude I have got to go to bed, I've got a flight tomorrow afternoon at 4, so I'll have to be at the airport by 2:30, and out of here by no later than 1, I've gotta crash so I can be a responsible adult tomorrow," I said very fast and jumbled.

"I'm going to nod, and say bye now, goodnight Vik, get some rest, and don't miss your flight," Jazz said leaving our call.

He said my name.

That was the last thought I had that night before falling dead asleep, or well not exactly dead asleep, I still dreamt, but what about? That simply was my business to know and yours to find out. 

 Thanks for 400 reads and 200 votes! This is a huge accomplishment for me due to the fact when I released the first version of Click Play it took months to get that kind of attention, so keep in mind I appreciate and love each and every one of you readers!