Addison fucks off & leaves Matt to fuckin die

It was dark in there, so dark that the light from Addison’s torch could hardly cut through the gloom. The only sound audible aside from the distant sound of running water was the precise tap from Addison’s heels and the contrasting shuffle that came from Matthew, walking behind them and wishing he’d stayed in the RV. All he could see was Addison’s faint silhouette ahead of him, bordered by what little they could both make out of the stone tunnel they were in. He followed Addison not really by choice, but merely because he had been given no other option.
Enveloped in darkness, Matthew was fully expecting to get snatched away any second by some shadowy entity - probably in a similar way to how Martha had been earlier. How long ago was that now? 10 minutes? Half an hour? It was hard to really say for sure.
Addison’s torch began to flicker. They bashed it with the base of their palm. Batteries clattered against the plastic casing.

“Oh, fuck off,” said Matthew, his voice trembling from the cold and the substantial fear. “It can fuck right off with that,” he continued, his speech downgrading to a worried mumble as he did.
Addison didn’t reply. They didn’t have a lot to say to Matthew at the best of times, and being stuck here with him while Martha was unaccounted for was pretty high on their list of worst case scenarios.
“This must lead us somewhere eventually,” Matthew remarked once Addison had gotten the torch back to being mostly stable. “Unless it just goes around in fuckin’ circles.” He paused. “Do you think it goes around in circles? This is so entirely fucked up... Jesus wept. What are we even doing here? We’re like a pair of gay little rats running around one of those fuckin’ test mazes.”
Matthew, completely unseen, frowned in the darkness, frustrated at Addison’s utter silence. “Piss on my… balls, I’d rather be stuck down here with fucking Charles Manson.” He paused for a second to lean back dramatically and let out a pained whine. “Fuck my life.”
Addison was tempted to knock him out and leave him in the tunnels for whatever was making those noises earlier, but decided against it because they didn’t want to break their torch, which was already hanging on for dear life.
The pair continued for a while, while the sound of running water only continued to get louder. “Well we’re… fuckin’ going somewhere…” Matthew grumbled.
Addison’s torch never really stopped flickering. In fact, it was seeming to fail more and more frequently as they continued on through the menacing depths.
All of a sudden, it went out completely.

“Ah fuck,” said Matthew, before Addison hit it with the base of their palm again. Nothing happened.
Though the light was minimal, it was only when it was completely gone that they felt the full weight of the darkness. It was thick, black, almost suffocating - Addison and Matthew could feel it heavy on them.
Addison frowned with intensity as they tried everything they could think of with regards to the torch. Held at every angle, struck at every side. Switches were flicked, batteries were removed and reinstalled. The darkness persisted.
“Fucked now then, aren’t we,” Matthew despaired, kicking the stone wall with his shoe. “Majorly fucked. Never been more fucked.”
“...It’s dead,” said Addison, after a few minutes.
“Just grand,” remarked Matthew, who was actually extremely relieved to hear Addison’s voice. “I actually love being freezing cold and trapped in a tunnel darker than a black cat in a coalhouse. And having you here with me is just the cherry on top, babygirl.”
Addison continued walking forward into the dark, less confident than before.
Matthew heard their footsteps and reluctantly, followed. “Ah, cock. We’re doing this, then?”
The water sounded very close now, and as the two of them progressed further, they began to notice light ahead too - dim, but still present.
Neither of them said anything, but Matthew released a low, heavy sigh of relief. His relief was very short-lived, however. 

Suddenly, they were both falling. 

Addison found that the floor beneath their feet was abruptly there no more, and they took a stunned gasp before plunging into the stone cold water below.
Matthew, frightened by whatever had just happened to Addison and disoriented by the darkness, quickly lost his footing and stumbled, falling straight after Addison and with far less decorum.
He yelled in terror as he too crashed into the frigid water.
“Hhh… hh, oh my god, oh,” Matthew shuddered, treading water with some difficulty. “What, what, what the fuck, what the fuck just happened…man…”
Addison didn’t reply, but their shaky breath was loud and clear. Jaw clenched and shaking aggressively, they swam towards the light, ignoring Matthew completely.
Once they swam forward, the area opened up into a waterlogged space no bigger than somebody’s living room. Tall stone walls surrounded them still, and their feet were nowhere close to the ground. Above them both, the ceiling, many metres overhead, let in light from outside. At some point, a stone brick had come loose, and now, a welcome shaft of light illuminated the area, though it didn’t do much else for their rapidly worsening situation.
Addison didn’t waste time. While Matthew paddled around, confused and trying to make sense of the situation, Addison was trying to scale a wall.
“Is that an opening up there?” Matthew asked, the tremor in his voice obvious. He swam tremulously up to Addison, trying to think of something to say but the cold and the shock had rendered him unable to even think straight, never mind form sentences.
Addison didn’t reply. Even if they wanted to, their mind was focused on nothing but raw survival. Their fingers gripped white into the jutting bricks, desperately clambering to find a decent foothold.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s a, an opening, above you - Ellis, I-I think the water’s dropping,” Matthew said as he looked around himself, watching as the water's surface slowly made it’s way lower down the bricks. “Like, going down.”
As Addison climbed, their foot knocked out a large stone brick about a foot long. It was already loose - and the nudge from Addison was all it needed to come slamming down on Matthew, where it struck him somewhere above his left eyebrow and then collided with the water.
It knocked Matthew underwater with it.
“Shit!” he cursed once he surfaced, hand instinctively going towards his split forehead, which was already bleeding down past his eye and threatening to reach his jawline. “F-fuck! Shit, you… y’, careful, asshole!” he spluttered, now high on adrenaline.
Addison had gone.
“Whuh…” Matthew began, his disbelief palpable. “Addison?” he called. “Addison?!”
The only sound Matthew could hear was the roar of the water, which only seemed to get louder and louder. He looked at the wall. The waterline was lower still.

“Fuck…” he gasped, gripped by panic. He was terrified, and he looked it too, mind running a mile a minute, eyes darting towards the dark tunnel they’d come from, the opening Addison had apparently disappeared into, the wall they’d ascended, the light from the ceiling…
He went for the wall that he’d just watched Addison climb.
He was soaking wet, shivering cold, and as his fingers grasped at the wet brick, it became abundantly clear that he wasn’t going to just get up there by himself.
The brick that Addison had accidentally forced loose was a critically important one, and it was impossible to get past that pivotal point now, no matter how much Matthew swore and clawed at the wall with sore fingers and increasing desperation. He slipped and fell back down into the water several times, rapidly becoming exhausted, all the while noticing the water's surface descend lower and lower, making Matthew’s climb higher and higher.
Matthew stopped eventually, breathing heavily and staring up at the opening, imagining Addison, probably outside now, lighting up a fag and drying off.
This thought mixed with the sickening realisation that he might die here, meant he was immediately struck with burning rage.
“Fucker!” he expelled from his lungs with a power he didn’t know he still had in him. “Mother fucker!” He punched the brick wall, and a piercing pain shot through his hand. “This was your plan, all along, wasn’t it?!” his voice echoed through the room and through the many tunnels. “Leave me to, to fucking die, yeah!?”
Matthew stared, wide-eyed at the opening. It looked light up there. “Fuckin’ cunt!” he screamed, thrashing around in the water to better make his point. “I hope you remember this the rest of your sick, deranged life! I hope you never forget how you left me here!” he yelled, feeling his throat getting hoarse. He stopped to catch his breath and wipe away the blood that was seeping into his eye, stinging.
“Martha!” he tried. “Marthaaa!”
His anger turned to despair as he tried to find another way out of the grim chamber. There was nothing else to see - just dark water and grey stone bricks.
“Martha!” he screamed. “Martha!” He took a deep breath. “For fuck’s sake, will someone please help me?!” he begged, feeling pathetic as he did. “This…” he gasped. “Fuck you! Fuck, I-I hope you never fucking sleep again! Never again, in your demented, freak life! I hope you never forget what you did, not for a second!” 

That was it - Matthew was spent. He still treaded water, but did so with heavy, laboured kicks, only just enough to keep his nose above water. He felt as though he had nothing, not an ounce of energy left in his aching muscles.
There were footsteps.
Addison took off their jacket - the same pink jacket they always wore, and hung it over the side. “...Is this too high to reach?” they asked, though as always, their enquiries were entirely blunt, and missed the questioning inflection you’d expect.
Matthew looked up at the jacket tiredly. “What?” he asked, sounding confused. “You came back,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“Grab my jacket,” Addison instructed.
“I can’t reach,” Matthew breathed, his voice whispery. He didn’t know if he had the strength to hold on, even if he could reach.
Addison took their jacket back for a few minutes while they tried something else. They eventually tossed down a much longer makeshift rope, and now their jacket almost reached the water. Their right trouser leg was tied firmly around the jacket sleeve, and their left trouser leg was tied to the sleeve of Addison’s black jumper, which they held the other end of, wearing considerably less clothes than they were several minutes ago.
But time, more valuable than ever, had passed, and now, Matthew wasn’t looking at Addison. In fact, it didn’t seem to them as though he was looking at anything at all.
“Matthew,” Addison reminded him.
He turned around to look, managing to force his mouth above the water enough to take a little breath.
“Climb,” Addison instructed, their voice stern and straight-to-the-point.

Matthew didn’t know how he did it. His subconscious mind seemed to take the wheel, and before he knew it, his exhausted hands were gripping Addison’s cold jacket, violently trembling legs scrambling against the wall.
Addison pulled, gritting their teeth and planting their feet on the ground as firmly as they could muster.
Matthew himself climbed. He was slow, and every movement felt like a great effort, but he didn’t stop. He pushed every part of himself forward, higher up, out of the icy water and into the chilly air which seemed a relief in comparison.
Once he was at the edge of the opening, Addison moved forward to grab his hand, and with one final, strenuous effort, they pulled him out onto the hard stone floor, cold, wet, and gasping for air.
Addison was wearing nothing but a t-shirt and underwear now, and they looked exhausted. Their brow was furrowed and their thick black eyeliner had started to melt - so dishevelled, they were nearly unrecognisable. They took a step back, and then, they leaned against the stone wall.
They looked down at Matthew, who was staring back up at them, perplexed, while he tried to both catch his breath and wrap his head around what happened at the same time. Nearly the entire left side of his face was red with blood now, and he shook as he tried to get off the floor and onto his hands and knees. They both sounded out of breath.
Matthew spun himself around and landed in a sitting position with his back against the wall, opposite Addison, who pulled their makeshift rope back and began untying their clothes from each other.
“I’m… f-fucking freezing,” said Matthew, putting his arms around his drenched legs to hug them.
Addison didn’t reply. They successfully untied their jacket and shrugged it on, and then, not giving Matthew a second look, they walked away.
Matthew, pensively, watched Addison go through the opening, that pink leather jacket that he’d just been clinging on to for dear life, following the light at the end of the tunnel.
It was a few minutes later when he clumsily got to his feet, and, before taking one more shuddering breath, followed.