This dark was unlike any dark he had ever experienced. Not even that time when Merry had locked him in the cellar as a joke had it been this dark. Moria's dark had a weight to it and it was pressing down on him so that he felt he was suffocating.
Gandalf's staff gave only a small help. Its light seemed to struggle to push back the dark as they proceeded through the dank passageways. Pippin shivered and suddenly thought of his parents. If he died down here under this mountain, they'd never know what happened to their only son.