“Wow, that is crazy. I’m not sure what to say. Grandpa and I never camped in a cave before, and he never brought it up to me,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief.
“I know, and it was for good reason too. We knew not to tell anyone about it as your grandpa had an issue with hearing voices from time to time, so we knew that no one would ever believe us,” he stated as he finished off his water. Trish downed the rest of hers and sat it on the ground next to the chair.
“Why are you telling me this?” she quizzed.
“Because I knew that you both were going to hike that trail this summer. Your grandpa wasn’t afraid of the campground, just the cave. As you know, it is a fifty-mile trail. He was waiting until he knew that you were ready, and apparently, you are. I wanted you to promise me that whenever you go on this hike this summer, which I know you will, to please avoid the caves. If you do anything, please avoid the caves,” he finished as he stood up with a grunt and leaned over her.
“Promise me, please. Promise a dying old man that you’ll take care of yourself,” he whispered in her ear.
She nodded as tears seemed to flood down her face and wrapped her arms around him. “I promise I will avoid the caves. And I’ll take care of myself just like grandpa knew I would,” she whimpered as they held each other and cried. “I need to do this for him. I need to finish this. It’s my last connection with him, and I’m not giving it up for anything,” she sobbed. The old man kissed the top of her head.
“Come now, food is ready, Trish,” her mother interrupted as she loomed over them. The old man and Trish let go of each other, and he stood up. Her mother watched with her hands on her hips.
“Thank you kindly for your hospitality, but I must take my leave. Remember what I said, Patricia,” the old man said as he quickly hugged her.
“When will I see you again?” she questioned as he hobbled towards the door.
He turned around and looked at her, “You probably won’t, to be honest. But just know that I care about ya just as much as I cared about your grandpa,” he said as he walked towards the front door, leaving Trish in a puddle of tears.
“What was that about?” her mother questioned as she rubbed Trish’s back. She stood up and brushed her mother’s arm off of her.
“Just talking about grandpa,” Trish responded.
“That old man has always been crazy. Mom hated him so much when I was growing up, I wish your grandpa would’ve ditched him. It was so weird seeing him here today,” her mother said. Trish shrugged, ignoring her.
“Well, go clean yourself up and get yourself some food. You will be helping to clean up,” her mother said and sauntered off. Trish nodded and went to make herself some food, knowing that she sure as hell wasn’t going to stick around and help her mother with anything.
Chapter Two
T
rish unlocked the front door to her apartment and opened the door. I hope there won’t be a fight, she thought to herself as she took a deep breath and walked inside. The apartment smelled of a mixture of bleach and dust. It was spotless, almost as clean as it was when Trish and Emily first moved in together. She heard Emily and her brother laughing in their bedroom as Sausage, her Beagle, jumped up onto Trish, his paws hitting her knees. Sausage’s white and brown fur soft to the touch; he licked her palms, coating them in slobber. She kneeled down and loved on him as she took a deep breath of his woodsy scent.
Emily walked out of the bedroom with a small box in her arms. She stopped. Her bright pink hair, faded into a pastel pink with bleach blonde, fell into her face as her messy ponytail struggled to hold it up.
“Oh, I didn’t expect you back so early,” she said as she stared at Trish.
“I needed to get out of there,” Trish responded. She stood back up and dusted off Sausage’s fur from her black pants. I don’t know why she chose to do this today of all days.
“Interesting,” Emily mumbled as her brother, Craig, came out of the bedroom carrying a large cardboard box.
“Hey, Trish,” he said as his eyes darted around the room. She nodded and smiled a small smile; she went to twist her engagement ring around her ring finger as she always used to do in awkward situations. It was even more awkward now that she didn’t wear the ring and just touched her finger out of habit. She stepped away from the door frame as Craig came barreling toward her and out the door. His white t-shirt was soaked with sweat and he smelled as if he hadn’t showered for a few days. His dark brown hair littered with white flakes of dandruff. He walked outside and placed the box in a jam-packed blue four-door truck with a grunt. Trish stared at him as he worked. Emily stared at Trish.
“I think we’ve gotten everything that was mine,” Emily said as she made her way towards the front door. Trish stepped aside and leaned over to pick up Sausage. She held him to her chest as a way to protect herself from Emily.
“Why did you have to do this today of all days?” Trish asked as she squeezed Sausage to her chest.
“You know why,” Emily said. She stepped closer to Trish. She recoiled away and hit the white wall of the apartment.
“No, I don’t. You were supposed to be here for me like all good girlfriends are. I needed you,” Trish whimpered.
“I know. But for once, I need to work on my mental health. Dealing with your…issues…takes everything out of me. You suck the soul out of my body and beg for more. You’re an emotional vampire, and I just can’t do it anymore,” Emily’s voice cracked.
“How do you expect to be in any serious relationship when their family members could die at any time? Are you going to leave them then?” Trish questioned.
Emily sighed, “Trish, you know why I’m leaving, and it’s not because of your grandpa. You refuse to take your meds, and I can’t deal with your episodes anymore. I’m not a therapist, and I can’t help you. Maybe once you get healthy, we can speak about working things out. Until then, please just get help. I hope you understand that I’m doing this for your own good.” Trish recoiled from Emily like she had been slapped. Emily leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. The smell of apples and vanilla wafted into Trish’s nostrils. Her gloss covered lips felt warm and sticky.
“Please take care of yourself. I love you,” Emily whispered. She walked out of the apartment. Trish watched as they drove away, her eyes spilled over, and she dropped Sausage onto the ground. She sobbed and fell over into the fetal position, hugging her body close and letting the waves of emotions roll through her body.
~~~
“Hey,” Trish answered as her phone rang while she drove her newer black pickup truck. Her car’s Bluetooth picked up the call.
“Hey, how far along are you?” Trish’s mother asked.
“About two hours in,” she said.
“You forgot to call us when you left,” her mother said.
“I know. I was in a rush,” Trish replied.
Her mother sighed, “A rush for what? I don’t know why you can’t just take a friend with you or something. Why do you have to go alone?”
“Why do we keep having this conversation? I’ve given you the same answer thousands of times,” Trish said, exasperated.
“I just feel that you should not be doing this. I know you’re an adult now, and you’re going to do whatever you want to do, but I just know that this isn’t safe. I know you’re having a rough time right now with Emily and your grandpa, but your grandpa wouldn’t want you to do this either,” she said.
“Yes, he would, or you obviously didn’t know him as well as I do. I know how much you hate him, but I don’t give a shit. He cared about me when you didn’t, and he helped me through everything. He was my best friend, and he gave me everything a parent should give to their child,” Trish said. They both knew it was the truth. “He camped by himself all the time, and he was just fine. He gave me all of the tools of the trade. I will be fine,” Trish retorted.
“Your father and I were taking care of you! You needed help, and we gave it. Just because your grandpa didn�
��t want you to be hospitalized doesn’t mean that you didn’t need it. He wasn’t all there and was a bad influence on your mental health! I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this. He would go galivanting all across the wilderness in the middle of nowhere because he couldn’t handle people. I tried the best that I could to get you to stop spending your free time with him, but you’re so bull-headed that nothing I said made it through that thick head of yours,” her mother exclaimed.
“I’m sorry that you’re so narrow-minded that you can’t see that people with mental health issues do just fine as long as they follow their doctor’s recommendations. He was fine, I am fine, and you just need to live with who I am. Just take good care of Sausage for me, and I will swing by and pick him up once I’m finished. I’ll see you in a week,” she stated.
“But that’s the thing, you don’t follow doctor’s orders or else you’d be taking your medication. I hate the person that you are and have become,” her mother cried.
“You just hate me because I’m not you,” Trish said as she disconnected the call. She took a deep breath and gripped the wheel, her knuckles white from the tension. She sighed loudly and turned the radio on. She blasted music with the window rolled down loud enough that she couldn’t hear her own thoughts nagging at her.
~~~
Trish parked in one of the many empty parking spots in the lot at the park entrance. She leaned over and grabbed her insulated pink water bottle. The cool water cascaded down her throat and refreshed her mind. She stepped out of her truck, her feet crunched on the gravel and dirt of the parking lot. She sneezed, almost hitting her head on the driver’s side door. After closing it, she walked to the bed of the truck and picked up her green rucksack that she’d packed the night before. She could lighten it by a few pounds, which will come in handy while she is hiking uphill or on bad terrain.
I’m so fucking excited I can’t contain myself, she thought to herself as she unzipped her bag to make sure she’d packed everything that she needed to. She had packed some of the most important aspects as well a few extras: extra clothes, food, an extra canteen, map, compass, fully charged satellite phone, knife, multi-tool, sun protection, fire starter, first aid kit, allergy pills, small pot, lip balm, flashlight, and of course, a sleeping bag. Walking away from her truck, she headed onto the first trail that she saw. It would be a few miles before she hit the fifty-mile trail. Thankfully, it would have a sign designating it, so she didn’t have to pull out her map.
The trail had almost a zero incline and was meticulously maintained. There very few branches and sticks lying in the middle of the trail; small rocks lined the trail neatly. Trish looked above her and into the tree line. The gorgeous deep green of pine trees and beautiful flowering, and non-flowering, dogwood trees surrounded her. The intoxicating smell of the trees, moss, and dirt overwhelmed her. I’m finally home, she thought to herself. She jumped several times, unable to contain her excitement.
She walked deeper into the trail, listening to the birds singing and animals off in the distance trampling around. Trish spun in a circle when the wind blew off thousands of white petals from the flowering dogwood trees.
It smelled like a mixture of Earth and perfume. I’m in heaven, she thought as she attempted to catch some petals as they floated in the wind. She giggled loudly, the pedals landed in her hair, but she didn’t care. I am the forest elf! This is my domain, and I shall protect it with my life! She thought as she laughed harder. She danced around the trees, her dancing out of tune with any beat, but she didn’t care. Trish didn’t need music to dance, the sounds of the forest were all that nature provided for her, and she loved it. She let her body move in every which way it wanted it. Her feet drew circles in the dirt, her hands mimicked waterfalls and wind, lightly caressing the air around her. She danced until she could dance no more. She tried to catch her breath as she stepped back onto the trail, which now had more of an incline to it.
Chapter Three
T
rish arrived at the sign for the fifty-mile trail. She had hiked about four miles. The trail was split into two; one marked the big trail, and the other one marked a steep incline trail but was only ten miles long. She opted for the long one and began the hike she had been planning for well over a year. The trail inclined a bit, but not too much. It reminded her of the stair master that she worked out on at the gym. She grunted as she took larger steps, her glutes burning and her thighs crying. It was heaven to her.
The sun started to set about three miles in on the new trail. Trish left the trail and walked into the brush in order to find a good camping spot. She took a swig of her now lukewarm water; the liquid cascaded down her throat like a gentle waterfall. She climbed deeper into the forest, most of it uphill, grasping onto tree roots and jutting rocks, flinging herself upward. Trish kept climbing. She struggled to catch her breath until she came to a clearing. In front of her was a lopsided circle of trees with the sporadic berry bush here and there. Trish was tempted to try the berries, but thought better of it as she wasn’t sure if they were poisonous or not. The smell of fresh moss and berries wafted into her face. She sat her water bottle down on the ground next to her and opened her backpack. She pulled out her trusted rusty swiss army pocket knife and an old flashlight from the front pocket.
‘Perfect,’ she mumbled aloud as she laid her discolored and frayed black backpack against a moss-covered tree.
She walked around the clearing as she picked up some twigs and dead leaves from the forest floor. She set them on the ground in the middle of the empty circle and created a triangle-like shape with those same twigs. She used her swiss army knife to cut some of the low-hanging branches off of some pine trees. After she’d gathered everything to make her perfect fire, she strolled over to her backpack and stuck her hand in the broken internal pocket, the one with a zipper that wouldn’t close, and pulled out her matchbook. She lit a match, the smell of burning wood ignited her excitement as she tossed it into the fire pit.
The fire burst to life and illuminated the glade of the darkened forest around her. The smell of the campfire ignited the memories of her grandpa. Her favorite memory of all was the last hike that they’d taken together. They had just finished a twenty-mile hike, but it was too dark to start the hike back. Her grandpa decided to park it for the night, and they both rolled out their sleeping bags under the night sky. There was no light pollution, so every star was perfectly visible, like someone had sprayed a can of glitter over a pitch-black canvas.
‘Remember everything that I taught you, ladybug,’ her grandpa had said to her.
‘I will, don’t you worry about me,’ Trish had said. She had grabbed his old wrinkled hand that looked like a tortilla and gave it a tight squeeze.
‘You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me,’ he’d whispered to her.
‘I love you more than anything,’ Trish had responded.
I wish he was here; I miss him so much. I miss the way he would stumble over sticks because he had the coordination of a beached whale. I miss how he would tend to my wounds if I got hurt. And most of all, I miss having him around and him believing in me, she thought to herself. She wiped a tear from her cheek and sniffled. She pulled out her small pot and placed two hotdogs inside of it. Holding the pot over the fire, she watched as her hotdogs crisped up. The smell of cooked meat wafted up to her. Her mouth watered, and as soon as they were cooked through, she devoured them one by one.
“Patricia,” she heard something call out in the distance. She looked around her but couldn’t see anything as darkness had fallen over her like a heavy blanket.
“Hello?” Trish called out, looking behind her.
“Patricia, I am happy that you are here,” the deep voice hummed.
“What?” she questioned.
“I cannot wait to see you, my dear,” the voice said, grating on Trish’s soul.
“Who are you?” she asked as she stood up and looked around her once more. She felt something weighing d
own on her as if it were pressing on her chest, making it hard to breathe. The forest was dead quiet. Not a single bird, rustle of leaves, or footsteps could be heard anywhere around her. Maybe I should have taken my meds today, she thought. She hoped it was just her mind being her mind again.
‘We will meet soon enough, and you will know exactly who I am,” the disembodied voice echoed out to her. It shook her to her core. All at once, the heavy air lifted. The forest wasn’t nearly as dark as it once was, she could hear the animals of the night, and the wind carried on as normal. Trish let go of a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. The sweat that pooled on her collar bone dripped down onto her chest. It was nothing. There’s no way a voice could be that loud and not be standing right next to me. It’s just my mind being weird, as usual, she thought to herself as she decided to stay where she was.
She sat down by the fire that was still going and hovered her sweaty, pale hands over it. The warmth floated up and kissed her skin as her hands toasted, her sweat dripping into the fire. She pulled out a bag of mixed nuts from her bag and ripped it open. As she tilted her head back, she dumped the salty contents into her mouth.
She let her mind wander as she sat in front of the fire. Was what she heard earlier real? Did something follow her? Why wouldn’t it leave her alone? She sighed loudly and tossed the empty wrapper into her backpack. Behind her, a rabbit hopped into the clearing, sniffing as it moseyed around, the front paw dragged in the dirt.
“Come here, little baby,” Trish called out softly. It scampered around in circles as it picked up some berries off the forest floor. “Are you hurt?” she whispered as she turned her body towards the brown rabbit. The rabbit stared at her; its little pink nose sniffed the air around it.
“Are you a hungry little guy?” Trish asked but didn’t expect an answer. “Where is your family? I’m sure they miss you,” the rabbit with a broken paw turned and scampered back into the forest.
The Cave Page 2