by Blake Croft
Linda cried out against the unexpected assault. A fairly large stone came zooming at Scott and hit him squarely between the eyes. He stumbled and fell. Linda screamed. She struggled against the wind to reach him. He was still breathing but there was a bloody gash on his forehead.
“Scott!” Linda shook him, but his eyes rolled up in his head.
The wind persisted, dislodging clods of earth which manifested in the shape of a dirt storm obscuring her vision. Ashley’s face and torso were rapidly swallowed under a mound of dirt as the earth shifted and sucked her in deeper.
“No!” Linda screamed.
Then, the wind died as swiftly as it had started.
Something wet and heavy sloshed out of the pond. Linda saw a hulking figure in the suspended dirt at the very edge of her vision. The sound of dragging feet came next from both in front of her and from behind her. It was everywhere, attacking her from all sides.
Chapter 41
Linda whimpered.
She was back in her old skin, petrified of every shadow and sound. The sound of sloshing feet came from the pond; the sound of dragging feet came from the passage they had just come from.
Sweat pooled under Linda’s arms, even though she was shivering from the cold.
“Scott,” she tried one more time to rouse him, but he just groaned and was still.
Letting him fall off her lap, Linda stood up and backed away from the pond.
The footsteps behind her stopped.
The ones coming towards her increased their pace.
Linda cried out and tried to run, but she tripped over the handle of the shovel and went sprawling into Tara’s partially dug grave.
White teeth grinned up at her.
Linda screamed and scrambled back, displacing more dirt around the grave, revealing the skull and the brown bones of the neck. She stopped struggling and bent forward. Her shaking hands began to dig further, clearing the clavicle and breast bone.
Fragments of rotting cloth stuck to the bones, but there was no sign of a peridot necklace.
A shrill howl resounded in the cavern, bouncing off the walls, attacking her from every corner. The wind began again; a gale of water from the pond got into her eyes. The flashlight flickered on and off, plunging the cavern from pitch dark to partial gloom, obscuring Linda’s senses.
Linda pressed her hands on her ears, clenching her teeth against the battering noise. Struggling against the sound, she dug further around the body, hoping to find the necklace dislodged in the dirt.
Her fingers got cut against sharp stones and bled freely but she ignored it. The footsteps behind her resumed, getting closer and closer. Her body shook with terror, Linda wanted to turn and face her assailant, but she knew nothing would change unless she had the receptacle. Forcing herself to focus on finding the necklace, Linda ignored the beads of cold sweat that trailed like grasping fingers down her spine.
A sharp wailing wheezed underneath the shrill screaming wind.
“I can’t find it!” Linda bawled. She was crying freely now, her senses heightened, her fear knew no bounds. “It’s not here! It’s not here!”
A hand clasped her shoulder.
Linda screamed.
Chapter 42
Cold hands clutched Linda’s shoulders, bony fingers digging into her flesh.
Linda cried and tried to get out of the deathly grip but the hands were too strong. A hollow wheezing breath, warm and moist, cascaded down the back of her neck. Linda struggled, pushing her elbows back to hit her attacker in the ribs.
The attacker cursed aloud, and gasped as if the breath had been knocked out of them.
The curse was all too human, the wheezing cry much too surprised and agitated.
Linda grabbed at the flashlight that had skidded against the far wall in the wind. Small stones flew across the cavern and scratched against her face, cutting at her skin making her bleed. Her hands shook as she focused on the hulking figure in the supernatural misty wind.
“Linda,” the figure moaned.
“Grady?”
“The urn…” she croaked. Blood trickled down the side of her mouth. Her face was blue, and not just from the cold in the cavern. Purple bruises lined her throat, bulging in an effort to pull in air to her lungs.
“Grady, it’s too late,” Linda sobbed. “It wasn’t in the grave. I was wrong.”
“The urn!” Grady said. “I kept it safe… Possessed Ashley wanted it… I had to stay silent not to attract attention from It… it’s in here.”
“How can you be so sure?” Linda asked.
“Stewart… loved his dog more than he loved anyone else,” Grady wheezed, blood spilling out of her mouth. “I was sure he… he must have hidden it in the urn… When you all entered the tunnel, you got all the attention from It… I could open the urn, and I checked inside… but I didn’t touch it, to not draw Its attention to myself.” With the last of her strength, she threw the urn at Linda.
Linda sidestepped just in time.
The urn went arcing through the air and crashed against the wall behind Linda.
Wood cracked.
The wind halted.
Blood gushing out of her mouth in a scarlet vomit, Grady collapsed where she stood. She clearly pretended she only had a broken rib to avoid slowing down Linda and Scott, but she had been seriously hurt, and probably attacked in the tunnel too.
Linda made to go to her, but a glint of silver caught the light and she halted.
The silence had a keen edge to it. An expectant waiting pressed down on Linda’s ear, worse than the howling screams from a few seconds ago. Linda bent down again. The urn had a large crack at one side. Ash spilled out from the crack and the dangling end of a silver chain.
Excitement and hope rekindled Linda’s frozen extremities.
She tried to pry the top off, but it was sealed shut by some adhesive.
Scrambling closer to the wall, her knees slipping in the dirt, Linda lunged, striking the crack on the urn at the ragged wall.
The boom resounded around the cavern.
The silence shifted.
The crack opened wide enough for the necklace to spill out on to her palm.
The green peridot shone with a light of its own.
A low groan echoed behind her.
Linda whipped around.
Scott moaned and sat up. Blood trickled down his forehead, dripping off his nose. “Whass happin?” he slurred.
“I found it!” she cried. “I found the necklace! I-”
It had crept up on her without her sensing anything amiss. The shadow flitted against the wall, towering above her. The necklace slipped out of her fingers.
The shadow swopped down like a hawk.
Linda was paralyzed.
It hit her like a frigid ocean wave.
Chapter 43
Linda was paralyzed.
Her eyes saw the cavern; saw Scott stumble towards her; saw Grady wheezing, her lung obviously punctured by the broken rib; yet her body wouldn’t move. A malicious entity was fighting her instincts of control. It was taking over.
“What are you waiting for?” Scott asked. “Destroy it!”
Linda tried to speak, but her jaw was clenched shut. The entity was breaking through her defenses, relentlessly attacking any strength Linda had.
Her eyes fluttered. She was tired. Her limbs were heavy and her spine ached. Maybe she should just lie down. It couldn’t hurt to take a little rest.
“Linda!” Scott shouted. He snatched the necklace from the ground. “Ashley doesn’t have much time!”
Ashley!
Linda’s eyes opened wide. She struggled against the possession. The writhing grey shadow whirled in and out of her vision, painting the world in its muted colors. Scott scrabbled in the dirt for the crowbar. His eyes widened as he looked at Linda. He must have seen the shadow.
“I’ll destroy it!” he screamed. “Leave her, or I’ll destroy you!”
Linda gasped as the evil influence lifted of
f her shoulder like discarding sodden clothes. The wind howled worse than before. Linda was buffeted back into the wall, hitting her head against a sharp edge. The rocks dug into her spine; making her cry out.
The shadow moved with fluid grace forging a path of destruction as it went. The wheelbarrow squeaked in the wind and struck Grady’s head, again and again, till the bright red of blood bloomed at the back of her head.
Scott saw it coming. He feinted to the right then ran left towards the pond. The shadow didn’t buy it for one second. The crowbar hurtled through the air, spinning end on end.
Scott twisted and threw the necklace at Linda.
Linda watched mesmerized as the silver chain caught the light as it spun across the cavern towards her, and a few feet away the crowbar came crashing down with immense force.
Linda watched in horror as Scott tried to dive away from under the sharp projectile but in vain. The crowbar caught him in his side, sinking all the way through. Blood and bits of flesh littered the floor.
Scott screamed.
“Scott!” Linda yelled, hysteria bursting inside her making everything else unimportant.
Scott fell to his knees at the foot of Ashley’s grave. Ropes came coiling out of the darkness and bound around his legs; pinning him down. The sharp end stuck out of Scott’s side. Blood bloomed across his shirt.
All hope leeched out of Linda’s toes. Ashley lay in a makeshift grave. Grady was collapsed by the graves of Tara and Shannon, her face a pale moon in the gloom. Scott laid by the pool impaled on a crowbar. What chance did she have against an entity that could wreck so much havoc?
Amidst the howling wind and grit something glittered by her knee.
The peridot necklace was swiftly getting buried under the moving earth.
There was something so surreptitious about that small detail, the eager way the earth was devouring the necklace, the cockiness of the monster behind all of this that it had won.
Anger and rage bloomed inside Linda.
Linda snatched the necklace, her eyes barely opening in the strong wind.
The clang of metal rang in the cavern. Linda saw the shovel rise in the air. The entity was making its last assault.
Teeth bared in a feral grin, Linda whipped out Shannon’s phone and Ashley’s Polly Pocket from her jeans.
“This ends now!” she screamed smashing her childhood toy against the wall. It shattered into pieces.
Placing the necklace so the peridot pendant, her childhood toy and the phone screen were stacked on top of each other, Linda grabbed a stone. She smashed it on the pile, again, and again.
The peridot and the Polly Pocket broke into pieces, and the phone screen crunched.
The wind whipped up in an erratic frenzy.
The shovel whizzed through the air to hit her on her right arm.
Linda yowled and nearly loosened her grip on the phone.
She gritted her teeth and lifted her hand again. She let it drop and picked up a rock. She brought it crashing down.
The phone disintegrated into pieces.
The chain broke but the pendant still remained.
Tara howled in rage all around her.
Linda shouted back.
She picked up the trowel from the foot of the grave and placed the pendant on top of Tara’s skull.
With a feral cry she brought the trowel down smashing the pendant to pieces.
Chapter 44
The wind petered out.
One last sharp stone sliced across Linda’s forehead. Blood trickled down her grimy face.
She sat back, breathing hard. Every limb ached, her body screamed for rest but there was none to be had. She had to be quick.
Stumbling up and across the cavern Linda fell twice. She struggled on her knees, and finally crawled to Ashley’s shallow grave.
The wind had trudged dirt up till Ashley was almost covered; only bits of her pale face were visible underneath the dark soil.
“No! Please,” was all Linda could manage to say. “Please!”
She raked the dirt away with her bare fingers, her hands frantically searching for her sister.
The earth dislodged and Ashley’s face emerged. Maggots wriggled across her sister’s closed eyes. Linda moaned and wiped them away.
“Please,” she whimpered.
She felt Ashley’s neck for a heartbeat.
Seconds ticked by.
She felt nothing. Ashley wasn’t breathing. There was no trace of a heartbeat.
Darkness threatened to overcome her again.
“Ash!” she moaned, and she burst into tears. “No, please!”
Guilt and remorse mingled with her overwhelming sense of loss. It was hard to breathe, hard to imagine the meaning of life without her sister. Crying like a child who has lost their mother, Linda lay her head down on Ashley’s stationary chest, letting the weariness take her over. She wouldn’t mind dying down here now.
A sonorous rumble came from Ashley’s chest.
Linda sat back.
Coughing and spluttering, Ashley wheezed and sat up. Color was returning to her ashen face. She stared around at their surroundings, eyes wide.
Like the maggots, an insidious thought wormed its way in Linda’s brain.
What if she was too late? What if Ashley was so far gone she had sustained brain damage?
She crept forward, her hands grazing on sharp stones, looking into her sister’s eyes, not breaking contact.
“A-Ash?” Linda stammered.
Ashley stared, her expression blank, her face slack jawed.
Linda sobbed. “Ashley!” she threw her head down on the ground, prostrated with grief. “No!”
“Linda, you buried me?” Ashley said, her voice a hoarse whisper.
Linda shot up, and stared at her sister.
Her cheeks were still pale, but her eyes were no longer blank slates. There was life in them; fright, terror and confusion, but discernible emotions.
“Linda, am I back?” Ashley asked, her lips quivering. “Am I? I was so horribly lost! I didn’t think I could ever get out. It was so dark. Am I back?”
“Ashley!” Linda threw herself at her sister. “I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!” She rocked back and forth letting her tears fall freely. “You’re okay! I’m sorry.”
Ashley swallowed, then patted Linda’s back. “I’m okay. I think. Oh my God,” she gasped. “Scott? Grady?”
Linda looked back at the prone bodies of Grady and Scott.
Grady had given her life to ensure Linda could stop the haunting. It was a debt Linda could never repay.
And Scott…
Leave her or I’ll destroy you.
Scott hadn’t thought about himself. He had believed in Linda’s possession and he had used the necklace as a bargaining chip to save her, risking himself. Linda let the fresh tears stream down her face. If it hadn’t been for him, Linda would have failed and they would all be dead… or worse.
Guilt hit her. She had survived because there had been two people willing to risk their lives for her. At no other time, had she felt this worthless or impotent.
“Can you walk?” Linda asked. “We should get out. The police must be there by now.”
“Yeah,” Ashley stepped out of the grave. Her knees looked wobbly, but she managed to stand. “I don’t want to leave them down here like this.”
“We won’t,” Linda said. “We’ll call the police and show them. They will bring them out. No one will be left behind in this hell hole.”
Ashley limped towards Linda and held her arm. Linda yowled.
“What is it?” Ashley gasped.
Linda peeled back the sleeve on her right arm to reveal a gash angling along her upper arm. The shovel had cut her skin open and it ran with blood.
“Paramedics should be here by now,” Ashley said. “Come on.”
Linda followed to the center of the cavern. The mist had parted and the cold was lessening, but Linda couldn’t help but wonder if the terrorizing reign of Tara was
truly over or not.
It sounded too good to be true that destroying the phone, the Polly Pocket, and necklace had completely snuffed out the malevolent energy.
They had just reached the mouth of the opening when an eerie moan resounded in the cavern like a wounded animals howl.
Linda froze.
The hair on the back of her neck stood on end.
“What was that?” Ashley clutched her hand.
Linda trained the flashlight within the cavern, picking out rocks, and shadows.
A figure stirred on the ground.
“Linda?”
“Scott?”
Linda rushed back inside. Scott writhed on the ground, his wound bleeding profusely. His skin was as white as a sheet and he was losing blood fast.
“No!” Linda cried. She ripped her soiled sleeve and wound it around Scott’s waist. She pulled it taut to staunch the bleeding. “We’re getting you out of here,” she promised. “We’ll get you help! Ashley, check Grady.”
Ashley scurried over to the old woman. She bent down, and felt her pulse. Linda helped Scott sit up, making him lean on her shoulder. She watched Ashley expectantly.
Ashley’s face fell. She shook her head.
Linda swallowed her disappointment and grief. There would be time for that later. Grady would have told her not to dawdle and get the job done.
“Help me with Scott,” Linda instructed Ashley.
Together they helped Scott to the wheelbarrow and sat him inside.
They wheeled him out, both pushing.
As they left the cavern, Linda turned back once to take in the place of horror.
The mist had completely evaporated from the cavern. The pond was dark and lifeless. The frost was melting slowly as the temperature increased by small degrees.
At the very back of the cavern, a host of faint ghosts flitted in and out of existence like winking stars watching her leave.