by H. P. Bayne
“For a ghost who’s not going to hurt us, he’s sure doing a crap job of showing it.”
Sully smiled, let his reply sound through it. “Yeah. He kind of is.”
Dez finished taking the light apart, holding each piece to the working beam to check for problems. “So we’ve got no cell service down here, and there’s no way we can climb back to the top. Any plans coming together in that shaggy head of yours?”
Sully pulled the elastic from his hair, then raked loose, wet strands back into a low ponytail. “He wanted us down here. I’m hoping that means he’s going to guide us to something. Or to someone.”
Dez shook out the body of the so-far unusable flashlight, sending droplets of water leaping. “Someone? Who the hell are we going to find down here? Gollum?”
“There’s a second entrance, Dez. That’s what Evan told us, remember? We can find our way out of here, and maybe we can figure out a thing or two on the way. Not likely Lars and Tessa came the way we did, so I’m thinking it’s possible we’ll run into them somewhere.”
“If Lars is with her. And if she’s actually come down here. I can’t imagine who the hell would want to.”
“Unless Lars is involved in Carter’s death. You talking to him about it might have shaken him up, made him want to come back here and make sure he didn’t leave any clues behind.”
“What clues?” Dez said. “No one found anything back then. Why would there be anything to find four years later?”
“They weren’t really looking for anything four years ago, though, were they?” Sully reminded him. “No one even questioned it was anything other than a tragic accident. The focus would have been on trying to find him, not anything he or his killer might have left behind. Anyway, if we’ve just fallen through the access the rescue team created, there’s a range of tunnels somewhere in here no one ever explored.”
“No one besides our cave-loving friends,” Dez said. “Yeah, okay, point taken. But here’s another one. If Lars did do something to Carter, and he’s in here somewhere looking for anything he might have left behind, how badly do you really want to run into him?”
After twenty minutes of exploring the massive cavern, the answer to Dez’s question—how badly did they want to run into a potentially homicidal spelunker—was “very badly.”
“You see anything over there?” Dez called from somewhere on the other side of the chamber.
“I see rock,” Sully returned. “A lot of rock.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
Dez hadn’t managed to get the second flashlight working, although there was a chance it would cooperate once it had dried out better. Even the supposedly waterproof seemed to come with limits. Dez had given Sully the flashlight while he made do with the flash on his cellphone.
Sully played his beam across as much of his section of cave as he could manage. For all the trouble Carter had gone to get them down here, he wasn’t proving overly helpful now they were inside.
He left the thought unspoken, that perhaps Dez had been right. Maybe Carter had simply wanted them out of the way and didn’t care if it meant sending them to an early death.
But the bigger part of Sully—the part running on instincts honed after a lifetime of dealing with the dead—didn’t buy it. The truth was something else—somewhere else—was waiting to be discovered.
It didn’t mean they couldn’t use the help.
“Carter?” Sully said. “I know this is about the fifteenth time I’ve asked since we fell in here, but I need you to help us out. Please. We’re not cavers, man. We need a little guidance.”
“Or a lot,” came Dez’s voice from nearby. “Do you see him?”
Sully sighed. “No.”
“I was right. He wants us dead, doesn’t he?”
“I don’t think so.”
“So where is he?”
“I don’t know,” Sully said. “It probably took a heap of energy just to move that tree. It could be it’s too hard yet for him to manifest.”
Dez closed the remaining distance until he was standing next to his brother. “How long will it take? And, for the record, I can’t believe I’m actually hoping you’ll see a ghost.”
Sully grinned and patted Dez’s still-wet, T-shirt covered arm. They’d removed their soaked jackets and left them along the wall, and had contemplated stripping off the rest of their things. It was cool down here, and it wasn’t doing much for their body heat to be shivering inside sodden clothes. But as uncomfortable as it was—the feel of their feet squishing against wet cotton, and cold, wet material brushing against more sensitive areas of their anatomy—cave exploration wasn’t something a person safely did while naked. Sully had already twice tripped over a rock or a crack in the dark, and had he not been wearing boots, he’d likely be hobbling on a broken or sprained toe.
The two of them continued the search until the clock on Sully’s cellphone showed another fifteen minutes had passed. Still no sign of an exit. Still no sign of Carter.
Well over half an hour had passed since Carter had dropped them in here.
“Maybe we’ve got to pass some sort of test,” Dez said. “Speak an Elvish password to a hidden doorway in the wall.”
Sully chuckled. “I’m pretty sure we’re not going to find a dwarf kingdom down here, but you’re welcome to give it a go.”
By the time the hour was up, the two of them were sitting back against the wall, slouched and shivering in their still-damp clothes, any humour that had recently passed between them dried up.
Sully could sense his brother’s mounting desperation even before he spoke.
“We’re not getting out of here, are we?”
“We’ll get out,” Sully said. “Just give it time.”
“Give it time? We’ve given it a bloody hour. Any longer, we’re going to have to toss for who eats who first.”
Sully forced the laugh he hoped would ease his brother’s worry. “We’ve got a ways to go before we need to resort to cannibalism.”
“Hey, Sully?”
“Yeah?”
“I hate caves.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
They fell into silence, just the two of them breathing, the only other sound the occasional drip of water from somewhere within the cave. They’d shut off their flashlights, the battery on Sully’s cellphone having dropped into the red. Dez had occupied himself for a while by returning to work on the other flashlight, and they’d shared a grin as it finally kicked back on.
But that smile had come and gone a while ago, and even Sully was beginning to lose hope the two of them would share another.
They were sitting in shadow, the only meagre natural light filtering down from the opening far above the pool, when Sully’s eye was attracted by something glistening in the water.
Picking himself up, he took a couple steps to the edge and looked down.
Carter’s crooked body shimmered, bathed in its own light, a few feet below the surface.
“Dez!”
Sully kept his eyes on the figure below, and waited until he felt his brother next to him before explaining.
“I see him. He’s down there.”
“Down where?”
“Below the surface.”
Dez’s arm had been brushing his, enabling Sully to feel the shudder that wracked his body. “Jeezus. You don’t think…. I mean, is that where he died?”
“Not there, exactly. They would have checked the pool, I’m sure. Anyway, Evan said they figure Carter died in that crawl they found.”
“Maybe that’s where the crawl is.”
“Underwater? Evan would have mentioned that.”
“Maybe this wasn’t underwater back then,” Dez said. “The whole cave shifted after the flood, and it probably changed even more after the collapse. This pool might not have been here before. We’ve been looking eye level and up, but it could be the access to this other entrance was actually down.”
Sully shifted an eyebrow skyward. “Maybe it still is.”
>
It didn’t take Dez long to clue in. “Sully, no. We’re not going down there.”
“We’ve explored as much of this cavern as we could, man. There’s no other way out.”
“This isn’t a way out, either.”
“It could be,” Sully said. When Dez’s anxious face, just visible in the light from above, failed to look convinced, Sully tried for a smile. “Hey, beats cannibalism, right?”
“How do you know this isn’t a trap? Maybe we’re not dying quick enough for him.”
“He’s not a killer. Trust me on that.” Even so…. “Listen, we’ve got a decent length of rope in the bag. Tie me off and I’ll go down there, see what I can find.”
“Tie you off? With you talking like that, I’m more likely to tie you up.”
“Dez….”
“You won’t be able to see anything.”
“I can see him,” Sully said. “That’s all I need.”
“I don’t like it.”
“I’m not particularly crazy about it, either, but we can’t keep sitting here. The sun will be setting soon, and I’d rather do this while there’s a bit of daylight left above ground.”
Dez pursed his lips and blew out a breath. A string of curse words followed, but before he’d reached the end of them, he was already headed back to the wall where they’d dropped their bag.
Sully held the flashlight while Dez made a loop with the end of the rope, tying it off with a solid knot. That done, he widened it enough to slip over his brother’s head and shoulders, bringing it to his waist before cinching it tight enough to hurt.
“Ow,” Sully complained. “You’re going to rupture my spleen if you pull any tighter.”
“Better than losing you down there.”
Sully conceded the point, then turned to head for the pool. A sharp tug on the rope drew him back before he’d so much as taken two steps.
“I don’t care what happens, you keep this tight around you,” Dez said. “If you need out quick, tug twice on the line and cover your head. I’ll yank you out. And for God’s sake, watch yourself.”
In all likelihood, the only thing Sully was going to be able to watch was Carter, and he was hoping that would buy them the out they needed. The other problem—one he wasn’t going to mention to Dez—was that Carter no longer needed to rely on breathing to exist. Running out of air before he found an exit was not an outcome he or Dez could afford.
Though he was far from dry, Sully opted to peel off most of his clothing anyway. If this came to nothing, he didn’t want to be shuddering through a chilly night in fully re-soaked clothing. It wasn’t like denim and cotton would be offering a lot of protection in an underwater cave anyway.
He had little recollection of being in the water, having apparently knocked himself out on the way down. He’d taken just two steps in when he was hit with a pleasant surprise.
“The water feels warmer than the air does.”
“I know,” Dez said. “Must be a hot spring somewhere. If we didn’t have to get back out soaking wet into a cold cave, I’d just stay in there.”
“Hopefully it’s not too hot farther down. If it is a hot spring, the surface might be a bit cooler because of the cave temps. Either way, not much choice.” Carter was still down there, a pale glow surrounding him, a reminder to Sully of why he needed a touch of crazy to follow this path his gift had laid out for him. Here he was, wading nearly naked into a deep, black pool in a darkened cave, about to plunge beneath the surface, all while following the broken ghost of a dead teenage spelunker. If that didn’t count as crazy, little would.
Sully had opted to keep his boots on for added grip, and he took step after slow step until he was nearly directly above the ghost. The water was lapping around his thighs as he toed forward, searching for his next bit of footing. Instead, he felt something shift beneath him and the rock abruptly gave way.
He went down, dropping beneath the surface, head thudding against stone and the violent gurgle of water at his ears as he fell. A sharp pull on his middle threatened to cut him in two but, a second later, he was coughing out a mouthful of water as he found his footing again.
Dez was waiting with a grimace. “You okay?”
Sully coughed a few more times before answering. “Fine.” He touched at the back of his head, thankful to find no blood there. No doubt he’d end up with a bump, but that he could manage.
“I think it’s pretty deep,” he added, nodding back toward the middle section of the pool. “Good thing that’s where we hit when we fell. Anywhere else, we wouldn’t be here.”
“Lucky us,” Dez said. “Just take it slow, okay?”
While he was certain of bruises around his middle, Sully took more comfort in the feel of the rope around him and the knowledge his brother was on the other end as he eased himself farther into the water. He treaded the surface a moment, summoning his courage as he watched Carter floating beneath him. Sully knew how to swim, and considered himself pretty good at it, but his experience had been restricted to swimming pools and lakes. This was something else, and it took a few moments and a handful of deep breaths before he’d steeled himself to push through the fear. He couldn’t duck back under until he’d settled his nerves; panic would only serve to force the breath from his lungs and leave him at risk of drowning.
He and Dez wouldn’t survive long in this cave, and it was highly unlikely anyone would find them down here. This, he was convinced, was their only chance at survival. It wasn’t much, but right now, “not much” was everything.
He met Dez’s eye and nodded, waited until he received a nod in return.
Then he took one more deep breath, held it, and ducked into the rippling darkness below.
17
One breath wasn’t enough.
It held as long as it took for Sully to see Carter disappear from view into what, from a few feet above, seemed to be a tunnel.
At least, he hoped it was a tunnel.
Kicking to the surface, he sucked in a mouthful of air and scraped a few wet strands from his face as he searched out Dez’s dim form in the cavern.
“It looks like a tunnel down there. Hopefully, it’s also a way out.”
“ ‘Hopefully’ isn’t a word I want to hear right now,” Dez said. “Listen, if it starts getting tight in there, stop and come back, or give the line a tug. I can’t haul you out if you get yourself stuck.”
“I won’t do anything stupid. Promise.”
Even without the benefit of light, Sully knew Dez was rolling his eyes. “Heard it before, man. I was left sorely disappointed. I mean it; don’t go anywhere I can’t get you out of.”
Sully had every intention of keeping his word. The idea of being in a confined space was bad enough; a confined space flooded with water was a waking equivalent to a nightmare.
Sully kept the thought to himself. Dez was anxious enough for the both of them. The last thing his brother needed was an extra dose of fear, and the last thing Sully needed was to have any extra emotion ricocheted back at him.
Instead, he took a series of deep breaths—or as deep as he could manage in the press of water—waiting until the beat of his heart slowed to a manageable level. If he could control his heart, he could control his lungs. If he couldn’t, he still had Dez’s reassuring presence nearby, ready and able to jump in with a save.
Sully drew in one last breath and held it, diving beneath the surface before he could give it a second thought.
Carter was still there, a pallid presence rippling beneath him. This time, Sully pushed toward him, using his hands to feel for the opening he suspected was there. It was pitch black, nothing to go by but feel and the sight of the ghost moving before him. His fingers brushed, then gripped the edge of stone, and he ducked his head beneath it as he reached blindly out with his other hand. He found nothing but water as Carter’s form floated directly in front of him. Knowing now, rather than simply suspecting, he’d found a tunnel, Sully used his feet to test out the width of the open
ing. Relief washed over him as he discovered it felt large enough that both he and Dez could pass comfortably.
So far, so good.
With Carter still moving, Sully did the same, kicking off the rock at the base as he kept his hands in front of him to feel his way. While Carter might be giving some indication as to the continued width of this passage, Sully had learned long ago you couldn’t always rely on spirit to dwell within reality. Sometimes they moved in what was once their world. Carter might show Sully a passage he’d known—a passage time and natural disaster had altered. A place Carter might, even now, be able to explore might prove itself sealed to a still-breathing human.
Speaking of breathing….
Sully fought the rising panic. He’d gone far enough into the tunnel that even with Dez pulling him out, he would run out of air before he got to the end. Sure, Dez could probably get him breathing again if he stopped altogether, but that was far from ideal—particularly since there would be no way in hell Dez would allow his brother back in here to continue the search.
Sully decided he’d have to trust Carter and hope for the best. Kicking forward, he trailed the ghost’s path, following suit as Carter took what felt like a sharp right, floated forward a few more feet and drifted upward. With Sully’s lungs on the verge of exploding, relief hit him with the power of a lightning strike as his head broke through into air. He gasped in a few mouthfuls of air, taking a moment to revel in the joys of breathing before using one arm to feel around him. There wasn’t far to go, a rocky ceiling just a couple of feet above. He felt a crack amidst the rock, and a cool flow of air he decided must be coming from the earth’s surface.
He also suspected, as a pair of sharp tugs pulled against his waist, Dez was edging close to panic. Any second now and Sully would be tugged through the tunnel, more than likely bashing off the walls hard enough to create an unpleasant variety of cuts, scrapes and bruises. It occurred to Sully belatedly the brothers hadn’t arranged any sort of rope code for “I’m okay”; Dez was likely to take any sort of responding tug as a sign Sully needed help.
He sought out Carter and found him unnervingly close, just below him in the water.