Christopher quickly shrugged off these feelings and rolled over on his side. He could see James next to him, sleeping, and breathing rather heavily in the process. With each passing moment he shook a little, as though he was either really cold or really scared. He’s having a nightmare, Christopher thought to himself.
“James…,” Christopher whispered, attempting to calm his brother. “James…it’s just a dream.”
This reassurance appeared to have no effect on James at all. He continued to lie shivering, as a naked child out in a snowstorm, as if the wind was bearing down on him and ice was crawling up his legs. Every now and then, amidst the intense shaking, he seemed to mumble something, something that was barely audible and a little creepy-sounding to him.
“James…,” Christopher said a touch louder this time. He cautiously placed a hand on James’ shoulder. He did not want to scare him any further. “It’s just a nightmare.”
James pushed Christopher’s hand away in a swift, violent motion. “Who are you?” he asked, still very much asleep.
“It’s Christopher. You’re having a nightmare….”
“Alena?” James rolled over on his other side, facing away from Christopher. “Are you Alena? I’ve been looking for you. What are you doing in here?”
James suddenly stopped shaking, and then in an instant started breathing normally.
“Why…are you…crying?” James asked, sounding half-asleep.
“It was just a dream…,” Christopher whispered to himself. The thought of it troubled him more than he could ever possibly realize. If this was a dream, did it mean that all the other times James saw the girl…was that just a dream too? Just the idea made Christopher’s stomach sink, and a strange feeling like motion sickness washed over his entire body. “It was just a dream?”
Chapter 7: Alena’s Cave Revisited
We’re on the edge of the cliff, one last step before the fall. Or will we fly, with the wind in our hair and the stars in our eyes?
Christopher stayed quiet that morning, feeling that, on the one hand, he should let James know about his nightmare the night before. On the other hand, he didn’t want to disappoint James, or have him lose out hope on his dream of finding something magical. He had wanted to let what he had seen slip a few times, yet kept the fact so tightly locked away that the chance of it actually slipping out was next to impossible.
“What’s with you this morning?” James asked as he helped Christopher into his new caving boots.
“Nothing…,” Christopher said. “I’m just still a little sleepy.”
“You slept in today a lot longer than I did,” James said, sarcastically laughing for a moment. “Besides, Kylie’s here: that should make you happy enough.”
Kylie had walked over early in the morning, while Christopher was still asleep. It seemed that she was just as interested as James was in going to the cave. She was in the upstairs bathroom getting into more suitable clothes for their adventure. And, in a way, James was right; just the thought of her being there, in Christopher’s new home, made him feel really happy in an excited way he couldn’t quite explain. Christopher only wished that James had woken up last night to hear what he had. The singular nature of that knowledge cast a shadow over any sort of joy Christopher might hold within. He did not like to keep secrets.
“I’m happy,” Christopher said, not really sounding happy in the least.
“Right…,” James said, chuckling and playfully pushing Christopher’s head away. “You’d better cheer up a bit; this is an adventure after all. You don’t want Kylie to think you’re a bore, do you?”
“Do you think she does?” Christopher asked. The feelings of sadness shrank away, only to have them replaced with burgeoning concern. He definitely didn’t want her thinking he was boring; after all, he definitely didn’t find her even the least bit boring.
“Oh, come on!” James said, playfully shoving Christopher once again. “I’m just messing with you.”
“Did you see anything last night?” Christopher asked, casting James’ hands away.
“Hmm…” James paused for thought. “Don’t think so. Why, did you? That why you’re so quiet today?”
“No…,” Christopher said. He really wanted to tell James of how he talked about seeing a girl in his sleep, but, just as before, he kept it inside. It puzzled him quite a bit as to why James didn’t remember the dream himself. “I was just thinking about what Bones said. Like, what if there’s nothing really down there?”
“Well…,” James began, seeming serious for a moment. “I guess we won’t know until we know. Besides, Bones was so drunk last night after he said that he passed right out. He was still there on the couch when I woke up this morning!”
“Yeah…,” Christopher said, shaking his head. “That’s true.”
“Who’s ready to go?” Kylie exclaimed as she poked her head around the entryway to the kitchen. She had come down the stairs quietly and they had not heard her.
Christopher whirled around to greet her, happy to hear her voice. As soon as she filled his view, his heart immediately reacted to her presence, making frantic leaps in his chest and spreading intoxicating warmth which traveled from his head to his toes. There she was, as beautiful as every other moment that Christopher had seen her, her black hair contrasting wonderfully with the morning sun as it bathed her body in bright light that formed a white nimbus around her, and all the while her blue eyes shimmered—or maybe they weren’t really shimmering, but it seemed to Christopher that they were, or should be. All the thinking he had done before, all the worrying about whether or not Alena was real, everything else seemed to fade away in Christopher’s mind. Kylie had dressed for the adventure in somewhat distressed blue jeans, a pair of work boots, and a long-sleeved shirt that clung to her slender figure, yet looked a bit uncomfortable for the hot weather. However, to Christopher it looked as if she was wearing the most elegant, beautiful dress ever conceived. To him, nothing else mattered, and he just couldn’t stop staring at her.
“Hey…,” Kylie said, well-knowing that she had Christopher’s undivided attention, and appearing a bit embarrassed about this fact. “Christopher…good to see you.”
“Yeah,” Christopher said. He was slowly growing more and more aware that he was doing it again, that he was being weird. “Good to see you too.”
Turning to a different subject, Kylie continued: “You know Bones; he’s in there on the couch. I asked him how he was doing and he just waved me off and told me he had an awful headache.”
“Yeah,” James said. “He’ll be there most of the day; he had a few drinks last night.
“Oh…,” Kylie said, giggling.
The three of them walked around to the back of the house, where the dogs were kept. They had decided that, just as when Christopher and James had gone alone, they would take one of the two dogs along for safety reasons. After a short debate on whether the dog with the black collar was Poppy, or the one with the red collar was Kate, they leashed up the dog with the red collar, as it was her turn this time. Decided by a vote of two to one (Christopher and Kylie both voted against James), the dog was definitively called “Kate.”
Christopher, James, Kylie and Kate made their way throughout the woods with flashlights, gear and other supplies in hand, ready for their new adventure together. They spent the short walk together talking about things that wouldn’t really seem important to anyone else but them. Things about what TV shows they liked to watch, or what kind of activities James and Christopher participated in back in Bloomington. Christopher and James learned that Kylie was actually a fairly accomplished guitar player and that she had practiced since the age of six or seven. It was strange to Christopher, to so obviously like someone so much and not really know that much about them at all. It didn’t seem to matter much to him, though; the more he found out about her the more there was to like about her.
“So that’s it then?” Kylie asked. She kneeled down against the grass alongside the creek th
at led to the cave entrance. “That’s the cave?”
“Yep,” James said. He pointed out the cave opening, which was slightly obscured amidst the branches and roots along the bluff wall.
“It’s in such a pretty area,” Kylie whispered as she gazed up at the bluffs. “It’s very quiet…calming here.”
“Just wait until you see the pool and stuff inside there,” Christopher said.
The three of them, dog in tow, cautiously made their way past the roots of the great trees and into the darkness of the cave entrance. It took their eyes a few moments to adjust to the low levels of light inside, and James got into his backpack to retrieve the large flashlight/lantern he had received from Bones.
“These drawings…are they Alena’s?” Kylie asked, lightly tracing her fingertips over the pictures on the cave wall.
“We think so…,” Christopher said as he stood beside her, admiring her just as much as she was admiring the works on the wall.
“This is where she must have hung out,” James said. With a huge flashlight in one hand and Kate’s collar in the other, he brought the dog over to the pond so that she could have a good long drink, since the walk and the blazing sun had noticeably tired her a bit.
“Back farther…,” Christopher said as he brought out his flashlight, pointing the beam to the very back of the circular pond room. “That’s where there’s a drop-off and then a long winding tunnel that leads to where we found her cross.”
“I wonder what drove her to go back there…,” Kylie said, bringing up something that neither Christopher nor James had even thought about. “I wonder if something forced her to go that far in.”
“I’d hope not. That drop-off is one nasty fall,” James said, shaking his head.
“If she had fallen, though, they would have found something more than her shoes and necklace…,” Christopher said, growing concerned at the thought.
Christopher and James sat for a moment to catch their breath as Kylie explored the main chamber. The cave felt much cooler this time, much to their delight, as the weather outside was very unforgiving. The sound of wind in the cave also seemed a bit louder this time. Christopher didn’t know whether this was true or just something in his head. Every now and then the wind would flare up, coming across as a faint howl like that of coyotes at night. Coyotes in the cave: something Christopher didn’t want to think about too much.
Content that the first room had been explored thoroughly enough, the four gingerly made their way down the tunnel that wound around the falls in the adjoining chamber, their small steps more like splashes in the small trickles of water that ran down the tunnel floor. Once they were further inside the cave, the group turned on all their flashlights, as the sunlight from the entrance was growing dimmer and dimmer until it wasn’t visible.
This was the part that Christopher hated most: leaving the comfort of the light from the entrance. Although they all had new flashlights and gear, it just worried him that if the lights were to go out, or be dropped and broken, they would not be able to see at all. This was especially worrying given that there was a huge drop-off into the blackness, one that they would not be able to see if they hadn’t any light. He figured that the sound of the running water near the drop-off would be warning enough, but the thought of just going on sound alone in this place terrified him.
The extra light sources on this trip afforded a much greater view of the cave than what Christopher and James had previously had before. As they stood at the drop-off, careful to keep a safe enough distance from the edge, James pointed the beam of light downward.
“That’s where the main chamber is.” James attempted to shine some light on the bottom without very much success.
“That’s such a long way down…,” Kylie said, instinctively taking a step backward and bringing her body against Christopher’s.
Christopher felt both comforted and strange at this. Perhaps she was just scared of the fall, or maybe she had wanted to be closer to him. She slowly brought her hand back to hold his, squeezing it, as if to comfort herself further.
“It’s okay,” Christopher whispered, although he wasn’t quite sure why he had said it.
“I just…,” Kylie whispered, “…I just don’t like high places, sorry.…”
“I don’t mind,” Christopher said, tenderly squeezing her hand back. He was actually surprised with himself for a moment; usually he wouldn’t know how to reply to a girl. Yet this felt like the right thing to say. Deep down inside, he just wanted to go ahead and tell her that he liked her. He wondered how she would react to that.
As they made their way down the winding tunnel in silence, there was a heavy, ominous feeling in the air. The wind, which had seemed a bit more pronounced before, was now intermittently gusting much more strongly against them.
“Is this normal?” Kylie asked, shielding her face from a great burst of the cool cave air.
“There was some wind last time…,” James said, shaking his head, “…but nothing like this. It should be all right. It’s calm at the bottom. I know it.”
They pushed on ahead. At some points the wind was cold and bitter and seemed to be trying to turn them back. Other times the wind was a comforting sort of cool, and calm, ushering them to tread further inside. It was a strange feeling, and Christopher recalled something like it happening a few nights ago. It was even stranger to him that he should be remembering it now. Something about a wind in his room…was it this same wind maybe? Once again just thinking about it confused him deeply. It was like a trying to remember dream he had forgotten, and maybe it was. It made him think of James tossing and turning as he dreamt last night, and Christopher quickly forced the thought away.
Just as James had promised, the wind at the cave bottom was practically non-existent. With Kate’s leash in hand he led the small group into the bottom of the chamber. The light from the large lantern illuminated the entire place, causing the subterranean walls to sparkle like gems with a million facets of light. It was a sight that could easily steal one’s breath away and threaten to never return it.
“Beautiful…,” Kylie said, gasping. She circled around the main chamber, looking up to the vast expanse of the cave ceiling above. She couldn’t see it; it was so dark farther up.
“It didn’t look like this…,” Christopher said, amazed at the sights around him. Everywhere the light from the lantern danced and played, as though they were in a room surrounded by millions of fireflies. Fireflies that, instead of being pale green, were hot, brilliant white and their light never extinguished.
“It’s the light,” James said. “The lantern’s so bright it reflects off the water everywhere.…”
“This is the cross,” Kylie whispered as she turned her attention to the floor beneath her.
“Yeah,” Christopher said. “This is where they must have found her stuff.”
“It’s so strange…,” Kylie said as she gently took Christopher’s hand once again, “…to disappear from somewhere so beautiful. It’s so strange to think that something bad might have happened here. Any other part of the cave I could imagine it, but not this part. It’s too wonderful here.”
“Bad things happen almost everywhere….” James joined the two, giving a little tug on Kate’s leash, and, in turn, she let out a little grunt and plopped down on the ground right next to them, resting her muzzle on her paws.
“So what do we do?” Christopher asked. He was looking around the cave for some sort of sign that really wasn’t there, or at least not readily apparent. “What are we looking for?”
“I don’t know…,” James said as he sat down next to Kate on the cold cave floor. “I guess I didn’t have that part planned out.”
“Still, it’s so nice here,” Kylie said, gently pulling on Christopher’s hand so he would sit down with her. “This was worth it alone.”
“Are you here, Alena?” James asked, his voice echoing throughout the cave walls. He paused, his hand to his ear as though waiting for a reply. As mome
nts passed and nothing came but small murmurs of wind amongst the rushing falls, he let out a bit of a chuckle. “Of course not.…”
“That’s a kind of creepy thing to do,” Christopher said.
“Well, she was here…,” Kylie said. She squeezed Christopher’s hand as she spoke, more for his comfort this time, since it was obvious that he was a bit nervous. “Can’t expect her to just hang around forever, right?”
The three of them unpacked their lunches and extinguished all the lights save for the large lantern. It did such a good job of illuminating the area that it seemed like a waste to have the others on. Besides, conserving battery power was in their best interest, as Bones hadn’t really thought to buy any extras.
Christopher rummaged through a sack that was packed up for him in his bag. It contained some sausages and cheeses, and was quite a step up from the sandwich he had enjoyed on the first trip into the cave. I’m really moving up in the world, he thought sarcastically as he tore a large piece of summer sausage in half, throwing it over to Kate.
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