by Jason Davis
Rob looked at the kid, then flicked on the light, shining it into the pit. There was a ladder and some safety lines, which were tied to one of the trees. Since there was a ladder, it couldn’t be all that deep, right?
“Nah. You’d just be shining it in my eyes.”
The kid nodded, taking a step back from the hole. Rob looked at him as he started to step onto the ladder.
“What’s wrong?”
“I…I just don’t like heights.”
Rob looked at him for a minute, doubting it had anything to do with the height of the pit. The kid was white as a sheet as he stared down into the hole. Rob understood why. It sounded like they’d both been through quite the ordeal, so the idea of climbing down into such a dark hole terrified Rob, as well.
He knew he really shouldn’t take the kid down there with him, but what were his other options? He could call for backup from the county or state, but who knew how long until they would get there. Once they did, how much could he tell them? There were the missing CSI team and the trooper, but how much of that would be put on him?
So was he only covering his own ass?
No, because bringing the kid down there was probably only going to get him in more trouble in the end. However, the thought of going alone terrified him. He didn't want to admit it, but he was bringing the kid because of his own fears, not because he thought he’d be able to help. If something happened, though, Rob was going to be in a lot of shit.
In fact, Rob started to realize just how bad all of this looked for him. His boss killed, county officers all missing, and he was left holding the bag. Him, the one who looked to benefit the most from the chief’s disappearance. Him, the cop with known psychological issues. Him, the one always in financial trouble and in desperate need for money and full-time work. Him, the guy who looked the other way while his coworkers did a shady job on the side, knowing it wasn’t really one hundred percent legal.
So, yeah, taking the kid down there with him was just icing on the cake at this point. Every way he looked, he was fucked.
Then why are you still going down there?
Because, once again, he just wasn’t wired any other way. It was the right thing to do, no matter how it would hurt him in the end. Sure, the kid shouldn't be going down there, but he doubted he could stop him. If Rob read it right, the kid had a thing for the missing girl. He wasn’t going to stay up here while she might be down there. He was adamant she was down there, and Rob knew where he came from. He felt it, too. There was a pull, drawing him down. For good or bad, they were going down there. The kid was young, dumb, and stupid, but what was Rob’s excuse?
So what does that make me? I am obviously old, dumb, and stupid. How else do I explain doing this, getting caught up in these messes time and time again?
He felt the ladder shift as he lowered his foot onto the first rung. His stomach lurched. He closed his eyes to calm his breathing.
Yeah, he wasn’t a fan of heights, either.
He took another step into the pit.
CHAPTER 29
It was not easy to climb down. Each step was torture as the ladder shook, his grip tightening on the cold steel, his knuckles turning white. Even when he’d let go to grab the next rung, it was a quick motion. The ladder would shake and he’d tighten his hold until he caught his breath and the ladder steadied. He would wait a few seconds, his eyes closed, then repeat the process. It was nerve-wracking and took several minutes.
Once he felt the hard-packed earth under his boot, he let out a breath. However, the relief was short-lived as he felt the darkness around him, reminding him how cold it had been in the flower shop. The shaft smelled damp and musty, but he knew the chill didn’t come from the dark. It wasn’t cold enough for that and there was no movement to the air. Still, the hairs on the back of his neck raised, his shoulders stiffening.
This was where the remains of the chief had been found. Whether it was the darkness or the witch who killed him, he ended there. He could almost feel the cool touch of the dark, as if it were sneaking around him. It didn’t move the air, but he sensed it was there. Dark hiding within dark, watching him, biding its time before it would take him like it had taken the others.
He quickly pulled out the flashlight and flipped it on, turning to see the small cavern around him. Shadows receded everywhere he aimed the light, not showing anything strange, although they returned when he moved.
Of course they did. That’s how light works.
He pointed the light up toward the kid, momentarily feeling his chest tighten as the darkness enveloped him. He wasn’t sure what he expected to see. Knowing part of the chief had been found hanging from the top, he hadn’t expected to come down and find more bodies. Looking up the shaft, he didn’t see how any part of him had been just hanging up there. He couldn’t see a ledge or anything for the body to have gotten hung up on. It was a clean drop, no outcroppings large enough to have held it up there.
He turned one more time. The light wasn’t as strong as it had been just a moment ago, and he hoped it wasn’t due to the batteries going bad. As he turned, the beam seemed to soak into the rock walls around him. The area was not that wide, just large enough that if he were to hold his hands out, he wouldn’t touch anything unless he moved a few inches. It felt very claustrophobic until he noticed the small circular opening dug into one of the walls at about knee level. The hole was just over shoulder width apart, which would be very cramped. If it were closed off at all, there would be no way he could make it back out.
He pushed away the thoughts of getting stuck in there and knelt down to examine it. He ran his fingers along the outline, then the wall. The surface felt rough. Who would have made it? It wasn’t a mineshaft, which had been kind of what he expected. This was an old slag pile, right? Made from the days when this area had been heavy with coal? So there should be shafts. That was what he had always seen in the movies. Long, deep shafts that were prone to cave-ins and gave the miners lung cancer.
So who made this small tunnel? Maybe the better question was where did it go?
His fingers snagged on a rough edge of something wedged into the dirt. He pulled on it, wiggling it free before pulling out a long piece of red plastic. It had words on it, but those were faded. He had no way of knowing what it was, but the color and the feel of the plastic made him assume it was from a toy.
He started to feel around for more, but couldn’t find any. When he heard the sound of the kid jumping from the last rung of the ladder and onto solid earth, he pulled his hand back and turned to look at him.
When he saw how pale his face had become, he bit back his father’s saying of, “I would have laughed if you fell through.”
“Anything?” the kid asked. Rob stepped away from the hole and pointed his light at it. He heard his hard intake of air, knowing he had a dislike of tight spaces, too.
Don’t we all.
Rob nodded at him and turned back to look at the hole, once again dreading the way he was wired.
Before thinking about it too much, he lowered himself down and into the hole.
“Are you sure you want to do that?” the kid asked, sounding worried.
“No. Now shut the fuck up,” Rob hissed back at him.
He was only a few feet in before he realized this had probably been one of the dumbest things he had ever done. Why hadn’t he let the boy go first? He was smaller, could easily have fit into the confined space. He was an old man. Okay, I’m older than the kid. I shouldn’t be doing this.
His legs scraped against the surface, the rocks stabbing into that soft spot just below the knee. He tried to ignore the pain as he continued to inch forward. Even though he wore a long-sleeve shirt, he could feel the walls rubbing against him.
He tried to keep the flashlight beam trained in front of him, but it didn’t cast much of a glow, and every time he moved his arms, the beam would slip off to the side.
Sweat dripped down his face. He could feel it rolling off him, the dirt and gr
ime running in streaks. Chunks of dirt fell from the ceiling, collecting in his hair.
“Officer?” he heard the kid call. Rob didn’t know if he had followed him into the tunnel or not, but he heard a slight echo to the voice. He assumed he had stayed back at the mouth of the hole. “Deputy, it’s getting dark down here without the light.”
What did you expect, kid? Next time, bring a flashlight of your own.
“I’ll be back in a minute. I want to see where this leads.”
His voice sounded loud, booming off the tight walls around him. It sounded like more dirt fell with the vibration of it, making him worry about what he would do if the tunnel collapsed behind him.
And have you thought about just what you are looking for? What are you going to do if you find it? You went up against it once, hotshot. What are you doing going down a cramped tunnel where you can’t even reach for your gun if you need it? Even if you could, what would you do with it? What you saw back in the shop… Did that look like something you could just shoot and be done with it?
He already knew the answer. Just what in the hell was he supposed to do if he found anything?
He had started this, had come to the crime scene to find the state trooper. Never had he thought he would be climbing down there. This wasn't his concern anymore. He should just walk away, call the officer, although he knew the trooper wouldn't answer. If he wanted to do something actually useful, he could call county and report the disappearances. Why was he down there?
You're afraid of what you will find. Of what you had come down here to find.
He didn’t want to actually find it. He wasn’t ready for whatever it was. He didn’t know if he would ever be ready.
Something rubbed against his face, a thread poking into his nose. It itched and burned as he breathed it in before he could catch himself. He stopped to tilt his head and reach up, pulling at what he had run into. His fingers touched the web, a chill running down his spine.
Spiders… He knew they had to be down there, but out of sight, out of mind. He sure as hell didn't want to think about them crawling on him. Eight legs scurrying across his skin, spinning their webs, hatching their eggs, eating his flesh before burrowing beneath. He couldn't go back there and be in that nightmare. Not after...
He refused to let his mind wander back to that time. He refused to think about the town that no longer existed. The town he never thought he would escape last year, just like he was never going to escape this tunnel.
It became harder to breathe. What had been a cool dirt catacomb began to stifle him. He had to take shorter breaths. Part of it was from the exhaustive effort of crawling inch by inch, and part was something else. Even though he wasn't wedged against the top of the cavern, he could feel a massive weight lowering onto him.
The fading light no longer pierced through the darkness. He looked down at the flashlight in his hand and saw the last of the glow fade. Then there was nothing but pitch black around him.
He stopped and closed his eyes. It didn’t matter. Open or closed, there was nothing he could see around him anyway. All he had now was his sense of hearing to rely on, yet it still felt like he could hear better when his eyes were closed.
That’s it. I'm done, he thought, on the verge of tears as he lay there. He didn't give a shit anymore. This was all too much. When did it ever quit? He moved his family to be safer, but something seemed to happen every day. When would he be safe? What would it take for all this to go away? Well, it was going away now because he was going away. He was going to back down the tunnel, then climb up the ladder and out of there. He would go home and pack up his family. It was the only thing left to do. Maybe the next place they went to would actually be safe and...
The kid moved up behind him. Rob could hear the dirt shifting as he shuffled. It sounded like the loose dirt above them fell on him, as well. There was a pattern. He moved a few inches, then stopped, the dirt falling, then he moved again. He felt the kid reach out and hit Rob’s foot with his searching hands.
"Why'd you stop? Everything okay?"
Well, there was no way he could shuffle back now. Rob kept his eyes closed and tried to focus on everything around him. The darkness felt like it closed in, but he refused to open his eyes. That would only make everything seem that much more hopeless.
What was in front of them? Death, or even something worse than death, could be waiting beyond. Was that what they were going to find? Would they really find anything down there? This was an ancient cave. Who knew how long it had been there, or how long it had been since anything living had been down there. What reason did they have to think they would find something? This was all just crazy crap he had somehow allowed himself to think made sense. None of it made any sense.
What? Some ghost of a kid, who had gone missing over a year ago, just came and started taking people from the town, bringing them down here? How the hell did that make any sense? How would it get them down here? Why would it take them? Do you really believe in that garbage?
Did he have to ask? Hadn’t he seen enough weird ass shit that would make a sane man’s hair turn white? With some of this crazy he always seemed to wander into, how had he stayed sane? Or was he?
Yeah, I’m stalling.
He hadn’t moved since the light had gone out. He just stayed there, listening to the sound of his own breathing echoing in the tiny space.
Right now, he wished he were a smoker because he’d have a lighter on him. He’d start thinking of offbeat funny one-liners, and it would eventually come out how he needed to “come to the coast and have a few laughs”.
He sometimes felt like he watched way too many movies, but feeling like he was in an air conditioning shaft sure as hell felt better than knowing he was underground in a tunnel that could collapse any time.
Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker.
He closed his eyes to listen again, hearing nothing.
“What’s wrong?”
He heard the wheezing of the boy behind him, knowing he was probably having a harder time than Rob. He hadn’t forgotten the look of fear on the kid’s face when he saw the small tunnel. He was probably having an anxiety attack back there. Maybe he would even be the one to suggest going back.
“Nothing. Flashlight went dead.”
“Oh. You’re still going to go on, though, right? Ally needs us.”
Fuck’s sake. Did he not hear him when he said the flashlight was dead? How did the kid expect him to see where he was going?
Screw this, Rob thought as he reached forward. The kid was right, but Rob wasn’t about to acknowledge it. Damn this all to hell. He reached out and shuffled forward just a little more, then he heard it. It was faint and distant, but he knew he could hear crying.
* * * *
“Hello!?” he called out, wincing at the loud echo and the dirt falling into his eyes. He couldn't keep from inhaling it in, coughing. That only brought down more. He found himself covering his head to shield himself. His lungs burned as he fought against another surge of coughing threatening to burst from him. His eyes itched and demanded to be rubbed, tears trying to form.
"You okay? What's going on?" Rob heard as it echoed around him. He felt disoriented as the sound seemed to be everywhere, but he knew it was from the kid behind him.
Rob nodded into his arms before he realized there was no way the kid could see him in the dark.
"Yeah," he finally choked out in a harsh rasp that he couldn’t recognize as his own voice. He swallowed back some dirty saliva, grimacing at its bitterness. "I hear crying."
"Yeah? Hello?! Ally?"
Damn the kid. Why the hell did the echo seem to reverberate through his skull? It was like the kid had yelled right at him. He wanted to yell back and tell him to shut up, but he didn't have the strength. He also didn't have the voice for it, fighting against the new wave of dirt shifting down on him. Was none of this crap coming down on the kid? Why the hell did it all have to fall on him?
That seemed like a loaded questi
on as it wasn't just the literal dirt that seemed to fall on him. Just when would the figurative dirt stop? When would his family just have that moment of happiness and peace?
Blah! Something just went into my damn mouth. What the hell was that? He tried to spit it out as he felt it shifting around. Phut. Phut. Ugh.
He squirmed and couldn’t help but push himself back. It was reflex, but as soon as he did, he could feel it was a mistake. More dirt fell and shifted around him. He could feel them now. Tiny legs crawling over his hand.
“What’s going on?” he heard the kid call up to him, but he didn’t respond. Bugs. Bugs were all around him. He couldn’t deal with it.
Spiders. There have to be spiders down here. They are all around me. It has to be spiders.
They were in his mouth, under his shirt. He felt them on his skin. Thousands of tiny legs all over his body, sneaking their way into his pants. They were in his hair, and he felt something long snaking its way around his ear. He couldn’t shake hard enough or fast enough to get them all off. He was trapped in there with them.
“You okay? What’s happening?”
He could hear fear in the kid’s voice, but couldn’t grasp it. He sounded scared, but why wasn’t he more terrified? These things were all over him.
He wanted to just be out of there away from the damn things. As soon as he opened his mouth to shout back at him, something long with a lot of legs slithered in and straight down his throat. He felt the legs moving through his mouth, pushing the thing deeper. It gagged him. He wanted to writhe and cough, force it out, but it just kept moving. When he felt it make its way into his stomach, he lost it. He bit down, unable to bite through whatever the hell it was, but at least he was able to bite down hard enough to keep it from going any farther.
He just didn’t care anymore. He didn’t care if the whole tunnel caved in on him, he shimmied his way forward, deeper into the darkness. He had to keep moving. Stopping meant more bugs. He moved, now on a mission. He had to get to some opening that would allow him to reach up and pull this thing out of him.