The Cave

by Tom Clarke

  “Copy, 10 count, then execute. See you soon brother.” Jim didn’t reply, he took a deep breath and disconnected the phone call.

  Jim reached back and drew his .45 caliber Rock Island Armory handgun he was carrying, Nico did the same with his Sig Sauer.

  Both men, handguns at the low ready, moved adjacent to the front door of the business. Jim reached over, grabbed the front door, and gently pulled it towards him.

  The door didn’t move. “Push” Nico whispered in Jim’s ear. Jim took a deep breath and gently pushed the door forward, again getting no movement from the door.

  “Locked!” Jim said in a half whisper, “Shit!”

  Jim turned towards Nico, who had taken a step back away from the front door. “We need a secondary point of entry…. whoa watch it!” Jim barked as he looked over and saw the woman, who had stepped out of the alley earlier, was suddenly standing right behind Nico.

  Nico pivoted to his right and then raised his left hand. His forearm blocked the downward strike that the woman with the sewn shut eyes and mouth was trying to execute, attempting to stab Nico in the upper chest with a large pair of scissors. As Nico was blocking the downward strike Jim stepped forward and much like a football player blocking a play he rammed his body into the woman knocking her back into the street.

  The woman, who did not move back as much as Jim had anticipated, stood upright still grasping the scissors. “What the fuck!” Jim yelled, “Shoot that bitch!”

  Suddenly both Jim and Nico felt an overwhelming sense of nausea with Nico projectile vomiting into the gutter. Jim looked up to see the woman now crouched in the middle of the street, the stitches, which had held her mouth shut had ripped open revealing a mouth full of rotting teeth. The woman smiled and said in a child’s voice, “Help me Jim.” Her voice suddenly changed to that of Jim’s wife Shelly, “Help me Jim, don’t leave me here… help me!”

  Jim, who was doubled over with one knee on the ground, let out a loud grunt and then forced himself to his feet. The woman started laughing in a child’s voice, stood, raised the scissors and started moving towards Jim and Nico at a quick pace.

  Jim started to back step, trying to create distance between himself and the woman now charging at him. Just as Jim was raising his handgun to fire, three shots fired by Nico rang out. Two hit the woman in the chest, and the third round crashed into her head, killing her instantly.

  As soon as the woman fell to the ground the sensation of nausea was gone. Jim pivoted back towards the front door to Red’s Curiosities, Nico stepped over the body of the woman and took a position behind Jim and to the left of the front door.

  Almost on cue, someone opened the front door of the store and looked outside to see what the commotion was. Jim, who was crouched up against the building right next to the front door, quickly holstered his handgun, reached up with both hands and grabbed the person by the head and pulled them out of the doorway and threw them onto the ground in front of the store.

  As soon as the man hit the ground, Jim could see that it was a priest, or at least a man dressed as a priest. “Go!” Jim yelled as he drew his handgun again.

  Nico, with his handgun drawn, ran past Jim and into the store. Jim stepped forward and kicked the priest in the groin as hard as he could, stepped to the side, and stomped his right foot as hard as he could onto the chest of the priest knocking the wind out of him and breaking a couple of his ribs. Jim turned and followed Nico into the store.

  As Nico stepped into the store he took a wide arcing path to the right, Jim moved to the left and both men moved directly towards Tyler, who was wearing a Sheriff’s Deputy uniform, and had a hold of Red Foot by the neck.

  “Let him go Tyler!” Jim yelled as he pointed his .45 directly at Tyler’s head.

  “Jimmy” Tyler said in a sneering voice, “Did you kill that poor waitress? I’m going to have to arrest you for that.”

  “Tenian, let the man go!” Nico said.

  “Don’t you dare speak my name!” Tyler yelled back in a booming voice. “You of all people should be on our side Roman!”

  Tyler strengthened his grasp around Red Foot’s neck, “Can you taste it Longinus, the fear…. their pain. Why do you fight us? You, the killer of thousands, the destroyer of their God, we should be going to get the talisman together! Not fighting each other; unless you intended to use it for yourself? Is that the case Longinus, are you going to use the talisman for a summoning?”

  Before Tyler could finish his sentence the crack of an M-4 rifle firing a .223 caliber round silenced him. The round fired by Darrel struck Tyler in the side of his head, dropping him on the spot.

  As Tyler crumpled to the floor Red Foot collapsed as well, landing right on top of Tyler’s body. As Red Foot started to scream Jim ran forward and grabbed him, “Let’s get the hell out of here before this piece of shit decides not to be dead anymore!”

  Darrel stepped to the side and knelt next to the front counter, covering the front door with his rifle as Nico moved quickly down the hallway, his handgun at the ready, heading towards the back door.

  Jim, who had holstered his handgun and was now carrying a hysterical Red Foot in a fireman’s carry, followed behind Nico. “Nice shooting” Jim said as he moved past Darrel and down the hallway.

  Once Jim got past him Darrel started moving, walking backwards, the muzzle of his rifle pointed at the body of Tyler on the floor. When he reached the halfway point of the hallway Darrel turned and ran to the back door. Once outside he took a kneeling stance and covered Jim and Nico as they moved towards the SUV carrying Red Foot.

  As they got close to the SUV Darrel ran forward and jumped into the driver’s seat, “Please,” he said as he turned the key in the ignition, and then smiled wide as the SUV roared to life.

  “Pop the trunk!” Jim yelled. Jim then threw Red Foot into the back of the SUV and jumped in on top of him, pulling the rear gate shut. Nico jumped into the front passenger seat and grabbed the rifle.

  “Darrel rally point two…. GO!” Jim yelled from the back.

  Darrel pulled out onto the main drag and started heading towards the airport at normal driving speed so as not to attract attention. “Please don’t kill me!” Red Foot started yelling from the back.

  Jim grabbed Red Foot by the collar, “We just saved you, we're not going to kill you.”

  “Please…. please” Red Foot continued to plead.

  Jim reached out and smacked Red Foot across the face with an open palm. “Get a grip on yourself!” Jim yelled.

  Red Foot took a couple of deep breaths, “You’re not going to hurt me?”

  “No!” Jim replied as he dropped the magazine from his handgun, taking a quick look to see how many rounds were left.

  “Okay” Red Foot said, trying hard to contain his sobbing. “Who was that, WHAT was that back at my shop?”

  “Look” Jim replied as he tried to get his own emotions in check. “It’s hard to explain, we need to find this cave and we need to find it fast! Now I know I said that I wouldn’t hurt you, but unless you help me find it, I’m going to change my mind!”

  A realization started to set into Red Foot. All the stories that his grandfather had told him as a child, stories about monsters and demons, they were all true. “Oh my God, it’s true!” He said. Jim just nodded. “We need to go see the old man” Red Foot said.

  Jim looked at the hysterical Red Foot, “What old man?”

  Red Foot who was now on the verge of stuttering started saying, “Yeah the old man, let’s go see the old man, he’s old, and smart, let’s go see him.”

  Jim let out a grunt of disdain and frustration. He then reached out and with the back of his hand smacked Red Foot hard enough to knock his head into the side of the SUV. “God dammit, get your shit together!” Jim yelled as Red Foot reached up and grabbed his face.

  “Ow!” Red Foot said as he massaged his cheek. “I’m sorry, look just drive to the old man’s house…. and stop hitting me!”

  Jim’s gaze tu
rned to ice as he calmly asked, “Do you know the way?” Red Foot shook his head, the look in Jim’s eyes taking away his ability to speak.

  “Then get your ass in the front seat and tell that man where to go!”

  12.

  Waking Up

  “Shelly…. Shelly wake up” the gentle voice repeated. “Come on, it’s time to get up and out of that bed.” The smell of the lavender field and the sounds of revelers in the great hall of the castle started to slowly fade as Shelly struggled to wake from her dream of running in the field and then the party at the castle with Sarah.

  Shelly opened her eyes and saw that she was not chained to a chair in a basement somewhere, but in a large, very comfortable bed. The bedroom was open with a couch in one corner, dresser and night stand by the bed, and a large stand up antique mirror against the wall near the foot of the bed. There were several windows that looked out over a wooded area with a creek that ran through it. The drapes over the windows were doing their best to keep the sunlight at bay, but the rays were starting to peek through.

  Slowly becoming more and more awake Shelly started to take notice of the strong smell of coffee filling the air in the bedroom. She stretched, rubbed her eyes, and then saw sitting on the couch in her room a familiar face. It was Sarah and she had two cups of coffee in her hands. “One of those is for me, I hope” Shelly said as she sat up in the bed.

  Sarah smiled, stood up and walked across the room, handing one of the cups to Shelly.

  “How are you feeling?” Sarah asked as she handed the cup of coffee to Shelly. “I feel good, in fact, I feel great! That was the most vivid dream I think I have ever had…. wow!”

  “I’m glad” Sarah said, “Some folks don’t tolerate that very well, but you did outstanding.”

  “Tolerate what? Wasn’t that just a dream?” Shelly asked as she took a sip of the coffee.

  “No,” Sarah replied. “I took you on a trip to visit my world, where I come from. Tell me, do you remember your name?”

  “Of course, my names Shelly. Shelly…. Shelly, I can’t seem to remember my last name, that’s weird” Shelly said with a smile on her face. “Hey, where are we anyway?”

  “This is my master’s house” Sarah replied as she sat on the bed. “You met him at the castle. In fact, you danced with him several times during the ball, I think he has taken a fancy to you.”

  “Sarah” Shelly said, “How did I get here?”

  “You don’t remember?” Sarah replied as she put a hand on Shelly’s shoulder.

  “You were involved in a car accident on the highway and stumbled onto our property. One of our maintenance people found you passed out in the woods. We brought you here and treated your injuries. You told us that you were trying to get away from your abusive husband who was chasing you with some friends. Apparently, they had you tied up in a hotel room, torturing you when you managed to escape.”

  Shelly looked at the bruising and cuts on her wrists, and then on her ankles. “I don’t remember any of that,” she said. “But you, I feel like I’ve known you my entire life. I also know that you’re not human, are you? I mean, how else could you do that with our minds?”

  Sarah smiled, stood up from the bed with her coffee, “No, I’m not human, not exactly. I, my master, and a few others here, we are, shall we say, complicated. You see we came here a long time ago to meet your people, humans I mean. There was an accident and we were trapped here.”

  “What do you mean trapped? Sarah, the castle you took me to, was that real?”

  “Yes, very real. At least it used to be real” Sarah replied as she walked across the room, stopping in front of the large mirror.

  “I have been here a long time Shelly” Sarah said as she reached out and placed one of her hands against the mirror. “We used to live in that castle. It’s still standing you know, not in as good as shape, but it’s still standing. It’s located on the coast of France.”

  Sarah set her coffee cup down and walked over to the window. As she pushed the curtains open Shelly squinted at the sunlight now bathing her bedroom. Sarah picked her cup up and sat back down on Shelly’s bed.

  “Shelly one of the great joys of sharing that experience with you is that we get to know one another. It’s like we have known each other for years. Please, tell me, are you afraid of me…. in any way?”

  Shelly just looked at Sarah with an expression of confusion on her face. “Do you think that I would hurt you or lie to you?” Sarah asked.

  “No! Of course not,” Shelly replied. “Where is this coming from?”

  Sarah leaned forward and placed her hand on Shelly’s shoulder, “Shelly I’m afraid that I have held back some of the truth. You see, when you escaped from your husband, he chased you and you crashed. You were able to run away from the wreck into the woods where you ran into our maintenance men.”

  “Yes, you told me” Shelly said as got out of the bed, walked over and took a seat on the couch and started sipping her coffee.

  “What I didn’t tell you was that while they were helping you in the woods your husband showed up. They tried to reason with him, but he was like an angry animal. There was a fight and he killed two of the three men who helped you. The third basically carried you through the woods back to our home.”

  Shelly’s hands started shaking, “He killed them?” She asked.

  “Yes” Sarah said in a somber tone of voice as she sat on the couch next to Shelly. “He killed them because they were trying to help you. They sacrificed themselves so that the third man could get you back here, to us, to safety.”

  Shelly’s hands were shaking so badly that she dropped her coffee cup. She put her head in her hands and started to cry.

  “They're dead because of me? How can that be? I don’t remember any of that!”

  Sarah put a hand on Shelly’s knee, “He was able to follow the third man back to the house. Shelly, he knows where you are, and he knows that we are…. different than you.”

  Sarah stood and walked back over into front of the mirror, “We were able to chase him away, but he said that he would be back, and that he was going to bring some friends. Shelly, he was yelling that he was going to kill us all!”

  Sarah walked back to the couch and sat down next to Shelly. She put her arm around her and pulled her into a side hug, “We are peaceful people Shelly. Violence is a foreign idea to us, but I want you to know that I, and all of us are here, ready to fight to keep this monster from getting his hands on you.”

  Shelly took a deep breath and stood up from the couch, wiping tears from her face as she did. As she stood, she became aware of the pain in her wrists and her ankles. “Thank you” Shelly said with a crooked smile on her face and tears still welling in her eyes.

  “Please, what can you tell me about my husband; other than he’s an abusive piece of trash?”

  Sarah smiled and took a deep breath, “There will be plenty of time for that later. You must be starving! Let’s go get something to eat and then I’ll show you around the house and the grounds. There are lots of folks who are looking forward to meeting you.”

  Shelly smiled as Sarah took her by the arm and walked her out of the bedroom and into a large great room with several pieces of wood furniture, floor rugs, and a massive stone fireplace situated in the center. The entire building started to reveal itself as a multi-level log cabin, thousands of square feet in size.

  As she looked around the great room with a sense of awe Shelly saw that in the far corner, near a staircase that looked to go down, there was a very large antique mirror. Mounted on the wall above it was the head of a goat. As she started to walk towards the mirror her gaze fixed on the goat’s head that seemed to be staring back at her.

  Before she could reach the corner of the room Sarah walked up and took her by the arm again. “Let’s get some air shall we.” With that Sarah walked out a front door and into a large gravel parking area.

  There were several old and newer looking vehicles of different makes and
models parked around the area. Intermixed were a few horse-drawn wagons, and lots of landscaping.

  “Wow!” Shelly said as she walked over to one of the newer looking SUV’s. “You guys must be doing pretty good for yourselves.”

  Shelly walked over to one of the dark colored SUV’s, “Jim and I…. I mean, we had.” She stopped and just stood there looking at her reflection in the tinted window of the SUV. She turned to Sarah, “My husband’s name is Jim, isn’t it?”

  Before Sarah could answer a man’s voice came booming from around the corner, “Ah, you're awake, and in one piece. Thank God!”

  Shelly looked to her right and saw, striding around the corner of the building, a man that she instantly recognized from her dream trip to the castle with Sarah. “Good morning!” The man said as he walked over to the two women. He touched Sarah on the arm, then reached out and put both his hands on Shelly’s shoulders. “Do you remember me?”