The Cave
Page 16
“All of the dancing we did, of course I remember you” Shelly said with a smile on her face.
“Your name is Alan, right?” The man smiled and nodded his head and with a charismatic laugh in his voice said, “That’s right, that’s right.”
Alan puts an arm around Shelly, “My dear, let me ask you, do you feel like you know me?”
Shelly looked back at Alan, “I do. It’s weird, but I feel like I have known both of you all my life.”
“Do you trust me when I tell you that I, and all of us here, would never do anything to hurt you or allow you to be hurt?”
Shelly smiled, “I do. It may sound strange, but I feel almost like I’m at home here.”
“Good!” Alan said, “that’s very good to hear.” As the three started to walk away from the parking area and towards one of the many outbuildings Shelly looked back and saw sitting on the hood of the SUV she had been looking at a young girl in a flower print dress. She had seen this girl before, in her dream with Sarah, she saw her standing off in the distance. She had seen her somewhere else too, but just could not put her finger on it. As they walked away the girl waved and smiled. Shelly started to raise a hand to wave back, but then she was gone.
“Shelly, I need your help with something” Alan said as they continued walking towards the outbuilding.
“After everything you guys have done for me, anything I can do to help I’m more than happy to do.”
Alan smiled, “It may be dangerous, if you don’t want to just say so.”
Shelly stopped walking and looked at both Alan and Sarah. “After what Sarah tells me happened in the woods, I owe you my life. If I understand correctly, I may not be here today if not for your help, so please, anything I can do to repay your kindness let me know.”
Alan nodded his head in agreement and smiled. He pointed to the building that they had been walking towards, “This building is akin to a church to us. Inside we keep artifacts that are precious and, in the eyes of our faith hold much power. When your husband pursued you into our camp, and before we could muster the manpower to chase him off, he broke into our church and stole a very special relic. A stone tablet with inscriptions on both sides, when used a certain way it can be very harmful to us. But when used the right way can provide us with a way to speak to our God…. if you will.”
Shelly looked at Alan and Sarah, “What can I do?”
Sarah stepped forward and gently touched Shelly’s arm, “Your husband is going to come back, and if he’s true to his word, he’s going to bring some friends. We are worried that he will discover how powerful the stone is and bring it with him as well. I’m afraid, we all are afraid, that he will use it as a weapon against us.”
Alan directed them to a bench located in a small lower garden just to the side of the church. “When your husband comes back, if he has the stone, I want you to get it from him and bring it to me. I’m afraid that if I get too close or try and take it from him he will destroy it. You see it’s very old, more than 10,000 years old to be exact, and if he breaks it, we will never be able to talk to our God again or get back home.”
Shelly took a deep breath. The idea of coming face to face with the animal who had almost killed her was frightening. But her friends needed her, “I’ll do it! Alan, you can count on me.”
“That’s wonderful!” Alan said as he leaned forward and gave Shelly a big hug. “I knew that I could count on you.” As Alan pulled her in tight shelly looked up and standing in the wood line, past the flower garden, was the same little girl in the flower print dress. She looked right at Shelly, then looked at the ground, turned and walked into the woods, disappearing from sight.
As they stood up from the bench Shelly felt a sense of sadness coming over her. A cool breeze started blowing, she looked up at Alan and just for a brief second there was a shadow cast across his face. It ran across his eyes and down to his chin and just for the briefest of seconds Shelly saw what looked to her to be the outline of a wolf across Alans face.
Alan turned to Sarah, “It’s just about time for church, would you be a dear and go ring the bell please.”
“Of course,” Sarah replied with a smile. “See you soon” she said to Shelly as she walked off towards the church.
“Would you like to come to church with us?” Alan asked with a hopeful look on his face.
“No, I’m sorry. I’m starting to feel run down. If it’s okay, I’m going to go lay back down for a while.”
“Of course, dear” Alan said as he put a hand on Shelly’s cheek. “When you change your mind, I’ll be here waiting for you.”
Shelly looked up, it was like she had just heard the lyrics to an old song she knew but could not place the words. As she gazed at Alan’s face, she again, just for a second, saw a shadow and inside his smile she saw jagged teeth. But just like before in an instant they were gone, replaced by Alan’s perfect white teeth and smile.
Shelly smiled, turned, and started walking back to the main house. As she was walking away, she could feel an uncomfortable sensation of someone right behind her.
Walking through the parking area, she stopped adjacent to one of the SUV’s and quickly glanced into the tinted window. Again, just for the briefest of seconds she saw a shadow, and then it was gone.
Moving quickly back towards the main house Shelly heard the bell for church start ringing. She watched as the people who were attending to the landscaping and other tasks in the area very gently put their tools on the ground and started walking towards the church.
It struck her as odd how they all moved, as if in a trance, or half asleep. As she looked on one gardener caught her attention. He stopped and starred at her before moving towards the church. She could see that he had tattoos on his arms and neck. As she looked closer at the man he slowly started to walk away. She couldn’t help but feel that she had seen the man’s tattoos before. She couldn’t place them, but she had an overwhelming feeling that they were important for some reason.
But just like the shadow she saw in the window of the SUV, as quickly as she had those thoughts there were gone. She shook her head and continued her walk back to the main house.
Walking into the main room of the house Shelly noticed that she was all alone. There was a fire burning in the fireplace, but there was no one else around.
“Hello?” she called, the sound of her voice echoing in the building. With no reply, she walked back into her bedroom and threw herself onto the large pillow top bed.
Lying there on the bed, she again had that feeling like she had heard the lyrics to a familiar song. She started to think back to what it was that Alan had said, “I’ll be here waiting for you.” The words played over and over in her head, then suddenly the lyrics she had been trying to remember came crashing back, “He’s waiting for you!”
Shelly sat straight up in the bed, the phrase had sent a chill down her spine! “He’s waiting for you,” she said out loud. She looked around the room as if trying to put the pieces of a puzzle together. She uttered the phrase again, “He’s waiting for you.” Then it hit her, it was like a light bulb coming on in her head, “Jim.”
She lay back down on the bed, that phrase stuck, playing over and over in her head. Jim had told her, it was the wolf, that demon from his childhood. The monster that he had fought with, the same one that had almost killed him.
Again, as she lay there trying to remember her thoughts faded. Just like the shadow she had seen and the tattoos on the man’s arm and neck, they all just faded
As she started to drift off to sleep a female voice called her name, telling her to wake up. “Come on Sarah” Shelly moaned, “I really just need a little more sleep.”
The female voice persisted. As Shelly slowly opened her eyes, she didn’t see Sarah, or anyone else in the room with her.
“Wake up” the voice gently spoke again.
“I am awake” Shelly replied, looking around the room and still not seeing anyone.
Suddenly there was a cold
breeze blowing through her room. A large light fixture hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room started to sway in a circle. “Wake up” the voice, now that of a young child said.
Shelly’s heart started to race. Her body knew that something was wrong, but her brain couldn’t articulate what. As her breathing started to increase she pulled the covers up trying to shield herself from the cold breeze now so prominent that she could see her breath.
The standing lamp in the corner of her room started to dim and then suddenly with a loud crack the bulb blew out sending glass and sparks flying.
As she peered into the darkness of the room, she could see in the corner a figure beginning to manifest itself. A shadow that started to take a shape, then suddenly within that developing shape Shelly could see two dark yellow eyes open. “Wake up” the child’s voice said again as the shape moved closer to her bed.
Suddenly, in the blink of an eye the form in the darkness lunged forward, stopping at the edge of her bed. It moved so fast she didn’t have time to react short of putting her hands up in a defensive posture. Looking through her fingers Shelly watched as the shadow began to take shape around the yellow eyes. Her heart was pounding, every fiber of her being was telling her to run, but fear was holding her in place. As she watched the face of a large wolf took shape right in front of her.
She peered into the darkness, still not able to see clearly the animal standing less than a foot from her. The wolf grinned, its mouth was full of white teeth that shown in stark contrast to the darkness in the room. “Wake up!” the wolf said in a child’s voice.
Shelly started sliding closer to the side of her bed furthest away from the large predator that was glaring at her with its deep yellow eyes. As she felt the side of the bed with her hand Shelly quickly turned, swinging her feet over the side.
As she turned and started to dismount the bed Shelly suddenly saw that there was another wolf standing in the corner next to the side of the bed she was getting out of.
Fear paralyzed her as she watched the second wolf slowly start to move in towards her from the shadows.
“Wake up” the child’s voice said again. Shelly turned and saw that the first animal was now standing on the bed right next to her.
Shelly screamed as the child’s voice boomed, “Wake up…. NOW!” and both wolves lunged at her, their mouths open and white teeth biting at her as they landed on the bed.
“NO!” Shelly barked in a dry voice as she sat straight up in her bed. She grabbed her neck and then ran her hands across her upper body feeling for any injuries, only finding the ones to her wrists.
Her heart was pounding, and she was breathing like she had just run a marathon. As she looked around the room for the two large wolves that had just attacked her Shelly started to notice that everything was a little bit clearer. She felt as though she had been living in a fog that was lifting, and as that fog lifted she started to remember.
She remembered everything that had happened before she had been abducted and everything that had occurred since. She remembered the dream about the castle and the grassy fields, she remembered Sarah, and Alan, and the beautiful log home she was at. As she continued to look around her room, Shelly could hear what sounded like chanting and singing coming from outside her bedroom window, and then she remembered. She remembered the young girl that she saw murdered in front of her and the men in the brown suits that killed and then devoured her.
Shelly sat back on the bed and ran her hands through her hair. She thought about the conversation she had with Sarah earlier, it was as if she had been there but someone else was doing the talking. It suddenly hit her; they had been trying to brainwash her! All those feelings of friendship she had towards Sarah and Alan, they were all fake…. but why?
“Jim” a young girl’s voice said. “They are afraid of your husband Jim.”
Shelly looked around the room but didn’t see anyone. “Who are you?” Shelly asked as she got out of the bed and started to walk around the room.
“They must not be allowed to get the talisman” the girl's voice said.
“What talisman? Where are you?” Shelly asked again. Just then a dim light started to develop in the large stand up mirror in the corner of the room. As she watched Shelly could see the form of a young girl in a flower print summer dress start to form inside the mirror.
As she watched a landscape developed behind the young girl in the mirror. She could see a large stone temple built into a circle with carvings of different animals all over it. The young girl looked at Shelly with a look of fear and sadness on her face as behind her a scene of carnage played out.
Shelly watched as a group of large wolf-looking monsters chased down and killed worshipers in the temple. All the while the monsters were laughing and cheering each other on. In horror, she watched as two of the monsters cornered a woman and young child. The monsters smiled as the woman appeared to be begging for her life in a language Shelly did not recognize. Then they set upon her and the child, tearing them limb from limb.
Then a bell started ringing in the background, a bell just like the one that Sarah had rung to signal the church service there at the compound, and the animals stopped. They started dragging the dead bodies to the center of the temple complex where they were piled up in front a tall man wearing a long black cloak and hood obscuring his face. Shelly watched as the man bent down and picked up the body of the young child. He held it up above his head and started chanting.
The man then pulled back his hood, revealing his face to be a cross between human, and the monsters that had just killed all those people. With a wide mouth the man in the cloak bit a chunk from the dead body and then discarded it back into the pile.
As the tall man was chanting a woman approached him. She was carrying a square object, about the size of a computer monitor, wrapped in a blanket. She unwrapped the item, a stone tablet, and placed it on a stone pedestal in front of the man and then backed away.
The man reached into the pile of dead bodies and covered his hands with their blood. He then placed both his hands on the tablet and again started to chant. As his chanting became more vigorous the other animals, which had now formed a circle around him, also started chanting.
Shelly watched in amazement as all around them in the temple carvings, which depicted a spiral pattern started to glow, and then to the cheers of all present, another man emerged from the pile of bodies.
Shelly could see that there was a darkness that surrounded this man. Even watching from her unique vantage point she was scared and very uncomfortable, as if she had just seen the devil himself.
The man crawled from the pile of bodies, covered in their blood. He struggled to stand, but just like a new born horse, he was soon on his feet and steady. The image of the young girl turned back and faced Shelly, “The blood of the innocent is what protects them. Their worship and fear sustains them, but it’s their souls that, in the end, feeds them,” she said as the man in scene behind her turned and smiled.
Shelly covered her own mouth so as not to scream, it was Alan!
As Shelly looked on in horror at the image of Alan crawling out from the pile of bodies, covered in blood, there suddenly was a commotion outside of her bedroom window. She could hear people walking by, there was no talking, but she could hear them moving past.
“They must not get the stone!” the young girl in the mirror said. “They will bring evil unto this world the likes of which have never been seen. Your husband travels now to retrieve the talisman with the intention of delivering it to them in exchange for you; a deal they have no intention of honoring. They will take the stone, kill your husband, and possess you with a demon from the other side.”
Carefully peeking out the curtain in her room, Shelly asked, “What do I do?”
“Run!” the young girl replied. “Find your husband, if he delivers the talisman all will be lost! They don’t know that I have helped you wake from the illusion they had you in. Play along until your opportunit
y presents itself.”
Just as Shelly started to ask another question here was a knock at her door. “Shelly, are you awake?” Sarah said. Climbing back into the bed Shelly replied, “Oh sorry Sarah, no I’m still sleeping. Give me a few more minutes please.” Shelly looked up at the mirror, the image was gone, “SHIT!”
13.
The Cave
As the SUV barreled down the bumpy dirt road Jim just stared out the window, lost in thought, wondering where his wife Shelly was and if she was okay. “Hey bro” Darrel said as he shook Jim back to reality by the shoulder. “Red Foot says we're almost there. Jimmy! Hey, you still with me? My man Red Foot says that we're almost there.”
Jim turned from the window and looked at Darrel, the pain in Jim’s eyes was obvious. Darrel put a hand on his shoulder, “Don’t worry brother, we’re gonna get her back, and then we’re going to make those fucks pay for what they did!”
“We’re just about there” Red Foot said as the SUV bumped its way down an even smaller dirt road, passing a large metal sign that read Trespassers Will Be Shot attached to broken down wooden fence.