Unholy

by Bill Bennett

  It was dark inside, grey light barely filtering through the coal-dust-encrusted windows. He heard two people coming. He quickly ducked behind a desk. They were talking quietly, but excitedly, about what a triumph it was that they now had the girl. And to think it was such a low-level operative that had got her. Bravo!

  Skyhawk dared not peek out, but from their voices they seemed to be elderly – two men. They sounded well educated, like they were doctors or engineers or lawyers. He waited till they walked out, and heard them open and close the front door, before he stood up and continued on down a long dark corridor. He moved silently, slipping from shadow to shadow, avoiding the debris of discarded files and chunks of fallen plaster from a decaying ceiling above. All his senses were alert. The doctor would be in here somewhere, he thought. But so too Lily.

  Outside he could hear distant shouting at the front entrance gates. The small biker woman yelling to open up. Inside there was just the sound of the wind whistling through broken windows and loose tin sheeting banging on the roof. Skyhawk went from room to room, office to office, searching for clues to Lily’s whereabouts.

  He came to a large room at the back of the building – the office canteen. There were several communal tables in the centre of the room, with a kitchenette at the rear and bathrooms to one side. Everything was covered in a thick veneer of black dust. It was much darker here – there were no windows or skylights, and very little daylight from outside made it this far back into the building. Skyhawk’s vision, though, was sharp and acute. He noticed footsteps in the dust on the floor – two sets – the same boots he’d seen at the campsite by the lake and Lily’s. Unmistakably Lily’s.

  He also saw that there was a coffee cup on a table and on one of the kitchen benches there was a portable gas stove, the kind used by campers, and several plastic containers of food – packet pasta, biscuits, canned tuna, tinned beans. Someone had prepared a meal recently. There was a saucepan on the stove, and on the bench a packet of noodles had been opened, so too a tin of diced tomatoes.

  The room, though, was empty.

  Skyhawk walked over, touched the side of the saucepan. It was partly filled with water. He dipped his hand in. The water was warm. If it had been boiled, to make the coffee or cook the noodles, then it meant there’d been someone here perhaps half an hour earlier, judging by the temperature. Was it those two men who had just walked out? Skyhawk thought not – the water would have been hotter.

  But there was something odd about all this.

  Where was the plate or bowl of noodles?

  It wasn’t in the sink and it wasn’t on any of the benches or tables. Had the doctor prepared a meal for Lily? If so, then where had he taken it?

  Skyhawk looked at the footsteps in the dust around the kitchen bench. There were several steps going to the sink, back to the stove, to the table where the doctor had sat, back to the stove again presumably once the water had boiled – and then there was a set of prints leading away – out of the kitchen and along a corridor.

  Skyhawk followed.

  It was almost pitch black here, and even with his hawk-like eyesight it was difficult for him to see the footprints, but it was obvious they were leading to a room to the side of the canteen. There was a door at the end of the corridor, and as he approached he could see that it was locked by a bolt and padlock. He stood outside the door, peering down at the floor, trying to make sense of the flurry of footsteps in the dust. It was hard to read them, to tell what had happened.

  Suddenly a hand clamped over his mouth.

  From behind.

  Clamped tight.

  Another hand, grabbing him by the shoulder, swinging him around.

  He reached for his knife, pulled it out and grabbed in the darkness for his attacker. Thrust the knife to his throat.

  But then he realised –

  ‘It’s me,’ said Lily.

  CHAPTER 31

  The first thing she’d done was get her hands free. It hadn’t taken long, although she’d had to be careful not to rip open one of the arteries in her wrists. On one of the stationery shelves she’d found a box of metal punch-hole pins used to bind documents together. With the very limited use of her fingers, she’d lined up an array of these pins in a large bulldog clip and, using this as a makeshift series of blades, she’d managed to slowly cut through the thin plastic duct tape. Once her hands were free, she then found a broom, which she’d split in two, hoping that Dr Johnstone was out of earshot. But it gave her two weapons, each with a ragged splintered end.

  Later, when Dr Johnstone opened the door to bring her a bowl of noodles, the last thing he expected was to be jumped from behind by Lily with a wooden dagger to his throat. She’d knocked him out with a quick aikido punch and then did to him what he’d done to her – tied his hands and feet with a fresh roll of tape she found on another of the shelves. She taped his mouth shut too. Then she took his keys, locked him in the room – but that’s when she heard someone coming down the corridor.

  She pushed herself flat into a dark shallow recess in the wall, unable to see who it was that was walking up to the door. Only at the last moment did she realise it was Skyhawk. She’d put her hand over his mouth to keep him quiet, in case he cried out. She’d heard sounds outside, people yelling, by the front gates.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he asked, concerned.

  ‘Yes. But I have to get outside,’ she whispered. ‘I haven’t been able to get any signal from my mother.’

  She took his hand and together they ran back through the building to the entrance. Outside they could see two elderly gentlemen helping Kritta and Kevin Johnstone open the front gates. Kevin Johnstone was using a tyre lever to try and jemmy the padlock off the chain. The guard that Skyhawk had knocked out was standing back, watching, gingerly touching his forehead where Skyhawk had hit him with the butt of the knife.

  Lily grabbed Skyhawk’s hand and she led him out of the building, around the side, then she used the cover of some smaller buildings to get them closer to the main shaft.

  She pulled up behind a dilapidated workshop, breathing hard, still holding Skyhawk’s hand. She peeked around the side of the building. Back at the front gates Kritta and KJ had busted the padlock off the chain and were about to drive in. And right in front of her, not fifty yards away, was the main shaft to the Deep Sink Mine. It was exactly as she’d recalled it when she’d travelled there in her out-of-body experience with her Uncle Freddie.

  She closed her eyes, searched for a stillness amid the frenzied cacophony of her thoughts. It didn’t come. She went back to the technique she’d used in the cave, during her preparation for her initiation – concentrating on her breath, the feel of it, the texture of it, the rise and fall of her chest and diaphragm. She found the stillness – but nothing more. No sign from her mother. No energetic pulse, no vibratory heartbeat. Nothing.

  ‘We have to get closer,’ she said to Skyhawk.

  He nodded.

  They watched as Kritta and Kevin Johnstone drove in, over to the administration building where they pulled up hard beside Dr Johnstone’s Lexus. They all jumped out and rushed into the building.

  ‘Okay, now!’ said Lily, and made a run for the main shaft – Skyhawk one step behind, keeping an eye on the admin building in case one of them came back out. They scrambled down into the subsidence and ran across to the two large wooden doors, blocking the mine’s entrance. They were now out of sight of the building.

  Lily stood outside the mine shaft’s doors, closed her eyes and quietened her breathing again. She immediately felt the foul energies coming up from inside the shaft. Skyhawk stood by her side, looking around, keeping guard while she tried to find a connection with her mom. But again she found nothing. She opened her eyes, heard the distant sounds of Kritta and Kevin Johnstone talking loudly, animatedly, obviously trying to find her.

  She closed her eyes again and tried once more.

  This time she found an inner quiet, a place where she could amplify her rece
ptor, make herself more sensitive to any signal from her mother. And then she felt it, sensed it; faintly coming from somewhere deep down in the shaft. It was unmistakably her mother’s energetic heartbeat, like a lighthouse pulsing a rhythmic signal out into the foggy dark.

  Lily pushed out her own call. Mom, it’s me. Lily. I’m up here. Just hang on. We’ll come and get you soon. Just hang on.

  And then the linkage was gone.

  Her mom was gone.

  Lily opened her eyes and looked across to Skyhawk. ‘I felt her. She’s down there, but then … she went away. I have to get her out.’

  Skyhawk shook his head. ‘Lily, remember what your uncle said. He said you shouldn’t go down that mine. Under any circumstances. It’s too dangerous. We have to wait for him, remember? He was absolutely clear about that.’

  ‘He also said this link between us could be the only thing that keeps Mom alive.’

  ‘You don’t know what’s down there.’

  ‘She’s down there.’

  ‘Yes, but probably witches too, guarding her …’

  ‘Sky, I don’t care! Who knows when Freddie will get here. For all we know they might have already captured him or killed him or something. He might not ever get here. And we don’t have much time.’ She glared at him defiantly. ‘You can hang around for him if you like, but I’m going down.’

  She grabbed his knife from the sheath hanging off his belt.

  ‘Hey!’ he said, but she was already using the long blade to try and prise open the two doors leading down to the mine.

  ‘Don’t break it,’ Skyhawk said, watching as she tried to lever open the doors, knowing there was no way he could stop her.

  Slowly, she jemmied them open. A rush of putrid air swirled out and they stared down into the black gaping mouth of the cursed mine.

  Lily closed her eyes again and pushed out a message. Mom, I’m coming to find you. Speak to me, please. Send me something. I need you to guide me.

  But she got nothing back.

  ‘We’re going to need some light down there,’ Lily said. ‘You got your phone?’

  Skyhawk took out his phone and switched it on, the flashlight app providing a weak milky beam. ‘I don’t have much battery left,’ he said.

  ‘It’ll have to do.’ Lily stepped through the doors into the dank mineshaft, Skyhawk by her side. They walked down into the dark hand in hand, the phone lighting their way.

  It was the smell that assaulted her first; a harsh chemical smell that came from deep down the mine – not something made by people, or of this world, but an ancient sulphurous bubbling smell, as though it came from hellfires and the haunts of evil. There was something bestial about the smell, something innately heinous and monstrous. It sent a terror through Lily, a fear that tried to stop her from breathing, stop her from functioning. She held Skyhawk’s hand tighter and they walked down further.

  The dark got darker.

  It seemed to wrap itself around her like it was something living and predatory; a moist cold hungry thing that wanted to suck her up so there’d be no trace that she’d ever been. She paused for a moment, closed her eyes and imagined that a radiant luminous light streamed from every pore in her body. When she opened her eyes again, the dark had retreated.

  They kept walking down.

  The place was like a gigantic crypt. Each tunnel was held up by wooden beams, some so old and splintered they looked as if they’d give way at any moment. Underfoot were narrow rail tracks and Lily saw in the feeble phone’s glow several black metal carts, full of coal. Scattered on the ground beside them were shovels and picks, as though they’d been flung by miners suddenly fleeing for their lives.

  Lily sought her mother. She called out to her with focused thoughts. But nothing came back. Not a ripple on the energetic pond. She heard a faint sound, which seemed to come from much further down the shaft – a metallic sound, a clanking; not a regular rhythmic sound but intermittent, as though something was banging in the wind. But there’s no wind here, she thought. She shivered.

  KA-THUMP.

  Lily jumped at a sudden loud sound behind her. The dark became black. Skyhawk and Lily quickly turned and saw that the doors up at the entrance had closed shut. How did that happen? Had a breeze sprung up outside and blown them shut? Lily remembered that Skyhawk had swung the doors all the way back on their hinges. It would take more than a breeze, more like a big gust of wind, to shift them.

  Has someone closed them?

  Were they trapped down here?

  Well, if we are, Lily thought, she’d deal with it when it became a problem. Right now, it wasn’t. She led the way, heading further down.

  She tried to connect with her mom once again. She stopped, found her breath, and entered her stillness. She called out to her with lasered thought, but again there was no response. It was as though the foul energies of the mine had deadened everything. She was about to walk off again when she sensed a reply. It was weak, very weak, and coming from deeper down. It was her mother, definitely, Lily knew that much, but was it a cry of joy or a cry of warning, desperately urging her to leave?

  ‘She’s down here,’ she said to Skyhawk and she headed off into the dark beyond the feeble throw of his phone light.

  Skyhawk caught up to her and they passed another tunnel, its black mouth opened wide, its shrine ghostly. The clanging from deeper down was getting louder. It was more insistent now, as though by coming so far down they’d inadvertently triggered an alarm.

  Skyhawk raised his knife in readiness. Lily felt a sudden rush of fear, because it was pure folly. Whatever lay in wait for them down here wouldn’t be stopped by a blade, no matter how deftly Skyhawk wielded it. They were walking down into a blackness that was pure evil. And how that evil would manifest itself, she didn’t yet know. But she felt sure that when it did, a large-bladed knife would be merely a vain show of strength, nothing more.

  They passed another tunnel. It was boarded up, with RIP painted hurriedly on the timbers in dripping white paint. The shaft was much steeper now, the path slippery, and it was getting colder. Skyhawk’s phone was losing battery, its dim light starting to fade.

  Lily suddenly tripped and went sprawling headlong onto the ground, onto what felt like a large nest of dried branches. There was a dry cracking sound and she quickly sprang upright onto her feet, stepping back from whatever it was she’d fallen into. Skyhawk shone his phone down onto the ground and, gleaming dully in the muted light, was a mule’s skeleton, all bones and skull and jagged yellow teeth, wrapped in scraps of hide. The animal had long since been picked clean by rats and maggots. Lily took a further step back. Her stomach turned with revulsion. And then she realised that she’d lost the connection with her mother.

  She steadied her breathing, closed her eyes again and concentrated on an image of her mom – in the old Ford F100 driving to the market, the wind whipping her hair, the sun playing on her face. The heartbeat returned. It was like the idling engine of a parked truck.

  ‘We’re getting closer,’ Lily said.

  She stepped around the mule’s skeleton and kept walking down, deeper into the shaft’s rank belly. The darkness seemed to be hovering just outside the dim glow of the phone’s fading beam, as if waiting for the tepid light to fail so it could rush in and suffocate them completely.

  The clanging sound suddenly stopped. The silence was pure and absolute. The only sound Lily could hear was her quickened breathing and her heart pounding in her chest. Her scalp tingled with fear. A chill flushed through her. Something was coming from down below, from out of the dark. True evil. True living evil. She could sense it. She could feel it. She knew it was coming for her.

  She peered into the black.

  There appeared to be a large black shape ahead of them in the middle of the shaft. Waiting for them.

  Skyhawk held back, but Lily slowly walked in closer, and as he followed, holding out his light, they saw that it wasn’t some lurking beast from hell, but a coal cart lying abandoned
on the track.

  Lily released a long breath.

  The cart stood at the entrance to a large tunnel. And from that tunnel’s dark gaping mouth, open like a scream of terror, came her mom’s energetic call. She squeezed Skyhawk’s hand. ‘She’s in there.’

  They walked over. The shrine at the entrance had been desecrated. A china Madonna statue had been smashed against a rock wall. Who would do such a thing and why? Lily wondered. It was a simple act of vandalism, yet to her there was something inherently hateful in that petty sacrilege. There were larger forces at play down here – greater abominations, she was sure. Why smash a cheap china Madonna? The smallness of the gesture somehow indicated to her the fullness of the evil.

  Skyhawk raised the phone and tried to see inside. The tunnel was lined with old wooden struts and sagging beams that were broken and splintered. There were little hillocks of black earth scattered around the floor, leaking deposits from the roof above. A few had been scuffed, as though someone had recently walked through. This is where they’ve taken her, Lily thought with a shrivelling sense of dread.

  Skyhawk squatted and examined the broken mounds of coal dirt. ‘Someone’s been through here, carrying someone,’ he said, sifting the black earth through his fingers. ‘I can tell by the weight of the foot falls. Not exactly sure when. It’s all different out of the wind and the sun.’

  He stood and held his phone at arm’s length. From the dying glimmer they could see that the shaft went straight for a short distance, then it curved around in a bend. Skyhawk’s senses were heightened, Lily could tell, yet he didn’t seem scared or frightened. He was simply ready for whatever might lie around that corner.

  And then they heard a sound that sent Lily into a sudden and inexplicable panic.

  A blood-curdling cry, coming from further down the shaft. With a clip clip clop clop of hooves on hard rock, a lamb emerged out of the darkness. It was the same lamb that had terrified Lily when Freddie had travelled her to the mine. The creature stopped, looked up at them and then threw back its head and bleated again.