Into the darkness
The cave felt small. Jensen turned sideways as he pushed deeper into the limestone corridor. With each step, the temperature dropped and his skin tightened. He was relieved to feel the harsh sunlight disappear behind him, along with everything else that he’d hope to escape from that afternoon. His
mind-numbing office job, the death throes of a doomed marriage, the nagging itch of existential dread — all of it needed to be silenced.
Caving wasn’t a hobby, it was refuge.
Once the light had dissipated, and he could only hear the echoing plops of water droplets, Jensen turned on his headlamp and pulled out his map. It was a crude drawing. The cave was closed to the public, so he had to obtain his intel from other intrusive explorers on various online message boards. According to his sketch, the hidden, subterranean lake wasn’t far from where he stood. After taking a few steps further into the cave, he spotted the hole that he was looking for.
This part of the journey was tricky. It called for a long descent down a claustrophobic corridor that was barely wider than his shoulders. Jensen knew that it would be a tight fit, but he loved the rush. To him, the real danger was waiting for back outside — back in the real world. Once he entered, turning around would be impossible. He went down head first.
The space tightened around him after only a few seconds of crawling. He used the wetness of the walls to help him squeeze his body through. He felt a twinge of regret after crawling for what felt like 20 minutes, but going back wasn’t an option. The final 10 feet or so of the descent formed a winding serpentine with even less room to push his body through. He could feel the heat of panic warming his skin, but wriggled further and further, through what felt like the inside of a snake’s body. He pushed through the final bend and was relieved to find himself in an area where he could stand upright.
The corridor was flat and straight, looking almost premeditated. The path lead Jensen into an auditorium-sized chamber. The reflection on the lake’s surface stung his eyes at first, but after a moment, he could see how it was deep blue, but clear like glass. Jensen walked the circular path surrounding the water, eager to explore.
After a few minutes of wandering, a white rock formation that was jutting out of the far end of the lake caught Jensen’s eye. He took his phone out to take a quick picture, and the entire room turned hot-white from the flash. That was when it turned its head to look at him.
Within seconds, the creature glided across the water and was upon him. Its pallid body and wings were were covered with long white hairs. Through the light of his headlamp, he could see black veins pumping life into the organs underneath its translucent skin. Some of its bones had forced their way out to the surface, leaving wet rings of sludge around their exit points. It looked human. The bite was fast and deep.
Jensen scurried away as quickly as he could, slipping on the wet rocks and his own blood. He ducked into the first corridor he could find, leaving the lake behind him. It’s footsteps were getting closer.
He bounced against jagged walls, clutching the wet flesh of his arm as he frantically searched for a way back up to the surface. Eventually, the path turned vertical and Jensen climbed up, desperately trying to ignore the cries just behind him. He looked below for a second, only to see its white eyes staring right back at him. It reached for his leg with its mangled claw, but he climbed out of the shaft before it could take him. He sprinted down the sunlit path.
His heart felt like it would burst at any moment, but the creature’s shrieks kept him in motion. Jensen bumped into wall after wall of the twisting path, leaving splotches of blood along the way. On the last turn, he could see it; the cave’s exit was less than 20 yards away. But the end of the path was impossibly narrow. He could feel the creature’s hot breath over his shoulder.
Jensen turned his body sideways and with his head facing his leading shoulder, propelled his way into the slender space ahead of him. His skin burned with cuts and punctures with every inch that he moved closer to the exit. The rocks compressed his body from each side, forcing the air from his lungs, but he kept pushing. The cave’s exit was just a few feet away, but no matter how hard he tried, the walls held him in place.
He could still hear the creature behind him, but he was wedged in so tight that he couldn’t turn his neck to see its approach. He remembered how large and grotesque it was, nearly twice his size. He knew it’d be impossible for the thing to reach him, but its wails grew louder — somehow moving closer with each second. He could hear its bones twisting and popping as it forced itself deeper into the narrow crevice, like an octopus working its way into a glass jar. Jensen could feel its saliva against his skin. Then it was dark.
