The Emptiness

“You don’t know shit! There’s nothing at the end of that tunnel. It probably just dumps out into the creek.”

“No, you dumbass, I’m telling you that there’s something weird about that place. It’s too… shapely. There’s no other place like it in town. You think it’s no coincidence that there aren’t any big tunnels anywhere else, and then there’s just this big-ass old thing here? Not a chance.”

“I don’t see why you’re so creeped out by it. It’s just a storm drain.”

“Well, whatever. I say that it’s something else. There’s some macabre shit in there.”

“What the fuck does that mean? I’m imagining a corn cob with mac and cheese all over it instead of corn”

“Macbre! It means like… scary as hell. Use a dictionary once in a while. I shouldn’t have to explain all this shit to you.”

“Shut the fuck up. I’m only twelve years old bitch!”

“Well, whatever. I guess it takes some of us more than twelve years to learn cool words.”

“Would you two please… please… shut up!” came the frustrated exclamation from Tim, standing, as usual, well behind the other two boys, “I’m getting sweatier than shit walking all the way back in these muggy-ass woods, and this bitch-fest isn’t helping me at all. Mosquitos are biting my goddamn, fat-ass face.”

After he said that, Tim put his hands on his knees and began panting. Cleo ran up behind him, barked, and then jumped up and licked his face.

“Get off me, you dumb slut! I know you love my face, but you don’t have to taste it every minute.”

Cleo backed off and ran ahead to the arguing pair of Jimmy and Anthony, who were still walking down the narrow corridor created by the roof of the old, hanging trees that met in the middle of the path, forming a natural ceiling. On the right side was the creek – dry at this time of year. The drought that summer had sucked the life out of it. It was littered with a graveyard of dried crawdad and bluegill corpses. On the left was a semi-steep hillside which led back up onto Locust Drive. Straight ahead was the tunnel.

Cool, dark air crept out from within the tunnel, which was felt even before walking inside. As Jimmy and Anthony approached the entrance, they could feel The Emptiness. That’s what all the kids in town called it, at least. It was that cool feeling you got when standing in front of the tunnel, gazing into the blackness. No kid had been brave enough to venture into The Emptiness. No adults, either, as far as any of the kids around the neighborhood could tell. Jimmy, Anthony, and Tim were about to change that. Maybe even change it in time to get home for dinner, if Tim would hurry his fat-ass up.

Contrasted with the bright Kentucky sun, the inside of the tunnel looked and felt completely black. Void. As if stepping into it would send you through a wormhole into some other, darker plane of existence. Contrasted with the heat of the July afternoon, the tunnel felt as if it were air-conditioned. It smelled rancid, though. If something wasn’t dead in there now, many, many things had spent their last moments in that blackness before; that much was absolutely certain. From the smell.

“Welp!” said Anthony, “Let’s fucking go, you stinky old pussies. The inside of this tunnel smells better than your asses, so I feel a bit relieved walking up in this bitch. Especially your ass, Tim. Jesus Christ.”

“I told you this walk was going to make me sweat, dude!” Tim responded. “It’s humid as tits out here.”

“Well, whatever,” said Anthony. “You smell like ass.”

“Fuck you!” said Tim. “I’m not going in there anyway. That place gives me the creeps, I don’t care how nice it feels. The tunnel follows the road after half a block or so, anyway, so I’m going to take Cleo and follow you guys that way. I’ll yell down at you from the storm drains, let you know where I am, and where you are.”

“Whatever, you fucking pussy, just don’t be all butt-hurt when Jimmy and I make it through this bastard and are christened town heroes. Goddamn Lewis and Clark.”

“Yeah, yeah,” responded Tim, “I think I’ll survive.”

Tim then walked up the concrete steps next to the tunnel, which led back out onto the road. Once he got onto the sidewalk, he turned around, grabbed the rusted railing hanging over the tunnel, and looked back down:

“I’ll see you on the other side, fuck-bags.”

“Suck my ass, bitch. Let’s go, Jimmy”

Jimmy and Anthony then took their first steps into the unknown, metallic blackness known as The Emptiness.

* * *

“This isn’t so bad,” Jimmy said after a few minutes of walking. He’d been moving forward cautiously with his left hand on the round, grated tunnel wall and his right hand stuck out in front of himself as if a shield from anything that might be blocking the path.

“Yeah, dude!” replied Anthony, “It’s not bad. We’ll be out of this bitch in no time. The only reason anyone hasn’t climbed through already, anyway, is because everyone in this town is a bunch of pussies. We’re adventurers, dude. Explorers. This type of stuff doesn’t faze us.”

“Damn right,” responded Jimmy, “Let’s keep on truckin’.”

“All right, Jerry Garcia,” said Anthony, “My dad loves that band, listens to it in his truck all the time when he’s driving me to school. It’s weird.”

The circular opening back out to the outside world – the only natural source of light from within the tunnel – grew smaller and smaller the further Jimmy and Anthony ventured into the darkness. After some time, Jimmy turned around, having noticed the fading light, and looked over at the shadowed form of Anthony’s face.

“You got that flashlight? It’s getting tough to see in here.”

“Yeah, I’ve got it, but I want to make sure we need it before I turn it on. Don’t want to waste the battery and wind up trapped in the dark, you know?”

Jimmy didn’t like the idea of that either, and even though he was becoming a bit unnerved by the darkness, and definitely wanted some light, he agreed with Anthony and continued moving forward with his arm reaching out in front of himself.

“WHOOOOOOOOOO, bitches! WHOOO WHOOOOOOOOO! I’m gonna’ get your little prepubescent asses!”

“Was that Tim?” said Jimmy, only slightly confused.

“Yeah, I think so,” responded Anthony, “I guess he was right about the tunnel following the street. Makes sense, when you think about it. Well, I feel infinitely less afraid knowing I’m walking toward the sound of his voice.”

“Yeah, I agree.” said Jimmy, “Let’s keep moving.”

The tunnel, in its first form, soon ended. The circular metal structure, which had been tall enough for Jimmy and Anthony to move through at a slightly squatted walk, now opened up into miniscule, cubic room tall enough in which to stand. As both boys stood up, stretching from having spent such a lengthy (for them) amount of time squatting, Jimmy looked up, seeing the light of day shining down from a storm drain located at the side of the street.

“Hey, Anthony, look! That must be where Tim was yelling at us.”

Immediately after he said that Jimmy saw the face of Tim appear horizontally in the drain. His face covered most of it, which as a result blocked the light, so Anthony turned on his flashlight and shined it up into Tim’s face. Tim, not at all ready for the blinding flash, winced and bumped his head on the top of the metal drain.

“God dammit! What did you have to do that for? That fucking hurt!”

Cleo, who was following along with Tim, ran up and again licked his face.

“FUCK! Will you leave me alone? Your stinky-ass French-smooches don’t make my head feel any better.”

“She eats her own shit, you know.” said Anthony from down below, “Does it all the time.”

“Yeah, I’m well aware,” responded Tim.

“You think you’ll be able to keep following us from up there?” Jimmy shouted.

“I don’t see why not. I know where I am now, obviously, and I’m pretty sure I know where the tunnel ends, so I think I can handle it. What, you all need me? You all fuggin’ skeert without good ole’ Tim holding your hand?”

“Shut the fuck up,” said Anthony, “It’s just good to know someone’s got an eye on us in case some shit goes down. We are in The Emptiness, you know.”

“Ah give it a damn rest with that Emptiness bullshit. Put the bastard to bed, tuck its Empty ass in, and cut the lights. You and I both know it’s a load of shit – shit stinkier than Cleo’s breath.”

“If it’s such a load of shit,” replied Jimmy, “then why did you refuse to come?”

“Because I’m laaaaazy, dumbass. I knew it was a bunch of bullshit, so I didn’t feel like fucking with it. Simple as that. Plus, it’s too cramped for my fat-ass down there. I probably would’ve gotten stuck.”

“Whatever,” concluded Jimmy, “We’ll see you on the other side.”

With that, Jimmy and Anthony continued their journey into the depths of The Emptiness. The tunnel, which had since its beginning been constructed of metal and had the shape of a perfect circle, almost immediately transformed into a smaller, square shaped stone passage. Upon entering this new passage, the two boys had to squat down even further. The tunnel kept getting smaller and smaller, and within a handful of minutes both Jimmy and Anthony (who were about the same size – both quite shrimpy, even for their young age) were forced to begin crawling on their hands and knees just to continue moving forward.

“Fuck, dude!” said Jimmy, “This place just keeps getting tinier. You think we’re going to be able to make it out of here? Think we’ll wind up getting stuck?”

“No, man,” replied Anthony, “We’ll be fine. The tunnel isn’t that much longer, anyway. It can’t be. It empties into Mrs. Hamilton’s back yard; I’m pretty sure of that, and that can’t be much further away. There’s only so much space in this small town – Abry isn’t big.”

Anthony didn’t sound very confident, though. There was more than a hint of doubt in his tone, and it was noticed by Jimmy. Each of them began to see in the darkness the monsters they’d imagined dwelling in The Emptiness. Giant bats with massive fangs and cyclopean five-fingered, human hands with long, sharpened fingernails. Eyeless pale humanoid creatures howling and screeching and clawing blindly through the blackness. Translucent, eyeless crayfish, like the ones in nearby Mammoth Cave, with haunting, bottomless dark-red dead eyes, snipping and snapping their claws eagerly, the sound of which reverberating and echoing through the claustrophobic, endless Emptiness.

The square shaped stone tunnel eventually led to an even smaller, narrower, oval shaped metal passageway, which required each of the boys to begin crawling on their stomachs. Jimmy’s shirt snagged on a broken piece of the tunnel and ripped wide open, causing a small, scarlet slice near the delicate skin encasing his ribcage.

“Fuck, dude! I just cut myself!” said Jimmy.

“Get over it, we’ll deal with it later.” responded Anthony. “We’re about out of this bitch; I’m pretty sure I can see some light around that next bend.”

“Holy fuck,” said Jimmy, “that’s reassuring.”

As Jimmy and Anthony continued crawling toward the end of the tunnel, with Anthony in the lead, the perceived light grew larger and brighter. The two boys eventually began to make out the shapes and colors of objects in the outside world. Trees and grass came into view. The dry creek, into which the tunnel “emptied” – though it was also dry at this time of year – was also visible. Tim, with the most trusted and ever-noisy Cleo standing beside him barking, was squatted down at the exit of the tunnel, his hands cupped over his open mouth, yelling into The Emptiness.

“Helllloooooooooo fuck boyyyyyyyyyys! Looks like you all made it through this dirty old bastard, huh? Was it as adventurous and exciting as you imagined it would be?”

“Shut the hell up,” said Anthony as he continued crawling toward the exit.

After he made it out, he turned around to look for Jimmy. What he saw, however, was something much different. Something so terrifying he nearly fainted. An abnormally massive cottonmouth snake was taking up almost the entirety of the width of the tunnel. It was curled up, blocking Jimmy’s path to the exit, hissing in irritation.

“I must have crawled right it!” squealed Anthony, the color draining from his face. “How the hell did I do that? How is that even possible?”

The snake, which had been curled up on the floor of the tunnel, now raised up its head inquisitively and opened its alabaster vortex of a mouth. The inside of its mouth was completely white though somehow spotted with shifting obscurities – like what you might see while temporarily blind after looking for too long at the sun. Twin vampiric fangs tipped its opened gullet, from which Anthony was sure he could see venom dripping.

“Wha… what do I do, guys?” said Jimmy, his voice cracking and trembling in fear.

“Turn around!” said Tim, “He won’t chase you back through the tunnel!”

“No, no way! I’m not crawling back through The Emptiness by myself! There could be other things! More snakes!”

“The Emptiness isn’t a real thing! It’s just a tunnel, dude – a storm drain! Turn around!”

“That’s easy for you to say! You’re out there where it’s safe!”

After weighing his options for a couple of seconds, Jimmy abruptly, frantically began crawling through the aged, rusted metal toward the exit of the tunnel. As he approached the snake, he lifted himself against the wall of the tunnel as if to distance himself, but it was no use; the snake, its mouth still agape, struck out at him as soon as he came into range, its fangs digging deeply into the already exposed cut he had earlier received.

Jimmy almost instantly went into a state of shock, collapsing onto the floor the tunnel, screaming in horror but also paralyzed from fear. The snake crawled up onto his belly as if to get into position to finish him off.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” shrieked Tim from outside the tunnel, looking at Anthony, “What do we do, dude? What are we supposed to do?”

Anthony had no answer. He was standing ghost-faced, completely frozen, as if petrified – as if he’d been turned to salt by some malevolent deity for glancing in the wrong direction – as if he’d been turned to stone for staring into the glare of the gorgon.

Not one to waste time – and not one to ever be afraid of something smaller (though certainly not much smaller, considering the bizarre size of the snake) – than her, Cleo darted between the two frozen boys into The Emptiness, the entire time barking furiously.

Upon reaching the snake, which was still curled onto Jimmy’s stomach, she immediately dove into it, took it into her wriggling jaws, and rolled backward, further into The Emptiness, aggressively swinging the serpent back and forth. A few seconds later, Cleo yelped in obvious pain, put down the now mortally injured snake, and limped back out of The Emptiness before collapsing helplessly on the ground. By this time, Jimmy had already taken the opportunity to scurry out the tunnel as quickly and as frantically as possible.

Cleo’s breathing, much heavier than it had ever been, and her whimpering – which expressed fear and pain as clearly as if she’d spoken it in perfect English – signified to the boys that she had been bit.

Jimmy, lying next to his animal companion, was silent. He was breathing heavily, sweating; his skin had turned pale. He was silent. Mrs. Hamilton, into whose yard The Emptiness emptied, heard the commotion and ran outside, scrambling but inquisitive.

“HOLY SHIT!” said Anthony as soon as he saw her.

“Don’t you talk to me like that, young man, or I’ll most definitely have to give your mother a…”

“Call a goddamn ambulance! Jimmy got bit by a snake. It was a water moccasin, I think. Or maybe a cottonmouth. He needs help!”

“Oh, my land!” exclaimed Mrs. Hamilton as she immediately darted inside and back out, in a matter of seconds, wielding her cordless landline phone.

She was fumbling it around like a football she was being counted upon to haul in to win the state championship. Once secured, she slammed it against her face:

“GET AN AMBULANCE OVER HERE AS QUICKLY AS YOU DURN WELL CAN! There’s a little boy here been bit’ by a snake!”

She hung up the phone and sprinted, as quickly as she could, over to the edge of The Emptiness to where the boys were located. As she ran, her kitchen apron blew up in the wind, temporarily blocking her face. She swatted it down, the motion of which resembled someone fighting off a swarm of angry bees. Once she reached Jimmy, she squatted down and put his head in her hands.

“What’re you boys doin’ crawlin’ ‘round in that tunnel! You boys know it ain’t safe in there! Everyone knows that!”

Mrs. Hamilton continued holding Jimmy, stroking his face and telling him it was going to be all right, while Anthony and Tim stared on in motionless silence, youth finally breaking through their previously self-perceived hard exterior. Tim, ashamed at temporarily forgetting about Cleo, sprang over and took her in his arms.

“It’s gonna’ be okay, girl. Give me some of those stinky poop-smooches you love so much!”

Tim began sobbing, his chest heaving in strain. Cleo was dying. A small dog like her can’t withstand a bite from venomous snakes, especially one from a Cottonmouth of such extraordinary size.

By the time the ambulance arrived, Cleo had already breathed her last.

Jimmy, however – though seemingly also on the verge himself – was still kicking. He was however completely pale, extremely sweaty, and entirely distant. He looked as if he wasn’t at all present, but instead in some other realm. He was shaking, his eyes darting back and forth, and – though he certainly wasn’t aware of what was happening all around him – he seemed to be conscious of something else. Something otherly.

The sound of the sirens threw Jimmy into a state of shaking convulsions. It was as if – though seemingly unaware of everything that was happening around him – he was still somehow sensitive, perhaps much more sensitive, to the loud, ringing noise. He kept shaking; the only sound coming from his lips a strange, guttural, formulaic uhh uhhh uh uh uhhh uhh, like a demented, satanic Morse code.

By the time the EMT reached him and checked his vitals, he was already gone. They didn’t seem to know it yet – at they didn’t act like they did – but he was dead. He had stopped shaking, the strange sound had ceased, and he now lay limply on the ground, his arms dangling backwards into the tall summer grass. In an instant, however, just before everyone had become assured that Jimmy had died, he lunged back to life, his eyes wider than any human-person’s eyes should be capable of widening, his mouth stretching, its cartilage cracking – demonically agape:

“UHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHH!” roared Jimmy. His jawbone detached and hung swinging like a porch-chair in a heavy wind from below his now broken nose.

The sound came from his mouth, but it wasn’t his voice. It was much too deep; it sounded as if it had come straight from the depths of hell. But though it was heavy, there was no stability to it. It cracked and changed pitch so regularly, and so disturbingly, that it was impossible to determine whether it was a sound meant to cause terror or a voice meant to communicate terror felt by its own being. Fear both created and experienced. Blood coughed out and splattered all over Mrs. Hamilton’s face and her white apron. Jimmy’s eyes turned a blackened red – almost purple. His head, on its own accord, lifted itself and moved less than an inch from the face of Mrs. Hamilton

“YOUUUUUUUUU! YOUUUUUU WERE SUPPOSED TO KEEP WAAAAATCH!”

The newly demented form of Jimmy then fell backward, looked to the left, over to the entrance to The Emptiness, made eye contact with an unrecognizable, shadowy humanoid entity sitting cross-legged at the foot of the tunnel. The figure smiled an otherworldly, horrifying, reality-inhaling smile that simultaneously somehow conveyed the entirety of happiness, humor, sarcasm, terror, and fear. Jimmy, gazing into the depth of the creature’s eyes, fell and truly died, the color draining from his face unnaturally quickly.

The snake, which had reappeared uninjured at the foot of the tunnel, lifted itself up, seeming to acknowledge the expression directed its way by Jimmy’s lifelessness. It immediately turned away and slithered off. As it did, whatever warmth, whatever lifeblood had been left inside Jimmy, quickly left as his body went cold. His spirit – his aura – somehow, as recognized and subconsciously agreed upon by everyone present that day – the kids, the EMT’s, and Mrs. Hamilton – seemed to follow the snake back into The Emptiness.