What I Found in the Cave

“Where on earth did this come from?” I gaze at the glowing knife stuck in the rocks of the cave. It outshines the light of my flashlight and forces me to squint. Nothing electrical seems to be attached to it, no wiring. Is this some kind of sick joke?

I look in each direction and find only the shadows of the cave where my light fails to penetrate. My hands shake at my sides, and I find them grasping at the cut piece of rope tied around my waist.

It was supposed to help me find my way back.

But now I’m lost.

Staring into the darkness, I grit my teeth. Droplets of water patter down from the ceiling. Something scurries on the ground. My hands tighten into fists. I taste the odor of guano in the moist humid filled air.

Stay calm, I have to stay calm.

“Paul, are you out there? Follow my voice if you can hear me.” My voice echoes into the distance and fades away. We came to explore the Santino Caves, the most notoriously dangerous place on earth, famous for its long history of people getting lost, never to be found.

I can’t let us be another statistic. After all, we’re explorers, adventurers, but for some reason, Paul just ran off on his own.

As I take a seat by the glowing knife, weary, and sip on my water, I can’t help but wonder how everything went so wrong. First, my rope was cut a half-hour into roaming here, then my camera simply stopped working, and just when I was about to go back, Paul took off on his own and ran - wouldn’t even stop when I called his name.

Strange.

But I can’t leave him here, lord knows what came over him, still, that wouldn’t be right.

The cool water is fresh in my mouth as I set the near-empty bottle back in my pack. Renewed, I look closely at the glowing knife. It must have some sort of battery inside. Did Paul leave this here, and if so, why? Why did he bring it in the first place?

Near the tip of the blade, right before it goes into the rock, there’s a smudge of red. It must be part of the decoration. It has to be, but as I grasp the handle, chills go down my spine.

Pulling it out, the knife releases smoothly. I bring it close to my face and study it.

Then red eyes flash before my own.

Bats rush out of the caves, and I duck to get away from them. The ground rumbles and I fall, so I cling to the shaking earth with sweaty hands for stability. Then in a second, everything is quiet once more.

“Ken, over here. I’m over here. I found the way out.” Paul’s voice calls out to me from straight ahead.

A grin spreads across my face as I rise. I run to the sound of him and holler his name back. After a great distance, I still don’t see him with my flashlight. Then footsteps sound off and I head in that direction.

“Help me, please.” He calls out again, agony in his voice.

“I’m coming, Paul, but where the hell are you?” As I run, the cave begins to narrow and the ceiling grows higher and higher. Before long, I’m going across a bridge and teetering along the edge of a bottomless abyss. Adrenaline courses through my veins.

In the blink of an eye, a fiery light appears in the distance. A dark silhouette figure appears that I want to believe is Paul, but as I get closer, something else, something horrible emerges.

Several feet taller than me, the creature has the body of a millipede and the head of an old man with a mess of grey hair, and a black void where an eye used to be. On one of its arms is the decapitated head of Paul. The monster moves the jaw like a puppet and speaks in Paul’s voice. “Oh please, help me, Ken. The monster got me. I might lose my head if you don’t come and save me!”

Then laughter reverberates throughout the massive room from every direction. Darkness fades away and light emerges seemingly from nowhere at all. Hundreds of the creatures, with their mangled humanoid faces and insect bodies, cover the walls in hordes. At the bottom of a pit, is a pile of countless human skeletons.

My body shaking, I look into the black eyes of the creature holding Paul’s head.

It smiles back.

The monster shrugs and holds the head like it were a fork at a dinner party. “You humans are so easy to trap, it’s almost not even fun. Mind control one, leave an enchantment for the other, and voila, dinner.” It flashes its teeth, and then its voice switches back to Paul’s. “Now how would you like to be served, Ken?”

The hundreds of creatures heave with screeching laughter.

I turn toward the only exit and find it’s so far away, swarmed and blocked by the monsters' gigantic bodies. All breath escapes me. My body trembles and my thoughts are a dizzying array. Slowly, I turn and look back at the creature, its face suddenly inches from mine.

The edges of its mouth curl up in a wicked grin, baring its needle-sharp teeth coated in blood. “Mind if I take a bite?”

I look down and shudder.

Then the beast lunges forward...

THE END.