The Cavern

Psudo-cosmic horror

I had to get away. I had to. Home wasn’t home anymore. Though I don’t know why I’m here. The young woman thought, looking over a vast forest from atop a great and terrible mountain. I’ve always wanted to go spelunking, but this is dangerous. The two things I do know about cave diving are: One – Tell someone where you’re going, and two – NEVER go alone. Despite these hesitant thoughts, here she stood inching closer to a small hole in the side of this beast of a mountain. I need to go in. The sun is hurting my eyes and I can feel it boiling my skin. If I listen carefully, I can hear running water. “I’m so thirsty.” She crawled in, torch on, through the tight squeeze in the opening. The hole opened into a small pathway. The Abyss-like darkness of the cave split by the torch’s blade, revealed structures that the woman believed she was the first to see. She was wrong.

The beam of the torch violently illuminated the cave’s creations. She marvelled at the warping towers of golden crystal reaching for their twins on the ceiling. Judging by the sound, the stream is probably further in. The wanderer thought, her mind overflowing with curiosity. The cool ancient air of the cave was polluted by her breath as she crept between the jagged teeth of the cave. At the end of the chamber, there was a small hole sloping downward to a drop. A small stream of water travelled down this slide and into a pool of water at the bottom. The wanderer began to crawl down the slope forgetting to leave a way to get back up, but deep down she knew that she wouldn’t need it. When I fall into the water, I’ll need to bend my knees to reduce whatever impact there is. The wanderer fell into the water and as that happened her name became clear. Alice. All at once, Details became clear 31, recently divorced, Marked. The Marked one named Alice swam to the surface of the water. The stagnant water of the cave soaking her to her core. The water was just deep enough to stop any damage from her fall.

The freezing water soaked deep into Alice’s bones. She looked around the dark cavern. Its warping crystalline roof shimmering from the torch’s light. As Alice was wading to the edge of the water, she began to comprehend the cave. She saw the abyss surrounding her thin sliver of light, she heard the vast echoes of her footsteps, and for a moment, she knew. She knew the unbelievably crushing weight of the stone above her, along with the incomprehensible depth that lay below. She moved through the cavern until she reached a chasm. A place where the earth had split, leaving its fractured pieces to form outcroppings of rocks. Alice drew and violently drove the pick into the rock below her, she then tied a cord to the pick and began to abseil down the cliff. A few seconds passed and Alice was engulfed by darkness. Somewhere about 15 metres down, a shifting crack echoed from above. This is bad. Alice desperately reached for the rock face. Her arm outstretched barely scraped the wall. A harsh crack echoed throughout the cave. In a moment, Alice was falling. The air whistled past her as she turned in the air just fast enough to put her hand out in front of her. Her wrist connected with the ground and as her weight was thrown through it, her forearm burst with a spray of blood. Her head connected with the ground.

Blood flowed from her arm and forehead. If it continued like this she would not make it. She had come two far to be allowed to die now. A drop of water fell from the cavern’s ceiling, landing directly atop the place where her bone had burst from her arm as though fate had decided it. In seconds, the crystals that formed the features of the cave had sealed the vein that had released the most blood. Alice dreamed. While in her old life she had dreamed the phantasmal dreams of the lucky now she dreamed only of going deeper. She saw the path. With a shock she awoke. Pain overcame her body. But it was trivial. She looked around using the remnants of her torch and found the floor scattered with caving equipment. Tens of sets of gear. All leading to a thin hole in the side of the chasm. She stepped through the equipment which seemed to transcend era. This is insane, there are candles, matches, gas lamps, is … is that a wax torch?  Alice had a moment of respite and humour before terror and realisation washed over her. She understood. Alice dropped her torch and allowed it to shatter. She unclipped her helmet which was now soaked with blood. Her equipment bag hit the floor with a loud clatter. The darkness consumed her. She continued through the small hole in the side of the chasm.

Alice fumbled through the dark weaving through the crushing walls of the path. Scraping and cutting her. Her terror and feverish need to continue masked the pain of her destroyed left arm. Left, right, under, down, back, forward, down, right, left down. She knew. She did not know how she knew. Perhaps she had always known. There was nothing but the need to go deeper. Perhaps this was all that she ever wanted. All that she ever was. A need. A need to go… Deeper, deeper. Left, right, down further, scramble, scrape, crawl. The dirt below her gave way and she tumbled into a small cavern. The end of the cavern was illuminated by an alien blue glow creating a halo around a black void. As Alice stepped towards it, there was a booming collapse behind her of the caves teeth closing her. No… no this is wrong. Why am I here. How did I get here. At this moment true terror overcame Alice. She knew where she was being pulled. The gaping void called. We are hungry. Alice screamed, she screamed a desperate scream that was heard by no one. She could have screamed and cried for hours or even days but it did not matter. She knew that she had no choice. Alice looked down the void and did not see an end. No matter how fearful or distraught she was, Alice knew.  She knew that deep down this was her purpose. She stepped into the void and plummeted. Alice was consumed by us. Though she is not dead. Our void does not end. It merely consumes. Alice Marked by fate to be consumed. Whose life was but seasoning for our feast. So that we do not awaken. Alice who has finally fulfilled her purpose. Until we grow hungry once more.