James Jenkins - The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories. Volume 1

‘You have to know that this is the world’s worst marketing speech,’ Nina said.

‘What do you mean?’

‘If you want us to come into the cave with you.’

Alex laughed.

‘Believe me, I learned from my mistake. I will never slip again. I will never panic again. And I will never go to a cave alone. If you follow those rules, it’s just as safe as riding a bike. Safer, actually.’

The man bought them another round. Their tiredness had lifted. Petri was almost happy, even though he knew it was all just a sad game they were playing before the inevitable.

‘A toe fairy!’ Nina suddenly cried out.

Alex didn’t get it.

‘A toe fairy took your toes.’

They drank to that. They agreed on a price.

They would see some cave paintings.

‘Is this your day job?’ Nina asked when they walked out of the B&B.

‘For now,’ the man said and dug something out of his pocket. Car lights flashed in the shadows. ‘Please,’ Alex said, holding the back door open. Petri waited for Nina to climb in the back seat. Men in the front, women in the back. Petri was all for equality, but they were in a conservative region.

Alex held the door open and stared at the ground. Nina went around the car and stood by the front door.

Petri pointed questioningly at the back seat. Alex nodded and smiled, but avoided his gaze. Petri climbed into the back seat.

Alex drove along the side streets at such speeds that he must have known these alleyways through and through. The headlights showed them glimpses of cobbled streets and flashes of empty gardens.

‘Did you train as a guide?’ Nina asked Alex.

Petri had to lean toward them from the back seat like a toddler who wanted to hear what his parents were saying.

‘No,’ Alex said. ‘I studied archaeology, but then well, things came up.’

‘A woman?’

‘Of course,’ Alex said. ‘And parties. And the whole world to see, with more women. And more. And more.’

Nina laughed. Petri only saw a part of her side profile through her hair. No eyes, just the tip of her nose and a mouth open in an unnatural laugh.

A sad game, before the inevitable.

After a twisting drive of more than an hour they arrived at their destination and stepped out of the car and into the cool night. It seemed they had driven uphill, as the lights of the village were far below them. Everything else was just darkness, rustling in the wind. A clear sky filled with stars above them.

Alex threw his backpack on, put on his headlamp, and told them to follow. They walked behind the bouncing beam of light, first on a path and then without one. Rotting branches crunched under their shoes. At some point, Alex turned his headlamp off and told Nina to grab onto his backpack and hold on. Petri didn’t have time to catch Nina by her hood, so he had to stumble behind them, relying only on his ears until his eyes started to get used to the dark.

‘We’re here,’ Alex soon said.

They were in a forest clearing. The calls of unfamiliar animals rang between the dark tree trunks.

‘Give me a hand, Petri.’

Alex bent down and wrapped his hands around a large object on the ground. It was hard to see any details in the dark, but Petri assumed the intention was to move a boulder aside. He went to stand opposite Alex and tried to get a good grip with his fingers.

‘Can you do it?’ Alex asked.

Petri couldn’t. Alex told him how to place his hands, and soon enough the boulder moved.

‘Good,’ Alex grunted. ‘I can do the rest by myself.’

The boulder fell on its side with a hollow sound.

‘Right,’ Alex panted. ‘I’ll go first, if that’s okay.’

He sat down on the ground, dragged his body forward and disappeared.

Petri and Nina stood under the stars and stared at the black hole in the ground.

‘Follow me.’

Alex’s voice echoed, like a sound in a container. He had switched his headlamp on. When Petri bent over the hole in the ground, he saw nothing but blinding light at first, then a hand that was reaching towards them.

Nina grabbed it before Petri could react.

‘Sit down first,’ Alex said in his echoing voice. ‘Just like that. Then give me your hand. And the other.’

Nina’s smiling face looked like a white sculpture when she disappeared underground.

A long silence followed. Petri saw a waving light in the hole, then nothing but darkness. He heard voices speaking, Nina’s laughter. Then that disappeared, too. Petri stood still and tried to think about what could be delaying Alex. A strange thought came to him. Could he push the boulder back into place alone?

‘All right, good sir,’ Alex said. The light came back, revealing the rugged edges of the hole.

Petri sat down on the ground and put his legs in the hole.

‘My hand’s here,’ Alex said.

‘Just step away,’ Petri said.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yeah.’

The light stayed still for a moment and then disappeared.

Petri leaned his elbows on the ground and let his legs slide deeper into the darkness. Gravel scraped at his buttocks until gravity did its duty.

Petri came down legs first, but the drop made him stumble. Arms came around him right away. Petri tried to get a foothold on the slippery stones but had to lean on Alex for support.

‘You okay?’ the man asked.

‘Perfect.’

That was not true. Petri was feeling confused. The heat of the last few weeks, the exhaustion and his dehydration all seemed to condense to the jumping beam of light that blinded him and painted afterimages on his retinas. Petri pulled away as politely as possible and sought Nina with his eyes. The waving light only showed him fragments of a strange woman, an alien that had filled his every thought for a year and a half.

‘I’m here,’ Nina said, right in front of Petri. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Of course,’ Petri said.

Nina’s arms suddenly wrapped around him. It was so sudden that Petri failed to return the gesture.

‘All right, love birds,’ Alex interrupted them.

Nina took a quick step away.

Alex gave them both their own headlamps. They placed them on their foreheads. When all the light beams were on, they could see how small the space they were standing in really was.

‘Rule number one,’ Alex said. ‘Do everything like in a Mel Gibson movie.’

‘Which means?’ Nina asked, laughing.

‘In slow motion.’

Alex showed them how to move. He took a deliberate step forward, bent down, placed his hand against the wall of the cave with exaggerated slow motions, then stepped forward again.

‘Do you get it? Like Mel Gibson.’

Nina and Petri followed Alex. They walked forward with their backs bowed. Their clothes scraped against the walls.

‘Look,’ Alex soon said.

They stopped.

‘The first greeting.’

Petri only saw Nina’s heaving shoulders.

‘Look at the protruding stone on your right side when you go past it. It has a carving of a mouth and a pair of eyes.’

When Petri came to the protrusion on the wall, he stopped to look at it. Yes, maybe there was a mouth. Perhaps eyes. Still, it was something nature could have done. Empty eye sockets, corners of the mouth twisted downward. A dead expression that came alive for a second when a beam of light moved and twisted the shadows.

Petri turned his head from side to side.

‘Come on,’ Nina said. She was whispering for some reason.

She was squatting less than five meters away, looking at Petri.

‘Alex is already talking to himself up ahead.’

The passage grew narrower and narrower. When they reached Alex, he explained to them that the caves were made for much smaller people. Their diets were poorer and so on.