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

Stone pressed against his skin, but Alex had been right: his body knew what to do. His anxiety disappeared. Even though he felt the pressure all around his body, the constricting sensation was not unpleasant. On the contrary. It was a carefree feeling, like being embraced by some large, benevolent creature. When Petri saw Nina’s and Alex’s headlamps, he was even a little disappointed. He could have stayed in the womb-­like pressure longer.

‘Well done, Mr. Gibson,’ Alex said and slapped Petri on his oily back.

Petri turned around and hooted out loud. It was the pure joy of success. Like when he was a little boy and managed to score a winning goal in a soccer game.

Petri looked at the ceiling of the cave and saw a strange, phosphoric glow. Something in the stone reacted to the light of his lamp. It was like looking at a starry sky.

Petri sat up and looked over his shoulder.

Nina was standing in the middle of the cave, her back to him. She was naked, and glowing, and her black hair stuck to her shoulders and back. There was something primally beautiful in that sight. Petri wanted to fuck her right then and there. Press his old, stretchy skin against her smoothness and forget everything that had come between them.

Then his eyes moved to the wall. He realized what had Nina so enchanted.

‘Unbelievable,’ Petri heard himself muttering.

‘Isn’t it?’ Alex said. Petri had spoken Finnish, but the man must have understood the tone of his voice.

Phosphoric crystals had formed an image on the wall in front of Nina.

Petri stood up and went to stand beside her.

‘How can it glow like that?’ the girl asked.

‘No one knows,’ Alex said from behind them. ‘Like I said, this cave is not in any official records. No one has studied it.’

‘Can I take a picture?’ Nina asked.

‘Go ahead,’ Alex said.

They all laughed when Nina fumbled around her body before she realized she was naked and without a phone. Without the chance to communicate with the outside world, for once. Right now, when she finally saw something truly amazing.

‘Is that a face?’ Petri asked in Finnish.

Nina didn’t answer him.

The glowing dots formed a large oval shape. Inside, there clearly were two eyes, a nose, a mouth. The expression on the face changed with the waves of their light beams. Like on that bulging stone Alex had called their first greeting.

‘Some species of mold glow,’ Alex said. ‘Maybe our ancestors knew how to plant it on stone to make pictures. No one truly knows. But isn’t it amazing?’

Petri moved his head from side to side slowly. The expressions on the face shifted with the light, but none of them looked pleasant. Petri’s eyes started to hurt. He turned around. Alex stood smugly near the hole through which they had come to the cave. He had probably been watching Nina, but now he was smiling at Petri.

The beam of light revealed something else.

‘What are those?’ Petri asked.

His lamp pointed at the cave entrance. It was surrounded by dark, oblong tracks.

‘Footprints,’ Alex said.

Petri went closer. He bent down.

They were same the kinds of prints as in the previous cave, rough stains, but made with feet. They surrounded the hole. Most were on the sides, especially towards the bottom of it. Petri put his hand on one of the prints.

‘There are toes missing,’ he said.

‘What do you mean?’ Alex asked.

The light changed in a way that told Petri that the man was now standing behind him.

‘Only the big toe is visible,’ he said.

‘That’s normal,’ Alex said. ‘The big toe just leaves a clearer impression. Those black dots there are from other toes. See?’

Petri didn’t, but the explanation sounded believable. He removed his hand from the footprint.

‘Petri?’

Nina’s voice was quiet and sleepy.

‘Yeah?’

‘I can’t stop.’

Petri stood up and looked at Nina. Slumped shoulders. Arms flush against her hips. Glistening skin.

‘Stop what?’

‘Looking.’

Nina’s whole body was bent forward.

‘It’s really . . . captivating,’ Petri said.

He started to stare at the image again, too. It really was a captivating sight. The expression on the simplistic face changed with even the tiniest movement of light. Like the picture was trying to talk. His eyes started to hurt again; a sharp sensation behind his eyeballs, like unused capillaries were filling with blood again.

Petri made himself look away. He lifted his right hand in front of him, the one that had touched the footprint on the wall.

Blood. This close, the headlamp did not transform the color to black. The grooves of his palm were filled with bright red liquid.

‘What the fu—’

The noise started gradually. At first, Petri thought that Alex had switched on some device, maybe a video camera or some other gadget that let out a broken, whining sound. He turned to Alex.

The man was standing against the wall. Almost as if he was waiting for something.

‘What was that?’ Petri asked.

Alex didn’t answer him. Petri held out his palm to the man.

‘Blood,’ he said slowly. ‘Fresh blood.’

It sounded like an accusation, but it wasn’t. He only wanted an explanation.

Alex’s expression was unreadable. Maybe fear, maybe excitement. A movement in his groin drew Petri’s attention. A twitching movement. The man’s member was swaying from side to side. Twitching to life.

‘What the hell?’ Petri said.

‘Do not panic,’ Alex said calmly. ‘That will only make things worse. The most important rule.’

‘Panic?’

The broken sound started again. It traveled along the stone. Alex did not react to it. Only his half-­hard erection kept twitching expectantly.

‘Nina?’ Petri said.

No answer.

Petri turned to look. Nina was still staring at the image on the wall. Her shoulders were pointed forward, like she was diving in a cave again. Clear liquid ran along her inner thighs. It pooled around the girl’s feet.

When the sound came for the third time, Alex finally reacted. He began to shout in a trembling voice. Petri didn’t understand the words, but he did understand their meaning.

This way. We are here.

Petri’s breathing grew shallow. Again, he felt how close the walls were. He felt all that stone and soil and the weight of eras that surrounded them. At least thirty thousand years. Handprints. Footprints. Holes in the walls. They were everywhere, identical to the ones they had come through.

Petri panicked. He chose to do it. Panic was a friend. Made him mad with rage. Showed him the rock on the ground.

When Petri hit Alex for the first time, the man didn’t even try to dodge.

‘Just give them what they want,’ he said when Petri had already raised his arm. ‘They won’t ask for much.’

The blow hit him above his left ear. Alex’s head jerked to the side, his expression distorted with pain. Then the same empty look returned.

‘They basically live on handouts,’ the man rushed to speak, ‘even when people have taken everyth—’

The second blow landed directly on his nose. There was a crunch, blood spilled out on his pale chest. Only the third blow made Alex stop talking. He started to scream. The fourth one stopped that, too. There were splatters on the wall. A roar in Petri’s head. Now there was blood on both of his hands. Alex had slumped into a sitting position. His head was lolling towards his chest, but he was still trying to climb back on his feet, like a wounded spider.

Petri dropped the rock and rushed towards Nina.

‘We are getting out of here, right now,’ he said, shaking Nina by her shoulder.

The girl looked at him, her face slack.