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  Ellie looked at him hopefully, and he watched her expression melt away to one of terror. She opened her mouth to yell, but it was too late. He felt something hard hit him in the back of the head, then everything went black.

  Chapter Thirteen

  10:00 AM

  The car sat abandoned in the desert, three of its four doors hanging wide open to offer a reprieve from the mid-morning sun. Several lizards had already found refuge among Ellie’s strewn pharmaceuticals along the floorboard. They quivered and dashed away, tails flicking, as a large figure disturbed their habitat.

  Liam straightened up to look at Noah over the car hood. His roommate hadn’t bothered to approach the vehicle, instead opting to stand back while Liam inspected the scene. “Is this where you rolled out?” he asked.

  Noah nodded. “A little further back yes, they must have abandoned the car too.”

  They had traveled in the direction of Colossal Cave for about thirty-five minutes before coming upon the vehicle. Wires hung loosely out the driver’s side door, pulled free from the battery. Liam tested the connection. It sparked, and the car hummed to life.

  “You rolled out of the car and it kept going- who was driving?”

  “The man.”

  “Did you notice he pulled the battery wires?”

  “No.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Hell if I know.”

  Liam looked at him thoughtfully, then back at the car. He inspected the tires. He had changed them recently with a new set stolen from the neighborhood tire store. The roads were deteriorating, he had to make sure his car would make it anywhere. He closed the back doors and rounded the trunk. He popped the lid, pulled out a water bottle and unscrewed the top. He gestured to Noah with an unopened bottle, but Noah shook his head. Liam dank three quarters of the bottle without stopping, then screwed on the top and slammed the trunk.

  “Well, the car’s on. Get in.”

  He climbed behind the wheel and set the two water bottles in the cup holders. A few seconds later, the passenger door opened and Noah dropped down beside him. Liam spent a few minutes reattaching the battery wires. They were slightly bent, but still worked. He started the car.

  The desert stretched on ahead but he turned the car toward higher elevation and started climbing the steady slope toward the rocky mountains above. He drove slowly, carefully navigating large rocks and avoiding ridges in the ground. Noah sat quietly, his arm resting on the center console.

  “You still sure about Colossal Cave?” Liam asked.

  “I’m positive.”

  “Why would he go there?”

  Noah kept his gaze fixed ahead. “Why would I know? Maybe he’s with Talisa.”

  “I thought you said he took Talisa.”

  “I think he did, and then I think he came back for the rest of us. You’re lucky you were hiding out in the station. He probably had no idea you were here.”

  Liam remembered the way Talisa looked at him before he left her in the car. She had been anxious. “Do you think Talisa knows him?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Did he say anything about her?”

  “I wasn’t with him for very long. We were driving this way when I rolled out. We need to find Ellie. Who knows what’s happening to her.”

  They approached the rock formations, and Liam could make out an old dirt maintenance road twisting toward the top of the mountain. Noah pointed. “Follow the trail, it will take you up the back route to the main entrance.”

  Liam turned the wheel, finding purchase on the flattened gravel. “So when Talisa said she was looking for the darkness, you think she’s looking for something in the caves?”

  “Probably.”

  “You think something could be down there?”

  Liam saw Noah swallow hard, his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat. “Something bad.”

  The tires spun on a loose patch of gravel, and Liam struggled to keep the wheel straight. Something didn’t feel right. He glanced at Noah, taking quick note of the way he sat rigid in his seat, hands absentmindedly tugging at his jeans. He had cuts all along his hands, the skin dehydrated and cracked.

  “Do you remember when our neighbor Sally knocked on our door a year ago?” Liam asked. “She was dealing with people climbing up on her roof?”

  Noah paused, trying to figure out the connection. “Yes.”

  “She was convinced someone climbed on her roof every night to smoke weed and throw parties. She’d visit us regularly complaining of sleep deprivation. Wanted the damn kids to get off her roof, party somewhere else.”

  Noah sighed impatiently. “I remember that. Why?”

  “Remember how you felt so badly for her and wanted to help? Installed metal grating around her place where anyone could try to climb up the side of her building?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you remember why you wanted to do that?”

  “It was the neighborly thing to do.”

  “And you wanted to give her some peace of mind.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Do you remember how she responded?”

  Noah thought about it. “She was extremely grateful, stayed with me while I installed the grates. Real chatty.”

  Liam nodded. “She was. Then I did a stakeout that night. I stayed up the entire time watching her roofline from sunset to sunrise. That entire time, I didn’t see a solitary figure on top of that roof. Maybe a bird landed up there and then flew away. No noise, no weed. And the next day she was knocking on our door again complaining of partying teenagers.”

  Noah went still.

  “None of it was real,” Liam said. “It never happened. She was a paranoid schizophrenic. She ran out of her meds.” Liam glanced at Noah. “But we still helped her, even though the demons weren’t real.”

  Noah nodded.

  “Because that’s what we do,” Liam said. “We help people no matter what. This time, I think the demons might actually be real. I think we’re facing something we’ve never faced before, but that doesn’t change anything and we are in this together. We’re going to find Talisa and Ellie. You can count on me no matter what, you know that right?”

  Noah looked at him, relieved. “We’re in this together,” he repeated.

  “If you think they’re in the cave, then I trust you.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  8:35 AM

  Ellie screamed as Noah pitched forward, eyes rolling back in his head. The man stood in the cave opening, dried blood caked down the front of his face and onto his tattered shirt. His face no longer flickered. He looked down at her bloodied and bandaged feet and sniffed loudly.

  “You left a trail,” he sneered.

  “No,” she cowered as he stepped over Noah’s motionless body and advanced on her. “Please don’t-”

  Unnaturally strong hands grabbed her arms and yanked upward. Pain shot through her feet as her weight shifted to stand, and then he was pulling her out of the cave. “Noah!” He remained face-down on the ground as they passed, unmoving.

  “Relax dear, he’s coming with us,” the man’s voice snarled against her ear. Her body shuddered in revulsion. He shifted his grip, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and pinning her arms against her body. With his free hand, he grabbed Noah by the back of his shirt and began to drag him through the desert. Noah’s head flopped side to side, his body leaving a trail of deep lines in the sand.

  “Can’t afford to leave anyone out here, no no no.” The man said as he pulled them along the boulders, climbing steadily in elevation. “That’s not what It wants- musn’t disobey- must deliver- bring all humans to It- no mercy.”

  Ellie stumbled and struggled to stay upright with his rapid pace. His dirty nails dug deep into her skin and blood trickled down her arm. “Don’t do this,” she pleaded.

  “No choice-it knows-it calls for it-can’t disobey-must sacrifice-cannot stop-”

  They approached a large
opening in the mountain, and she realized it was another cave. Unlike the one she’d found, this one kept going further back into the earth, winding into a small tunnel where the sunlight could no longer reach them. She dug her toes in the ground and shoved hard against his chest. He held onto her with superhuman strength, his breath hot against her cheek.

  “Help!” her screams echoed off the rock walls. “Liam!”

  “No one can hear you!” He was gleeful, building energy the farther down they traveled. They were completely out of the light now, and she stumbled blindly through the tunnel. The temperature dropped rapidly. Sand gave way to hardened earth, smoothed from years of geological evolution.

  She knew about Colossal Cave from a class field trip she’d attended as a child. She remembered exploring the dimly lit caverns with her friends and teacher, a guide leading the way to teach them about rock formations and minerals. The network of winding tunnels was impressive, but she imagined the tour couldn’t cover the full extent of the cave system. She developed a budding interest in geology and wanted to come back so she could study it further. But then, a year later, the main entrance closed after something terrible happened inside.. Ellie had assumed that it would eventually reopen, but the entire cave was condemned instead.

  They walked for a long time, twisting and turning through the invisible labyrinth until Ellie couldn’t keep track of their direction. We’ll be lost in here, she thought.

  “Only the Darkness can hear you,” the man said, and he turned back to sneer at her. As if he had heard her thoughts. “And the Darkness is your only salvation.”

  * * *

  10:15 AM

  Liam continued driving for several miles, climbing higher and higher in elevation until the road came to an end and they were suddenly there.

  Decades of tourism had transformed the actual cave entrance into a storefront. A stone building sat nestled in the mountainside. A giant, wooden ‘condemned’ sign stretched across the entrance, the letters faded in the desert sun.

  “Did you hear what happened here?” Liam asked, his voice muted inside the car.

  “No,” Noah said.

  “It was an urban legend at the precinct. High school geology class went on a field trip. Perfectly normal day on a typical guided tour that thousands of people go on every single year. But something happened to one of the students. Normal girl with no history of mental health started to hear voices.”

  “Oh.”

  “At first, her classmates couldn’t tell what was happening until she started talking erratically. Shouting at nothing, becoming a hazard to the other students as they walked the tunnels. Finally, she had a full psychotic break and started attacking her classmates.”

  He looked at Noah, and noticed that his roommate was noticeably sweating, beads dripping down the side of his face.

  “Just as the teacher and tour guide were about to restrain the student, she took a leap off one of the ledges. Several hundred-foot drop. Died instantly. The entire cave had to shut down in order to remove her body. We thought they’d open it back up after that, since the cave has played such a significant part in human history for thousands of years. But after a few months of cleaning and restructuring the path systems, they stopped work altogether and shut it all down. Rumors are that people started to hear things the longer they worked in the cave, but that’s just sensationalism. I personally think the cave lost funding as a result of the bad press.”

  They sat in silence, staring forebodingly past the gift shop and restaurant facades that concealed the cave entrance. The sun shone brightly overhead in a cloudless sky, the heat steadily climbing inside the car.

  “We should hurry,” Noah said.

  “Let me grab my light,” Liam said.

  Noah didn’t answer. They both climbed out of the car. Liam opened the trunk again and pulled out the battery-operated flashlight. He slammed the trunk shut. “Oh. How’s your throat by the way?”

  “Hm? Fine, why?” Noah had been standing by the passenger side of the car, staring up at the cave entrance. He turned to look at Liam.

  In a single motion, Liam drew his pistol from its holster with his free hand and pointed the barrel at his roommate.

  It took a split second for Noah to register what he was seeing. When he did, he jumped back, hands raised. “Whoa, what are you doing?”

  Liam’s hand was steady. “Don’t move,” he ordered.

  Noah stammered. “What do you mean? Liam, that’s not cool, man!”

  “You’re not Noah.”

  “What?” Noah waved his arms frantically. “ Put that down before you do something crazy-”

  “I’m not crazy,” Liam said. He dropped the flashlight so he could grip the gun with both hands, “but you nearly had me fooled.”

  “No, you have this all wrong.” Noah stepped forward, his hand outstretched as if to take the gun. Liam dodged and stepped back.

  “Hands up, or I’ll shoot!” he shouted.

  “Stop!” Noah squeezed his eyes shut and threw his hands in the air, his legs giving out beneath him until he was at a half crouch. “You don’t know what you’re doing!”

  “Do I? The burns on your neck are gone, and we never had a neighbor named Sally.” Liam placed his finger on the trigger. “I’m only going to ask you once. Who are you and what did you do to Noah?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  8:50 AM

  Ellie’s head spun as she tried to find purchase in the darkness. She brushed up against invisible rock formations, pain shooting through her body with each impact. The only sounds she heard were the man’s rugged breathing and the scraping of Noah’s motionless body dragging behind them. Tears stung her eyes.

  The man’s grip was like an iron vice on her arm. He began to mutter again.

  “Take you there...pleased...perhaps now...freedom...keep going...deeper-”

  “Why are you doing this?” Ellie asked, her voice hollow against the tight curves of the tunnel. She held out her free hand to feel for low hanging rocks, and her fingers brushed lightly against the rock walls.

  “No choice.” He jerked her forward.

  “Yes, you have a choice,” she persisted. “You’ll get lost in here too.”

  “I can’t get lost. I’m already lost.” He let out a sudden strangled sob. They turned a corner, and the tunnel walls slipped away from her reach.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “ I woke up here and now I’m stuck here.”

  “Let’s turn around then,” she said. “You can leave with us.”

  His long hair whipped her face as he shook his head. “No. I can’t.”

  “You don’t have to be alone. You can get help. I-I can help you.”

  “No, I can’t. It won’t let me.”

  “Who is It?”

  He didn’t answer. Her bandaged foot collided painfully with something hard, and she fell forward. He released Noah long enough to catch her with both hands, but she kicked him and pulled away. For a split second she was free. She turned around-

  He tackled her bodily from behind, his stench filling her nostrils as he wrestled her to the ground. She gasped for breath, lungs burning.

  “You can’t run away from me,” he snarled, sitting up. “I can smell you.” He grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet. He felt around with his other hand until he found Noah.

  Wake up, Noah, Ellie thought. Terrible thoughts filled her mind. Perhaps he was dead. Perhaps they would both die down here.

  “Here we go,” the man said, straightening up with Noah’s arm dangling from his other hand. “We continue.” He pushed forward.

  Anger began to build in Ellie’s chest. Anger and desperation. “I think you’re lying,” she said. “I don’t think anything is down here. Nothing is making you do this. You’re a bad person.”

  “No.”

  “You do bad things because you want to. You can’t blame your actions on anyone else. “You’r
e pathetic. Evil.”

  He shook his head again, and Ellie felt his hands trembling even with his fingers clenched tightly around her arm.

  “You’re a piece of shit. Don’t make things up because you can’t face who you are.”

  “No! No-no-no, the Darkness takes hold, the Darkness twists the truth-”

  “Fuck the Darkness. Fuck you-”

  “Stop!” His voice reverberated painfully against her ears. “You’re wrong!” He began to mutter loudly. “Darkness will consume-Darkness does not let go-It absorbs all-It cannot be fought-It cuts into your mind-your thoughts-” the man’s voice was cracking now as if straining against an invisible force. “Can you feel it? It invades and takes all prisoners. I’ve tried to resist it for so long and I couldn’t anymore. I couldn’t, I had to serve It I had to…”

  He trailed off, and she realized he was sobbing.

  They walked in silence for several minutes. Ellie’s mind raced. She decided to try a different tactic.

  “There’s someone who can maybe help you,” Ellie said. “Maybe you saw her already?”

  “No one can help me.”

  “Her name is Talisa, she came here with us but-”

  His reaction was fierce. He exploded in an ear splitting, terrible howl. She screamed as he spun her around, both sets of fingernails now digging into her shoulders. He had released Noah again.

  “What did you say?” He threw her to the ground. Her head bounced against solid rock. The world spun. The sounds of scrambling filled the darkness. A bright light burst into existence and she realized he had lit a torch. They were in the middle of a large cavern, stalactites hanging overhead from forty-foot ceilings. Their shadows flickered eerily as the man waved the torch in her direction. The light illuminated his long, scraggly hair and emaciated face. She looked away and saw a dark heap on the ground. Noah.

  He was moving.

  “What did you say?” The man repeated, bending down so his face was inches from Ellie’s. His breath smelled of rancid meat.

  Her mind was blank. “I don’t know!”