IN FOUR DAYS (Saga Three — FINALE)
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DAY FOUR…
It is time for you two… She will be pleased with your innocence. Come; this will be over soon.
The shadowy figure hovered in the air in front of Bethany and Rory. Darkness writhed alive and twisting all around his chest and obscuring his neck, but his legs and ugly green work boots could be seen dangling a few feet above the ground. Both of the children had their heads bowed and didn’t react at all to his words. They followed obediently behind him when he turned and floated down the tunnelway.
Cortnie stood dumbfounded in shock by the sight of the ghoulish apparition. Before when he had attacked them in the elevator, she had rationalized and decided it had to be some crazed man. Then after the security guard had disappeared, she secretly bought into Mr. Phelps theory that the despicable Sharp Brothers had somehow rigged this whole stunt. The security officer was probably just a paid actor.
But… he is here and REAL! Drifting in the air. He doesn’t even know I am watching from in here! Her mind screamed at her. And now, he has the children.
She shook her head, clearing away the fuzziness. Her head ached, even felt swollen and drowned within her terror. The nightmare of this mine had up-ended her world of order and logic. Somehow she had fallen into someone’s mushroom acid trip. Nothing felt right, nothing felt safe since she stepped onto the Regis Shaft elevator platform. In spite of the stuffiness of the mine’s stale air, the skin along her arms goosebumped and ice ran in her veins.
Carol, the fourth grade teacher and Cortnie had been searching together the tunnel that went east per the map that Billie had found. On pure reflex, the tour guide had raced ahead after hearing the children’s voices. Carol had not been able to keep up and the two had been separated.
Suddenly the silence in the tunnel was interrupted by a desperate wail from the little girl. It echoed ominously all around her.
“Oh shit, the girl!” She barked at herself, angry for standing so long in thought and letting the bastard take them.
“HEY!” Carol cried after her — she had just caught back up to her and had walked into the tunnel entrance when she spotted Cortnie springing into action.
“He’s got them!” She yelled over her shoulder as she disappeared again into another black hole.
“Wait up!”
Cortnie didn’t waste a response and plunged along blindly. The walls cut into her hands, the rocks poked and scraped her fingers. The very faint footfalls of the children ahead and the occasional sounds of rocks being stepped on were her only guide.
In the depths of the mine and under tons of rock and dirt, she experienced the exact opposite of claustrophobia. She felt lost, distanced from everything, swimming above a bottomless pit. It was as if the world stretched in all directions away from her. Swallowed whole and alive in the belly of the Foxworth Mines, she ignored her fear as much as possible and ran along its intestines. She couldn’t get closer to the Phelps children; just only able to keep up.
A crash of wood and metal and a brief shriek somewhere buried far behind her in the abandoned mines, Cortnie heard what she presumed was Carol falling and falling hard evidently by the cries that followed. She paused for a second and considered going back for the woman. Helpless, alone and injured would be a nightmare trauma for anyone to go through. However, the image of the two children with their heads bowed flashed in her mind. Shaking her head, she resumed her chase. Children must come first.
She pushed on for several more minutes when the charcoal curtain in front of her eyes grew a shade lighter. It could have been her imagination, but she thought she detected an emerald green light ahead. Whatever it was, it spurred her to move even faster. Along with the literal light at the end of the tunnel, she heard a noise… a machine?… humming subtly.
The tour guide skidded in the gravel along the path. Standing stock still, she tried to make out the actual source of the sound. Was it the creature perhaps?
She took several steps forward and the rhythm increased, rolled over her like thunder as it became more audible. Barely noting that the ground had softened under her feet and that the wall she had groped to lead her here had fallen away, she found herself inside a massive cavern. A muted, greenish glow filled the room.
Two short shadow figures stood with their backs to her.
“Rory? Bethany? Children, come here.” She spoke out loud. Her quivering voice was slightly louder than a whisper, however, in this tomblike chamber, it sounded to her like a scream.
You will find no children here. A husky female voice filled her head.
The figures broke apart and blended with the rest of the darkness.
“Who-who?”
The rhythmic machine noise had also changed.
Cortnie thought at first it was her own heartbeat. The sound of her heart echoing loudly in her ears.
No… wait! She realized that it was a heartbeat. But it’s not mine — the whole room is filled with that pulse!
Twin blazing eyes of fire opened a few yards before her. Her screech of disgust and horror caught in her throat. A female face was illuminated by the inferno orbs. It was puffy, grotesquely misshapen and split by a wide, malicious smile.
A wave of skittering commotion surrounded her, the noise rushed at her from all directions.
GOTCHA!
The mouth tore open and an eruption of white slime spewed out and washed over her. She struggled helplessly beneath the glue-like globs as the liquid coursed down her body. Her weight shifted off balance and her body crashed to the ground. Hundreds of pale, yellowish spiders awaited her and swarmed over her.
A throaty laugh filled the cavern.
As the tiny mass of insects began to drag her deeper into the underground grotto, Cortnie strained to scream for help…
Plea for her life…
Breathe…
“We are golden, boys! I’m telling you — Golden! Did you see that thing? If we can capture that creature on film, we will nev–”
A series of painful screams rang out somewhere far away in the mineshafts and interrupted Brett’s ranting.
The three ghost hunters stared at each other, wide-eyed. Billie and Dominic were near-panic and frozen with their mouths open. Brett had dollar signs bursting from his eyes and the biggest shit-eating grin upon his face.
They were alone and had been trekking along the western path that Brett had chosen.
“That sounded like that Phelps woman.” Dominic whispered.
“Awww man! Dominic, why aren’t you filming?”
“We are out searching for kids, remember? This isn’t time for the show.”
“Whoa! Wrong! Don’t you get it? What’s more perfect than if we film us finding and rescuing those punk brats?”
Dominic could only continue to gawk at the pompous ass.
“None of that matters now.” Billie whimpered as he stared down at his wristwatch.
“What?”
“It’s 1:18 am. We are running out of time!” He dropped to the floor and hugged his knees.
“For crying out loud, Bill. You are really buying this crap?”
“Sherri sent him after us! She told me, ‘In four days’ and now this!”
Fury replaced the dollar signs as Brett’s cheeks reddened. “Not now! I am not having this talk again. I am warnin–”
“–Who’s Sherri? What is he talking about?” Dominic cut in.
“She came back! She came to me in-in a nightmare,” the young kid stuttered, sobs shaking his shoulders. “She’s going to make us pay for what we did to her. Maybe for everything we have done, Brett.” He looked up at his older brother, misery etched into his normal happy face.
Brett had his fists balled up and were digging into the sides of his hips. He was at a loss for words. Finally, he said through clenched teeth, “Billy, if you say another word, I swear to God, I will have to kill Dominic. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”
The threat sat in the air, hung over their heads like a swinging axe blade.
“You shouldn’t have killed her.”
Dominic watched intently as the older Sharp brother’s arms dropped and his shoulders slumped. Billy had just called Brett’s bluff for the first time in his life and had blurted out their secret sin. He balled up his own fists at his side, ready to defend himself.
Brett Sharp slowly lifted his head up and locked eyes with Dominic.
“It…it wasn’t supposed to ever get that far,” He said aloud, the tone of his voice flat and distant. “One night we were bored, drunk and horny. I called up an old friend of Dad’s and the next thing I knew, we had an escort to share.” He shrugged his shoulders.
Billy added, “After I’m done, he likes to rough them up a bit before his turn. You know kind of like we were playing Good Cop/Bad Cop.”
“Brett, how long has this been going on?” Disgust and disbelief dripped from his words.
“Since the Philly Morgue Episode. But, I swear, man. Sherri was the only…uh, well, the only one who fought back so hard. It pissed me off. And, I hurt her.”
“You killed the girl!” Dominic spat back at him.
“Yes. But this dumbass thinks she’s come back from the dead to have us killed. Like some Supernatural Judge Judy has passed sentence on us. Of all people, Billy, we know that ghosts don’t kill.”
“And yet, here we are. That thing on the elevator did say it will get us within seventy-two hours.”
“Look, Dominic. I get it — you are pissed and angry and frightened, but let’s not go off the rails here. After this, Billy and I won’t ever hire another girl. Promise.”
“After this?” He scoffed in anger.
“Yeah, swear it to you. Look, if you need some money to forget all of this, my fath–”
Billy sprang from his position and sent a rocket uppercut into his chin. Brett slammed shoulder first into a cart and sprawled onto some half-buried rail tracks.
“I HATE YOU. I HATE WHAT YOU HAVE TURNED ME INTO. WE DESERVE ALL OF THIS!”
Brett rolled over with a groan, blood flowing from a broken front tooth. He gazed groggily up at his kid brother.
All three of their cell phone alarms rang as one. Their two hour search was over.
Almost another hour later, the three men cautiously approached the Regis Shaft’s main chamber. They could hear a wheezing sound.
“No, no, dear. It’s okay. But maybe you could get me that bottle of water over there.” The voice of the elderly Mr. Gerard floated down the tunnelway to them.
He continued to wheeze as they entered. The man’s legs were sprawled out before him as he laid up against one wall. His clothes were torn and soaked heavily with blood on his right side. The petite eight-year old Bethany was wiping a damp cloth over his forehead, cleaning some of the coal dust from his forehead.
“OH! Good…there you are. I wasn’t sure if anyone else was alive.” He said when he spotted them.
“What do you mean, alive? Where’s everyone?” Brett snapped at him.
“That creature… the Shade. He’s gotten most of the others I believe.”
Billie glanced at Bethany and she looked away, a fresh sob in her throat.
“He came for Bethany’s parents and us — Mr. Menneck and I. He—” Gerard suddenly coughed and had to spit to clear his throat. “Sorry. It’s the coal dust that’s affecting my asthma. Anyway, Mr. Menneck tried to fire a gun which I guess he had strapped to his leg. He fired right at him, but somehow the bullet ricocheted and hit her mother in the head.”
He paused and then pointed at the blood on his shoulder and down his shirt. “This isn’t mine.”
An awkward silence fell over the group.
“Where’s your brother, Bethany?” Dominic finally asked.
“Something — I think it was a big dog — grabbed him before I could get him back here.” She sniffled and brought up the back of her hand to wipe across her face.
Brett sighed heavily, brought up his own hand to touch his fattening upper lip gingerly. “What of that bitch tour guide and the other lady? Oh, and how did you escape?”
“Like I said, I am not sure if there are other survivors. We haven’t seen anyone since we made it back about twenty minutes ago. I was unlucky and lucky; fell into a pit as the bastard’s, uh, tentacles came at me. Bethany found me and we managed our way here.”
“Jesus!” Billy whimpered. “I wish we never came down here.”
A thought sparked in Dominic’s mind.
Could she be? A partial idea and fleeting hope bloomed in his head. The others watched intrigued as he suddenly jogged across the room to the elevator platform and rifled through their bags. Stuffed into the last of the equipment bags was one last camera.
He switched it on and took a deep breath before looking into the view finder.
YES!
The little, dirty trapper girl stood before him like she had previously in the mansion. She nodded to him and tilted her head to the right as she stared at him. Her neck appeared to be broken in several places.
“Is there a way out?” he asked aloud.
Again she bobbed her head at him; it rocked back and forth in a sickening, slack motion. She raised his left hand and waved for him to follow her.
He lowered the view finder and found the others grouped around him.
“What are you doing, Dom?” Billy whispered to him.
“I cannot explain it, but after what we have all seen tonight, I don’t think I should have to. A Trapper girl keeps appearing in my cameras and now she is going to show us the way out.”
Gerard nodded, “Lead on. We have to get out and bring back help for the others.”
Dominic glanced back into the finder to see that the girl waited for them along one passage — the same eastern shaft that the tour guide had taken.
As they trailed after her, she would pop off the screen and then reappear further along in the tunnel. They followed in this fashion only a few minutes before she stopped and pointed to a wooden chest, partially buried in rubble and layers of coal dust.
Another message in red blinking letters flashed on the screen. He was not going to ignore it this time.
YOU WILL KNOW WHEN TO USE THE FLARES
The trapper girl disappeared and didn’t pop back on again.
The party of survivors — the Sharp brothers, Dominic, the old man and the little girl all stood at the base of twin wooden ladders. They flanked on both sides of a massive ore chute which went at least four hundred feet up in a steep angle to another tunnel passage. The opening for the chute was caked and blocked with abandoned charcoal. The eastern tunnel that they had trekked along for hours had led to this dead-end with the pine wood chute.
“It’s the only way we can go further.” Gerard argued.
“Yes, but this is not on the map,” Dominic complained.
Brett pointed his finger at him, “This was the route your girlfriend put us on. You asked us to trust her and now you want to go back? Where can we even go if we did go back?”
He dug into his back pocket and produced his own cell phone.
“Wait. What the hell?” He held up his phone and the image showed only a blank shaft wall.
Billy and the other two scrambled to get their phones out. The image was the same blank wall.
So easy for you to trust your technology. So easy for me to lead you …
The coarse voice filled the chamber. The survivors ignited and exploded up the twin ladders in sheer terror.
Brett led his younger brother up the left while Dominic supported — shoved — Gerard and Bethany up the right side.
A high-pitch whistle could be heard below them. It rang out and increased as frigid wind raced into the tunnel and up the ladders. The sudden chill air blasted and rushed over them. All of them stopped in their panic to stare down into the black maw of shadows encompassing where they had stood. The tell-tale writhing shadows announced that he was coming for them. Pieces of the chute and ladder were ripped free and the tempest was grew closer and closer.
“DOMINIC!” Billy screeched as the ladder broke beneath his hands and feet. He fell backwards, swallowed into the abyss.
Brett didn’t bother or hesitate to look back for his lost brother. He just leaped forward trying to catch the last rung as his section of ladder gave way as well. His scream could not be heard over the clamor.
Dominic paused to hug the rungs and yanked free the three miners’ flares he had salvaged from the trunk that he stuffed into his jean’s back pocket. He struck the ends of the flares hard against the cut rock next to the ore chute.
Three showers of sparks exploded from the flares and like strob lights blinked in harsh contrast against the oncoming dark.
A horrific gasp and howl of rage bombarded their ears as the tempest of wind and living shadows escaped back down the ladders and into the mines below.
“YES! YES!! GOT YOU, YA BAST—” The ladder broke beneath Dominic’s feet.
The last of the 72: Isolation Investigations trio woke groggily and he stared uncomprehending down at his shoes. His feet were silhouettes against a faint, greenish light which came from below him. Dominic thought he might be laying down, but yet he was also moving.
Am I on the deck of some boat? He wondered in his mind.
It was rising up and then down and then back up again. He couldn’t make any sense of it.
He tried to ask, but his mouth wouldn’t move. In fact, only his eyes could move!
All around him was a mammoth chamber of silvery webs and myriad swarms of spiders. He could hear the beat of a heart. It’s rhythm a slow, constant cadence. There were other heart beats… other heart beats that he could hear just under the first one.
As his eyes grew even more accustom to his surroundings, he wanted nothing more than to be blind again.
Beside him he could make out several arms and legs in the corners of his peripheral vision.
Then opposite from him, he saw a young Hispanic woman with long dark hair. She was laying upside down. A stranger and not one of the people he had been trapped with in the Foxworth Mines. Her eyes were open and alert as well. Yet, even in this low light, he could see the insanity and terror that swam freely in the depths of them.
Like Dominic, she was not able to move. Her body was encased in a filmy, transparent substance and plastered to a wall.
Not a wall. The mocking voice of the demon that had hunted them all night spoke in his head.
The horrible realization finally dawned on him: the wall was segmented with many ridges and it expanded up and then down. This wall was alive.
They were on the bloated body of an unimaginable worm-like monster. He could further make out the shapes of sacs under its skin — misshapen embryos that were twisting and shaking inside them.
You and all of the others now serve Foshξmadæ, Demon Mother of Atrocities. You are her and she is you. You and the chosen sinners are forever her living corpse armor.
A second voice bellowed inside his skull.
You will serve and protect my body for all eternity.
THE END
