IN FOUR DAYS (Saga Three — Day Two)
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DAY TWO…
“I will not stand aside for this! We reserved the entire mines and th–” Brett belted out as Dominic rushed in through the door.
“–You will lower your voice or this discussion will be over right quick and you can pack up your van and get lost.” The grizzled security officer cut him off, looking right up into Brett’s face. He even had the end of his flashlight out and held it at his side like a short baseball bat.
“Whoa! Whoa!” Billy said as he squeezed himself between the pair and herded his older, short-fused brother to a corner of the cavernous room.
They had been summoned to the West Wing of the Kennett Avery Manor and at its heart was the Regis Shaft Elevator room. A caged platform 10 feet by 10 feet was connected to a huge wheel and pulley system with steel cabling as thick as a man’s leg. The rest of the room was spacious, decorated with black and white tile floors, portraits on the walls of the mine’s history or important owners and even two table models of the Foxworth Coal Mine’s surrounding countryside.
A woman with long braided red hair, a white polo shirt with the logo Eastern Experience Tours & Adventures and a clip board stood quietly by the cage. She stared at the guard and exchanged nasty glances with the Sharps. When the brothers moved away, she stomped over to Officer McCutcheon and began her own tirade.
A family of four milled around one of the model tables while another three adults were gathered by some black and white pictures of the coal miners. They were all pretending to be reading or looking at the displays and to not be paying attention to the small battle waging for the mine touring rights. Dominic guessed this was the bus-load of tourists that had crashed their ghost party.
Brett shuffled around Billy and charged again at the old guard. “We came here first! What tour bus arrives in the middle of the night anyway?”
“Well, Miss Cortnie Sherman has explained that they had some delay due to engine issues on the road trip to here.” McCutcheon explained.
“My papers are in order; this is not our fault and we are not about to turn around and go back to Philadelphia for nothing.” The tour leader protested.
“We cannot have a bunch of people milling around while we are filming!”
Sighing aloud and then yawning, McCutcheon took the clip board from Miss Sherman and studied the papers. “I don’t understand how both of your groups were booked. Sheryl Lynn at the office is usually much more on top of things. But… it would ruin what the boys here are trying for.”
Cortnie huffed in frustration; she was losing. “Gentlemen,” she smiled sweetly at the Sharps. “May I speak with you for just a second in private?” She pointed over at the elevator platform.
Brett smiled back smugly. He was preparing to charm or use his good looks to further press his advantage. “Alright, lead on.” He glanced sidelong at his kid brother and chuckled as they followed after her. Dominic tagged along.
When they stood alone by the machines, she moved between the brothers and put her arm around the pair’s shoulders. She whispered, “You know what? I have had nothing but a real headache of a day and frankly, I don’t give a rat’s ass what you are trying to do.”
“HEY–” Billy cut her off.
“–NO, you will listen to me! I am not going to lose my investment for this trip nor am I going to let you soil our company’s reputation. Now, you don’t know me and you probably don’t know my husband, but James, you see he’s the editor of The Philadelphia Patriot. This concerns you because I know you two numb assholes from your television show and I know of your father. Do you think your Senator daddy is going to like seeing press on how you made a spectacle of yourselves and you threw out honest, tax-paying senior citizens, a 4th grade teacher and a family of four off of a tour?”
The bluster and the haughty look had washed off of Brett’s face as he shook free of her embrace and he stared in disbelief at her. She had taken his own leverage and spit it right back at him. Dominic never thought he would see anyone get the better of him like that. “Hey, you know guys, the mines are huge. Why don’t we just go down there and split up? Then there’s no way I am going to get them by mistake in the footage or sound bites.”
Billy shrugged his shoulders, he was open to the idea. The entire room waited in silence for Brett’s answer.
He grimaced and then brushed back his bangs with his hand. “Yeah, whatever. Bitch ain’t worth losing the mine for.”
Cortnie’s eyes bugged out and her mouth dropped open.
“Sorry! Sorry ma’am!” Billy and Dominic shouted at once while Brett walked away and started gathering their equipment bags.
“He’s in a foul mood from the long road trip.” Billy continued to apologize.
She straightened her shoulders and muttered under her breath, “Sore loser.” Sherman rejoined the security officer and called out for the tourists to gather with her by the platform.
Dominic could only watch and laugh at the whole debate. He needed a bit of a comic break after the weird encounter at the bell tower. He looked back at Billy and saw him counting out loud.
“What are you doing?”
“There’s a lot of us, man. Us three, the guard, Miss Sherman, that family of four, the three others over there… that’s going to be tight on that platform with all of our gear.”
“We will be fine. Besides do you think either of those two are going to let the other go down into the mines first?” Dominic nodded toward Brett and then Cortnie.
After ten minutes of arranging the bags and cameras, then squeezing in and assigning spots for all their bodies, the platform slowly lurched down into the dark shaft.
Ringing the top of the platform were six directional lights and then six more lit up the mine shaft below them. The Regis Shaft was fifteen feet wide in circumference and cut out of solid limestone. The temperature inside quickly dropped ten degrees.
“Bro, shouldn’t you be filming this?” Billy asked Dominic who was at the moment pressed into one corner.
Dominic was lost in thought, reliving his encounter at the bell tower. He saw the child with the red, blinking words: DONT GO DOWN.
Was she warning him or was it to prevent them from disturbing the mines, he wondered. Either way, he had ignored her plea.
“You got jokes, Billy.” Brett answered for him. “We will have to get it on the way back up. Remember, no shots with the tourists.”
A boy about 8 years old or so, tugged on Billy’s sleeve. “Can I go with you guys? I want to be on your show.”
“Rory, shut up!” Barked the boy’s father. The man was heavy set and balding. His cheeks and nose were pockmarked and pinkish — Dominic guessed from these features that the man was an alcoholic just like his own father.
“Uh… it’s okay. Sorry, little man, but we hav–“
The lights on top of the platform suddenly grew brighter and then one by one burst, leaving only light coming from the bottom directionals. The platform shook and then ground to a halt. Everyone held their breaths in fear that the entire elevator was about to plummet into the dark below.
Creaking and groaning, the platform continued to sway a tiny amount back and forth in the shaft.
Finally, McCutcheon hauled out his flashlight. “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s going to be okay. Sorry about this.” He focused the lamp on the platform’s top directional lamps. “I will try and use my radio to reach the…”
His voice trailed off as an odd whistling and rustling sound came from above their cage. It sounded like the flapping a kite or a flag makes in strong winds. It grew louder as it approached — something was falling towards them.
BLAM!!!
When a pair of heavy, brown work boots hit the top of the cage, everyone inside screamed. Nothing beyond the soles of the boots could be made out in the gloom of the shaft. Grey-green mud oozed and dripped through the grill of the cage roof.
McCutcheon continued to try and use his flashlight to shine on the person above the boots, but the shadows seemed to block his attempts.
A gravely, hoarse voice called out, “You will be with Her in three days…”
A young girl, a year or two older than her brother, squealed and squirmed in terror against her mother’s leg.
“Who is that? You son of a bitch! What are you doing? Did you stop th–” McCutcheon cursed aloud, still angling his light at the bottom of the boots.
“–Three days… Or you might say, seventy-two hours.” The stranger chuckled. “It is good that the two of you brought so many others for Her.”
“GET OFF OF THERE!” The security guard screamed back in anger.
“Yes, yes… You will do fine for the first then.” The gravel voice replied as all the lights burst as one along the bottom of the platform plunging everyone in a tomblike darkness. Even McCutcheon’s flashlight winked out.
Slithering and skittering sounds whispered to them as they felt tendrils brush against their skin, crawl along their shoulders and hair or wrap around their arms and legs. Muffled screams filled the chamber and echoed along the shaft. Metal started to grind loudly and vibrations rocked the platform. After only five minutes but what seemed infinity, the platform stopped rocking and the animated dark seemed to die away.
Suddenly the elevator resurrected and it continued their descent into the shaft of the Foxworth Mines.
At the bottom of the cage, up against a camera bag, McCutcheon’s flashlight blinked alive again.
There was just enough light to now see blood splattered along its handle as it rested near a foot and a half wide hole torn through the metal flooring. Exactly above in the cage’s ceiling was a matching hole with grey-green ooze dripping down its sides.
McCutcheon was no longer among them on the elevator.
