Subject: 2 fiction stories I have two stories here, both written by me and completely fictional. Although both were inspired by actual events. The first story speaks of an entity that dwells in a cave. I'm an avid caver and experienced some really strange noises in one cave I explored. I never went back down in that hole because what I imagined was making those noises inspired this story. The second story is based on a 30 second movie trailer I saw. It was a Japanese ghost movie about two ghost that haunt this woman. One scene happened while she was in bed and gave me the inspiration to write this totally unrelated story. Just for movie trivia facts, the film is called Ju-On and was produced by the same people who did the original Japanese version of The Ring. I write fiction just for the fun of it, so don't judge me too harshly. These both could have been modified into cheesy episodes of the X-Files. Hope you enjoy: ------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ The Cave - part 1 by Jeff S. Gibbs I am 31 years old now, but I can remember that day in the woods some 19 years ago like it was yesterday. My best friend at the time, Paul, and I were out exploring some woods near his grandmother's farm in rural SE Missouri in the United States. Not being too far from the Ozark mountain range, the terrain is hilly and well covered with thick, tall green trees. That area of Missouri, and all the way up to Kansas City, is well known for having hundreds, if not thousands, of limestone caves. We were a few miles east of the farm, on god only knows whose land, when we discovered a dilapidated old shack, not more than 15 feet by 20 feet in size. Only 3 of the 4 walls remained, and the roof was caved in along the side of the missing wall. You could still go through the front door and walk a few feet into the structure, but that was about it. Being curious 12 year olds, we did just that. From all indications it looked like an old shanty or shack built by some wanderer or recluse. It was very crudely built, with uneven log sizes and dried mud or clay as mortar. There was evidence of a fireplace and we could even a see the headrest of a mostly hidden handmade bed in the corner, the rest obscured by the roof that had collapsed forming a wall-like barrier blocking any further exploration. We rummaged around where we could and noticed a lot of twigs and rocks laying around the mostly dirt floor. No one had lived there for quite some time as it had been exposed to the elements for years. We left the little shack and decided to head back to his grandmother's farm for lunch. As we rounded the back of the shack, we were stunned to see strange markings carved into the wood on the back wall. Most were weathered beyond recognition, but you could still make out some. They were blocky and were made up of a lot of connected lines and geometric, yet asymmetrical shapes. There were also strange markings that to us looked like ancient Sanskrit writing, but not quite. I can't remember any specifics so it's pointless to try and draw anything that resembled what we saw for use as an example. To further the mystery, not more than 20 feet from the back wall of the shack was a large decrepit wood platform that seemed to be covering a large hole. We walked over to it and bent down to examine it more closely. There were similar markings all over the platform. They were weather worn and hard to make out. I poked around the edges of the platform and could feel air escaping. "I bet this is covering an entrance to a cave." I said. "Let's just see about that," Paul said. He got up and found a large rock that was strewn about with others around the hole. He lifted it over his head and thrust it down on the platform. Not even likely to withstand a punch with a bare fist, the rotted wood splintered into pieces and revealed what we had assumed. After we cleared away more of the wood, we could tell it was an entrance to a fairly large cave. Timidly, we both stuck our heads into the cave to see how deep it was and were pleasantly surprised to see that the initial slope into darkness was shallow and walkable. We'd have to duck, but we could manage to explore this cave without much hassle. Excited about the prospect of exploring our "own" little cave we decided to rush back to the farm and get flashlights, a little rope and grab lunch while we were there. We ran as much as we could and got back to the farm in just under an hour. The sun was directly overhead and the late summer sun was hot. On the way there, we decided not to be wholly truthful about why we were grabbing flashlights and rope, if we were even caught doing so, because as far as parents goes, Paul's were conservative. Enough so not to allow cave exploring without supervision, and they weren't likely to drag themselves all the way out there for our benefit. We quickly ate lunch and were lucky enough to get all of our needed supplies in one of the out buildings completely unnoticed. We grabbed two flashlights, roughly a 100-foot loop of rope, and a canteen of water and headed out back towards the cave. Paul and I wandered a bit trying to relocate the shack and the cave entrance, as it wasn't near any telling landmarks. After zigzagging a bit, we finally crested a small hill and found the shack and nearby cave entrance. This time, however it had a more disquieting look to it. I couldn't put my finger on it at the time, but things just didn't look right ... or smell right and even worse, feel right. Despite that initial wave of uneasiness, Paul and I were too determined to let silly circumstances get in the way of another adventure. We stopped a minute to examine the strange markings on the on the back wall and remained mystified as to what they were or what they meant. Since Paul has explored a few more caves in the area than me, he opted to go in first to light the way. We tied the rope to a dead tree trunk a few feet away from the entrance and dropped the rest of the length into the hole. Paul lowered himself to the edge and dangled his feet into the hole. He pointed the flashlight down, confirmed it was more of a downward slope than an immediate hole, and then slid slowly into the darkness. Standing over the hole and peering in after him I waited for his comment that it was safe to follow. After 30 seconds or so, I was greeted instead with a brief shout of terror from Paul, followed promptly with a gasp of relief. "What happened?" I shouted. "Well, I thought the hill was going to last for awhile and all of a sudden it ends with a steep drop off...but luckily the drop is only 3 or 4 feet." He answered. "It's safe to come on down now, just go slow and watch for the drop." Not exactly comforted, I obliged and grabbed the rope and began my own descent into darkness. I found the drop off and lowered myself slowly. Once standing I could look up about 30 feet at the small hole that we entered through, or look forward through a cave tunnel that resembled a vein in a coalmine except that it was littered with stalagmites and stalactites. It was about 5 feet high and 8 feet across. It was damp inside but there was no standing water. That meant it went on further and deeper than what we could initially see. We carefully walked through the obstacle course of cave formations and entered deeper into the cave. The tunnel ran steadily down hill, deeper into the dark abyss. As we clamored down deeper into the earth, I was stunned by the total lack of evidence of bug and animal presence. Even in small caves, you'll find animal droppings and spider webs. But this cave was totally devoid of life. Another strange thing we noticed as we delved deeper and deeper was the temperature. It was not getting cooler like one would expect. Even a few feet underground, temperatures in caves can drop to as low as 50 to 60 degrees. The temperature in this cave was still just as warm, if not warmer than outside on the surface. The air was also stagnant and stale. It was as if you had to breath twice as deep to get the same amount of air you would normally. All in all, these things didn't add up as we explored, they are just things we noticed and talked about later after our experience. We continued on downwards through this long shaft that resembled a spiral staircase without the stairs until it narrowed considerably and began to drop steeper. It was still nothing that required rope or safety equipment, but now it required more direct attention. At this point we were roughly 150 to 180 feet underground, nothing to sneeze at as far as caves go and we wondered why there wasn't more evidence of other cave explorers. "Surely this cave was worthy of exploration," I thought to myself. We continued spiraling downward until we had long lost site of the opening to the cave. After 15 minutes or so of steady descent, Paul and I finally reached the bottom of the spiraling tunnel as it simply came to an end. It would have been the end of the expedition if not for the small opening near the floor. It was a scant 18 inches high and just a foot or two across, but it was just big enough for Paul to lie down on his stomach and stick his flashlight and head through. "Cool!" he said excitedly. "It's another chamber. I think we can fit through this hole. Let me try." With that, he shimmied and squirmed, but eventually managed to work his way through the hole. Knowing I was a hair thinner than Paul, I knew I wouldn't have much trouble. After a little squirming and shimmying myself, I was through. I brushed myself off as I stood fully erect and looked around with my flashlight. The chamber had an eerie feel to it, but nothing seemed odd or out of the ordinary at first. The ceiling was at least 30 feet high and the room itself was probably 35-40 feet in diameter. The rock in here was relatively smooth as the floor was also clear of stalagmites. One would guess this room was hollowed out by a swell in ground water, but had remained dry since the water had receded. We searched around the walls with our flashlights until I suggested we turn them off to see how dark it really was (a fun thing to do deep in caves since there is no other dark that can compare). I turned my flashlight off first, then a few seconds later Paul turned his off as well. You could imagine our shock when we could still see each other faces in what should have been complete and utter darkness. There was no discernable light source, but an overall reddish luminance to the room that was unnoticeable with our artificially lit flashlights. The walls seemed to glow and pulse a deeper and brighter red with each passing moment, almost as if we were waking them up from a long slumber. We turned our lights back on and began to search the room for clues as to why the walls were glowing. Off in one corner, my flashlight made a grisly discovery. I discovered what appeared like small chunks of bone and tattered clothing surrounded by a nearly shattered and broken skull. Just a few feet away, there was another skull, this one neatly sliced in two, and again scattered next to smaller chunks of bone. In this pile, I could see what looked like a lacy hem of a girl or woman's skirt. Paul had also noticed what I was staring at and looked on in equal disbelief. Just as I started to approach the remains for closer inspection, I heard a sound to chilled me to the bone. I distinctly heard a girl's voice whisper in my ear, "Get out!" and then an even more desperate, "Run!" Completely freaked, I turned to Paul who had obviously heard it too, and we began to inch our way closer to the room's exit. Then the floor of the chamber began to tremble and a very faint humming drone began to resonate through the chamber. Being completely terrified already, we didn't want to stick around to find out what the hell was about to happen. I took off back towards the entrance and Paul quickly followed suit. The ground was shaking so badly, I was afraid there was an earthquake or that the chamber was going to collapse down upon us. I was the first to make it to the chamber's exit, which seemed little more than a mole hole now and start squirming and squeezing through. Paul was yelling for me to hurry and I obliged, skinning my knees and elbows as I forced my way through. Once I was back into the tunnel I turned around to help Paul. He was almost frantic, trying to squeeze through. If I didn't know better, I would have thought that hole was shrinking right before my eyes. Paul struggled and struggled and I dropped my flashlight to help pull him through with both hands. Paul screamed in what I thought was agony from me tugging too hard, but he looked up at me with complete terror in his eyes. "Something is touching my legs! Something is touching my legs! Pull harder!" He screamed. With all my strength I yanked him once more, and with that last tug he finally squeezed through. As I saw his feet come through the hole I noticed with the light from my dropped flashlight what resembled a hand releasing its grip on Paul's calf - a hand without really being a hand. It had the rough shape of an oversized hand ... or paw... with no discernable fingers or shape. It was almost like a shadow, transparent, yet with a solid shape. That was all I saw of it because the second Paul was up and running, I turned and ran as well, leaving my flashlight there near the hole. Since Paul still had his light, I yelled at him to wait for me and he slowed just enough so that I could follow his footsteps. All the while, the droning noise hum grew louder and louder. The glow from the room below began to illuminate the tunnel from behind us as a sick smell of rotting meat and bile began to overtake us. It was so strong it stung our noses. We scrambled up and up, running as fast as we could. The spiraling effect of the tunnel was disorienting and the fear was starting to take it effects on us. If Paul wasn't tripping on something or banging his head, then I was, and the escape to the surface seemed to take forever. We had made enough turns and climbed enough that light from below should have been left far behind, but instead it seemed to be getting closer... and brighter, lighting the tunnel below in a sickly blood-red light. We finally reached the long, straighter tunnel that led to the eventual ledge and slope to the cave's exit. Paul and I were able to finally pick up speed and put some distance between us and the light from below, almost, but not quite outrunning the overpowering stench. However, the droning sound still continued to grow louder and even higher pitched, like a teakettle approaching the boiling point. Paul and I reached the ledge and slope at the same time and were shocked and horrified to see nothing but darkness. We had only been in the cave for about 30 minutes total, meaning it was still mid-afternoon outside. Paul aimed his flashlight up at the where the hole was and what we saw chilled us to the bone. Our rope was gone and the hole was covered with the same plank wood that had covered it previously. Paul and I both jumped up to the slope and began to drag ourselves upwards towards the exit. It wasn't so steep that we couldn't traverse it, but for every two feet you gained, you slid back down a foot, so it was slow going. The light from below was again beginning to encroach on us and the droning was louder and higher-pitched still. We finally reached the exit and began to explore options on how to get out. We pushed and pushed on the wood covering, but there seemed to be an enormous amount of weight on it. We started screaming for help, pounding on the makeshift trap door. The light below seemed to be just around the last corner from the straightaway tunnel and finally it turned, rushing upwards towards us, flickering with a blinding speed and intensity. Just as we needed to cover our eyes from the brightness we screamed at the top of our lungs. Instantly, the light faded to darkness... like it fell from the ceiling down to the floor as a wave of water would. The droning hum stopped and the stench faded as well. The only sound that could be heard was our own heavy breathing. "What in ... the hell was ... that?" I panted out, trying to catch my breath that was lost to fear. "I don't know, but let's get out of here." Paul answered as he began probing the edges of the cave exit for a hole or something we could use as a starting point. Feeling momentarily relieved, we both started pounding on the trapdoor once again. Then without warning or notice we heard a horrible crash below us followed by a sound that gives me nightmares to this day. A horrible, almost demonic gurgling sound came storming up the tunnel. Paul's flashlight immediately went dead and we were thrust into complete and total darkness. The gurgling grew closer and closer and now we were too scared to even scream. I remember pressing myself against the rock wall and remaining there, frozen in fear, reduced to no other capacity than to just listen. I could not speak. I could not move. I could not see. All I could do is listen as the gurgling began to transform into more of a primal scream as it flew up the tunnel towards us like a freight train going 200 miles per hour. The air grew searing hot and a putrid wind swirled around us. My hair stood up on end and as the scream seemed to pierce my body. It was as if a young girl let out a tortured scream directly in my ear. I was about to pass out from either fear or stress when we felt something semi-solid surge past us, exploding through the trapdoor like an invisible missile. Shards of wood rained down us as sunlight flooded in and exposed Paul and I to each other's mortified faces. Almost reading each other's minds, we shot through the exit... me first, then Paul. We quickly stood up and brushed ourselves off, not knowing whether to run or collapse, we just stared at each other waiting for the other to make a move. Just then, a shoddily dressed man came around the corner from the front of the shack. His hair was long and unkempt and he had deep lines crisscrossing his face. continued in The Cave - part 2