Deyna’s scream, combined with Phillip’s loud shout, filled the cave around them. The terrified sound made the hairs on his arms stand to attention. The bats had disappeared, one moment they were scratching at him, the next they’d poofed into thin air.
Forgetting his nerves for the time being, he moved in the darkness and reached someone. Upon his touch, Deyna released a fresh, blood curdling scream.
“Deyna, it’s me,” he whispered.
He held her tightly against him and searched the darkness. It was a futile attempt. The darkness seemed to encase them which made it impossible for him to see. He’d never known absolute darkness could be this frightening.
Another tidal wave of noise, like the sound of waves crashing against rocks, filled the air. He started panting, fear taking away his ability to breathe. He knew the bats were back. Where the hell had they come from? Deyna let go of him probably trying to fight the stench ridden bats off her face. They seemed to latch onto your face first almost like they knew you couldn’t breathe if they did so. Cutting off your oxygen was a smart move. Bats didn’t think like this, something, or someone, was at play here.
He pushed at the bats, flinging them aside as more took their place. He stepped into the darkness following the sounds of scrambling feet and Deyna’s screams. He would help them, even if it killed him. His hands felt around in the air in front of him. His fingers touched ice causing him to hiss. The pain from this ice sent his heart palpitating in an erratic rhythm. A split second later, light filled the cave.
The bats scratched and screeched before flapping madly away from the light. He blinked, the light coming as quite a shock. Forcing his lungs to work, he coughed and sucked in a deep breath. His legs wobbled under the weight of his body. He felt like he’d run a marathon.
A roar filled the area as the bats retreated, the screeches echoing long after they’d disappeared. He turned, ears ringing, and looked into Lester’s black eyes, those eyes said, ‘I told you so.’ They shouldn’t have stayed in the one place, they should have moved and Lester’s face had told him as much. Something was forcing them deeper into this hell.
“Thank you,” Lester sighed.
He hadn’t realised he had done anything to help the ghost, but he gave Lester a brief nod and ran to Deyna who lay whimpering on the floor with Phillip kneeling beside her whispering. She wasn’t coping but he knew that she was petrified of rats and insects, having bats screech in her face was going to push her over the edge.
He remembered one year, it might have been year 8, they’d had to do this experiment on rats in a science class. The lesson had something to do with their insides, he couldn’t remember the details because he didn’t really pay attention in lessons.
Mr Powell, the teacher, had carried the putrid grey coloured tray which held the dead rats into the room. Stephen could still see the horrified expression that had crossed Deyna’s face when she spotted the long, rubber like tails. She screamed at the top of her lungs, a sound that shocked Mr Powell into inadvertently dropping the tray.
This one mishap sent Deyna into overdrive. In her rush to exit the room she’d accidently broken the fire bell casing and before Mr Powell had the chance to control the situation, the fire bells sounded and the entire school had been evacuated. He could still laugh thinking about it. Deyna hated any mention of the event.
“Deyna, you’re okay now, the bats have gone. They won’t come back, not whilst it’s light.”He picked Deyna up off the floor and held her shaking body tightly in his arms. Bats didn’t come out in the day, he was sure of that.
“It doesn’t work like that,” Lester muttered, the tone sounded like he regretted informing them of this.
Deyna’s head snapped up, a growl escaping her lips. The situation had clearly made her snap.
“How exactly does this work!? I cannot cope with that again!”
Lester looked at Deyna with something close to pity on his face.
“What do you mean? What doesn’t work? Are there rules here?” Stephen asked puzzled.
Before Lester could answer his question, the air around them suddenly stilled.
Stephen held his breath. Deyna pushed her head into his shoulder to hide her face. He wasn’t sure where his body ended and hers began she was so mashed up against him. He could tell by the sound what it was, what was going to descend on them at any second. Someone wanted them to move on.
A black tidal wave of screeching, flying bats dive bombed them from up above. They screeched louder than before, their ugly faces distorted with anger. He couldn’t understand this. He tried to smack them away but they came back more determined.
“We have to move, now!”
Stephen grabbed Deyna’s arm and dragged her with him. She was already screaming, he wasn’t sure if it was the deranged bats attacking her face or that he’d all but pulled her arm out of her socket. He didn’t entirely care at the moment. He knew Phillip was close; his panting and heavy feet were the giveaway.
Without warning, the light from Lester disappeared. Lester must have gone, although he couldn’t understand where he needed to be at such a time. He didn’t turn to see but this had to be the only explanation, unless something else had gotten to Lester, distinguishing the light they so desperately needed. Regardless, he continued to pull them into the darkness without Lester, he was unsure of where they were going but he couldn’t stop. He wasn’t entirely sure if the ghost’s light would have been useful when running, it was dimmer than it had been before the attack of the bats. What caused his light to fade like that? Lester hadn’t told them anything.
There was something going on, something Lester was keeping from them. They were in this situation because Deyna and Phillip had followed him. If they’d taken his route, the safe route through the woods to his house, they wouldn’t be where they are now.
With Deyna’s hand firmly grasped in his, he continued to run at full speed. If they were to fall over a cliff’s edge it would be out of his control. He scrunched up his eyes to find a way out of this; they appeared to be surrounded by rock. He ran, his head whipping from side to side trying to find something, anything, to get them out of this. He felt the burn in his legs owing to the rate of his panting, oxygen was struggling to travel around his body. He slowed down, his eyes adjusting to the darkness which he thought was a complete impossibility, and then spotted something that could help them.
As he ran towards the small path and brought up the image of the map in his mind, he recognised this part of the map. Amongst many of his talents, memory was his best skill. He just couldn’t say why he didn’t use it to help with his exams. He remembered that Lester’s finger had run along this path when he’d explained where they were previously. If Lester had followed this path with his ghostly see through finger, he deduced from that they were going the right way. He didn’t exactly know where it led but away from the crazed bats was a good start.
Whilst he ran, his eyes searched for possible ways out. A black curtain sank upon them making their way more difficult. The path thinned forcing them to scramble into single file. The rough rock made matters worse as they tried to keep their balance whilst a cold, hard lump of rock pushed them towards the dark hole at their feet.
Deyna gasped as she pushed her body as close to the rock as possible, her hand tightening around his. One slip and they would all fall. It probably wasn’t a good thing that they were linked together. They moved quickly, occasional stones making them slip as he listened to gage how long the fall was. He never heard the stones hit the ground so he assumed the drop was a long one.
Long enough for you to think of the regrets you had in life before death reached up and grabbed you. The thought bombarded him before he had the chance to push it away. This was not the way he was going to die.
A part of the rock jutted out at an awkward angle. Prising his hand from Deyna’s, he stepped to the rock and reached his
hand around. The path was narrow at this point but if they held on, to what, he wasn’t sure, but they could make it.
“I will go first, then we can help Deyna and you can follow,” he directed Phillip.
“Okay,” Phillip agreed.
He shimmied his body along, his hands grasping rock that cut. He could feel the beads of cold sweat ping on his forehead. Cautiously moving his feet, he took a deep breath and jumped.
His feet touched hard dirt. He released the nervous breath he’d held in his lungs and held his arms out to Deyna. She held onto him and moved slowly letting the rock cut and jab her, but her feet landed safely on the dirt beside him. Phillip followed suit, his steps mimicking those of his friends. How they’d managed to manoeuvre around the rock in the dark was a miracle.
As they stood huddled together, his eyes adjusted to yet more darkness but he felt happiness spring into his chest, was that an opening in the rock face? He looked around, where was Lester? Surely he could fly like a ghost so it wouldn’t take him as long to get around the path of terror. He walked to the opening really needing the light from the ghost but doing without, he bent to look inside the hole, it was a waste of time, he couldn’t see anything.
Instead, he moved his arm tentatively inside feeling his way along the rocky roof. He grinned; at least it was bat free. Staying in this hole was a better option than continuing on this journey with their lives in tired hands as they walked along a thin path that had a sheer drop into the darkness below. He couldn’t walk any further, he’d have thought that fear and terror would pump so much adrenaline into his body that he wouldn’t feel tired. In fact it had the opposite effect. He felt emotionally and physically drained.
“This is a good place to stop and rest.”
They had to take a break, if the map was anything to go by, and yes he was taking the map seriously, it looked like their journey could take days to get to wherever the ending was.
He thought for a moment bringing the image of the map back into his mind. There weren’t any exits, or not that the map revealed, but surely Lester knew a way out? He had to, otherwise Stephen couldn’t continue if he knew there was no exit out of this hell.
It was best not to ask Lester. He had to believe that something would help them. Lester would distinguish any hope he may hold with just one word. At some point someone’s parents were going to come and find them. They’d been missing for hours, and when they’d dropped through the large black hole it had been approaching night. Surely one set of parents were going to think it was odd that their child hadn’t turned up for their Friday night sleepover. He wasn’t betting on his father to notice.
He let go of Deyna’s hand, she remained standing next to him silent and shivering, he presumed with some kind of shock. At least Deyna was too emotionally exhausted to scream. This was nothing like their usual Friday night, this took finding danger to a whole new level. He was surprised he was holding it together himself.
He checked the hole once more, looked at Deyna and nodded. He watched her crawl into the gap and Phillip followed her in. He’d remained rather quiet since the bats had attacked. This concerned him. Phillip was never this quiet so something was wrong, well, obviously something was wrong, they were here and they shouldn’t be, but this was out of character for Phillip and due to their earlier fight he didn’t know how to talk to him.
He stood keeping guard outside as he listened to the two of them whispering within the dark cove. He couldn’t hear what they were saying but it helped him knowing they were there for each other. He didn’t know who he was meant to go to when the time came for him to break down. He shook his head, he just couldn’t break down.
It was as simple as that.
He looked around and caught sight of a faint light floating towards him.
“Where the hell have you been?” he hissed angrily. “We’ve been weaving along a cliff face with only a thin crumbling path to stop us from falling into complete, never ending darkness.”
“You had to find your own way.”
“What?!” his voice screeched as his anger reached its peak.
Why did this ghost always speak in riddles? There was never an appropriate time to speak in riddles. What was wrong with just telling them what the hell was going on?
“You had to use the map and find your own way,” Lester repeated.
“How can we use the map when I can’t bloody see it,” Stephen spat.
“Oh...”
Stephen realised that Lester hadn’t thought of this. “Oh, that’s all you have to say? Why are we here? Where is the exit?”
Stephen watched Lester struggle with his answers. He looked like he was fighting against an invisible gag.
“It is best you know very little because He won’t like it.”
“Who won’t like it?”
The holes where Lester’s eyes should have been glared at him, without saying a word, Lester floated right through the wall into the little cove. Great, he wasn’t going to get the answers he wanted. Growling in frustration and nearly kicking the wall until he realised it would probably hurt him, he took one last look around the black cavernous space and crawled in himself.
The soft glow from Lester allowed him to see where everyone was sat. Lester was floating next to Deyna, his light, or was it Stephen’s imagination, was glowing more brightly.
“I... I don’t want to be here anymore,” Deyna stuttered before breaking down into tears.
Stephen opened his mouth to comfort her but Lester beat him to it, again.
“We will get you home, Deyna, I promise you.”
Deyna looked into the deep pits which were Lester’s eyes. She held his gaze as though she dared Lester to lie. Stephen felt a whisper of unease glide over his body, he couldn’t look into Lester’s eyes, so it surprised him that Deyna didn’t flinch. She seemed to be comfortable sat there with an apparent murderer resting next to her. Stephen found this rather strange considering she was more than terrified of Lester at the cemetery.
It’s amazing how things can change. The tears fell silently down her cheeks but she seemed to believe Lester. Lester better keep his promise otherwise he would have Stephen to deal with.
“Where are you from? I mean, where do you stay?” Phillip asked Lester, breaking the silence. Phillip was sat with his back against the wall and his knees pulled up against his chest rubbing his hands to try and generate some heat.
Stephen, having been hunched over because the cave wasn’t high enough, dropped down on the floor next to him and stared at Lester. Lester appeared to be deep in thought.
Wrinkles gathered around Lester’s sockets as he tightened his lips. Stephen still couldn’t believe that the ghost’s features remained the same as living people. He’d have imagined that their face would become neutral, expressionless, like the ghost wouldn’t feel the hurt or pain they’d once felt in life.
“I lived in Amblewood the same as you. I lived there all my life as did the generations of my family before me. This form of myself...” He waved his arm and his hand glided through his own body. “It does not have a home.”
So that answered it for Stephen. When you died you didn’t go anywhere. He thought of his mother. She had to be somewhere good. He’d drawn comfort from this. Even now, whilst he didn’t believe in God, he believed she wasn’t stuck in a place like this. He hoped.
“Do you still have family?”
Lester’s hands drifted together travelling right through one another. He could only assume by the nervous hand wringing that Lester didn’t like where the questions were going.
“No. My family have all passed on.”
“How did you go?” Stephen asked.
He couldn’t help himself. He had a morbid curiosity when it came to this kind of thing. Death was, after all, the end. If he could, Stephen would like to know how he was going to leave this world.
“Cancer.”
This reply was
greeted with silence. Stephen kept his face remarkably blank considering the emotional storm that was swirling around inside him.
At the tender age of twelve, Stephen had lost his grandma to this disease. She’d been the last person to try and keep his father’s temper in check. He’d watched as the sunshine yellow of her hair died, as the grey leeched away the colour of her skin leaving a slightly dull, deathly blue sheen. She’d perished right in front of his eyes.
Her bones had protruded at odd angles, her skin, more leather like than soft in the end, clung to bone making the sockets appear deeper, sadder. The disease had robbed the twinkle from her topaz eyes.
He found himself feeling a small measure of sympathy for the ghost. It wasn’t the best way to go, especially in a prison without your family present. But, if Lester had murdered then he deserved to die alone.
“Is there a heaven?” Phillip blurted in the sudden silence.
Lester shifted his floating body uncomfortably.
“There is an unspoken rule that we must not discuss...” Lester looked at the three of them in turn. No one uttered a word afraid to distract Lester from his thoughts. Sighing, Lester gave in. “In this case I’m willing to make an exception. The general idea of heaven, the large pearly gates, the hand of God, did not happen for me. I saw some of the light, some of the goodness that makes you feel ten years younger and the worry, pain and sorrow you felt in the living world is lifted from your shoulders. I felt this before I left-”
“How can you just leave?” Deyna whispered.
“It wasn’t a choice.”
Stephen held his breath hoping the others wouldn’t ask any further questions. He’d found that asking Lester a question was the perfect excuse for the ghost to change the topic of conversation, for example, he’d yet to find out who stopped Lester from revealing things about this place. He watched Lester, willing him to continue with this line of conversation.
“I know there is something out there for those we love and I personally believe that heaven is what you make it. It doesn’t have to be God driven. It could be your own heaven with those you love, walking in your favourite park with the sun’s kiss upon your face eating your favourite flavour of ice cream.”
They sat in silence and digested this. His mother and grandmother had to be in that place, together.
Could the ghost really be all that bad if he believed in this? But then a murderer probably turned to religion for some form of forgiveness. Toing and froing between the belief that Lester was good and bad was starting to give him a headache.
“We must rest for tonight. We need to progress further tomorrow,” Lester stated and then floated out of the cove taking the only light source with him. That signalled the end of their conversation even though Stephen felt more questions on the tip of his tongue.
Stephen curled up on the floor with his arms wrapped around his waist trying to keep himself warm in the cold, dark space. The reality of their situation was sinking in, tears sprung to his eyes but he quickly forced them away. He couldn’t give in, he couldn’t succumb to this situation. He was stronger than that.
This place wasn’t good, he sensed it deep inside, but the question was, how did he sense this? It made him question how his feelings changed when he was around Lester. There was something about the ghost that brought on a change in him, one he wasn’t sure he liked. Could he feel everything the ghost felt? For some reason, Stephen could decipher Lester’s expressions only having met him hours before. He still struggled with Phillip’s facial expressions from time to time. What worried him was that he could read the eyeless sockets as though there were actual eyes there. Stephen sensed some sort of connection between the two of them but he couldn’t figure out how this connection came into being.
Closing his eyes, he felt the weight of the day fall heavily on his shoulders and despite the cold, hard surface he drifted to sleep, but not before sensing something lurking in the shadows, watching them.
j
CHAPTER SIX