Hi guys,
Just a short one, this piece expands on my other short story, “The Great Surface”. It’s set in the same place, but under different circumstances.
I hope you like it, please feel free to leave and feedback or criticisms.
Cheers,
Lordchimp
There was a loud thud as her boots landed onto the rough concrete of the tunnel floor.
Too loud.
Unbearably loud.
Her face twisted into a grimace at the sudden noise, which was now echoing all down the cramped space ahead of her, making a figure in front of her freeze. He stood as perfectly still as a picture, his whole body coiled and tensed in apprehension. He stood there, statue like for a good few moments, his ears eagerly waiting until the echo had faded, waiting for nothingness to take the tunnel again.
The sound faded, as all sounds eventually do and yet still he stood motionless in that dark, dreary space. Anna had held her breath as soon as she landed and she let escape out as quietly as possible from her lungs.
Nothing.
More silent seconds passed. The electric lantern she held in her hands was beginning to flicker and ebb, even though the batteries had been fresh a few minutes ago. Darkness began to creep in whenever it could, dancing closer every time the light struggled.
This is it. They’re going to get us.
Couldn’t last forever…
They get everyone in the end…
These horrible tendrils of doubt began to trickle into her mind, slowly burying all rational thoughts in her head. They spread like wildfire, multiplying and infesting themselves in every available space in her frightened consciousness. She felt tears of hopelessness begin to well up in her eyes.
Not like this! Not in the darkness, not here!
I don’t want to die.
They’re coming.
She exhaled as quietly as she dared, ignoring her quivering breathes and trembling hands and sucked in a lungful of the cold, wet tunnel air. Without even a creak from her muscles, she bought her free hand up, painstakingly slowly and twisted the lantern’s power dial.
The flickering light waned, then extinguished, plunging them into the darkest shadows. Blackness so utterly thick that she felt as if she was choking on it. It took all of her remaining willpower not to cry out, to scream, to do anything but wait in this pit for the Skinners to come.
Nothing.
Her heart pounded in her ears, booming so loudly she wanted to tear it out.
Did it hear us?
Of course it did-
No, think positive-
Positive? We’re going to die.
She closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing, tried to stop the panic from setting in. It was always like this, the voices seemed to come in the dark, in the moments when the burning fires of hope were merely flickering embers. Tens of them whispering and talking in her ears, sometimes as quiet as a mouse’s footsteps, others as loud as an brass band. She quietly shook her head in a vain attempt to expel them from her thoughts, but they were her. They were as close to her as her skin was.
The silence was rudely interrupted by a noise.
It was so very quiet, that she could barely hear it at first, wondering if it was one of the voices in her head playing tricks on her. But it grew ever so slightly louder with each trembling breath she took.
It was a low, steady noise, just on the cusp of her hearing. Then it dawned on her what it was.
A moan. A wail from a Skinner.
Hearing it made it so much worse. Before, she had managed to convince herself that she might of been wrong, that there might not be any down here, but now that she had heard one of them moan, no matter how distant, it made it utterly, irrefutably real. The lack of any light was made it so much worse. The light brought reassurance and comfort in a way that not many other things could. Light, was like a beacon, so rare in these times, showing the way ahead and revealing the monsters in the dark.
So the fact that she had turned her own light off was a risk, perhaps the last important decision she would ever make. Keep the light on and be able to see the beast when it comes, or turn it off and hope the creature never notices.
The Whistlers and Skinners both seemed to use their sight and hearing when hunting. Not like horrors, her mind drifted briefly to the memory of Jacob’s body just a few days before…
She shook her head silently again, the dark thoughts doing their very best to overwhelm her.
We’re going to be okay.
No you’re not-
We’re going to be okay.
They’re coming.
It’ll find you.
She gasped involuntarily, the voices in her head leeching her composure and sanity in the utter darkness. She gritted her teeth and breathed deeply, just waiting for the-
Something touched her fingers.
Before she could scream or cry out, a gloved hand clamped itself across her mouth, cutting off any noise she could make.
“It’s me, Anna it’s me, don’t scream.” She heard Darwin whisper softly. Just hearing another voice that wasn’t in her head filled her with relief, she felt her knees weaken slightly, but she recovered herself before she stumbled.
She started to shakily speak back, but Darwin interrupted her quickly.
“I know Anna, I know…But you need to turn the light back on.” He said, the telltale signs of panic just hanging on the the end of his sentence. Anna took a deep breath in and reached for the lantern’s dial, it took a few moments of feeling around with her quaking fingers before she located it.
As soon as she turned the dial, a dull yellow light blossomed in the tunnel, not flickering once, it was as steady as stone. Once she saw Darwin’s worn face illuminated in the lantern’s glow, she couldn’t stay focused any more.
Breaking into heavy, quiet sobs, she threw her arms around him and he embraced her tightly.
“It’s okay…It’s okay… We’re okay now…” He whispered, his breaths deep and uneven.
Teller of Some Tales 