Ricky said, “It looks like it splits up here.”
He waved her forward. As Amber caught up to him, Ricky turned off his headlamp and kept his eyes glued on the mirror. Amber pointed her lights forward. She went another couple of paces and then clicked off her own headlamp and left the flashlight on the floor before returning to Ricky.
They crouched in silence, barely breathing, as they watched the dark passage behind them. Their bodies blocked most of the ambient light. Amber’s hand gripped tight around the shaft of her spear when she saw the tiny flicker of a reflection in the mirror. Ricky glanced to her to make sure she was seeing it too.
The creature didn’t make it very far.
Its head barely emerged from the hole before the thing was entranced by the sight of itself in the mirror. From the side, Amber could see the swirling lights of its eyes. It chilled her to think what would happen if it turned towards her. She remembered the hypnotic pull of those weird lights. Ricky crept forward with his stake and kept his light off. When he was within reach, he stabbed at the eyes.
Amber heard a pop and then the sound of falling liquid splattering on the mirror. She glanced over her shoulder, in the direction of the split passage to make sure they weren’t somehow being ambushed.
Ricky returned to her. His hand was shaking until he took several deep breaths and calmed himself down.
“Give it a second,” Amber whispered in his ear. “In case there’s more than one of them in there.”
He nodded.
They waited a full minute—darkness on one side and the unexplored depths of the tunnel on the other. Amber realized that she was losing her nerve as they crouched in the shadows. The longer they waited, the less like she was going to be able to overcome her fear and move forward. Amber slipped by Ricky and went to the edge of the hole. She peered up into the coffin until she could make out the skull of Mrs. Prescott. Angling upwards, she raised herself up until she was face to face with the skull and could look into the depths of the casket. There was nothing but blackness in there.
Reaching up, she clicked on her light and saw the rest of the skeleton. Most of the casket had collapsed from the weight of the dirt above. Roots were intertwined with the bones. There was barely any room in there. Amber felt comfortable that it was now empty. She withdrew and picked up the mirror so they could continue.
Ricky moved aside and Amber went first.
Twenty-Seven: Ricky
Ricky was barely containing his panic. With each step, they were headed deeper towards their doom—he just knew it. The only thing keeping him going was the fear of being alone in that darkness. There was safety with Amber. It terrified him to think that she might be thinking the same thing about him. Maybe they were both fools, simply propping each other up.
She reached the split in the passage and Ricky looked behind himself again. His light chased away all the shadows and left him wondering what he would see if he turned off the lights. There might be glowing eyes hiding back there, closing in behind them and trapping them underground.
Amber propped up the mirror so it would face behind them and she veered off to the left, where the passage dropped down.
Ricky split his focus—looking forward enough so he didn’t crash into her, but mostly looking back to see if anything else would get mesmerized by the mirror. The next creature might not be as dumb as the first one. They might have watched and learned.
After they had descended for a bit, Amber stopped.
“What?” Ricky whispered.
“It ends,” she said.
He leaned forward to see around her. Above them, the passage widened and lofted up into a small cavern. The walls were smooth at the bottom, but then gave way to rocks and roots. The ceiling of the cave, higher than Ricky could reach, was full of crevices and shadows.
“Look,” Amber said. Her light was pointed at the floor in front of them.
“What?” Ricky asked.
She moved her light closer to one of the mottled spots on the floor. It almost looked like a stalagmite was forming there. Ricky pointed his light up to see if maybe groundwater was dripping from above.
“Alan predicted this. They must roost in here and this is their guano,” she said. “Hold on.”
Amber grabbed Ricky’s hand and moved it so his light was pointed to the ceiling above the spot on the floor. Then she slid to the side to get a different angle on the same spot. They both stared, unblinking at the ceiling as she moved her light around. When they were convinced that there was nothing up there, she motioned for him to put his hand over his lights. She did the same and they let their eyes adjust to the new darkness.
They didn’t see anything above—there were no glimmering eyes of creatures trying to hypnotize them.
He heard Amber gasp and he let his light shine.
She shook her head and pointed. “On the floor—in the dark.”
Ricky slowly covered his lights again and looked at the floor. It took a moment to see it. He almost had to look away and let the glow hit his eyes indirectly. The spot on the floor was giving off a very subtle illumination.
“Guano,” she whispered.
“Are we done?” he asked.
“On more passage,” she said.
Ricky led the way.
Climbing up the slick floor required both hands and feet. Ricky felt defenseless as he gripped the stake in one hand and the flashlight in his other. If anything came at him, he was sure that he would lose
