He let Amber come alongside him.
Down the straight passage, he could see daylight and the rope dangling down. Freedom was so close—he wanted to rush towards it.
“I think we’ve gone far enough,” he whispered to Amber.
“Let’s just make sure,” she said, pointing her light down the branch they hadn’t explored. It went downwards, like the other tunnel, and swept to the right in a gradual turn.
Ricky held his breath until his heart pounded in his ears.
Amber tried to slip around him, but he shook his head.
“I’m going first,” he said, “and when it’s too much, we’re out of here.”
“Okay,” she whispered, nodding.
He saw fear in her eyes. She was controlling it, but she was frightened too. They were fools, but somehow that made him feel a little better.
Ricky proceeded on his knees, trying to press to the left side so he could see around the turn. The passage leveled out and branched again. One tunnel went nowhere, the other curved around until it nearly doubled back. The floor dropped away until he realized that they were approaching an underground pit. Sliding forward to try to see the bottom, the smell of rot and infection enveloped Ricky all at once. It made Ricky realize that there had been no odor at all up until that point. He tried to back away from the smell but it clung to him even when he pressed back into Amber and the two of them tried to escape it.
She gagged and he wanted to retch. Ricky nearly stabbed himself with his stake when he reached up to cover his nose.
Amber coughed and then went forward. She got close enough to point her light down into the pit and then backed up fast.
“We’re leaving,” Ricky whispered.
Amber nodded, bouncing her headlamp up and down as she did.
They made their way fast back to the mirror. Ricky wedged it into place in the dirt wall, so it couldn’t be easily knocked down. It was pointed down the straight passage from the main entrance. Anything that tried to come from that direction wouldn’t have a choice but to look directly at it.
Amber took care to duck as she went beneath the casket. Ricky did the same. He scrambled backwards after her, suddenly terrified that something had emerged from the pit and was following them. Ricky pushed back through the mouth of the passage, scraping his head on the narrow opening. Amber pushed her flashlight in her pocket, handed her spear to Ricky, and gripped the rope in both hands. She climbed out fast. Her feet sent down sand and dirt. Ricky ignored it and kept his eyes on the passage, holding Amber’s spear in front of him.
“Toss it up,” she called from above.
Ricky tucked his own light away, put his stake through his belt and then threw Amber’s spear up towards daylight. Those were the worst few seconds. He knew that his hands wouldn’t be strong enough to grip the rope. He knew his arms wouldn’t be up to the task of holding him as he tried to climb.
One hand at a time, he pulled as he walked up the side. When he was close enough, Amber reached down and grabbed him under the armpit. Together, they spilled out onto the forest floor. Amber pulled the rope from the hole and Ricky flipped the wooden lid back down into place.
He felt like he was finally able to breathe.
Amber tilled her head back, squinted at the sun and smiled.
Ricky lifted his shirt to his nose and then scrunched his face at the smell. In that brief moment below, it had infused his clothes and was stuck to him.
“Hey, George,” Amber said towards the sky, “I have some conditional knowledge for you—it really sucks down there.”
Ricky smiled and took a deep breath.
“George?” Amber asked.
Ricky sat up and whipped around. His eyes scanned over lonely trees and mossy headstones.
“Where’s your brother?”
Ricky was on his feet in an instant. He ran over to where a pack was on the ground and then sprinted over to where the trail met the headstone.
“George!” Ricky yelled.
Amber was at his back a second later.
“Any sign of him?” she asked. “Where would he have gone?”
Ricky’s heart felt so heavy in his chest that he wondered how it was still beating. His eyes turned to the sky and then he made another slow turn.
His voice barely worked to squeeze out words.
“What time is it?” he asked.
“It must be…” Amber started she found her phone and her mouth fell open at what she saw.
She turned it towards Ricky. They had descended into the hole in the morning.
It was three in the afternoon.
# # #
They kept to a slow jog even though Ricky wanted to sprint. Amber kept making him slow down. As soon as the car was in sight, she broke into a sprint and easily overtook him. Ricky saw what she was running towards. George’s pack was leaning against her rental car.
Amber ran around the front of the car.
“That satellite thing,” Ricky said between breaths, “it can talk to regular phones too, right? I don’t have a signal, but maybe he does wherever he is.”
His own idea didn’t make sense, but Ricky’s brain was racing too fast to figure out why.
“Shoot,” Ricky said when he realized the problem. “He has the satellite thing.”
“Had,” Amber said. She pointed towards the ditch next to the road. The device was smashed and in pieces there.
“I don’t…” Ricky started to say. The thought evaporated before he could even express it. Nothing made sense.
“Renfield,” Amber said.
“What?”
“Renfield got him. George was right—they have some kind of human servant and he…” She trailed off as her eyes turned towards the house down the road. “No. Couldn’t be.”
“Let’s find out,” Ricky said. He reached for the car door and had to wait for Amber to click the button and unlock it. The thing wasn’t working. Amber fumbled with
