‘It’s just cave smell,’ I heard Mason saying. His voice had gone all echoey. ‘Why? What did you think it was?’
Either Fash didn’t answer or I didn’t hear.
‘Whoa,’ said Mason, after a minute. The rest of us were peering into the opening, trying to see what they could, but all I could make out was their torch beams. And then one of them swung straight towards us, making all three of us wince. ‘It’s big in here,’ said Mason. ‘Seriously, what’s everybody waiting for? Come on in.’
‘Shine that torch somewhere else and we might actually be able to see where we’re stepping,’ said Luke, with a hand up over his eyes.
Mason’s torch beam swung back towards the dark.
‘Have you … Is there anything in there?’ I called out. I was asking Fash, but surprise, surprise, Mason was the one to answer.
‘Not really. There’s some kind of altar. A Satanic thing, I think. And a statue of what looks like a goat, or a demon or something. And … is that a pentagram, Fash?’
‘Ignore him,’ came Fash’s voice, sounding about as fed up with Mason’s bullshit as I was feeling. ‘There’s nothing to worry about. Come in and get yourselves dry.’
I looked at Luke, who nodded. Cora had already started forwards, and after hesitating for a moment, I followed her inside. I was fully expecting Mason to jump out and grab me, but instead he was just standing on his own in a corner, moving his torchlight around the cave. And it was hard to tell in the dark, but I’m pretty sure he was smiling.
I moved away from him and stood next to Cora. She was using one of the other torches to look around. We only had three. Torches, I mean. On account of the fact our phones had gone missing. There would probably have been a light on Sadie’s Nokia – the one we found, I mean – but I guess none of us thought to check. But maybe it’s a good job we didn’t, because otherwise it might have run out of battery, like the torches did later that night. And if it had … I don’t know. Maybe we’d all still be out there.
‘You were right,’ Cora said. ‘It is big in here. It must go six or seven metres into the bank.’
Actually, it was smaller than I’d imagined. But only because I was worrying it would turn out to be the entrance to an entire, like, network or something. With tunnels and, I don’t know, caverns and that. Like a whole other world. Like in stories. You know?
But it was basically room-sized, with three walls and a roof. There was space for us all to sit down, to lie down if we’d wanted, and the ceiling was high enough that none of us had to stoop. And yeah, it smelled a bit weird, but only of earth and stuff. Nothing … bad.
And the other good thing, I suppose, was that at least it was dry. Because obviously, after eight hours or whatever of traipsing about in the rain, we were all completely soaked through. Even my waterproof turned out not to be. What I wanted to do was change into something dry, but when I checked the clothes in my rucksack, they were just as wet as what I was wearing.
‘Can we light a fire or something?’ I said, trying to wring out my spare jumper.
The others had finished exploring – it didn’t take long – and they sat down and leaned against the walls, sighing like my dad does when he gets in from work and parks himself on the sofa.
Fash put the torch he’d been holding in the middle of the floor, directing the beam towards the ceiling, which was basically a criss-cross of tree roots. Cora and Mason switched the other torches off, which left us sitting in this weird kind of half-light, where you couldn’t really see other people’s faces. The entrance to the cave had turned into a gaping hole, as black as the cave itself had looked when we’d been outside peering in. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all. I mean, it should have felt cosy. With the rain coming down outside, and being in the dry, and sitting up close to people who were supposed to be your friends. But instead I just felt trapped. Like we’d been cornered or something. You know?
‘A fire would be a neat trick,’ said Mason. He tossed a stone or something through the entranceway, and it made a rustling sound as it landed somewhere amid the trees on the other side of the stream. ‘What exactly do you suggest we burn?’
‘Like … wood, or –’ But then I realised what he was getting at. I bit down, clamping my lips tight. Mason was directly across from me, and though I couldn’t see his face, I could just imagine him smirking.
‘Not to worry, though,’ said Mason. ‘I’ve got something to warm us up.’ I saw him shift, and there was a noise like he was rummaging in his rucksack. And then he held what he was clutching in the middle of the torchlight, like it had been beamed down from heaven or something.
‘What the actual fuck?’ said Cora.
‘No way,’ said Fash. ‘You’ve been carrying that with you the whole time?’
‘Well, it didn’t carry itself,’ said Mason.
‘Why didn’t you mention it before?’ said Cora. ‘Jesus, Mason.’
There was a rustle and then a popping sound as Mason uncapped the bottle. ‘Gang?’ he said. ‘Meet Dr Daniels. Dr Jack Daniels. Curer of ills. Banisher of chills. The finest healer in the land.’ He took a swig, straight from the bottle, and made a sound like it was
