“I don’t think we’re going to find anything out here, Puck,” Andy said.
“Just a little farther.”
“We’re already pretty deep,” said Scarlatina.
Puck had called Andy and Scarlatina the morning after his dream. They were searching the woods again near Pine Ridge.
“Even if I believed some kind of evil spirits were responsible for these disappearances, why would we listen to anything they say? You’re partner even told us to avoid it.”
“Ashbrook knows me,” Scarlatina said, “and he knows the fastest way to get me to do something is telling me to not to.”
“Are we close to anything?” Puck said.
“Sootbell cave, just a quarter mile North-West,” Andy said, looking at his GPS.
“Let’s head there, and if we don’t find anything we don’t find anything.”
The woods were dense here. No trails lead to Sootbell cave. It wasn’t a good spot for cavers because it was spacious inside. It was considered boring, since you couldn’t get stuck or lost in it very easy. When the trio stood outside its mouth in the early morning heat it didn’t look like anything special.
“I hate caves,” said Andy.
“Yeah, me too,” said Puck.
“Why?” said Scarlatina.
“You never find anything happy in them,” said Andy. “Every missing person case I’ve always had that leads to a cave. Well. The only worse kind is the case that leads to the city. Only sick things happen this remote.”
“Dangerous too,” said Puck. He took a flashlight from his pocket and shined it in the cave’s mouth. The cave, which started in the side of a small hill, sloped down at a sharp angle for a few feet, then evened out and opened up.
“I think I see something.” he said.
The air was cooler in the cave. Maybe twenty degrees. He heard dripping far away. He neared the object. It was a shoe.
“Looks new apart from being in a cave for awhile,” Andy said, checking in the inside. “Size 9. Looks like a woman’s.”
The cave groaned around them as they fanned out with their flashlights making feeble attempts to penetrate the earth that had never known real light.
Short Stories 