Callum and that cave are still the stuff of nightmares for me. It’s tough to write about even now, years removed from when he dragged me down into the valley. For the previous part see the link above. To start at the beginning see Part 1
I considered kicking in an attempt to free myself. The packed forest of Douglas Fir had enough places to hide. I bent my twisted left ankle and even the slightest movement induced a mixture of severe pain and numbness. The joint was swollen and was unusable for anything but a painful hobble. If my attacker were a pensioner with two bad hips I would not outrun him.
I arched my back to shift the pressure of the ground to where clothes still covered my skin. My skin felt raw and scratched and wet. As my weight shifted in his hand, Callum half turned and then looked back ahead. He knew I wasn’t going anywhere, it didn’t matter if I was awake. I let my arms rest limply on my chest.
We entered a clearing and Callum leaned down and lifted me effortlessly, as if I were a doll. He tossed me as a spiderweb of lighting spread across the sky and then I slammed into the hard ground and was plunged into darkness.
I sucked in musty and damp air and coughed it back out. Behind me the sound of stone against stone and a murky gloom turned pitch black. I got to my hands and knees and pulled my shirt down over my stomach.
“Is someone there?”
My head snapped around at the sound, a faint and timid voice from somewhere in the dark. I recognised it.
“Martina?”
“Tom?”
A finger brushed against my arm and then a trembling hand gripped my wrist.
“Martina, where are we?”
She uttered a muffled whimper and then took a deep breath. “In the cave. The place where was trapped.”
“Where who was trapped? Roger?”
“No. Roger and Callum found him. They were the ones who released him.”
“Who?”
“He promised us. He promised us everything. Things no one else could give us. Please understand. No one was supposed to get hurt.”
My ankle throbbed with pain. I slid fingertips over my raw skin. And that was nothing compared to what they had done to the hiker out on the mountain.
“It’s too late for that Martina.”
My eyes adjusted to the darkness. From somewhere above a thin cylinder of light angled onto a wall of dark-grey rock. The form of Martina coalesced into a silhouette, small and slender. Above us the ground trembled and made a noise like a deep exhale. Martina turned at the sound and I saw the rounded form of her stomach.
“Are you..” I began a sentence and then cut the words short. My mind tripped over itself trying to put everything together. Martina told me about her engagement to Mike and how they had tried for a family, and it hadn’t worked. And yet here she was at the beginning of a stint on lookout supposed to last for months and heavily pregnant. Had she played me for a fool? Was that all a story to elicit some emotional response? Was this a game? “Are you pregnant?” I finally finished.
She shrunk back into the shadows. “You don’t know what it’s like. To want something so badly and have it always be out of reach. To sit while a doctor tells you that the problem is with your body. That there’s nothing anyone can do. To watch the photograph of your future burn in your hands until it is ash. You don’t know what that does to a person.”
She seemed to be talking past me. “What does this have to do with what is happening out there?”
“Something exists in this valley. A life force, a spirit fuelled by fire. Roger found this cave, the place where it was locked away. He decoded the script and found the talisman.”
“Talisman?”
“A triangle. The archaic symbol for fire.”
I clenched my fist around the metal triangle taken from the neck of the woman in blue. A triangle, but inverted from those carved on the trees.
“The woman in blue—” I started.
“The triangle pointing down is the symbol for water.”
“So Roger told me to stay away.”
In the gloom Martina nodded. “When all was in place Roger chanted the spell and made contact. This fire spirit is powerful Tom, it can give us what we most desire. A child we could never have, or to return the one we already lost.”
I remembered the photograph that slipped from the book on the shelf of the lookout. A man and a boy.
“Roger had a son?”
“His name was Miles. He died in a house fire. Roger pulled him from the flames but the smoke had already done its work. That was what Roger ran from. That set him on a path that ended at your lookout. From there he found the cave and the fire spirit, who promised he could return his son to the world of the living.”
“This is crazy.”
“I thought so too, at first. I thought Roger was losing it after all these years of isolation. He brought me down here with Callum and all three of us joined together and we asked for what we wanted the most. We played along because Roger was our friend. Then something happened that proved it all was real.”
“What?”
She grabbed my hand and pressed it to her stomach. “This. It proved to us that the promises were real. Roger took Callum to the cemetery where Miles was buried. Under the cover of darkness they dug up his corpse and brought it here.”
“They brought his kid back to life?”
“Not yet. They are waiting.”
“For what?”
The ground rumbled, it sounded as if a bulldozer were driving up through the cave. The storm.
“The fire spirit made a list of demands before he would raise Miles and allow my child to be born. First Roger had to give himself up by allowing his body to be burnt in the tree behind your lookout. Callum and I set the tree alight. We didn’t know what would happen. When Roger came out he looked different. His skin was like.”
“Pottery.” I finished her sentence.
“Exactly. The process made him strong and fast and he burned inside. The old Roger is gone, and this new one will serve the fire spirit. It was a sacrifice Roger was willing to make to give his son a chance to live.”
“But I saw two of them.”
“When Callum saw what Roger became, he wanted the same. He craved the power and the strength. He’s the sort of guy who chops others down so he can feel taller. Do you know the type?”
I nodded. I’d dealt with a lot of those.
“I tried to talk him out of it, but he convinced Roger to do it.”
The image of the burnt out tree beside Callum’s lookout flashed through my mind.
“Then why am I here?”
“The last thing the fire spirit demanded is a human sacrifice such that he can take form. It is to be placed within a special tree and when the forest burns, the fire spirit will assume the form of the sacrifice and live again. It is then that he will raise Miles.”
The implication sat heavy in my stomach. Callum dragged me down off the mountain for a single purpose. To make me a sacrifice to his new master. I had to get out of here, escape somehow. I hobbled to the narrow entrance of the cave and scraped at the massive rock blocking the way.
“It’s useless,” Martina said. “Only they can shift it.”
I jammed my fingers into a crack and strained against the weight of the boulder. It did not budge.
“Help me Martina. I don’t want any part of this.”
“Tom stop.”
“Why didn’t you warn me?”
“I didn’t know it would be you. I thought if you stayed in your lookout and stayed quiet they would leave you be. I didn’t want to do anything to anger Roger or Callum. I want this so badly.”
“What about what I want?”
I dug again at the rock until the skin on my fingers broke and blood trickled down the back of my hands. I screamed at the rock to shift and gave it one last effort and the rock moved, as if it suddenly lost all its mass. Someone answered my prayers.
I blinked into the sharp daylight and there stood a silhouette of grey. It wasn’t Callum. This one was bigger, heavier set. Roger. He took a step forwards and his mouth opened into a wicked smile.
I turned and limped past Martina and deeper into the cave. The light from the opening spilled onto the walls and they were covered in writing, etched onto the walls with dark coal. The same writing from the black book I found on the shelf. The same undecipherable text. Except Roger had decoded it.
I felt a crunching blow to my ribs and all the air left my lungs. My stomach slapped against the craggy floor of the cave and I grasped manically with bloodied fingers looking for a hold as Roger dragged me out.
I lay on the forest floor blinking up at the burning sun in a sky of clear blue. I lifted my arm up to shield my eyes from the light. My hand shook, streaks of red blood dripping onto the ground. I fought to get back my breath, coughing up wet phlegm in the process.
“Do you have it?”
I recognised Roger’s voice.
I turned and spat. “Have what?”
Roger raised a pair of burning hands to the sky and an angry red replaced the calm blue of the sky. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and the air seemed to buzz. Thin streaks of electricity sparked from the tips of Roger’s fingers and then in an instant a flash of lightning burst down from the sky followed immediately by a clap of thunder that felt like it would split my head in two. I pulled my hands up to my ears and squeezed my eyes tight.
Roger’s voice cut through the ringing in my ears. “She gave it to you. Empty your pockets.”
I complied. I was in no mood to argue and have my head smacked with another bolt of lightning. I pulled out a few scraps of wrinkled paper and then my hand found what I knew Roger sought. I pulled the necklace out of my pocket and dangled it from my hand. Roger leaned down and snatched at it. I whimpered.
“Don’t do it,” I pleaded. “I don’t want to be sacrificed.”
Roger scoffed. “It isn’t you he wants boy.”
I lowered my hand and sat up.
Roger saw the confusion on my face. “Is that what she told you?” He shook his head. “No, no. He demands a sacrifice, but it isn’t yours to make.”
Roger clapped his hands together and Callum came running out of the trees. Martina emerged hesitantly from the cave and met Roger’s gaze. He turned away and Martina’s face fell, the realisation working through her brain.
“No, Roger,” she said timidly. “He made a promise.”
“To give you what you most desire. You wanted to birth new life and you will. But you won’t live to see it.”
Roger made a flick with his head and Callum gripped Martina in a bear hug that lifted her from her feet. Martina kicked and screamed but it did little good. He dragged her across the clearing to the base of an enormous tree, the trunk as wide as a water tank. A giant triangle was carved into the bark. At the base of the tree was something wrapped in stained white linen, small and still. The body of Miles, Roger’s son.
Callum freed one hand and scurried up the face of the tree like a lizard up a wall. A few body lengths above the ground the tree split into branches. Here Callum stopped and lifted Martina so her feet dangled over the centre of the trunk. She looped a leg around the lowest branch and pushed with all her strength. Callum, unperturbed, calmly pulled her legs together and dropped her down into the hollowed out centre of the tree. Martina’s muffled cries disappeared into the warm air.
Callum came back down and stood before Roger, awaiting further direction. Roger rattled around the necklace in his fingers and then tossed it into the trees beyond.
Roger said, “We don’t need him anymore. Do what you want.”
Callum turned to me, his jaw opening into a grin. His eyes burned red.
Instinctively I jumped to my feet and ran. The first load on my left ankle almost sent me right back to the forest floor, but somehow I remained upright. I didn’t have time to think. The forest had places to hide, but I didn’t have much head start. I pivoted left and right and then barrelled into the cave, Callum’s footfalls close behind.
I did not know how deep the cave extended. The light from outside tapered back to a deep gloom not more than a dozen paces from the opening. I ignored the strange script on the walls and set my eyes on the darkness, praying for somewhere I could hide, if only to delay the inevitable.
The ground became uneven, mini valleys and peaks barely visible in what little light was left. I slowed so as not to fall and threw out my arms to find the wall and steady myself. Before my hands found anything solid, a rock gave way below my good ankle and I tumbled to the ground, my skin slapping against the hard rock. I cried out in pain, the elbow that broke my fall exploding into flames of pain.
I lay there and listened for the click of Callum’s hard feet on the rock. Instead I heard a grotesque cackling. I turned back and Callum stood in the light of the opening. He knew I had nowhere to go and he wanted to stretch this out and enjoy himself. He would make this as painful as possible, as if he fed off the misery. I had come across this type before.
I groaned and got to my feet. This time I went right for the wall and used it as a prop. Loose stones twisted and rolled beneath my feet. Ahead light shimmered off the ground and seemed to oscillate ever so slightly. I went to it and stumbled again, the skin on my elbow now wet. Blood, I thought. You’ve cut yourself open and even if you find somewhere to hide, you’ll soon bleed out.
But it wasn’t blood. I sniffed at the air and smelled moisture, stale water. I tapped the ground and found a sliver of water that had settled into a shallow pool. The words of the woman in blue came back to me. They are creatures of fire. Water could be my saviour.
On my hands and knees I scrambled deeper into the cave. Behind came the slow click, click of Callum’s hardened feet against the bare rock of the cave. In the dark his eyes burned red.
He cackled again. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be Tom. It won’t be so bad for you. The girl I found out in the forest didn’t scream for long. I’ll finish it quick.”
I kept going. Any contrast from the light at the entrance was now gone. I fumbled my way through the pitch black. The ground rose a little and the rock was dry to the touch. That shallow pool was nothing more than a tease. A hint that maybe there was a way to defeat my pursuer, only for it be ripped away. Callum would step over the shallow pool without breaking stride.
The top of my head slammed against a wall of hard rock. I ran my palms furiously over the surface, searching for a way forward. I reached the wall on one side and went back the other way. The click, click continued, growing louder and sharper.
In the right corner I found a depression at the base of the wall. It wasn’t big enough to stand or even crawl. I dropped to my stomach and slid my way along the rock, hoping against all odds that this tunnel would open into a larger space somewhere ahead. I was far enough in now that rock surrounded close on all sides like a coffin.
The air grew colder and smelled again of water. I breathed it in and stifled a cough. Like a swimmer doing breaststroke, I inched my way forwards until the ground fell away completely. I dropped my hands into the gap and found a deeper pool of water. It was ice cold and I drew in a sharp breath. I reached in to find the end, but my fingertips swished freely in water-filled space. Above the ceiling continued.
I had read about caves like this. The sort where explorers needed a scuba diving set to swim down and through to the other side. Except I didn’t have a scuba set and I had no idea where this tunnel full of water led, if it led anywhere. It could be a dead end, an enclosed space with only one entrance or exit, the one I was currently at.
Behind me a subtle warmth. He was close.
“Where are you going Tom?”
If I waited here it was a matter of time before Callum gripped my ankle and pulled. The other option was the water. I could go in the water and he could not, if the woman in blue was right. In the dark and the cold of the enclosed space I wept. The tears ran warm down my face.
There was only one thing left to do. I pulled myself forwards, teetering over the edge. I took a deep breath and plunged into the water.