Once a very long time ago I was a part of a group of people whose lives were entirely built around spelunking. There were five of us in total. I was one of the newer additions to the group and had only done a few caves with them before but I had clicked with most of the party.
There was me, my name is Sam, Garry, who we called Garland, I don’t know why, something about a harness breaking once and being hung on a cave wall for a few hours, Rodrick, I didn’t get to know him that well, Lexi, one of the group founders and the most experienced of us, and finally Pierce, the other founding member with Lexi although he was less experienced than most of us.
We all lived in and around Maine so after a few months of doing cave tours around the world we wanted to take some time and do a system a little closer to home. After some scouting, Garland had found an unmarked system up near Castine and we all jumped to be able to break some virgin ground.
I lived the closest and Garland already had a cabin in that area so he and I were the first to arrive. After me, there was Rodrick, then Pierce, then Lexi, and with that, the group was together. We spent the first night in Garland’s cabin so we could rest up well before the long hike and then crawl.
It was early in the morning, about six or so when I got up. I was one of the last to wake up despite the early hours, only Rodrick beating me by waking up about thirty minutes after I did. We all sat for a bit and drank some coffee to warm our bodies before the long, cold hike.
Pierce seemed kind of antsy the whole walk, this was a big moment for all of us though so I didn’t question his apparent jumpy mood. To be honest, I was quite nervous myself, I had done well over a few dozen caves in my time but going through an undocumented system in the middle of freezing Maine? That was a first.
The cave mouth was wide, easily ten feet high and eight feet wide. This ease of entrance was quickly dashed when you went in about thirty feet and saw the chasm that quickly dropped from the darkness. We all prepared for the descent and I asked Rodrick how deep it was and how much rope I should bring.
“Well let us see shall we,” without hesitation he went to the cave wall, picked up a decent-sized rock, and chucked it into the hole. He waited for about three seconds when an echoed hit was heard.
“Bout’ a hundred feet,” he said smiling as he went back to his rope and I did the same with mine. We spent about twenty minutes repelling down the side. Garland had brought a bag of snap-glows which he routinely left every fifty feet as we walked.
It was a fairly pretty system, with limestone stalactites hanging from the ceiling of the cave, their wet surfaces caused the light from our flashlights to bounce all over in an aesthetically pleasing light show. We had been walking for about ten minutes when the group stopped for a moment and realized we were two short.
Rodrick and Pierce were nowhere to be seen, they must have gotten lost in the back, we thought. From behind us, there was a massive crashing sound immediately followed by a scream, then a yell, and then rapidly approaching footsteps.
We saw Pierce run through the cave like a bat out of hell with panic on his face.
“Something back there, it took Rodrick,” he made it to us and spit his words out in between coughs and wheezes.
“Calm Pierce calm, what happened,” Lexi was comforting him.
“Loud sound,” he coughed and continued, “We turned around, there was this… this,” he took a second, seemingly pausing to collect his memory “skinny, pale thing, it wrapped its arms around him and bit his neck, I had to run.”
I had the brightest light so I flashed it down in that direction. For a moment we saw blood, then a figure moving towards us, Pierce began to run and we followed.
“What is it,” Lexi said while running, “I don’t know, some kind of cave creature probably,” Pierce said, also running. We stopped for a moment, I lit behind us again, but there was nothing. Garland took out a lighter he kept on him and started a flame. For a moment the fire danced and then blew in the opposite direction to the cave mouth.
“There’s another opening that way,” Garland said, starting about the direction in which the flame was blowing.
“I gotta go back, I need to get Rodrick,” I said, starting to head in the direction of the cave mouth.
“Don’t do that same,” Pierce said, grabbing onto my shoulder, “It’s not worth it, he’s dead.”
“You don’t know that, I have to go back for him,” I yelled back, “yes I do, trust me, just don’t go down there,” Pierce said with growing frustration.
I looked at him strangely with his remark, before starting to just walk that direction. Pierce sighed and began to walk with me.
I and Pierce walked together for a few minutes before I noticed something. Pierce did more mountain climbing than spelunking, as a habit he brought his “lucky,” climbing axe on every adventure and kept it out constantly, except he didn’t now. That stupid axe was kept glued in the sheath to his hip instead of in his hand.
“Why are you keeping your climber up?” I asked strangely, “don’t want to mess it up… in case I need it again,” he replied, “again?” I asked again, “I tried to save Rodrick from that monster, but it was no use,” he said, shaking his head in his hands, “you didn’t mention that before,” I said questioningly, “it must have slipped my mind in the moment,” he replied back like lightning.
It took a few minutes of walking before we made it back to familiar ground. I looked down and saw him.
“Oh god Rodrick,” I quickly went down to his body, checking it over, and finding the camera he kept constantly glued to his chest. I felt his neck quickly, it was bloody, but there was only one clean spike-like wound in it.
I pulled the Go-pro off of his harness and went to the last recording. It was of Rodrick and Pierce walking behind the rest of us, it was quiet and a little dark. Pierce was in front of Rodrick, climbing axe in hand. Rodrick whispered to himself “Watch this,” as he picked up a small stone. He chucked the little stone at one of the hanging stalactites, causing it to fall.
It seemed in a moment of pure reaction and fear Pierce turned around and swung his axe into Rodrick, hitting him in the neck. I didn’t watch the rest, but as a looked up I saw that Pierce had disappeared into the darkness.
I took out my mag light and shinned it in front of me, then when I shinned it behind me a force struck me before I could react, I was on the ground and had just processed that Pierce had hit me in the chin with the back of the climbing axe.
I lay down and pretended to be knocked out as Pierce stood over me.
He was quickly whispering to himself over and over “oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck,” as he wrapped his head with his hands to try and comfort himself. I gripped my mag light as he seemingly stole himself and raised the axe above my head.
A moment before he could swing I shot up using the momentum of my arm swinging the mag light, the resulting hit knocking Pierce to the ground. I didn’t let up, I swung over and over again, hitting him in the head till I couldn’t anymore.
I stood above his body and then limped to the rest of the group. We called local authorities and they took care of everything.
I haven’t gone into a cave since, I don’t plan on it ever again.