I’m a cave explorer, at least I used to be. Two weeks ago I travelled to America to explore caves there, as there were very few in the UK. I have two friends who I explore with, and we’re all professional.
I’m typing this inside the taxi, however I’m alone other than the driver. Something unexplainable happened. Something impossible to describe.
Me and my friends were outside the cave we were going to be exploring. Their names are Dave and Harrison. We were getting our equipment on and just talking. Eventually, we were ready. We went to the entrance, but as soon as we got there, I felt a breeze coming from inside the cave. Which was immediately unsettling. My friends didn’t seem to notice, so I carried on. The cave split off into two. We went right and left a tether as we went. The cave got tighter and tighter to the point we had to crawl. There was space above us, but not enough to stand or crouch. A gush of wind came from further down the cave. “The fuck?!” I shouted. “What?” replied Dave. “That gush of wind” I said. “What about it?” asked Harrison. We carried on and the cave continued getting smaller. We were at the point that we were pulling ourselves along the cave just to squeeze through. “It opens up!” shouted Dave. He was right, the cave very suddenly opened up and were just about able to stand. It was strange. There was red writing on the wall. I didn’t recognise any of the letters. Except for L H P E. Those were the only English letters I could see. I carried on slightly ahead and saw a chalk drawing on the wall. It was of this part of the cave. There was the tiny tunnel and then the opening. There was a stick figure in the tiny tunnel before the opening. It was oddly detailed. It had hair, stuff hanging off it, it even what looked like a torch and a face. Exactly what a caver would look like. Because of the first stick figure, the next one was quite unsettling. It was a bald stick figure, with misplaced eyes and a circular mouth.
We took another path right again, which soon led to more and more paths which we took a variation of left and right. We reached a similar opening to the one we were in before. It was even more weird. There small stones lying about, which wasn’t odd. What was odd was about four inches of rope lying on the floor. We didn’t think much of it and carried on through a series of different paths. We were crawling through a very small tunnel again. I suddenly felt the tether I was holding to mark our route get pulled. “What the—“ I let go without thinking but luckily caught it as it dragged away. “The tethers being pulled!” I shouted. “By who?” asked Harrison. “I don’t know” I replied. “We’ll just carry on, try not to let go” he said. Just as he said that, there was a massive yank and it disappeared. We reached an opening again. “Tether’s gone” I said as I stood up. “Shit” replied Dave. “What now?” asked Harrison. I looked around. It was very dark but there was water. Not a lot but some.
It had been a good hour of talking about what to do. If we went off our own instinct we could get even more lost. Harrison was already losing it. “It’s either wait here to die, or just try and leave” said Dave. “Help!” yelled Harrison. “Help! Someone help!” I walked off. There was more writing on the walls. ‘Help’ it said. There was a long tally on the wall next to it. I walked along more. ‘It heard us’. I stared at it for ten seconds before running over to Harrison. “Shut up!” I shouted. He didn’t listen and carried on. Something else shut him up. A scream echoed from one of the tunnels. We all went cold. “Torches off” Dave whispered. I heard light footsteps. It sounded like bare feet on the stone. It came closer and closer. There was a scream right next to us. I flicked on the torch to see a pale pink skinned, bald creature with a distorted face. I ran straight back the way we came and crawled as quickly as I could.
I eventually found my way out after about a day. I waited at the cave entrance, hoping my friends would appear. They didn’t. I don’t know if they got lost trying to escape the cave, or if that thing killed them. I will never know.