PART THREE: CHAPTER ONE
“We were going to move to the city,” Madeline hissed in the dark. “Los Angeles or maybe New York. We would go out to dinner every single night and go to the best clubs. I don’t want kids, but if I have a girl, that would be okay.” She paused. “I need a nanny, though.”
I heard Beck sigh and knew she was rolling her eyes. Since we had entered this black abyss, Madeline had been talking nonstop. From her dreams to her wants to the perfect fairy tale life she had imagined since she was four.
I think she did it out of fear and nervousness, and even though she was driving us insane, I understood.
“God, please make it end. Ms. Witch, you can’t be as bad as this.” Beck muttered. She was so close to me that I felt her hot breath on my neck. She gripped my hips so we wouldn’t get separated in the darkness.
Her touch was calming.
Ezra held Madeline’s dying phone in his hand, and he used the flashlight feature to guide us.
Of all of us, Madeline had been the only one to defy Caleb’s wishes to leave our phones behind.
“I love you, Caleb.” Madeline had drawled to him. “ I do, but what if I get a dm on Instagram about the shoe giveaway I entered?”
We had wrestled the sleek iPhone from her when we remembered she had it.
There was no reception, but we still tried to call for help, and a shrill garbled shriek answered.
It felt as though we had been walking forever. We were bunched together, holding one another as though we were in a conga line.
It smelled awful down here, like spoiled fruit and mildew. Occasionally, dirt rained down on my head, and after inhaling a spider, I kept my mouth shut, unlike Madeline.
“I think we’re almost there,” Ezra said. “The ground is changing. It’s not dirt anymore, it’s stone, and I can see light up ahead. A lamp, maybe?”
I felt a wave of relief wash over me. I never thought of myself as claustrophobic, but I kept thinking of the tunnel caving in and burying us.
I saw the light Ezra referred to; it bobbed up and down.
It was coming right at us, I realized, and I knew that whatever it was wasn’t good.
Run, my mind told me.
“Run!” I yelled, but it was too late. It was upon us.
Caleb’s distorted face bloomed into view above me. The lamp he held in his mangled hand cast him in a sickly yellow glow. I watched in horror as his broken legs and disjointed arms crawled on the ceiling like a humanoid spider. He leered at us. His neck crunched as his head twisted around and around. His bones ground together, and the sound made me heave.
And then glass shattered, and we were plunged into darkness.
I heard screams and was thrown to the side, and a body threw itself on top of me. I felt shaggy hair on my cheek. Beck.
Madeline’s scream curdled my blood.
“Help meeeeeeee,” she shrieked, and her voice faded as the Caleb monster dragged her along the ground.
We ran towards her, and she kept screaming, she kept yelling, and we heard a wet gurgling sound.
And then it stopped.
The sudden silence was terrifying.
Ezra was wildly waving the phone around. “Come on,” he said through gritted teeth. “Don’t die, please.”
Beck reached her first. She had always been the fastest.
“I found her, you guys,” she called. I’ve got her.”
“Is she okay?” Ezra yelled back.
“I-I don’t know,” Beck stuttered. “I don’t think she’s breathing! Wait, I feel a pulse, but it’s so faint.” Ezra and I hurried, and he dropped to his knees next to Beck.
The phone in his hand shook as he trembled, and we sat in darkness as he steadied himself and shone the light on his sister.
Madeline lay on her back, limbs limp, covered head to toe in thick blood.
There was so much blood.
Her brown face was flush with it. It was so thick and dark that it took me a minute to realize how the blood had pooled in her eyes. It nestled in her sockets like red puddles.
I took a step forward, and my shoe made a sick squelching sound as I stepped on something soft, whatever it was sprayed me in a thick gelatinous liquid.
Everything became still, and without a word, I lifted my foot, and Ezra shone the light on the sole of my sneaker. He gasped and then turned his head to vomit, reminiscent of his sister after Caleb had died.
I grabbed the phone, and the iris of Madeline’s burst eyeball appeared to swivel at me. Its fluids and blood stuck to me like glue, and suddenly the tunnel was full of noise.
Screaming. And this time, I wasn’t screaming alone.
“Madeline!” Ezra yelled. He grabbed his sister’s shoulders and propped her up. The blood in her sockets spilled down her cheeks like gelatinous tears.
Her eyes had been scooped out, and her slack mouth fell open. Her tongue smacked wetly onto the ground and curled like a salted slug.
He took her eyes. My mind babbled, pulled out her tongue, and then forced her to eat it. He took out her eyes! Where is the other one? Where is he?
I looked around wildly, but I couldn’t see in this blanket of utter darkness.
“She’s alive!” Beck shrieked. “You guys, she’s still alive!”
Madeline coughed, and blood sprayed everywhere.
“She’s choking!” Ezra screamed. Beck held Madeline as Ezra stuck a finger down her throat. A putrid mixture of blood and vomit poured out of her mouth. I could hear her ragged breathing and a tinny noise from her blood-slick lips.
She’s trying to scream, I realized. And she can’t.
Madeline’s hands flew towards her face. She dipped a finger into one of her empty sockets and moaned in despair and pain.
She started rocking back and forth, gasping and trying to talk.
“It’s okay,” Ezra soothed. He sounded shattered. His strength was fading. “You’re going to be okay, Maddy.” He rubbed her back and whispered, but Madeline shook him off.
She got to her feet and loomed over him, her eyes weeping, her mouth a black hole.
She ran. She ran down the tunnel, gasping, and a keening scream echoed around us as we chased her.
With every step she took, a light flickered on. They lined the tunnel, which I realized wasn’t dirt but cold, hard stone.
Bodies were embedded in the earth, and ghosts whispered and touched us as we passed.
Madeline kept running, and I saw the door, appear. Finally! We were so close! We could get out. After we climbed the bell, we could get help. We could leave.
“Madeline, stop! Madeline!” Ezra yelled. “Please stop!”
She had reached the end but instead of going through the door, Madeline took a step to the left. Her head lolled onto her neck, and when she looked at us, I knew she couldn’t see us, but it sure felt like it.
Before we could reach her, she slammed her head against the stone wall. Ezra tried to grab her, but she bashed her head again and again. I have never heard a sound like that before.
Blood and brain splattered everywhere. Madeline’s body crumpled, and what was left of her face was smeared on stone. I wiped the blood from my eyes and looked at Ezra. He stood above his sister, covered in soft tissue and shards of bone. I could hear his fast, ragged breathing from here.
The door creaked and then opened.
The Witch peered at us, her lips were curled into a mocking smile.
She stared at us and with those impossibly long arms she grabbed Madeline by the ankle, and slowly pulled her through the doorway. Madeline’s ruined face left a trail of blood.
The door slammed shut and all that was left was silence.
I didn’t know what else to do, so I opened my mouth and screamed.