There it was, in front of me. The ominous entrance to an overgrown mine. It hasn’t in service for decades. I lit my lantern and checked all of my gear before saying one last goodbye to the sunlight. I entered the mine cautiously. The lantern flickering light across the walls of dirt. There were many artifacts that I found on my way in, that have not been exposed to the elements for years. Minecarts, hats, pickaxes. Everything used in a mine, you could find down here left untouched. The most concerning of which was dynamite. I would spot boxes of it every mile or so.
I made it to the end of the the first tunnel, my lantern illuminated a small room splitting off in all directions. One table could be seen in this room with a feather pen and a piece of crumpled paper. It read as follows:
“Coleman, April 6th, 1916,
I am writing this after the rest of the men left for the day. I found something deep in this mine. I hid it from them, making sure it wouldn’t be found. Today was the last day the mine was in service so I have no worries of anyone investigating anytime soon.
I am leaving this note for whoever is courageous enough to find this secret. This discovery is meant for a solo investigator. I trust upon thee to discover, as I did, the secret of this mine.”
Written on the back of the note was a poorly drawn map of the tunnel system that led towards a location I could only assume was the secret. I pondered on the note for a minute, the secret is probably money, which is why this Coleman person wants a solo investigator to find it. I took the note from its resting place on the table and followed the map to the marked location.
The map led me deeper into the mine. There wasn’t just dirt surrounding the walls anymore, it was some sort of black substance. I could’ve sworn I saw an eye in the wall.
What I found at the marked location was another note, dated after the first one. It had blood stains on it with a piece of the corner melted off. It read:
“Coleman, April 8th, 1916,
To whomever is reading this note must have taken a liking to my offer from the first. Getting to this secret will not be an easy task however. I blocked off what you are looking for so no one would find it. Lucky for you, I am the key and these maps are your directions.
The next map is on the back of this note. If you want to know what the secret is, it is a room. This room is the reason this mine was built, but after the corruption and poor treatment we received from the company operating the mine, I sabotaged the operation in a desperate effort that the company will never get its hands on it. This is what led to the shutting down of this mine not two days earlier.”
The note left more questions than answers. I continued down the mine, the condition of the mine worsening the farther I went in. It took less time reaching the next note than before, I must be getting close, I thought to myself. I picked up and read the third note which said:
“Coleman, April 11th 1916,
This is the end times for me. I cannot survive in these conditions for much longer. I have expended all of my rations, refusing to leave. There is no going back from this point forward traveler. The secret of this mine is a room, but the room itself is not what I’m hiding. It is a creature that is, by now, tracking your scent. I’ve led you here on purpose, and there is no turning back from here. If you run now, it will certainly find you. But if you stay and refuse to get rid of it, it will use you as its food. It is a lose-lose situation for you. I’ve been feeding it my rations to keep me alive long enough to write these notes. It won’t be long until I become its food.
The creature is located in the room. Previously blocked off by fallen dirt after I set off a stick of dynamite. A few days ago, I found out the creature was capable of crawling through dirt. It quickly escaped from where it was trapped. I can see it staring at me now, ready to eat me from the other side of the tunnel. Good luck traveler.”
I became tense, the notes were a trap, and I would become the next victim of this creature. The creature was no where to be found though. I figured that it was dead after decades of eating nothing, so I continued deeper into the mine. The third note that Coleman left behind had no map on it, but it did have a depiction of the creature.
The creature was tall, on all fours with razor sharp fins travelling all along the sides of each front arm to dig swiftly through the dirt. It was all black with glowing green eyes. I continued to traverse the mine. Every step I took further into the mine, the more it felt like I was being watched.
Eventually, my lantern lit up the mutilated skeleton of a miner which must’ve belonged to Coleman. In the remnants of his hand was another letter.
“Coleman April 12th 1916,
I have come to the entrance of the secret room for peace. The creature attempted to eat me, I narrowly escaped with a torch which scared it off temporarily, not before it sunk a bite deep into my abdomen however. There is no way I will survive whether I left or not. My only purpose now is to use my decaying body as a landmark representing the entrance to this room, and serve as a warning to the severity of your situation.
Send my best regards to my family whom don’t know of my whereabouts, and who likely never will. I am sorry that I will not leave the mine alive to see you all again. I can’t risk revealing the creature to the rest of the world. Once again, good luck traveler.”
I saw the dirt hole next to the remains, it too had the black substance from earlier coating the surface of the dirt. The room was made of the black substance, clay, and hay. It looked like a nest. Sprinkled around the room were shiny coins and trinkets. As I panned around the room with my light, one thing caught my eyes which was a pair of shiny green eye shaped objects. The hairs on my back shot up, I slowly backed away from the room. That must be the creature, and I knew it had to have seen me.
I bolted away from the room. Trying to follow the path I came from. I could hear it behind me, screaming out into the halls of the mine. It sounded like it knew where it was moving. I came up with a plan, I grabbed an old stick of dynamite laying in one of the boxes. I opened the top of my lantern, burning my hand in the process. It cracked open and I stuck the tip of the dynamite in, lighting the fuse. I looked behind me to see only those eyes. I threw the dynamite back, quickly moving out of the way of the blast.
The dynamite caused the entire mine to shake. I could no longer hear the monster moving. I must have caught it in the blast. I kept running through the mine hoping to see light at the end of the next shaft I turn into. I heard the loud thumps of the monster again, the monster must’ve recovered from the blast. I panicked, almost sprinting through the mine now. I could hear it approaching, getting closer and closer. No amount of running would get me out of its grasp.
I saw a torch on one of the walls of the mine and remembered the last note Coleman wrote, I took it whilst still running and lit it with my lantern. I stopped and turned around to face the beast. It was situated on the other end of the tunnel. I charged towards it with the torch in front of me. Once I got closer it began to back away. The weakness of this beast was fire. I began walking backward to give myself space from the beast and ran off again. It began chasing me as soon as I turned my back. I knocked over a box of dynamite and threw the torch behind me. I turned the corner and plugged my ears.
I heard the dynamite go off a couple of seconds later. Completely collapsing that mineshaft tunnel. I kept running until I made it to the exit of the mine, the rest of the mine crumbling behind me. I could hear a screech coming from the beast. I reached the end of the mine and quickly hopped in my car. My car didn’t start right away, the battery was almost dead. I could see the monster digging through the collapsed entrance of the mine. I got my car to start and drove off, outpacing the beast. The current whereabouts of this monster is unknown. But whatever you do, don’t wake it up.