Short Story: Abyss

Abyss

by Jessica Ungeheuer

Photo by Simon Gough: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-a-cave-11290773/

I thought the worst week in my life was over. Of course it wasn’t. It was a night like this when it all started. Rain storms were unrelenting these past few days, as the clouds struggled to move west over the Rocky Mountain range. I was on my way out of my office when I was stopped by a dark haired vixen at my door.

“Jorge Ramirez?” She was barely 5’6” in her 3 inch Christian Louboutin heels, but her lack of height was negated by the aura of authority that radiated out of her.

“It’s pronounced George actually.” A smile spread across the woman’s plump red lips, unphased by my correction. It did nothing to calm the pit growing in my stomach.

“Mr. Ramirez, my associate and I are here to learn more about the serial murders that happened here. We heard you were involved in stopping the perpetrator.”

Perpetrator? Sure, if you could call it that. The woman stepped forward, and I instinctively stepped back in toward my office. Chivalry is something my late Abuela made sure was as natural as breathing. Of course, once I was out of the way of the door frame, the woman took the opportunity to step inside. Before I could protest, another figure stepped through the door. He was a large black man, whose muscled arms struggled to stay contained in his fitted black suit. He flashed a bright white smile, while he adjusted his dark sunglasses. Usually I would roll my eyes at people that wore glasses in the dark, but there was something about this man that tickled the hairs on the back of my neck, as a cold sweat began to form on my brow.

“Apologies for the hour.” The man’s voice was deep, vibrating in my ears.

“I don’t know who you people think you are, but you can’t just come barging in here and--”

The woman sat in the chair I usually left for potential clients, crossing her shapely legs, as she pulled a red folder out of her leather briefcase. She brushed her long black bangs away from her dark brown eyes as she opened it up.

“This shouldn’t be long. Like I said, we are only here to get more information on the murders.”

I stepped behind my desk and reached for the bottle of jack I kept in the bottom left drawer, pulling out three glasses. The woman’s large associate shook his head in a gentle decline.  I poured two glasses, handing one to the small hands of the woman. Her nail beds were short, and unpainted. She had slight bruising near the knuckles, like that of a boxer.

“I don’t know how much I can help. I’m not a regular P.I, and if you spoke with the police you would get more information.” The whiskey burned as it traveled down my throat, and warmed my body. One of the few reminders that I was alive, and this was still reality. 

Lightning flashed, radiating light into the small space. A crooked shadow of the monster flashed on the wall, as my muscles froze. I killed it, there was no way. The woman turned her head to see what I was gazing at, and the creature was gone. I pulled on my already open tie and collapsed in my chair. It wasn’t--just a shadow of my coat rack conveniently combined with the silhouette of the dying oak that rested outside my office window. My mind was broken this week. Before--something like that would not have phased me.

“Jorge--” The woman stopped and smiled again before peering down at the folder in her hands, “George Ramirez. Ex army, served two tours, failed at becoming a cop, gained a P.I. license three years ago, but advertises as an occult detective.” The woman looked up from the red folder and frowned at my debilitating office. “Business doing well?”

“Well enough…” I took another sip from my glass as I watched the woman. What was her game? “What agency are you two with?”

“Didn’t say.” The woman smiled, and leaned forward. “Now about those killings?”

“I told you already, I don’t know why you would--”

“Because we know those killings weren’t normal. And the un-normal is something you specialize in right?” The woman tossed a series of large photographs on the table. I turned on the desk lamp and clutched my glass tighter as they were illuminated. They were images of the victims, mauled and broken. Torn apart by that thing. The last victim he had gotten to know personally. George chugged the remainder of the glass, and the woman slid the macabre pictures aside and tapped on the images of the cave. The cave that destroyed any semblance I had of normalcy in my life. No one knew about the connection of the cave to the killings but me…and her…“Tell me how the Grant Mining company was involved.”

***

It was four days ago…the rain was relentless, large pelts of water shattered as they hit the thick old glass windows. A soft knock at my door tore my gaze from the display of water works.

“Come in.” I swiveled my chair toward my desk, trying to compose myself as professional as I could in my old weathered suit. I was expecting another of my normal clients. Most were god fearing housewives concerned that their cheating husbands were the result of a demon’s influence, or maybe a couple who needed their home cleansed of evil spirits because the home’s old electrical system caused the lights to flicker on more than one occasion. Teenagers were my next normal clientele. They were more open to believing in the occult, usually going through a phase where they recently discovered paganism and spirituality. Most of the time they came for information on ghosts, the power of horoscopes and Tarot. Maybe asking for a way to curse someone that hurt them. They were rare, and never had much cash. But I humored them.

I wanted to be normal when I came back from Afghanistan…There were things I saw on my last tour that I couldn’t explain. After Abuela died I inherited her tome of legends and remedies. Growing up, I watched her work as a bruja blanca. People used to hire her to cleanse their homes of evil spirits, or request remedies when they were sick. I started as a normal PI, but when I found there was a niche to make more cash, I couldn’t pass up on it.

“Mr. Ramirez?”

Her voice was mixture of confusion and urgency. I spread a comforting smile across my face as I observed her. She was in a black T-shirt, and light colored blue jeans. Her black bangs rested by her high cheek bones, framing her dark brown eyes. She wore a necklace of jade stones with silver feathers. Looks like this might be a cleansing. Easy money.

“Yes ma’am. Please come in and sit down. Can I get you something to drink?”

“Um no…” She clutched the strap of her brown shoulder bag that was dusty and worn from use as she sat down. She held it tightly under her fingers. “Are you really a paranormal detective?”

“Yes. If it’s strange, and unexplainable, I aim to find an answer.” I grabbed a water bottle from my small cooler and placed it on the desk in front of her in case she changed her mind. “Even if there tends to be a logical explanation in the end.”

The woman’s look of concern did not waiver. In fact she tightened up. Native people like us are raised in believing in spirits and monsters, usually seeking aid for the unexplained from known elders and confidants. Something must have really startled her.

“I’m actually here on behalf of my employer.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a folder full of papers and other materials, stuffed more than its binding was made for, and placed it on my desk. I peered over at the logo.

“Grant Mining Company?” The company had recently come into the area, opening up an old cavern in the mountains to look for gold and silver ore deposits that might have been left behind by the previous gold rush. Local legends say the original cavern was closed when a crazed foreigner and a former slave were trying to sabotage the building of the transcontinental railroad. Apparently they blew up the worksite, causing the railroad to build in a different area. The present city commissioners were happy for the money and work the mining company brought to the area by opening up the old cavern. The local tribes however felt otherwise. “I’m surprised you’re working with them…”

The woman brushed a small bang behind her ear and scoffed. “I was hired as a liaison to make sure no history would be damaged.”

“I still don’t understand why you are here Miss?”

“Cara Adam.”

“Miss Adam I-”

“Just call me Cara.” She started ruffling through the pages, “You said it yourself, you deal with the strange. I’m sure you heard of the accident we had at the dig site yesterday?”

“Yeah, some loose equipment crashed down on them.” The mining company didn’t let any media at the sight. They said the workers were working on some rigging, and a cable snapped, causing an iron cart to come crashing down on them. “Tragic…but I still don’t understand why--”

“Does this look like they were crushed by mining equipment?” She pulled a photo out of the folder and slammed it on the desk in front of me. I had seen blood and dead bodies before. It had been a few years though. It still doesn’t get easy, but my curiosity had the better of me. 

The two men that were dead, both had on the uniforms of the Grant Mining company, teal green jumpsuits darkened by dirt, soil, and blood. What stood out most to me was not the dismembered corpses, but the look on the men’s faces. It was pure fear. I scanned the photo, there were no signs of mining equipment, aside from the hard hats. My eyes wandered back to the bodies. The ground below them was impacted, the rubble resembled as if they were thrown hard into rock. Their bloody uniforms were ripped and torn, and the flesh below was sliced open as if by claws.

“Is this?”

“It was no accident. We had just opened up a section of the cave that had been sealed

from the cave-in back in the 1800s. Allen and Rodger were the surveyors. We found them…like this.” Cara’s eyes welled up as she dug through the photos again, she pulled out another, “and this one we found this morning…”

It was another body. A woman. Her arm was missing, her chest was ripped open, and her face…half of it was gone. Were those teeth marks?

“What happened to them?”

“We don’t know.” Cara slid the pictures back toward her, “The woman wasn’t even from the company. She lived a couple of miles down the road. We think she was jogging when she was attacked.”

“I still don’t know why you are bringing this to me and not the police.”

“Because the police don’t think they are related!” Cara slammed her hand on my desk, a fire burned bright in her dark eyes. “They think the men died in a mining accident like everyone else in this town, and that the woman was killed by a mountain lion. But you can clearly see that the scars and wounds are similar between the two cases.”

Cara’s body remained rigid as she waited for me to answer. I didn’t deal with this kind of stuff. Murder? Hell no, that leads to all types of trouble. Most of the paranormal crap I dealt with was bullshit that I read in my Abuela’s journals.

“So you think a myth did this?” I pushed the photos back to Cara, whose fiery demeanor didn’t change.

“Not a myth, a real creature.” She shuffled through the file again, sliding out more papers and pictures, “My tribe has a story from this area. As old as when the cavern was originally sealed…”

She pushed the papers in front of me. I scanned the writings. Some of them were in Washoe dialect, other scribblings in English. It spoke of the caves, the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, and the demon that came with the foreigner that killed the entire populace of a local village. The was an old black and white tintype of a tall blonde Norwegian looking man standing next to a just as tall and muscular black man. Rigid, as people couldn’t move due to the long processing time of the cameras back then. All the history I thought of as true was false? Or were these the tall tales? I was fervently reading with the papers in my hands, when Cara placed her hand over mine.

“I thought they were legends too, but when one of the crew members took a photo of the monster from the caves.” She pulled out one of the pages I held to the back in my hands, and pulled it in front. It was blurry, but clear enough to show what I was staring at was not human. The thing’s skin was grey of any color. The limbs were longer than normal, compared to the center mass of its body, stretched out and elongated. Where there should be hands and fingers were long claws with dagger-like tips.

“What is that?”

“The creature of the caverns…a Wendigo.”

I tried to suppress my laughter, to no avail. I looked at Cara’s face. She was not amused by my small outburst of laughter.

“You don’t seriously believe that do you?”

Cara ripped the papers out of my hands, and began jamming them back into the folder with the other photographs.

“I thought you would be different…because you had a good reputation for the supernatural, but I see you are no different than the others.” She jammed the folder into her bag, haphazardly. “I can’t believe I was able to convince Mrs Grant to let me approach you with this, and hire you to help us.”

“Mrs Grant? Melanie Grant? The CEO of Grant Mining? She believes it’s real too?” If the CEO of the mining company was aware of this, then this was going to be a big payout!

“Yes…she wanted this handled discreetly. Despite my tribes reluctance to open the mines again…Probably because of this creature. If we can get rid of it. It will mean jobs for a lot of people that need it.” Cara gazed back at me, the fire was still in her eyes, but there was also worry. “A lot of people need this. We NEED this.”

“Don’t say anything more. I’ll help you. But I’m going to need more information.”

“About the mine?”

“No, the wendigo…if we are going to kill it. We need to know how right?”

Cara’s face lit up at the mention of the creature. I don’t know what that creature was in the picture, probably a diseased bear. I’d speak to the locals with her to amuse her and give her my money’s worth…shit. Probably going to have to hire a hunter to kill that thing. That’s gonna cut into my overhead--

“We can speak to Louisa. She knows all the stories.”

“Before we get too far ahead…We need to settle the accounts.”

Cara’s energy deflated as disappointment crossed her face. “Right…Mrs. Grant said you are granted up to twenty thousand. We can put a fifty percent deposit down now, and then when you finish the job you’ll get the rest.”

TWENTY THOUSAND!? Much more than I was thinking. This would be my biggest payout. I could upgrade the office, run new ads, get new suits…I pulled at the scratchy collar on my neck as I tried to subdue my excitement.

“That…that would be great. Let me get the contract written up. I can meet with you tomorrow. How does noon sound?”

“That’s perfect!” Cara pulled the file out of her bag again, and placed it on my desk.

“Here, so you can review it before tomorrow.” She grabbed the water bottle I had left for her on her way out.

I should have never taken the job. I should have just laughed her out of my office. If I had…she’d still be…

The ground was wet and full of mud. Each step squelched loudly. I’m glad I wore my boots. I approached the group of mobile homes and saw Cara as she ran over. She wore a worn out Nirvana t-shirt and had her long hair pulled back in a ponytail. She skipped over excitedly, ambivalent to the thick mud that grasped at her feet with each step. I was glad I lived in the city, I couldn’t deal with this every year when we were in the rainy season. 

“Louisa is cooking, but she said she would tell you everything she knows about the legend of the mines and the Wendigo. Did you look over the file I left?”

Not really…I browsed it.

“Yeah.”

“Good!”

We climbed up the wooden steps and stepped into the doublewide. My nostrils were instantly filled with good home cooking. A short older woman was humming to herself as she danced around the stove stirring the contents in front of her. She turned to us with a smile.

“Hunga mi’ heshi!”

“She said hello.” Cara whispered to me.

“Oh! Hello! You have a nice home.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere. You barely stepped into my home with your dirty boots. Please take them off and leave them by the door.”

“Sorry!” I hastily removed my muddy boots and placed them on the rack by the door. 

“Coffee?” Lousia was already grabbing mugs from the cupboard and pouring in fresh hot coffee. She asked without really giving me a chance to answer. Before I knew the hot cup of Joe was in my hands.

“Um..thanks.” I sipped the dark brew, and coughed. This was strong…I usually didn’t mind black coffee, but I decided to discreetly place the glass on the counter behind me. “So Cara says you can tell me the history of the mines…and they uh--”

“Wendigo?” Louisa lowered the flames of the stove. “One minute.” She opened her front door and yelled outside, “Lunch is ready! Come in and serve yourself!” She slammed the door shut and then ushered Cara and I to the living room.

I sat on the couch, and Cara sat close next to me. Her hip touched mine on the small sofa. She wasn’t too different in age from me, but I hastily shifted over to give her more space. I watched as kids came into the kitchen grabbing plates of food and rushing back out. Each taking a moment to stare at the strange man sitting in the flower covered living room..

“Louisa, maybe we should start with the mine?” Cara suggested.

“I suppose.” Louisa sipped her coffee and leaned back in her recliner. “So you know the tales of the crazy foreigner and his friend that blew up the original tunnels for the railroad?”

“Yeah, but according to what Cara sent yesterday, that’s not the case right?”

“Not entirely.” Louisa placed her mug down on the coffee table. “You see, the massacre of the mining village was not caused by them…well, not entirely.”

“Remember back then we had a lot of Chinese immigrants? They were used in what was essentially slave labor with the way they were treated. Well, when one of the white miners was found mutilated…they thought it was them.” Cara squeezed her hands on her lap.

“Yes, the man who was killed was known to be hated by the immigrants. It's not a secret how he treated them…”

“So they wanted to do their own form of justice?” Time progresses, but things like this don’t seem to change. My palms hurt as my fingers dug into them. I took a deep breath and stretched out my hands.

“Yup. Well apparently in the Chinese immigrant camp were not just the immigrants, but also newly free’d men from the south seeking work. This wasn’t that long after the Civil War ended. The black man with the foreigner was related to a family there.” Louisa sat back up and folded her hands in her lap.

“They were there when the other miners decided to attack the camp?” I saw where this went.

“Yes…But the black man and foreigner were not there that night. They were in the tunnels with one of the immigrants.”

Cara sat up, excited. “They knew that the man was not killed by a person. So they went to the mine to stop it.”

“One of our people was there that night too. As a guide for them.”

“So I’m guessing they didn’t kill it. And opted to just close the mine?” All this made sense in a strange way.

“Yes, and we tried to keep people from ever opening it…That is until…”

“Louisa, you still can't be mad about that? You know how helpful this will be for everyone here. You can’t blame us for not believing all the old stories!” Cara sat back on the couch and folded her arms in frustration.

“I can and I will. Those people didn’t need to die.”

“Ladies, can we get back on track? So you think this creature--”

“Wendigo.” Louisa corrected

“Wendigo is still alive in the caves? And you want me to kill it?”

“I heard you were an ex soldier. You seemed like the only capable person.”

Aye Dios Mio! These people are fucking crazy. But for twenty thousand dollars I’ll play.

“Okay, so if this is a WENDIGO, how do I kill it?”

“You need to use silver. And you must stab it in the heart.” Louisa’s eyes were unwavering as she gazed at me.

“And you need to burn the body…”

“Jesus. Are you serious?”

“Yes.” Louisa got up from her chair and walked over to a dresser. She pulled out a large hunting knife. The color of the metal was odd for a knife. She handed it to me. “That is silver. Find the creature. Plunge that into its chest. But be careful. A Wendigo is the perfect hunter. It has superior eyesight and hearing.”

“How deep in the mine were the first bodies found?” I regretted asking. Twenty thousand, twenty thousand…

“I can show you!” Cara jumped up. “I know the mines since I’ve been working with the company. And since I know the legends, I can be helpful in killing it!”

“I don’t think--” Louisa shook her head.

“I agree. If this thing is as dangerous as you say it is, then you should probably stay behind.”

“You gotta be kidding me!”

“Cara. Please! He’s right. It's not safe.”

“But he can’t get in the mine without me.”

“Fine. You can come.” Cara started jumping in excitement again, and I quickly held up my finger, “ONLY to let me in. You are to stay outside. You hear me?”

Cara nodded her head furiously. Shit, this is going to be hard to make it look like I did something if she is there the whole time. I’ll hire a hunter to go into the cavern, and kill the bear for me. Then bring her in after it’s all done and show her the corpse to make payday.

“Everythings settled then. Good luck Mr. Ramirez.” Louisa picked up her mug and walked back into the kitchen.

“We meet tomorrow morning. Don’t be late.” I nodded to Louisa as I left. This job was turning into a real pain.

I spent the better part of the evening calling hunters, trying to find someone experienced with bear hunting. Which was more difficult than I thought it would be.  I finally came upon one Charles Hackett, big game hunter extraordinaire. He seemed skeptical when I first reached out to him. Bears were not in season, and he doubted the animal in the mines was one, as there is no way one of the size described could have fit into small crevices to get into that closed off section of the mine. But he came at a good price, and humored me when I questioned if he could acquire some silver bullets.

The morning seemed like any other. There was another wave of rain that left a thick fog as I drove up the work road to the mine. At the entry gate was a large jeep truck with a bald middle aged man. He was wearing a hunter’s jacket, and sand colored camo. It seemed like Cara hadn’t arrived yet. Good.

I pulled up next to the jeep and hopped out of my car. I decided on wearing my hiking gear, which consisted of boots, jeans, and a t-shirt. I threw on a thick jacket, reminiscent of the Winchester’s of that one TV show I watched several years ago. I laughed, this would definitely be something they would be involved in. The middle aged man turned around, looking me up and down with little approval.

“Mr. Hackett?” I asked as I extended my hand.

“That would be me. I’m not gonna lie, this is one of the oddest hunts I will ever be on.”

“Me too. Listen, before our guide gets here…” I looked wary at the road for Cara’s arrival,

“Our guide believes that this is not a bear, but rather a um…creature.”

“Okay…” Charles looked at me strangely as he ruffled through his equipment.

“Anyways, just uh…humor her? Once we go down there, you can do your thing, and then I’ll do what I have too and we both get paid right?”

“So you are a swindler eh?” Charles laughed, “I don’t care. A job is a job. Just stay behind me, let me take lead. I’ll believe whatever you want me too.”

“Right. Um you have the silver?”

Charles laughed and pulled out a small box of handgun ammo. “Didn’t even know they made this stuff. Silver is a soft metal, so doesn’t make good for ammo. I thought your beastie was fake?”

“It is…it’s just…” Security in case any of these crazy tales are actually real? I felt for the knife on my hip from Louisa.

Cara’s hatchback bumped up the road thankfully getting me out of this awkward conversation. I waved her down, and noticed she was just like me. You gotta be kidding me.

“Hello George!” She looked over at Charles curiously, “And your friend?”

“He’s a bear hunter. Thought the backup wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

“I guess…” Cara dug in her pockets for a set of keys and walked toward the gated entrance. “So we go through here and there’s an elevator that will lower us down to the mines. Once we get off there’s about two miles before we reach the new opening. Then just a few more yards from there is where the workers were found. No one has been down there since the accident.”

“What’s this we stuff? You agreed to stay up here.”

“The mines are a labyrinth. You cannot go in if you don’t know where you are going. You will get lost, and if that thing doesn’t kill you, then you will die of starvation or dehydration.”

Charles came over carrying a rifle across his chest, a light affixed to his head. “The little missy is right. This sounds further in than what you said. We are going to need her so we can find our way out.”

WHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYY????

“Fine…but you do everything we say!”

Cara salutes and opens the gate to the mine. The three of us made our way into the mine and quickly got to the elevator that Cara had mentioned. There were a few emergency lights connected to generators that Cara switched on. The silence of the cavern was over run with the humming of engines and the loud screech of the elevator door as Charles slid it aside for them to get in. They silently boarded, not making eye contact with one another. As the elevator descended deeper into the dark chasm, a cold draft filled the space. I shoved my hands in my pockets to warm them.

There was a heavy shift in the gears as the elevator came to a stop. The chamber in front of them was strewn with abandoned equipment, and crates. Cara grabbed a crowbar, and began cranking off the lid of one of the crates. She reached in, holding a colored stick in her hand as her arm came back up.

“Flares. We are gonna need them.”

Charles looked confused, but accepted a handful that he stuck in the empty loops of this tactical belt. I grabbed a couple and Cara took what she could carry. I swallowed back as my throat was feeling dry in anticipation. The deeper we walked into the mine, the more my body tensed up. We stayed silent, Charles leading with his gun raised, me with my hand checking for the knife on my hip, and Cara carrying the rear. 

“This is where we found the bodies.” Cara gestured to the center of the space. There were still stains of blood in the stones. My hands began to shake as memories of my time in the desert war zone flooded back. “George? You okay?”

“What? Oh yeah.”

“If this is where it’s killed, it’s den must be close.” Charles raised the rifle in his hands.

Our footsteps echoed as we moved down deeper into the mine, and the lights grew darker. Charles flicked on his headlamp and Cara grabbed me by the belt on my back. I tried to focus my senses on my surroundings. I could hear a light dripping of water in the distance. Drip drip drip.

“It’s getting hard to see…Cara, maybe you should go back to the elevator.”

Drip, Drip, Drip.

“No, I’m staying.”

Drip, Drip.

“Quiet down. We don’t want it to know we are here.”

Drip.

“Hold up a second.” I raise my hand to my ear, as if it would actually allow me to hear better.

Charles and Cara stare at me in confusion. The only sound I can hear is their frightened short breaths.

“George?” Cara whispers.

“The water…it stopped dripping.”

“What?” Charles stood rigid. A gust of wind brushed through the dead tunnel, and as it passed the light of Charle’s head lamp flung down the hall before them until it was gone.

“Charles!” He was gone. It was like a character glitching out of a video game. One second he was there, the next, gone.

Cara grabbed me tightly. I looked down to see Charle’s handgun on the ground in front of me. I picked it up and cleared the chamber. I checked the magazine, and saw the silver bullets. That’s when we heard the screams.

“George!” Cara hissed as her hands dug into my back.

“We need to go. Now!”

I pulled Cara, and began running back towards the elevator. That was not a fucking bear! The lights in the tunnel all flashed off. I stopped short, and felt as Cara slammed into me. It was pitch black, we could not see a thing. I heard the crack of plastic, and the room was filled with a deep red light. The smell of burning gunpowder filled my nostrils. Cara was holding a lit flare in her hand.

“I can’t see anything…”

“Stay on my back.”

There was a movement in the tunnel behind us. It was quick. I aimed the handgun at the moving mass and fired repeatedly. The rockface crumbled where every missed shot made contact. 

“George…”

“Shit. Stay close. Light another flare, I can’t see well enough to hit it.”

“Okay.”

Cara cracked another flare lighting the room more. There was a blood curdling shriek that made every goosebump on my body raised on edge. Cara whimpered.

“Keep moving to the elevator.”

We continued to run down the hall. I let Cara lead as I kept my vision on the path behind us. The twisting tunnels seemed longer on the trip back to safety than they did before. As one of Cara’s flares went out, she lit another.

“Good job Cara, we’re almost out of here.”

I ran backwards, and my foot slid on a cylinder. Before I knew it my body flipped back and I hit the hard floor with a smack. My vision was blurry as I tried to see what I tripped on. It was a burning flare. Cara? Where’s Cara? I leaned back in time to see the elongated figure of a humanoid creature. It’s skin was pale and gray, with little to no hair on it’s body. It’s hands were more like claws with elongated fingers. Fingers wrapped around the waist of Cara. She struggled against it’s tight grip as it screamed in her face. Cara no!

I rolled on my stomach, and looked for the handgun. It was a few feet in front of me. I could reach it. I had to hurry.

“Take this you son of a bitch!” Cara wrestled a flare in her hands and lit it. Shoving it into the monsters bloody gaping maw. The monster threw her down, and her body crashed against the crates and mining equipment. We were in the elevator hall!

I aimed the gun at the creature and fired. It spiraled back as the silver bullets sizzled in it’s skin. The gun clicked empty. I threw it down and ran to Cara, trying to pick her up.

“Get out of here…Leave me.” She gasped, raising her arm that was bleeding. “It bit me…If the legends are true, I’m going to turn into one of those monsters.”

“No! I can’t!”

Cara shoved me off of her and grabbed one of the flares that rolled on the ground next to her. She smiled up at me.

“We have to burn it. You have Louisa’s dagger?”

I felt my hip, the knife was still there.

“Yes, I’m not letting you do this alone.”

Cara nodded and struggled to her feet. She lit the flare and waved it over her head. The creature, done fighting the burns on its face, turned toward her with extra discontent. It began moving toward us. Slower than before. The silver? It began to bound towards, running on all fours like an animal. We jumped in opposite directions away from the creature. It skidded into the boxes of flares. 

“Now!” Cara screamed, and I saw the opening. The creature struggled to stand, tripping on the ground littered with flares.

I ran at it with all the speed I could muster and jumped, connecting the blade with it’s chest. The creature screamed in agony, as it crumbled to the ground. Cara hobbled over, picking up another unused flare.

“Cara, lets go.”

“No, I told you. We need to burn it so it doesn’t regenerate. Go, get out of here.” Cara grunted. I looked into her eyes and stepped back in fear. They matched the creature’s. She pushed me into the elevator and slammed shut the cage, sending it up. “I’m sorry George. Thank you for believing in me…We can’t let anyone else get hurt. If I die while I’m still human…the curse ends with me.”

“Cara don’t!”

The elevator rose slowly and Clara’s face slowly disappeared behind the cavern walls. There was a bright red glow that filled the chamber. A mixed scream of the creature and Cara’s radiated into the column. I covered my ears trying to block it out.

***

“That’s what happened in the mines…” I gulped down the rest of my drink and slammed the empty glass on my desk.

The woman smiled at me, as she uncrossed her legs and stood up. She gathered her files, stuffing them back into her satchel, and turned back to me holding a small card in her hand. It was lime green and black, with a large zero in the middle of it.

“You managed to kill a Wendigo with a knife. That is impressive. If you get tired of this and want to make a real change in this world…call me.” She placed the card on my desk.

“Thank you George.”

The woman and her companion headed towards the door. I picked up the card and stared at it. There was a single phone number on it. I placed it down on my desk next to the tin type photograph from the file that Cara had given me.

“Wait a minute…” I grabbed the photo, and stared at the black male figure, and then looked up as the woman’s companion opened the door for her. He looked just like the man in the photo. The man turned toward me, removing his glasses with a smile. His eyes…they were wrong. A bright glowing yellow like a lion’s.

“Have a good evening.”

With that they stepped out into the hall, shutting the door behind them. I was paralyzed. I couldn’t move. His eyes!? There is no way he could be the same man from the photo. It was over two hundred years old. I looked at the card again and held it in my fingers…

***

“Was it wise leaving that for him?” Demon asked as him and Jennifer stepped into the elevator.

“The man killed a Wendigo with zero knowledge. It may have been luck, but it could have been his background too.”

“Maybe.” Demon hit the button for the elevator to descend. “Where to now?”

“We can file our report in the morning. Let’s head back to the hotel. My feet are killing me!”

“Well you chose those shoes.”

“Only because I look like a mouse next to you without them.” Jennifer elbowed Demon in the rib.

“Whatever you say.”

end