The Cave Story

[Arashi]

Hey, guys. Here's a story I wrote for school. Feel free to read it, though I'm kind of just putting it here so certain people have access to it.

It's still in progress and I've finished with a temporary "fake ending" so that I could turn it in to my class on time and in order to minimize the length (I already went over the word limit!).

So, just to let you guys know, this isn't the full story and what I have planned will make it much, much longer.

Also, I'm not expecting it, but if I find that anyone steals my crap, I'll kick your mutha duckin' ass!



Edit: the story is kind of difficult to read via post, so I suggest making an account to view the attachment.

Attachments:

[Arashi]

The Cave Story
By Storm Rhode
The cool air passed through me like an autumn ghost. Stepping from my car, I was overcome with a curious rapture by the world before me. In this forest, touched by autumn and alit by the infant day, the once green leaves had just begun to adopt a new spectrum of copper, maroon, and gold. The leaves shifted gently at the hands of the passing wind and shuffled on the great arms of the trees to create a musical poetry.
The trees stood as grand obelisks, creating a ceiling that made me think of paper with holes punched through it, allowing immaculate beams of light to pierce through and bleed upon the earth. The image was divine.
I was an aspiring photographer and journalist, fresh from school and on my first commission to take shots of this particular forest. The location was the distant mountains, far from human civilization and nearly untouched by people, making the site ideal for shots of unadulterated nature. And I was very glad to have taken this assignment; in addition to being a photographer and journalist, I was an avid hiker and adored nature and its wildlife. And making this experience even more enjoyable was the undisturbed equanimity of the forest. The forest was pristine.
I stood at the driver’s seat of my car, deeply inhaling the invigorating air as I stretched my stiffened legs. The drive here had been long and tedious and to be able to loosen my arms and legs was wonderfully alleviating. After taking another moment to relish my arrival, and not having to drive any further, I readied my large backpack, loaded with photography equipment and hiking essentials, and prepared for my trek through the woods.
My first action once I was ready was an extravagance. I positioned the camera upon its tripod and set it to take a picture of me within the metallic forest. It was a guilty pleasure of mine: I enjoyed being in pictures of places I shot.
I quickly took the picture and looked it over before continuing through the forest. In the picture, the trees behind me stood high and proud, shadowed by the golden yellow light of the sun. In my loose, long-sleeve black shirt and beige pants, I was looking over at the space to my left, avoiding peering directly into the camera to give the picture a slightly more natural image. The breeze picked up at the opportune time to lift my black hair from my shoulders, causing it to flow like waves behind my head. I almost felt druidic, reflecting in the photograph.
It was time to move on. I gathered my things and continued on my escapade.

I took many shots as I glided between the trees, allowing my camera to dangle from my neck and below my chest as I searched for the perfect scenes to make the most beautiful of pictures. I was enveloped by a rich world of gold as the leaves filled the trees and covered the ground and I discovered that I was snapping dozens of pictures each minute.
It was a thin layer of leaves that blanketed the earth, leaving haphazard patches of bistre dirt exposed. The leaves were still moist and with the morning dew yet clinging to the world, the forest breathed a calming freshness that left me collected and at ease.
A rich fragrance emanated from the forest, trapping me in autumn’s cage. The sun, still young and reigning over the sky, cast a curtain of spectral luster upon the image before me. Birds communicated with a myriad of sounds that resonated from one tree to another. And the wind sang as it frolicked by, lifting the metallic leaves and twirling them midair into a whimsical dance, giving the colorful picture before me a brilliant sense of life and dynamic.
The forest was far more remarkable than I’d expected it to be. Simply walking through the trees, I discovered that my imagination was fluttering and I was seeing things that couldn’t possibly be here.
A stampede of large deer, slightly larger than horses, rushed through me. Their voices rose in beastly cries, ringing from tree to tree. And in an instant, the animals became still, frozen as if suspended in time’s fierce grasp.
But the eyes of the beasts still moved.
An infinitesimal world of stars and abstract constellations glistened in their eyes. The stellar emotions shined through and planted themselves into me; for a moment, I saw the earth and the stars that circled it.
The creatures began to move backward in a mysterious canter as if controlled by some invisible force. They were waves receding behind the trees, fading away like dissipating mist.
And like the mist, I allowed the thought to diminish before I continued through the woods.

The woods began to slope upward into a large hill on the side of the mountain and I found myself on a slightly more onerous task than I planned. Despite this, I enjoyed the journey and, being the young, jubilant, twenty-four-year-old adventurer that I was, I imagined I was exploring a world of fancy and mystique.
My breath hardened and I could see it form little clouds of mist before my mouth. I inhaled deeply, held my breath for a moment, brought my open hand five inches from my lips, and breathed through my fingers. The mist I created slithered past my fingers like waves of snakes dispersing into the air. I let the amusement linger a moment, then continued walking up the hill.
The slope passed away and the ground became level. A somber emotion dwelled in this part of the forest, growing as I came to a large, fallen tree. Decrepit and disgraced by age, the tree had recently renounced itself and plunged to a pitiful state of sorrow. It was grand just before it fell, and its leaves had already changed with the season.
The tree’s many arms stretched out as if reaching for help from those around him. A golden crown of leaves was already browning on the head of this fallen king. The surrounding trees, once his loyal people, now turned away apathetically, forsaking him to an unkingly demise. I mourned his silent misery and paid a moment of recognition to what would be the final day of this fallen king’s life and rule before I parted, returning to my quest-at-hand to capture the essence of this magnificent world.
As I commenced, however, a cold air lifted and whirred through the leaves, forming tiny cyclones of colors that spiraled in my direction. This dance was violent and I sensed the presence of belligerence bleed from the forest. The first inkling of madness expelled, a hungry furor howled from deep within the woods and receded as it moved past me.

Not far from where I stood echoed the voice of a stream. I knew I would find opportunities to capture something beautiful at the brook and I started for the water.
A small, serpentine river curved along the earth. The water was elegantly moving glass and the stones beneath its crystal surface glittered as a myriad of priceless gems. My hands found the camera at my chest and took several shots. I reviewed the images on my camera and was satisfied.
Winding alongside the bank, I continued to take pictures of the stream and the forest until I found a large stone at the waterside. I decided it was time to rest and I unloaded my pack and gathered my lunch.
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Like a braying beast, my stomach roared with hunger! I quickly dug out a sandwich and an apple from my backpack and swallowed them down. I drank half a liter of water and lied back on top of the stone, reflecting on the pictures I’d taken and savoring the pleasantness of the forest.
Birds shrieked from all around me, creating an almost chilling symphony while a small party of ants scaled the rock I was lying on. Birds soared overhead and I spotted a brindle rabbit about ten meters away.
From the corner of my eye, I caught a bird as it perched itself onto a branch perhaps ten feet above the water. It was a large halcyon, perusing the stream from a lofty vantage point for the living morsels that swam languidly in the lucid stream.
The bird was glorious, wearing a stark and regal composure. The kingfisher’s plumage shimmered with phenomenal silver and upon its attentive head shined a crown of the most royal gold. Even its legs and feet seemed to be made of gold!
Slowly, I aimed my camera to the bird and snapped several pictures that were sure to be captivating.
Beneath the halcyon’s throne, two snipe waded through the passing water as if guardians to the greater bird. Their feathers were beautiful and black, reflecting shards of the sun’s light and speckled with the same gold as worn by the halcyon. Their long beaks skated on the surface of the water, occasionally breaking it like a blade thrust cleanly through glass.
I was near befuddlement; the image of the three birds was something from an Aesop fable. Then, to my surprise, the halcyon turned to me and stared into my eyes as I gazed in wonder. The bird’s returned silent stare spoke stories to me, cautionary tales, perhaps.
The bird’s gander left me momentarily enrapt by what presented itself as wisdom to me and I listened fervently to the tale it told.
Then it showed me its soul. It was a soul that burned like infernal pyres, attracting moths and burning them to scarlet embers that glowed against the night’s black curtains. It ran its fingers through my mind and challenged my imagination and my valor. In a leap of faith, I plunged into the roaring fires and felt it relieve me of my unnecessary mind and body. I was finally free.
And then the three birds flew away. A silver feather fell from the halcyon, landing in the stream to sail to the end of oblivion.
Something caused my ears to perk, grabbing my attention with an insurmountable fierceness that forced my head to turn in dangerous curiosity: I could hear the crying of a girl, coming from upstream.
I thought that perhaps my mind was playing tricks on me or perhaps it was the strange call of a bird. I was alone for miles in these desolate mountains, there shouldn’t be anyone here.
But then I saw her. A young girl clothed in a white sundress kneeled along the water. She must have been around twelve years old and was weeping desperately. She had long, light brown hair and delicate, wan skin. She was angelic.
I quickly threw my bag onto my back and walked toward her.
She paid no attention to me as I approached. Her face was buried in her hands and she was breathing hard as soft, choked gasps escaped her.
“Excuse me,” I began. “Are you okay?!”
It seemed that I continued to be unnoticed and the girl’s sobbing remained unbroken. I was confused and concerned and somewhat unsure of how to handle the situation. The girl appeared unharmed, other than being mysteriously distraught.
“You’re not hurt, are you?!” I kneeled down to meet her. “Hey, are you here with someone?! Are you lost?!”
The girl broke away and darted for the woods. Startled, I stumbled back, nearly falling from the weight of my backpack. I decided to follow after her.
The girl was fast and flowed through the trees and the brush like water. She didn’t cry out as I pursued her, only continued to weep loudly.
“Hey! Hold on!” I called behind her. “I’m not going to hurt you!”
But of course, she continued to flee.
My gear bounced heavily on my back as I struggled to keep up with the girl. She was fast and I was encumbered by my equipment. But I felt I couldn’t leave the girl alone in the woods and I was compelled to discover why she was here and who she was with.
I staggered as the roots from the trees seemed to lift under my feet and the bushes seemed to scrabble at my pants, clawing at my legs with their collections of large thorns. The girl appeared unhampered by the brush while it almost pulled me down.
Still managing to follow close behind her, I came to a large stone wall perhaps twenty feet high. The girl ran along the wall’s looming edge and disappeared around a bend at the left. Cracks adorned the stone wall like tributaries of veins. For an instant, I thought I saw fluids passing through them, but dismissed it as just a delusion.
Finally turning around the corner of the stone wall, I came to a cave that gaped like the widened mouth of an enormous demon. Stones reached from its jaws like terrible fangs.
The cave audibly breathed in, tugging at me… welcoming me.
I wavered for a moment as a stark trepidation claimed my legs, causing them to quiver weakly. Something ominous and instrumental surged through my mind. It was faint as if calling out from a distance.
It started as a suggestion, the inconsonant whisper in the cave, but steadily it rose to a shrill bellow, a belligerent insistence pulling me into its wicked belly. Chaos permeated, sending me into a nauseated stupor at last dispelled by the high pitch of the girl’s voice.
She was in the cave!
I felt that I couldn’t leave this girl on her own, especially if she was alone in the cave. Slowly, I stepped into the abyssal, gaping mouth, afraid that calling for her might drive her further into the cave.
A blanket of cool air covered me as I stepped into the darkness. It was as if walking under a black waterfall, enshrouding me in a sinister shadow that grasped me like the claws of a beast.
The girl’s crying continued, amplified by the dreary walls of the cave. It was grotesque and I was surrounded by her fear and sorrow.
Something moved at my right, disturbing some stones into a tiny avalanche. My head turned quickly in an attempt to catch whatever caused the disruption, but I saw nothing. When I turned back to the girl, two small illuminated eyes, like those of an owl, stared back at me. They were digging into me, through my flesh and into my mind and worst of all, they were inhuman.
I shuffled backward, unsure of what I was seeing. The girl’s continued weeps came from the opal-eyed creature, seeming to twist in the air before reaching my ears. I stepped back again and stumbled on a stone at my ankle. My body twirled around to avoid landing on the equipment in my bag, forcing my body to land hard onto a sharp stone as my hands slid along the surface of the abrasive floor. I was winded and in fear that one of my ribs may have nearly broken. But I struggled quickly to my feet, ignoring the screams that rang from my bleeding hands.
Then, silence. No more weeping. No more breathing. I was alone.
I scanned the inside of the cave. There was no sign of the girl weeping in the darkness, no wide, glowing eyes. Just black.
I turned to the entrance of the cave, looking out to the golden forest that warmed my blood as the coldness of the cave scratched at my skin. My stomach burned in what I associated with agony. I stumbled toward the opening of the cave, song of the forest beckoning softly to a solace for which my heart yearned. And then the earth vanished under my feet and the demon cave closed its fanged jaws.


I opened my eyes but couldn’t see. I wasn’t sure, at first, if I was in a dark place or if I’d gone blind. I couldn’t remember what happened and how I got here (wherever this was) and my blank mind hummed like a high-pitched wail in the pain and confusion I laid in.
A great weight was holding me to the ground, though I didn’t know if it was from something heavy placed upon my body or if I was constrained by shock or terror. Then, the realization struck me: an inundation of blood was oozing from the back of my head. A piercing sting resonated from the wound, numbing the rest of my body through what felt like ripples in a disturbed pond.
I was in a silent panic. Paralysis seemed to shake me and I my body wanted to vomit. Magma manifested in my stomach and I could feel it rising as if I were a volcano on the verge of erupting, causing my insides to feel hot while a wintry chill caressed my skin. But I quelled the urge and tried to collect myself.
Blood escaped from the back of my head; a warm, crimson deluge of life was draining from me in rushing rivers. The threatening presence of Death lingered above, a wretched vulture breathing the acrid air of decay onto my livid face. Slowly, the numbness and shock diminished and I struggled to sit up, my right hand clutching the wound on my head. I thought I saw Death flee, as the darkness cowers from a flame.
I sat still for several moments, recollecting the events that led me to where I was. My mind reached into the nebulous pool of memories like a hand in clouded water, pulling out flashes of images reminding me of where I was. I managed to recall following the girl into the cave and the glowing eyes. I remembered starting to leave and losing my footing, causing me to fall into a large hole. I must have fallen more than ten feet and struck my head on a stone behind me. Now I was in the belly of the cave, beyond light’s reach and immersed in an ugly blackness.
My body was riddled with warm and cold spots. The numbness came and left me in spontaneous areas on my body and quickly returned in abrupt pinches as if bees were clinging to me. (A thousand bees struggled to free themselves from my skin, but their stingers were too deep inside of me. Finally, some of their bodies crippled to pitiful slumps of soulless shell as their stingers detached from the rest of them. Their insides remained attached to their body lances, causing their corpses to dangle from me like little black and yellow ornaments. This caused a panic to well in me, but I hastily dismissed it as I gathered myself and reharvested my bearings.) Every breath was onerous and terror formed copious tremors throughout my body. My head was a stone, leaning heavily from my toiled neck. Never had I felt so weak. Never had I felt I was laying at the edge of life, clinging to the side so dearly or to otherwise plummet to an abysmal end. I was distraught and delirious.
It was then that it occurred to me that a pain was searing through my back, releasing warm rivulets to flow down my spine. My bag had cushioned my fall, probably saving my life, but some of the equipment inside had punctured through the bag’s material and cut through my skin. I had no doubt that some of the gear was destroyed from the fall, though I was somewhat relieved to find my camera lying uninjured on my stomach.
For about five minutes, I laid in eternity. My head remained anchored to the stone and my debilitated arms sat like dead snakes at my sides. Summoning the little strength I had, I managed to command my body forward, bending my elbows and lifting myself with trembling arms.
My body whimpered as I motioned slowly to remove the backpack. My bag was heavy, much more so than it had been earlier, and I strained to pull it to my side.
My hands shook as I fingered blindly through the innards of my sack, hoping to find the flashlight or the matches I brought with me. But they were lost in the agglomeration of hiking essentials and photography equipment. I felt I was searching for a rat in a pile of mice.
My fingers wrapped around a cloth belonging to an extra shirt I had packed in case I found myself in frigid mountain air. I tore one of the long sleeves, which was more demanding than I would have imagined, and wound it tightly around my head, hoping to hamper the flow of blood from my pounding wound.
An invisible knife stabbed through my brain at the touch of the improvised tourniquet. Shaken by the pressure roaming through my forehead, I was coiled by a crippling vertigo that caused my mind to flare with the heat of a maniacal flame. Peals of turmoil sang in a harmony, a blossoming tenor splitting like a cracking glacier. Ringing pandemonium.
Fading slowly into a harsh silence, the pain melted from my head and disappeared in tiny tributaries flowing throughout my body until it vanished completely. I inhaled deeply, feeling the cool, moist air scrape my insides before being expelled.
When I was ready, I continued to fish through the contents of my bag. I was still surrounded by oblivion, accompanied only by the certainty that I wouldn’t be able to find my way out of the cave.
My hands found a bottle of water and surprisingly, it was intact. I’d expected it to burst from the fall. The purifier, however, had shattered, limiting me to the two water bottles I had in my bag. I quickly uncapped the bottle and hastily gulped a quarter of the liter, containing myself before devouring all that I had.
The water was an elixir cascading down my throat. The hydrating relief was almost painful as the dryness was quelled and my nape trembled with an unforeseen pleasure. I was slightly disturbed by the ecstasy granted by the cool liquid; my body was burning inside and perhaps it was this nearing of intrinsic equilibrium that delivered me into salvation. But the clouds of Eden were black and the fruits smelled of poison.
My mind tried desperately to escape this place, with or without my body. I could almost feel it clawing at the ribbed walls of the cave, digging a hole to the outside. My imagination was pried open and I saw a thick spire of light stabbing through the flesh of the cave and I could see the tops of trees beneath a mountain of clouds. My eyes watered with joyful praise as I stepped from the threshold of this unholy darkness.
I was snapped back into the darkness of the cave as if tugged by a powerful force. Consternation raged in me, but I quieted the animosity and fought the delusion, focusing once again on finding a source of light.
My fingers caught something cylindrical and curled around it like frightened caterpillars. I grasped it carefully, my fingers feeling like hardened clay, and pulled it from the backpack. It was my flashlight and I found myself stricken with excitement as I turned it on.
To my dismay, the beam of light flickered pitifully before it ebbed into nothingness, leaving me again with only exasperated fear and a disappointment that dragged my soul into such a plight that my body slumped weakly and I nearly toppled over.
I beat my flashlight on the ground, hoping desperately that the abuse would spark life into the electrical torch. But it would emit no light to shine my way home; it must have broken when I fell.
A low vibration suddenly filled the cavern. I was unable to discern it immediately, but then I recognized it as a low, rasp growl.
A new terror filled my heart, surging through my veins and causing a tumultuous fear to well deep inside of me. There was something else in here, something dangerous.
I could see nothing in the darkness as I struggled to my feet. My hands searched desperately to find the matches I had stored in my bag, but to no avail. Then, my hands did something on reflex, perhaps in stimulus to this dire trepidation: they reached for my camera and took a picture.
The flash of the camera filled the cavern like a bolt of lightning, illuminating the walls, ceiling, and stones on the ground for an instant before disappearing. But to my bemusement, there was no wolf or dog to create such a sound that was resonating violently throughout the cave.
The growl became higher and more ferocious and the invisible beast seemed to approach me. Frenetic bursts of light shot from my camera as I rapidly snapped pictures in all directions and scanned the cavern for the source of the sound. But I could find no living creature. Yet the growling obviously came from an animal that was about waist-height. And the creature was of a feral cruelty.
My hands began to tremble and my camera was becoming heavy as fear threatened to overwhelm me. The growling became louder and more hostile. This creature was about to tear me apart and there was nothing I could do.
I took a step back from where the growling seemed to be coming from and felt my heart pump into a drum roll as the growling erupted into incensed barks and I heard the creature begin to rush me from behind.
I dashed from the angry beast, taking more pictures for the bursts of light to see where I was running. Ahead of me was a stone elevation that I could reach to escape the creature. A momentary refuge, my mind could reason no further in the midst of the torrential terror that snapped at my legs.
The barking creature tore at my pants as I ran for the elevated ground, its teeth scratching at my skin. I could feel its wet nose press against the back of my leg as it tried to catch my flesh between its fangs.
At last, I reached the stone surface and quickly hoisted myself onto it with a strength I thought I’d lost to enervation, escaping the creature.
It seemed as if all of this happened in an instant, as I looked back, breathing hard. The adrenaline pulsing through me distorted time and nullified my pain, but left me breathless and struggling to regain myself.
The growling and barking continued in the darkness below me and I held my camera in a position to take a picture of the creature so I could see exactly what was chasing me. But when the light filled the cave, there was no creature and even in the picture I saw nothing but the soil and stone of the cavern floor. Yet, the sounds continued.
I wondered if perhaps I was going insane and whether or not the sound really existed. But then I felt the leg of my pants; it was torn at the part where the creature attacked me and the coolness of the canine’s nose still reverberated upon my skin.
Perhaps I was in shock or hallucinating. My mind struggled to rationalize the existence, or inexistence, of the invisible creature, but I could find nothing to make sense of it.
I turned on the stone and, after lighting the area with my camera, saw that a tunnel led deeper into the cave. I knew I wouldn’t be leaving from the way I came, so I decided I would try to find my way out through the tunnel.
I lamented the loss of my bag and the things I had inside of it. I knew I wouldn’t survive for long without the water or the matches I was leaving behind and I realized that my best chance of survival was to escape from the cave and leave the mountain as quickly as I could.

The tunnel was about eight feet tall and wide and imperceptibly deep. The adrenaline that shielded me from the suffering of my body had left me and I was again subject to the pain that dwelled mercilessly in my throbbing body.
I clenched my right side with my left hand while I handled the camera with my right. My ribs burned in agony and the back of my head was splitting open in torment. I was growing weaker as I floundered through the cave and I found myself combating the urge to give in to the dizziness and fatigue.
Then I saw something glimmer for an instant under the brief light of the camera’s flash. I took the picture again and saw the same refraction, but it had moved slightly closer. Confused and again afraid, I looked into my camera and searched through the pictures I’d just taken.
On the camera’s little screen shined a small, floating orb. I zoomed in on the image in the camera to obtain a closer look at the object. Strangely, it seemed to be enveloped by something faded in the darkness. Curious, I slowly and reluctantly stepped a little closer to the mysterious object and took another picture, lighting it again with the flash. I still, however, couldn’t tell what the object was, so I returned to the camera’s review screen.
I brought the image closer this time and could make out another circle next to the first one, contained also within the faded border.
Then a greater terror wound itself tightly around my heart. The two small circles of light were connected to something and after a moment of staring at the shape and details within it, I was able to distinguish the shadowed, white face of a human.
But there was no life in this image. The eyes were that of a dead man and the face was disembodied as if there was no body beneath it. Yet somehow the face was level with mine and moving toward me.
I’m uncertain, but I think I may have screamed.
I had no idea what I was looking at, only that something unearthly and tormented resided just before me. Confused and frightened, I turned from the face and began to run in the opposite direction.
I reflexively took a picture of the space opposite from the ghostly countenance and to my dreaded astonishment, I saw four more tiny circles of light caught in the flash. I looked in the camera and saw two tormented faces, writhing in anguish and what seemed to be fury. Then an inclement revelation pierced my frenzied heart: the two faces before me now were those of young girls, as the one I encountered in the forest who led me into this place of evil.
But their faces contorted and maniacal, they were still somehow angelic.
I turned around and my fingers took yet another photograph. To my shock, the single face was closer now and this time its teeth were bared and a new face had appeared behind it, this one wearing an ugly and sadistic grimace.
The eyes on their twisted, colorless faces began to widen, expanding into vile pools of white, laced with bifurcating red veins and black suns that melted the light into darkness.
My camera began to shoot pictures with an unnatural rapidness, capturing the faces as they drew nearer and nearer until I was swallowed by the cold black suns in their eyes.

[Arashi]

Wow... it looks so much shorter in a post...

Seventy2, is there any way to make it so that guests can view/download attachments?!