[Jenna Rose]: 150.Contest Entries.First Lines - The Cave

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^{Written for the Famous First Lines contest, with the first line italicized.}

The Cave

“Call me the wind, I will blow with the fury of a hurricane, call me the sea, I will lap the shore with gentle tongues, call me the earth, I will shield the seeds in my womb. Call me the universe, I shall cradle all of existence. Call me everything, and that is what I am.”

Jess read this over and over, trying to understand... What did it mean? It sounded almost like a riddle. She remained there, kneeling in front of the stone tablet for a moment longer, staring at the intricate designs around the writing.

She wasn’t sure what they meant, and that frustrated her. She was good with symbols and designs, a passion of hers even before college. She wanted to say they were Mayan, but she just couldn’t... Because they didn’t completely look Mayan, and a couple even looked Egyptian. In her years of studying archaeology and ancient history/civilizations, she could honestly say that she had never seen symbols like these before.

She was in an underground cave. Well, it was half underground anyway. Above her, the rest of the team was waiting for her to report at their work site. At the site, there was small, deep pond. A short dive in it had discovered that up inside and under the mountain next to the pond, there was a cave.

She stood, sighing, brushing dirt off of her bare knees. Picking up her backpack, she started off down the damp stone hallway. But she turned back, looking back down at the tablet. Stepping over to it again she bent down, and tried to pick it up. It didn’t budge. But it didn’t look like it was really connected to the floor...

After 10 minutes of tugging at the tablet, she stood, even more frustrated and started back down the hallway. When her walkie-talkie went off, it startled her, making her jump. Taking a deep breath, she switched it on. “Yes, Marek?”

“We seem to be *crackle crackle clrackle*... I think you should *crackle* here... Jess? Do you *crackle*...” Marek’s voice faded out, and then there was silence. She could hear nothing but water dripping from the ceiling, her own breathing, and the beating of her heart.

Marek’s voice had sounded upset, shaky. Something wasn’t right.

“Marek? Marek, come in, I didn’t read you.” She stood there, waiting, the walkie-talkie silent. She was debating whether or not to start heading back, staring down the long stone hallway that led into darkness she had yet to explore when the walkie-talkie crackled once, then went silent again.

She started down at it, worry starting to sink in.

CRACK!

She looked up, startled. There was a rumbling sound coming from down the corridor, around the corner- coming from the place she entered at. Suddenly the walkie-talkie blared to life, and she heard shouting. Then screaming; tortured screaming. But that wasn’t the only noise...

Standing stiff, terrified, staring down at the walkie-talkie in her shaking hand, among the screams of her friends she heard something else. Shrill, piercing screams. Nothing like she had ever heard before. Unhuman screams.

There was another loud CRACK! and the ground shook, sending her off balance. Her shoulder hit the wall, and the walkie-talkie fell to the floor, suddenly silent once more. Tremors continued in the earth under her feet.

She pushed herself off of the wall, running towards the entrance of the cave. She didn’t know what to expect, didn’t know what to find once she got to the surface, but she couldn’t stay here. Rounding the corner, she stopped by her pile of scuba gear, intending to put it on.

But then she froze, staring at the water, the place where she had swam in at. It was glowing. Glowing bright red, with waves of smoke billowing from it.

The ground shook again, worse this time and then pieces of the ceiling started to fall. She ducked down, pressing her side tight to the wall as the whole cave shook, the roaring noise of a rockslide filling her ears. When she opened her eyes, she stared in shock.

The place where she had entered the cave at was now completely covered with a huge bolder.

And as far as she knew, it was her only way out.

“No,” she breathed, shaking her head. “No, no, no...”

She stood, ran back to where she had dropped her walkie-talkie and picked it up, trying not to panic. “Marek? Alice? Anyone? Hello? There’s been an accident...” She stopped talking, realizing that they probably realized that. If they were even alive. Something she wasn’t sure of anymore after what she had heard.

Trying not to hyperventilate, she looked around the darkness, trembling. Something that she had been looking forward to for weeks, that was supposed to be safe and exciting was now a nightmare. She was alone down here, trapped, and her team might be dead. And if they were, who would get help for her? And what had happened to them? What was going on...?

From behind her she felt a soft breeze. A soft, icy breeze. And then she heard something, a soft chanting that made her blood run cold...

“Call me the wind, I will blow with the fury of a hurricane...” The voice was alien-like, unhuman - just as the screams had been; but slow... almost sing-song.

And it was right behind her.

“Call me the sea, I will lap the shore with gentle tongues, call me the earth, I will shield the seeds in my womb...”

Coming closer.

“Call me the universe, I shall cradle all of existence. Call me everything, and that is what I am...”

Fear gripping her, she managed to turn around slowly...

And her mouth opened in a scream that was never heard.

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