Lost In the Dark

 I've always been fascinated with the fear of the dark.  Its not so much the dark but its being in absolute darkness and knowing someone or something is there with you.

Lost In The Dark 

The shuffling sound of their feet echoed through the cave.  After three days in the dark without a light they were both covered in cuts and bruises.

“Shhh, stop!” said one of the men.

“What is it?”

“There’s that sound again.”

“It’s that way, come on!”  They changed direction with arms stretched out in front of them and shuffling their feet so they wouldn’t step off into a hole in the dark.

Their eyes, starved for light, could already see the faint glow from around the next turn in the cave.  When they realized that they were actually seeing light they began to run.

“Come on! Its just ahead!” shouted the man in front. Stumbling and tripping, they rounded the corner and stopped dead in their tracks.  About 50 feet ahead sat a small table with a single, candle burning.  The light exposed a large chamber that still echoed with the sound of their footsteps.

They both began to yell, “Hello, is anybody there?”  They started toward the table.

They were about half way to the table when a voice answered.  “Yes, I’m here.”  The voice had a strange quality to it.  It had a deep and penetrating sound that startled them both.

They stopped so that they could better hear.  “Are you with the search team?”

“No, I am not,” replied the voice.  The echo of the large chamber they were in made it impossible to determine what direction it was coming from.

“We have been lost for a few days now.  We were spelunking with two other people and we got separated.”  They were slowly moving toward the table, listening hard.  There was no reply.  “Are you still there?” they yelled.  They reached the table.  It was a small table.  There were no chairs.  It was just big enough for two.  It looked old and worn.  The light from the candle was dim.  The far edges of the chamber were dark and covered with moving shadows. “Hello!” they yelled again.

“Do you see a way out?”  said the first man.

“No. I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” said the second man.  He was straining his eyes to see through the dark.

Several minutes passed.  “What do we do?” the first man was beginning to panic.

“We get the hell out of here.”  He reached to pick up the candle.

“Don’t touch my candle,” said the voice from the darkness.

He stopped short of touching the candle.  “I don’t know who you are but you need to show yourself!”

There was movement in the shadow along the far wall.  A short figure moved from the darkness.  It moved quickly as if it were skipping.

“Hello,” said the second man.  He was trying to sound friendly, “Do you know the way to the surface?”

The figure was getting closer.  “There is no way out,” bellowed the deep voice of the figure approaching them.  The closer he got the less human he looked.  He had long matted hair with what looked like two horns that twisted in all directions coming out the top of his head.  His face looked like that of a goat.  He was about four feet tall with the arms of a man, but his lower body was mostly covered with hair.  When he walked, he moved very fast in short sprints, making a sound that made them think he might have hoofed feet.

The two men started to back away “What are you?”  They were horrified at the sight of the creature in front of them.

The figure was now snarling and growling.  “I’m hungry, that’s what I am!”  Just then the figure swung its arm around and hurled a rock hitting one of the men straight in the face.  He dropped to his knees and fell over.

The other man yelled “No!”  He kneeled next to the man on the ground.  His face was completely caved in.  Blood was flowing heavily from the wound.  The man stood up.  He knew that there was no helping the other. He turned and started to run.

The goat-like thing was now laughing and howling so loud that his ears hurt.  He turned the corner and was plunged back into the darkness that he had spent the last three days in.  Except this time he was alone.  His run was now slowing to a fast walk trying to form a picture in his head of the path he was taking.

“You’ll be back!” yelled the thing from behind him, “Like a moth to a flame, they always come back.”  Laughter echoed throughout the cavern.

“What had just happened?” he thought to himself, “Was that some kind of deformed man who had gone insane down here in the dark or had he just been witness to a monster or demon.”

Hours passed.  He tried to stop himself, but he couldn’t.  He was now headed back toward the last place where he had seen light.  “No”, he thought to him self “I can’t go back there.”  Somewhere, deep inside him was a want, a need for the light.  He needed to see light again.  After all, to humans, light means hope and where there is hope there is a chance.  A chance to survive, even if it meant going back and facing that hideous goat-like thing, --then that’s what he had to do.  At least he would see him coming and have some kind of fighting chance.  He wasn’t sure but he had a feeling that that thing didn’t have any trouble navigating these caves in the dark.  To fight him in the pitch black would mean certain death.

He slowly made his way back the way he had come.  At least he thought it was the way. He had become so disoriented by the dark that he was getting vertigo and getting sick every few minutes.  His mind was racing now.  Every sound he heard and every rock he touched filled him with terror.  He felt as if at any second he would bump into that creature-like thing and that would be the end for him.

Slowly, his eyes began to focus on something ahead.  “Light!” he thought to himself.  His feet quickened.  He was becoming angry “Like a moth to flame?  I’ll show you a moth, a pissed off moth!”  He reached down and picked up two rocks and held one in each hand.  He was now jogging, and screaming at the top of his lunges “AAAhhhhahh, I'll kill you, you monster!!!”  He rounded the corner.  The light was bright.  It hurt his eyes.  He threw the rock directly at the center of the light.  He was hoping to hit some part of the freak.  The light went out and was followed by a groan.  “I got you, you fucking monster!” he yelled. He threw the second rock as hard as he had ever thrown anything before in his life.  When he released it he spun around and fell on the ground into something wet and sticky.  The rock made a thud sound when it struck its target.  It was followed by the sound of a body collapsing on the ground.  “Take that you freak!” He yelled.  The chamber he was in was suddenly filled with powerful light.  A light so bright that he was blinded by it.  The sounds of many voices were all around him and closing in fast.  “Get back you fucking freaks.”  He grabbed the first thing he could get his hands on and began swinging it wildly in the air. “I’ll fucking kill all of you!” he screamed.

The sound of a woman’s scream brought him back to reality.  He stopped swinging and wiped the sticky mess of whatever fallen onto his face.  His eyes focused.  “Boot, hiking boots!” he thought to himself. “Its the rescue team!” A few feet in front of him was a man lying unconscious on the ground, bleeding from his head.  Next to him was a broken light.  A woman was kneeling, trying to help him.  As his sight slowly returned, he realized what he had been swinging as a weapon was actually a human arm.  He dropped it, confused.  As all the light from the dozen or so rescuers turned to him, he could see he was standing in a pile of what was once his close friend.  Blood guts and body parts were all around him.  Some had what looked like bites taken from them.  He was covered from head to toe with blood and small pieces of flesh.  He looked around and found a dozen rescue searchers and park rangers staring at him.

“Frank, are you OK?” a man stepped from the center of the crowd.  It was Jeremy Toppan, an old friend of Franks.  They had been on over a hundred cave explorations together. Somehow they had gotten separated and Frank had organized the search party.

“I didn’t do this!” said Frank.

“Just stay where you are Frank.” Jeremy was trying to look calm but wasn’t doing a good job at it.

Frank knew this didn’t look good and he was starting to panic “Did you see him?” he said.

“See who?” Said Jeremy.  He was speaking to Frank as if he was talking to a child.

“The goat man!” Insisted Frank.  “He was just here! He killed Mark.”  Frank’s eyes were darting around the room.

“Frank, just stay calm.  There’s no goat man here.  Just us.  We are going to get you some help Frank.”  Jeremy looked very upset.

Frank could see the accusing look in the eyes of everyone staring at him.  “I didn’t do this, I didn’t!”

A park ranger radioed back to the surface and two state troopers soon arrived.  Seems that the entrance to the cave was only about a hundred yards from where they were.

The two troupers grabbed him by the arms and put handcuffs on him before Frank knew what was happening.

Frank was exhausted.  “What are you doing?  I didn’t do this!”  He was trying to fight but just didn’t have the strength, “Look around, there is a table and a candle here somewhere!  Look for footprints or something.  Please!”  Frank kept yelling and screaming while two men in white coats strapped him to a gurney, loaded him into the back of an ambulance.  It drove away with a police car following.

A young park ranger was off to one side puking.  He wiped his mouth and returned to the conversation between his supervisor, Tom Wilkes, and the Detective who was taking his statement.  “Detective, that guy has what we rangers here at Yellow Stone call Cave Madness.“

“Cave madness, what’s that?” said the detective.

“It's where someone gets lost in a cave without light, food or water for days on end.  They just finally go crazy.  Looks like that guy and his friend got separated from the group. Frank, well he just went crazy and killed his buddy.  I’ve seen it several times.  It's been well documented.  Just go and check the records, this isn’t the first time this has happened.”

“You don’t think that it was a bear or animal that did that?” said the detective while writing in a note pad.

“No way in hell, I’ve seen hundreds of bear attacks and that was no bear attack.”

“OK, Thanks Mr. Wilkes.  We are almost done here.”  He turned and walked away.

“OK, let me know if there is anyway I can help.” said Tom as the detective walked away.

The young ranger was shining his light on the ground near the wall, “Mr. Wilkes, I think there is something you should see.”  There on the ground were hoof prints that lead deeper into the cave.

“So what do you think that is Larry?” Tom said with a knowing look on his face.

“I’m not sure but I plan to find out!” Larry turned and started to follow the tracks.

“I wouldn’t do that unless you want to end up like Franks friend Mike.”

Larry stopped, turned and looked at Tom “What?”  Tom obviously knew more than he was letting on.

“You see Larry, Yellowstone National Park is kind of a special place.” said Tom looking very concerned.

“What do you mean special?” said Larry.

“Come on Larry, lets go somewhere we can talk.  You been her long enough.  It's time you know the truth about Yellowstone.”  Tom brushed sand over the hoof prints with his boot and lead Larry away from the group working the crime seen.  “Well, old Gruff is just one of the many oddities hidden in this park.”  Tom was trying to sound reassuring.

“Who is Gruff?”

“You know the child’s tale about the troll who lived under the bridge and ate the goats?”  Tom was speaking very matter of fact.

“You mean Three Billy Goats Gruff?”  Larry was getting confused.

“Yea, except he’s not a troll.  He’s more part man, part goat.  We just gave him that name because he looks like a goat and if you stay down here in these caves long enough he’ll catch you and eat you.  Those guys just had a run of bad luck, thats al

“We got to tell the detective about this.”  Larry was getting excited and started to walk away.

Tom put his hand on Larry's shoulder and stopped him.  “Larry, if those guys had walked into a bears den and the bear got them, would you blame the bear for doing what bears do?”

“No, but that’s a bear.” said Larry.

“And Gruff is just another one of Yellowstone’s creatures.  There will be no telling anyone other than me or one of the other park rangers about anything that happens in this park.”

“That thing is a killer!”  Larry was getting frustrated.

Tom could see the concern in his eyes.  “You go and tell that Detective that you think that man was right about some kind of goat man and they’ll haul you off to the funny farm along with that guy”

Larry knew he was right “Ok.” he said.

“Son,” Tom was speaking low and with authority, “when you were given that badge, you took an oath to protect this park and all of the creatures that live here.  Don’t betray that promise you made.  Larry, this is a special place.  Because this place is so special President Roosevelt formed the National Parks Service and the Park Rangers to make sure that things stay the way they are.”

Larry paused and thought for a long while before saying anything “I think I understand.”

“Good, you had me worried.” Tom was more relaxed “There for a second I thought I was going to have to feed you to the dinosaurs over in Hidden Valley.”

“Are there really dinosaurs here?” asked Larry.

“Nah, I was just kidding, but come to work early tomorrow morning and I’ll introduce you to the fairies that live over in Fire Hole Canyon.” Tom smiled.

“You’re kidding, right?” Said Larry.

“Nope, that’s the truth.”  Tom adjusted his hat and started walking out of the cave. Larry followed.