Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was dark.

I didn’t think I’d ever seen anything so incredibly dark before.

It was oppressive, weighing down on me like a blanket.

It surrounded me.

Suffocating me.

All the times I’d been down here before, the darkness was nothing like it was now. Maybe it was just the knowledge we were trapped down here that made it seem all the more unbearable.

It had been…hours now since Mae Borowski and her friends left. Hours since the only tunnel out of this mine had collapsed, trapping them all inside. Hours since they had heard the screech of metal and the unmistakable sound of collapsing rock that heralded their demise.

Luckily, Roy Burge had decided to put on a watch when he left his house earlier in the evening. Without it, we would have no idea how much time had passed. It would’ve been impossible to tell in the darkness.

Most of us were sitting on the benches in the chapel room, huddled around one of the two lanterns we had brought down here. It was either that or laying on the rough stone floor, and I think we were all too old for that, though that fact barely even mattered at this point.

The gentle glow of the lantern was the only thing that chased away the darkness. Without it, we would’ve been in total darkness, which would’ve been infinitely worse.

The only other source of light in the entire mine was the glow that always emanated out from His hole, out in the main cavern. It shone with an unnatural light, in a color that none of us had ever been able to describe properly.

None of us wanted to be out there. Not now. Now anymore. That was why we were all gathered in the chapel.

Rick, Dave, and a couple of the other guys had gone off a while ago to try and clear the rubble blocking the exit, but I knew it was a pointless endeavor. The entire elevator shaft was collapsed. Even if by some miracle we did manage to clear all that rock, the elevator would still be busted and we would still be stuck.

This must’ve been what those miners felt like, way back in the late 1800’s, when the mine had collapsed. The only difference was that other people knew they had been trapped down here. There had been rescue efforts.

But the only people who knew we were down here were the Borowski girl and her friends, and I didn’t think they were going to be in any hurry to rescue us.

We were well and truly trapped down here.

After so much, after so long, after everything we’d done, this was it for us.

I still don’t think any of us could quite believe what had happened.

I know I couldn’t.

It was a sobering thought, being so helpless. It wasn’t a feeling I’d experienced much before in life. I didn’t like it.

As I sat there I found myself thinking about my wife and daughter. They never knew what I’d been doing down here—what we’d all been doing down here. They never knew where I had been going in the middle of the night. They never knew the truth behind my lies. They never knew I was a killer.

They would never see me again.

And I would never see them again.

My wife…

My daughter…

I could see their faces in my mind.

We were all going to die down here and no one would ever know.

I laid down on the bench and stared up at the darkness above me. The light provided by the lantern only illuminated so much of the cavern.

I closed my eyes.

There wasn’t much else to do at the moment than sleep.

Chapter Text

I opened my eyes.

For the briefest of moments, I was panicked, unsure of where I was or what was happening.

I couldn’t see.

I couldn’t see anything.

Everything was dark.

But it wasn’t…

It was…

It was something more than even that.

If I had thought it had been dark before, then this was a hundred times more than that. A thousand times, even.

I stared out into the blackness, trying as hard as I could to see if I could make out anything familiar or see any sort of shapes. Anything at all.

My friends should’ve been somewhere close by, I knew. They had been sitting all around me when I went to sleep.

There should’ve been a cave.

There should’ve been a lantern.

There should’ve been people talking.

There should’ve been something.

But there was nothing.

No light.

No sound.

No sensation at all.

There was no one else around me.

Nothing at all around me.

Nothing moved.

Nothing happened.

Nothing existed.

I was alone in this place.

Just me.

Only me.

As the full force of that fact hit me, I felt empty. Lost. Hollow.

I was so scared, so confused. I didn’t know what was going on.

I found it difficult to form thoughts. They came in short bursts, flashing, flickering, burning into my head and then slipping away before I could grab ahold of them.

…Where was I…?

…What was happening?

…This wasn’t where I was supposed to be.

…I shouldn’t be here…

I…

I…

I needed to…

I needed to do something.

I needed to leave this place.

I needed to go and find someone.

I needed to get up.

And I tried. I tried to move, but it was as if my body wasn’t there with me. I struggled with all my might to sit up but I couldn’t. My arms and legs weren’t there to move.

I wanted to scream until my voice was hoarse, wanted to scream for help, but I couldn’t find my mouth. Or maybe my ears weren’t there to actually hear me.

I had tears welling up in the corners of my eyes, but no eyes to actually cry from.

I felt as if I needed to throw up, but I didn’t have a stomach.

I so desperately needed to feel anything, but I couldn’t.

I so desperately needed there to be anything, but there wasn’t.

I so desperately needed anything.

I had never wanted anything more than that my entire life.

Just anything to hold on to.

I would cherish it until my end days.

I wanted sounds.

Sights.

Smells.

Feeling.

Movement.

A stiff breeze.

A hot shower.

A football game.

A conversation.

A glass of ice water.

The smell that came after it rained.

The taste of my favorite foods.

The sight of the forest during the spring.

The feeling of sand between my toes.

My bed.

My house.

My life.

My friends.

My family.

My mother’s homemade quilts.

My father’s vegetable garden.

My daughter’s infectious laughter.

My wife’s beautiful smile.

Anything.

Anything at all.

But there wasn’t.

There wasn’t anything.

I was missing.

I was absent.

I was nothing, floating through this void of nothingness.

That was all there ever was.

Maybe that was all that there had ever been.

And all that would ever be.

Just nothing.

An insignificant speck in a sea of specks.

Null.

But before I could even come to terms with that, there was a brief droning sound, a crackle, and then, a voice—or voices—layered on top of one another. It spoke something that was unrecognizable and unnatural. It sounded wholly unlike any language that I thought could ever have existed.

Time seemed to slow. This voice whispered its words for what felt like forever. The sounds appeared all around me, fluttering from one place to another with no pattern, only to hang in the air, in my head, before being replaced with something else. Some pieces, phrases, stuck in my mind for a time, though I couldn’t understand them, only for them to ooze out again, as if failing to find a grip.

And then, from what seemed to be everywhere at once, or maybe just from within me, the voice said one last thing in its disjointed, broken speech. I still didn’t understand it.

As soon as those words entered me, they fell out, fading back out into the air, as if my mind tried its hardest not to hear it. Echoes of echoes reverberated throughout before finally growing quiet.

And when the voice fell away for the last time, I remembered I could hear and I realized I was screaming, my voice filling the nothingness around me. I had always been screaming.

For the longest time, that was all there was.

But then, in an instant, with a snap, a flicker of something unknowable, and a flash of color, I came crashing back down. Through and around and back out from where I was to where I am.

I opened my eyes.

All at once, my senses were overwhelmed. I suddenly felt the rough wooden bench beneath me, the blood rushing through my veins, the air pressing down on my skin. I saw the gentle glow of the lantern casting shadows on the cave wall, heard the animated chatter of my friends, and I knew that I was awake.

I sat up, breathing in short, sharp gasps, my heart racing in my chest. I hurriedly glanced all around the room, trying to drink in as much of it as I could. I needed to make sure everything and everyone were still there. I needed to make sure that I wasn’t alone.

Around me, illuminated by the lantern, were my friends. They were lounging about, seemingly without a care in the world. Nothing had changed. In fact, it seemed like barely any time had passed at all while I was asleep.

That was where I was. I was sitting on a bench in the chapel room at the bottom of Stafford Mine. Just where I had been. I had just been sleeping. I had just been dreaming. I wasn’t in any danger, I knew.

I was okay.

Everything was okay…

“Are you alright?” said a voice beside me. At first, I didn’t even register who was talking, but then my brain supplied the name to match the voice—Andrew Davis. I looked up to see him watching me in alarm. I must’ve been thrashing around in my sleep or something. My wife had always complained I was a lively sleeper.

Already, the memories of what I had been dreaming about were beginning to fade away. I had a vague recollection of darkness, but that might’ve just been a memory of the darkness down here. It had been a doozy though, I knew that. I probably hadn’t had that exhilarating of a dream since I was a kid.

After a few seconds, as I began to calm down, I managed to get my breathing under control. There was a dull throbbing in the back of my head that I hoped to God wasn’t the beginning of a migraine. I did not need that right now. This was probably the worst time imaginable.

But I must’ve been taking too long to answer, because Andrew repeated his question again, concern tinging his voice.

I looked up at him, forcing a smile on my face. “Y-yeah…” I said, my voice still a little shaky, “Yeah, I’m fine.

“Just a bad dream is all.”

Chapter Text

“Fuck Mae Borowski,” said someone off to my left. It was Dan McConnell again, of course. He had been complaining on and off again for the past couple of hours.

There was a murmur of agreement from everyone else around me. They were all of a similar mind in blaming her for our current predicament.

I mean, I was too, of course. She could go rot in Hell. I just couldn’t find it in me say anything. I didn’t have the energy at the moment. Couldn’t bother. Lingering tendrils of that dream I had earlier were still stuck in my mind.

“Fuck her and all her little friends!” His voice was louder now, more confident. “They killed us all.”

That they had. We still weren’t quite sure why or how they had destroyed the elevator, but they apparently saw fit to condemn us to die. They were monsters, plain and simple.

Lonny Brunner, the high school principal, joined in now. “We took them in here, didn’t harm a hair on their heads, and they turn around and murder us. And for what? Some misguided sense of right and wrong?” He shook his head. “I’ve always said Mae Borowski was a criminal. Both she and that Greggory Lee.”

Dan scoffed. “Believe me, if it weren’t for her aunt, I probably would’ve locked the both of them up ages ago. She was always making excuses for her, the bitch. The two of them and that Hartley kid were a blight on the town.”

“There weren’t a better day than when she went off to college and that whole little group fell apart.” I wasn’t sure, but that sounded like Roy Burge talking. He was lying somewhere on the floor behind me, all stretched out.

“Well, that and when we actually nabbed the Hartley kid,” said Dan, unable to hold back a burst of laughter. “Now he was a piece of shit, I’ll tell you what. Did you hear he damn near bit Paul’s fingers off when we dragged him down here?”

From across the room, Paul let loose an exasperated groan. “Jeez, Dan. I’m pretty sure you’ve told everyone and their mother by now. Lay off it already.”

Dan just laughed. I couldn’t help but crack a grin as well. I hadn’t been there, but Dan had told us all the story. The Hartley kid was a feisty one. Scratched the hell out of Paul’s arm too.

“We shoulda grabbed that Lee boy, back when we had the chance,” Andrew interjected. He was still sitting on the bench next to me. “Then we might not’ve even been in this whole damned situation in the first place.”

“If it wasn’t for Mae—fucking—Borowski and Greggory Lee, everything would still be fine.”

“I can drink to that.” Dan raised his hand, as if he was holding a glass, and then pretended to take a drink.

Andrew followed suit, drinking to the imaginary toast. “Hear hear.”

I did so too. “Hear hear.”

And then from behind me came Roy again. “Hear hear.”

There was a beat of silence afterward.

And then Lonny Brunner spoke up again. “In fact, fuck the whole lot of ‘em!” he nearly growled. “They dragged poor Angus and Beatrice into their deviant lifestyles and corrupted them! Those were two smart kids. They could’ve continued our work down here. Had good heads on their shoulders and everything, and now look at ‘em! They’re fucking fags!”

Dan shook his head wistfully. “I always could tell that Angus boy was a little light in the loafers, ever since he started hanging around the Lee kid. Wayne coulda beat it outta him if he hadn’t up and left. I mean, his other boy Jonathan turned out just fine!”

“Eh.” Andrew waved a hand dismissively. “Wayne Delany was a bastard. Always hated him. Probably would’ve thrown him in the Pit myself if he was still around.”

“Hell, now that I think ‘bout it, we prolly coulda grabbed Rebecca too,” Roy said. “She don’t do nothin’ these days ‘cept smoke cigarettes and drink. Don’t know how she’s managed to hang on to that eyesore of a house since Wayne left.”

“She gets handouts from the government, I think.”

“Hmm. That’d explain it. She seems the type.”

No one appeared to have anything else to say after that. We settled into a nice silence.

I was particularly grateful for that. I could only do with so much complaining, and Dan and the others had filled that quota nearly five hours ago now. It seemed to be the only thing Dan could talk about, and I was well past my limit.

With the four of them finally quiet, the only other noise in the room was the gentle chatter of some of the other guys scattered about. It was peaceful and I found it especially enjoyable because I still had a pounding headache from earlier. Dan was by far the loudest person in the room, and he did not help that any.

After a while, Lonny turned and started chatting with another group of guys about something or other. I couldn’t tell what. Couldn’t care, honestly.

Andrew continued to sit beside me, as he had been doing, hands clasped in his lap and head bent low. I think he had been praying, had been the whole time, though to what god I didn’t know.

Roy stood up, after a little difficulty, and shuffled over to the bench in front of me. He fell down into the seat with a loud grunt, wincing in pain. His bad knee must’ve been bothering him.

And Dan stared out past me, into the darkness, looking almost as if he was searching for something. Listening for something, even. Concentrating hard on something that I didn’t know what.

There was a deep frown plastered across his face, the shadows dancing across it serving only to twist into something altogether different. For the briefest of moments, it almost seemed like he was smiling.

But then that moment was over. He blinked rapidly, that smile falling away, leaned back, and then directed his attention back towards us. I could tell by the way he was looking at us, that he wanted to say something again.

And, sure enough, not even a couple of seconds later, he spoke up. “Honestly, fuck the whole Borowski family too. Otto and Stan, thinking they’re better than all of us…”

Okay, that was it.

I couldn’t sit there and listen to him harp on any longer.

I stood up and moved over to the other side of the room, joining one of the other group of guys. John, Gary, and Tom. They were at least talking about literally anything but Mae fucking Borowski.

Chapter Text

Out in the main cavern, Bennie Thompson was dying.

It had been a long time coming now, to be perfectly honest. He was ancient, even with the added benefits of the longevity and strength HE had bestowed upon us.

Bennie had suffered several heart attacks over the years and had a whole host of medical problems. At this point, he had to take daily medication just to stay alive. He was on a strict regimen that he quite often didn’t follow.

So, naturally, when he left his house last night to come meet us at the mine, he didn’t think to bring any of his pills with him. And why would he have? How could he have known we all were going to get trapped down here?

Bennie was our oldest member. One of the old guard. He had been the first person that Ed Skudder brought into the fold back in the eighties. He, along with Rick and Dave, had led this group for a long time now.

He had been our pastor, both down here and up above. Right up until that fourth heart attack, he had led the congregation of Possum Springs at the First Coalescence Church for pretty much my entire life. Now it was that bleeding-heart Kate or Karen or whatever her name was preaching to the masses; the whole place had gone down the drain. I hadn’t been back to that church since she became pastor.

But that was okay. Bennie still led his own sermons down here twice every month. Those took the place of our usual communion and prayers. He had always been able to hear the song that HE sang from down in the Pit. That beautiful, perfect music that became our new God. He understood it better than anyone other than Ed.

We would all gather down here to listen, and Bennie would seem to be filled with a manic energy, speaking and moving with the fervor of a man eighty years younger. Acting like a man possessed. I’d like to think that he was.

During those times, HIS magnificent song would wash over us all, and all those aches and pains that came with age seemed to melt away. We were invincible, in those moments, as howling winds dredged up from the Pit swirled around us and HIS song filled the air with a sweet, heady taste.

And Bennie would speak about things unknowable. Rapturous, impassioned words that sunk their claws into all our hearts. Words amassed from the depths of the Pit and the soothing echoes of HIS song. I could never quite remember what exactly he spoke of. None of us could, after the moment had passed, but there was always a lingering sense of peace and belonging and happiness and a feeling that everything was going to be alright.

We all latched on to that feeling.

Craved it, even.

Wanted more of it.

Needed more of it.

So much so that when HIS song would be tinged with hunger and HE would inevitably demand another body be taken to quench HIS thirst, none of us would even hesitate.

And because of HIS whispered promises, we knew we were going to be okay.

We knew Possum Springs was going to be okay. Better, even. Better than it had ever been. Just like it used to be when we were younger.

But now Bennie was dying.

And there wasn’t anything to do for him.

Just some hours ago, he had suffered another heart attack from the stress of the situation alone. It didn’t kill him, but it came damn near close.

Hank had spent most of the time since then trying to make sure Bennie was as comfortable as possible. He couldn’t be quite sure when he would pass, because if Bennie was anything, he was stubborn as stubborn could be, but he knew Bennie was not long for this world.

Even HIS favor wasn’t going to help now.

At the very least, Bennie was asleep now. Or passed out, rather. Had been ever since he that one heart attack. It had finally put him under.

We all felt just terrible that we couldn’t do anything to ease his pain. Rick and Dave had set him up in the main cavern, though it was mostly to not upset the others.

Soon, the world was going to lose another good man.

We were going to lose our pastor.

Chapter Text

Rick Thornton stepped up to the pulpit at the front of the room along with Dave and John Stafford.

He didn’t say anything at first. He just stood there and waited in silence until everyone else in the room caught on to the fact he was there. It was only when all eyes were on him that he spoke.

“I am afraid I have some bad news, my brothers.” Even after a full day trapped down here, his voice was still as forceful and unwavering as it normally was. “As you know, Dave, John, and I have been inspecting the structural integrity of the tunnel and have been shifting through the rubble in an effort to see if the elevator was in any way operational. “

He paused for a moment, his eyes scanning over all of us. “Only just an hour ago did we finally shift through enough of the rock to get a good look at the elevator. Whatever it was that caused the cave-in, whether it was Mae Borowski and her friends or something else entirely, the entire shaft was thoroughly destroyed, and the elevator is buried under several tons of rock. There is no possible way we can get out of here.”

A wave of alarm swept over us at those words. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. For the most part, I had already been resigned to the notion we were trapped down here, but hearing it come from Rick made it real. That was our last glimmer of hope crushed. Our last chance that we could get out of here alive. I was pretty sure I heard Dan start muttering under his breath about Mae again.

Rick waved a hand, motioning everyone to be quiet. “Now, now. There is no need for any undue alarm. We are all still alive and that is the most important thing right now.”

“Like hell it is!” This was Gary Cullen speaking now. He was standing up, glowering up at the three of them. “We’re still trapped down here! We’re all gonna die, all because of the fucking Killer Borowski girl! Don’t know why we even thought about trying to get her to join us. We’ve known she was trouble ever since she bashed my kid’s head in!”

“Fuck yeah!” yelled Dan.

Their discontent spread rapidly throughout the crowd, and several other voices joined in.

“So that’s it, huh? We’re just trapped down here?”

“What’re we gonna do?!”

“I don’t wanna die down here!”

“Fuck Mae Borowski!”

“I should’ve never gone along with this…”

“I don’t deserve this!”

But Rick just smiled calmly. “Please, my brothers, calm down. If you all will just let me speak, I do have a potential solution that may solve our predicament.”

That got people’s attention. Mine included. He had a plan to get us out of here? I wasn’t sure what he had up his sleeve, but if there was someone who had a plan, it would be Rick.

“You see,” he continued, a smile still on his face, “I had a very simple idea while we were out looking at the elevator and I am hoping very much that you all find it agreeable.”

He paused and we all sat in rapt anticipation.

And then, he unfolded his grand design. “We need to find another sacrifice for Black Goat. There are twenty good, able-bodied men right here in this room. One of us might garner enough of HIS favor to see HIM provide us a miracle. To let us escape this place.”

There was immediate uproar.

Of course there was.

What he was suggesting…

I couldn’t believe it.

To kill one of our own.

It was terrible.

Disgusting.

Morally reprehensible.

That said, I would be lying if I said the thought had never crossed my mind. I was sure everyone else had had a similar thought at one point or another, even before we were all trapped down here, but none had dared speak it aloud. No one of us had that sort of influence.

But Rick…

Rick said what we had all been thinking. He was the kind of man who could say something like that and get us all to listen. There was a reason he was our leader, after all.

And, the more I sat there and thought about it, the more it made sense to me.

Sacrifice one for the good of the many.

Give one of us over to HIM so that HE may save us.

That had been what we had been doing anyway.

I had seen HIM grant us bigger miracles than that in the past twenty years. HE had taken Possum Springs and saved it from the forces seeking to destroy it. Pulled it back from the brink. I had seen Ed Skudder walk through walls…

The only problem now was there weren’t any undesirables down here for us to throw away. It would be one of us thrown down into the Pit.

I just had to make sure that it wasn’t me.

All around me, everyone seemed to come to that same conclusion all at once. I caught Dan and Lonny casting sidelong glances at some of the others, as if sizing people up. In an instant, every single one of us was thinking the same exact thing.

I just had to make sure it wasn’t me.

I just had to make sure it was literally anyone else.

Seeing everyone that everyone had already come around to the idea, Rick seemed to smile even wider, if that was at all possible. “The only question,” he began, “is who we should choose for such a momentous task. For such an important, vital role…”

And then came the big question.

“Any suggestions?”

There was silence at first. No one wanted to be the one to call anyone out first. Whatever was going to happen, the bonds between us would forever be changed.

Then, there was a voice. “Whata ‘bout John?!” It came so suddenly and so quietly that I couldn’t be sure who even said it.

But everyone heard it. Every eye zeroed in on poor John Stafford, standing at the front of the room right next to Rick and Dave.

He backed up, looking as if he just had the breath knocked from him. “What the hell?!” he said. “Why me?”

The rest of the crowd turned their attention back to the man who had suggested it in the first place, eager for a response. It turned out to be Ted Keating, one of our more unassuming members. I was surprised that he had spoken up at all.

With everyone looking at him, Ted wrung his hands together and then stared defiantly up at the front of the room, right at John. Seemed he had more backbone than I thought. “Why not?” he said. “It’s your name on all the signs outside! The way I see it, you’re the one liable for this whole mess.”

Dan spoke up, throwing his opinion in. “Yeah! It’s your mine! Your elevator!”

“Your mine! Your elevator!” echoed Lonny. “Your fucking fault!”

John looked mortified as more and more people began to clamor for his death. He turned to Rick, a nervous grin stretched across his face. “Can you believe them? They can’t—” He broke off, seeing Rick looking at him appraisingly, like a lamb for the slaughter.

His eyes grew wide and he glanced around frantically, as if suddenly realizing he was all alone up there. There wasn’t anywhere for him to run to. No friends to call on. “Rick,” he breathed the word out in a quiet, shaken tone. “Please tell me you’re not seriously thinking of killing me of all people?”

Rick just continued smiling. “Well, it is your mine.”

“It’s my family’s mine! You’re the one who approached me about this whole thing!” He turned back to the room, flailing wildly. “If it wasn’t for me, none of you would even be here right now! I was the one who got that goddamned elevator back up and running!”

“And it still broke! You said the mine was safe!”

“You’ve killed us!”

“Your fucking elevator!”

John stepped forward, his face twisted in anger. “I wasn’t the one who caused the goddamn cave-in! Fuck you all! I’ve known you all for years!” He glanced at his closest friend there, Leonard Applebaum. “Leo, y-y-you can’t let them do this!”

But Leo only shrugged and offered a grimace, glancing wearily at the other men around him. “Sorry, man. Them’s the breaks.”

And the more I thought about it, the more I did agree with it. John did deserve it. More so than any of us. We were all good and decent people. None of us deserved such a fate.

In fact, John should almost feel honored. He would get to meet HIM. Black Goat.

I joined in with the others. “Yeah! Let’s throw him in!”

“Your fucking mine!”

“Throw him in!”

Rick mulled it over a moment. “It would be fitting. I am not sure if HE would appreciate the humor in it, but I would like to think HE would.”

He turned back to us, his smile even wider. “A show of hands for John here?”

We all raised our hands.

“All against?”

No one. Not a single soul.

“Well then…” Rick threw a look at Dave, who had been standing in the back the whole time. “Looks like we have our offering.”

“Fuck yo—” But John never got to finish his sentence.

Dave grabbed John from behind and shoved him down to the ground. John’s head slammed into the rough stone floor, blood spraying onto the rocks. Though it looked like it, it wasn’t that hard a hit, because John managed to scramble to his feet and tried to get away—though to where I wasn’t sure. There wasn’t anywhere to go.

But before he managed to take two steps, Dan grabbed hold of him and threw him back down to the ground, just in time for Dave to help pin him down. John struggled against the two of them, legs kicking wildly into the air, screaming incoherently all the while.

They hauled him to his feet and dragged out into the other room.

Out to the Pit.

We all followed after them, funneling in behind them in step, just like we had done so many times in the past. It was easy to fall back into old routine. This was just another sacrifice we were getting rid of.

As we all drew closer to the Pit, Bennie began to have a fit. He had been sleeping out in the cavern for the past several hours after his heart attack the previous day. All the commotion we made must’ve woken him up.

Without warning, and so suddenly that we all jumped in surprise, Bennie began to scream at the top of his lungs. The sound filled the cavern, echoing through the space, reflecting in on itself. It was a primal, tortured yell that sent a shiver down my spine. In all my years, I had never once heard another living creature sound so completely and utterly terrified.

Concerned for the pastor, Rick hurried over to him while Dave and Dan hauled John over to the edge of the Pit.

But as Rick approached, or maybe just as Dave shoved John to the edge of the Pit, Bennie became quiet. The silence was almost as unsettling and deafening as the screaming had been. Honestly, I wasn’t sure which was worse.

Then, as John drew up beside him, a jumble of incoherent nonsense tumbled out of his mouth. I couldn’t make out a word he was saying, but at times, I could almost catch a hint of something familiar, like a word from a different language or a phrase that I had once heard in a dream.

Bennie spoke that nonsense for what felt almost a full minute, not even pausing to take a breath, and then, all at once, almost like a switch, his disjointed rambling became clear and understandable. Words began to pour out and fill the air, though I wasn’t quite sure who he was talking to. I didn’t think he knew any of us were even there.

“I don’t want to go!” he said, his voice trembling. “Please don’t make go with them. I don’t want to go. I’ve seen where they are and I can feel them whispering in my head and I can’t help but listen!”

Just then, his whole body jerked violently, and he grabbed ahold of Rick’s neck, dragging him down to look into his eyes. “There’s something in the shadows! Watching me. Twisting, churning in the darkness. I can hear their laughter echoing into nothingness. I can hear them calling to me.”

With that, he collapsed back down to the ground, practically throwing Rick off of him. He stared blankly at a spot somewhere in the darkness, his entire body shaking, almost to the point of spasm. His breathing grew ragged and he spoke one last time, barely loud enough for me to hear. “They’ve always been here. Always.”

And then he fell quiet, his body growing limp.

We all stood there in silence, unsure exactly how to respond.

All except Hank, of course. As the only doctor here, he was the only one who could make sure Bennie was alright. In a panic, he rushed over to Bennie’s side, kneeling down beside him, and gently pressed a hand to his chest. He was no doubt doing some sort of medical thing, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

What I could hear though, was irregular, gasping breaths coming from Bennie. He was still alive, but it sounded like he was in a lot of pain.

After a moment, Hank stood back up and wandered over to the rest of the group, a grimace etched into his face. “He’ll be okay,” he said, though I wasn’t quite sure who he was trying to convince of that. “I think his glaucoma is making him see things in the darkness. Feels like he has a high fever too. That, combined with the heart attacks, are probably making his head spin. He’s probably hallucinating, poor guy.”

Rick spoke up, trying to regain some control over the situation. “Is there anything we can do?”

Hank just shrugged. “Not really. If I had anything to work with, maybe. But like I said before, all we can really do is make him comfortable.” He glanced back at Bennie, who had either fallen back asleep or passed out from exertion. Either was probably good for him at the moment.

“Okay, my brothers.” Rick clapped his hand together, recapturing everyone’s attention. “Let us get back on task. Bennie will be okay. Any other day we would ask for him to be healed, but, unfortunately, we have much more pressing matters on our hands.”

With that, he turned towards the Pit and the unwitting sacrifice that Dave and Dan were holding over the edge. We all followed behind him, eager to begin, any concerns about Bennie driven from our minds.

John was covered in blood. His blood. That wound on his head was bleeding something fierce. He looked up at Rick as he grew closer, trying in vain to blink away the blood that was flowing down his face and into his eyes.

Rick just smiled. “No hard feelings, John.”

With all the strength he could muster, John grit his teeth and spit at Rick, spraying blood all over his face. “Fuck you,” he snarled.

Rick just continued smiling and made no move to wipe the blood from his face. He nodded at Dave and Dan who moved even closer to the edge of the Pit and forced down John’s head so that he stared into the emptiness below.

On cue, a vigorous gust of wind kicked up from the depths of the Pit, washing over all of us like a wave. HIS song bloomed outwards, filling the air with its rapture. We had HIS attention now.

“Now then,” Rick began, “let us begin.”

He joined John on the edge of the Pit and gazed deep into it, as he had done many times in the past. With a deep breath, he let HIS song permeate his body and then began something that I had always considered a joy to experience.

What little light the flickering lanterns provided painted a rapturous, magnificent scene.

The howling winds blew his hair around his head, almost appearing to meld into the very shadows that surrounded us.

His skin glowed an unearthly color that was impossible to describe, shining bright through his clothes but casting no light or shadow.

But most striking of all was the smile that split his face impossibly wide.

He was so happy.

We were all so happy.

And then he began to preach, his voice suddenly several orders of magnitude louder so that it filled the entire cavern with his booming, echoing words.

“Oh, LORD, our SAVIOR, hear our words! We, YOUR humble children, come before YOU today for assistance in our most desperate time!

“To YOU we offer up this man, this poor, aimless soul, so that he may join with YOU in the Hole in the Center of Everything. Take him, so that YOUR hunger may be sated. Take him, so that he may hear YOUR glorious song in all its magnificence and beauty! Take him, as a favor to YOUR children!

“My LORD, we are trapped here in this place, hurt, cold, and alone. With YOUR grace, we would ask that YOU free us from this place and return us to the world so that we may continue spreading YOUR song. I beg of YOU, LORD, save YOUR children from the fate that awaits us. We will all die down here without YOU.

“Amen,” he said, finishing. He turned to face us, his smile even wider than before.

“Amen,” we all responded in kind.

And then John was shoved into the Pit and the blackness swallowed him whole.

Chapter Text

So, I’m going to come right out and say it: I’m canceling this story.

I've been generally dissatisfied with it and I could never really get a grasp on where I wanted the story to go. I don’t want to force myself to write this and put out something that I don’t like, especially because that'll cause the quality to suffer and I could be focusing my efforts elsewhere writing something else.

Sorry to everyone who was following this story. This was a tough decision to make, but I think it’s the right call.

But, because I don’t want to be that guy who stops writing a story and just leaves everyone hanging and never knowing what was going to happen, I’ll give a general summary of where I intended the story to go, along with some snippets of stuff I'd already written. Hopefully that softens the blow a little, but I’d understand if any of you are angry.

The next chapter would start with our main character coming down from sacrificing John. He has a song stuck in his head and he’s not sure what it is or where it came from.

Soon after, there would be a distant explosion from up above them, some rock would fall from the ceiling, and everyone would wonder if they were being saved. They were not. The explosion was in fact Germ sealing up the well that Mae and Co. climbed out of at the end of the game. This would mark a full day passing since they were trapped.

In the next chapter, Bennie Thompson would die, and the main character comments on how hungry he is. Then, someone would remember something suddenly. He knew he was forgetting something or someone but couldn’t place what it was. After a moment, he would remember that someone was missing. Everyone else feels the same as well.

Someone would then remember it was Eide. As a group, they all collectively forgot Eide existed and that he was gone. They would then comment on that they couldn’t remember his actual name though (because I like to think they all had secret code names. Lurv isn’t a name).

And then the two lanterns they had would go out and they were plunged into darkness. This would be a turning point in the story.

Next chapter. They lose time in the darkness. Roy Burge has a watch, but they can’t see it anymore. The main character would remember things about his family and express regrets. Everyone else would talk amongst themselves in an effort to keep sane and calm. He still has the song stuck in his head.

Next chapter. As time goes on, they lapse into silence, demoralized by the darkness and their impending deaths. The only noise that’s left is the ticking of Roy Burge’s watch in the otherwise quiet cavern. The main character would begin to increasingly obsess over the ticking as time went on.

The main character begins to see things in the shadows and isn’t sure if its just his mind playing tricks on him or something else.

There was something in the darkness.

That, I was sure of.

I could see it from the corner of my eyes, flitting through the shadows.

They had been there the whole time. You just couldn’t see them in the light.

Next chapter. The main character mentions how he hasn’t slept in a long time. He doesn’t feel tired at all but so desperately wants to sleep. The things he sees in the shadows start to become more coherent and altogether indescribable. Roy Burge’s watch is still ticking.

At this point, the group ascertains that they all have this same song stuck in their head. None of them can figure out what it is or where it’s from. It’s not the Black Goat’s song, but something completely different, but ultimately familiar.

The main character has a memory of when he was young. He was sitting in the living room of his childhood home with his father listening to a record by the Deep Hollow Hollowers (who are the musicians Mae sees in her dreams). The band is playing for them.

Next chapter. They music has gone away now. In its place are whispers. No one is sure what is being said, but no one likes it. Main character sees more things in the shadows.

They slunk into view, peeling away from the corners of the cavern.

I closed my eyes and tried not to look at them.

Their smiles. Those undulating forms. The maddening spaces within and without them.

I tried to.

I tried with all my might.

But I could still see them through my eyelids.

They were there.

Watching.

Waiting.

Now this is where I sort of had no idea where to go with the story, except for some broad strokes.

Over the course of several chapters, things would degrade rapidly. Everyone would become isolated from each other. The main character’s thoughts would become increasingly disjointed (as would the narrative structure, as its first person).

He would obsess over Roy Burge’s watch and eventually try to take it for himself, maybe killing Roy to get it. He is still inundated with what lives in the shadows and their whispers, as is everyone else.

He would eventually succumb to the shadows, and the whispers would fill his head. He still doesn’t know what they’re saying, but he feels an immeasurable peace settle over him. He was curious to know more, though what he wasn’t sure.

He’s then broken out of it for some reason. Some more stuff would happen.

It has been close to a week at this point, though they have no way of knowing that. They’ve gone a week without food, water, or sleep, their bodies sustained by the Black Goat.

And then Eide would casually walk into the cavern from the collapsed elevator tunnel, completely alive and unharmed, both arms and all. His appearance snaps everyone out of whatever thing they were in. For a moment, the whispers and shadows both retreat. Even the main character regains a little sanity.

A bright light shot out across the darkness, searing my eyes. I flinched and looked away, covering my face with my arm. Judging by the shared hiss of discomfort from everyone else, I could only assume they had all been blinded as well.

Once I stopped seeing spots behind my eyelids, I looked up again. A lone figure was standing there, impassively. As my eyes slowly adjusted to the new light and I began to make out more details, I saw exactly who it was.

“Eide?” said someone from beside me. Dave, I thought.

I stared at the familiar man before me, not quite believing my eyes. Everyone else was voicing a similar disbelief. Dave continued speaking, his voice hoarse from disuse. “How’re you even here?! The whole tunnel up ahead is all blocked off! We thought you was dead!”

Eide merely shrugged and cast his gaze over the whole of the group. I shivered almost involuntarily was he looked at me. “I walked,” he said simply, as if that was a good enough answer. He didn’t say anything more.

Rick then stepped forward, pushing Dave aside. “What in the hell happened up there, boy?!” He got right in Eide’s face. “We told you not to go after the Borowski girl and look what your foolishness has gone and done! We’re all going to die down here because of you!”

But Eide didn’t seemed at all perturbed by Rick’s anger. In fact, he smiled broadly and clasped his hands together in a very calm manner. One of the sleeves of his robe had been torn away, I noticed, but the arm underneath seemed untouched. “It was a simple miscalculation, that’s all,” he said, as if nothing was wrong.

But that only upset Rick more. “A miscalculation!?” he yelled. “You’ve killed us all because of some stupid vendetta and all you can say is that it’s a miscalculation?!” He puffed his chest out and grabbed ahold of Eide’s robe, yanking him forward. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t throw you in that pit right now!”

Eide continued to smile. “I think the real question is why haven’t you all done that yourselves yet?”

Eide would then try to convince everyone to throw themselves into the Pit, starting with the main character.

He drew close to me, looping his arm around my shoulder. “What say you, friend? Would you like to be the first to fully give yourself over to HIM?”

I wanted to say no.

really did.

I was scared, probably more so than I’d ever been in my life.

But as Eide stared at me and I stared back, I realized just how silly that was.

There wasn’t anything to be afraid of.

This was a good thing. The best thing, even.

This was what I was meant for.

My whole life had been leading up to this very thing.

To find solace in HIS embrace.

Eide’s smile never wavered.

And I smiled right back at him.

With that, I turned around and stepped up to the edge of the Pit. I didn’t want to hesitate any longer.

I could hear the yells of my brothers begging me to back away, but I didn’t pay them any attention.

They would all be joining me soon anyways.

They would all see.

I looked down in the blackness below.

It was indescribable, what I saw within.

It was beautiful.

With a smile, I stepped forward and gave myself over to the deepest dark.

He dies, obviously. As he falls his mind basically rewinds, playing out his memories in reverse. We catch glimpses of memories of his family, job, and other emotionally relevant events. Eventually, he is a child, we see his mother and father. Then he's a baby. And then his mind would fade away into nothing, leaving him completely and utterly alone, before he disappears entirely.

The next chapter then jumps to a third person perspective. Everyone has gone into the Pit except for the mayor, Rick Thornton. He and Eide are talking about how Rick has just realized that he has no idea who Eide actually is. He’s not a citizen of Possum Springs, that’s for sure.

He then goes to the Pit and prepares to jump in.

“HE’LL allow you one request for all of your years of loyal service.”

“I…I… I wish that nobody finds out what we’ve been doing down here. I don’t want my family to think of me that way.”

“Are you sure?”

"Yes. Possum Springs could not survive the scandal if the police figured out what has really happened to all the people we have dragged down here. Let them all just think we’ve gone missing. They cannot know.”

He nodded. “As you wish.”

And in an instant, Richard Thornton was no longer there.

He fell and never hit bottom.

And then this would be the last chapter. It’s a little rough because I never really finished it, but this is the gist of what I wanted:

Eide stood alone in the center of the cavern at the bottom of the old Stafford Mine.

He had been standing there for a long time now.

All alone in the darkness of the cavern.

He would seem almost completely normal, except for the unexplainable feeling of dread that permeated off of his body like a cloud.

Or the eyes that shone with an unnatural glow.

Or the mouth that was spread open in a smile much too wide for the face.

Or the skin that crawled and undulated as if was separate from the bones and muscle beneath.

He had the glimmer.

He was touched, you see.

He had been the first.

When he and his family came over from the Old World in 1795, searching for a new life, the natives had tried to warn them to stay away from this area. It was cursed by an evil god. They were afraid.

But they didn’t listen to their warnings. Superstitious nonsense, they had thought.

And so, he and his brother Steven ventured out in spite of them.

He remembered hunting for beavers.

He remembered falling into a hole hidden in the hillside.

He remembered darkness and—

And then he had heard HIS song and had answered HIS call

He had been here when this town sprung up from nothing.

He had been here when they killed off all the beavers and instead took to mining the coal from the mountain.

He had been here in 1888 when Addison Pine and Henry Harvey set off the explosion that broke through to this very cavern and simultaneously collapsed the entrance to the mine, trapping 115 miners inside.

He had been here when the National Guard opened fire on the strikers and their children.

He had been here when the coal ran dry and the town died along with it.

He had been here when Ed Skudder had stumbled upon this place back in the early eighties, searching for HIS wondrous song.

He was here when Mae Borowski and her friends momentarily set back everything HE had been working towards.

And he will still be here when the day came that someone else would come along searching for the source of HIS song.

And he will continue to be here until the world around him crumbled away into nothing and HE rose up from the abyss to sing HIS song to the world.

Only then would everyone know this pure bliss that he felt.

And that was the end. Mae might've temporarily set back Black Goat's unknowable plans, but he's still there, waiting. Sorry again for this, but I’m going to move on to other things.