Chapter Text
“If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Jen, you’ve got a really weird idea of a good date”
Jennifer Williams just rolled her eyes and grinned over her shoulder, looking back at her mud-covered boyfriend. Rob had always been a complaining type, but the fact he kept coming with her on these told her that he liked it…or liked her so much that he was willing to bite his tongue, which is generally the same thing. They’d been dating for 3 years, and this was only the 3rd trip he’d agreed to go on. He was an indoors type, and she liked spelunking… match made in heaven. “Well, it’s at least good for the exercise…and hey, how else can you get this dirty indoors, right?” she responded, heading down through the water, Rob following behind at a decent pace. The gear was hers, technically, since Rob tended to lose things, and she was “fastidiously clean and tidy” as had been written on various reports from teachers throughout her life.
Jen hated stereotypes, but would always admit to a laugh whenever someone heard she liked spelunking, then looked at her like she was from space. The only thing funnier to her was the time someone saw her spelunking outfit after a trip, and their brain seemed to blue-screen, seeing the ‘high school neat freak’ covered basically head to toe in mud and silt. Rob, for his part, liked to take before-and-after pictures of their suits, seeing the shiny blue becoming what they both referred to as “gas station bathroom brown”. This cave was her favorite, just because of how close it was, and the size. While Salvation Caverns wasn’t particularly expansive, it did have this absolutely massive alcove that felt like something out of a movie, or an opera. They also only really needed to crawl a handful of times. It was also where Rob admitted he had feelings for Jen, and they started becoming a thing. It’d always held some special meaning to them after that. Every time they re-visited it; Jen always got giddy energy from it. Rob had admitted that it’s the main reason he liked doing this more. So, she gets to feel good about herself, and he gets to come out of his shell a little more. Textbook win-win.
“Come on, man, it’s just a little further, then we can drink in the sights, and do all that kissy-kissy goo-goo stuff TV says we do on dates” she adds, while Rob just nodded, using his light to look every which way, Jen looking back to him, but more often keeping her focus ahead, making sure that there are no surprises (just in case), she saw it: the entrance to the outcropping.
Entering the area, Jen felt her breath taken away. Just like it was the first time. The place was absolutely huge, compared to the size of the cave system it was advertised as. There were plenty of stalactites and stalagmites that looked as pretty and sturdy as the pictures, art, and tv always made them look, and it was dry, with clear water in the middle, as if this was manufactured to be picturesque as possible. Their own little home-away-from-home. It was the only part of their lives that seemed unchanging. They’d always loved it.
So when her feet landed with a heavier splash than she expected, and felt a warmth grow up to her shins, where cave water was usually cold, near freezing at times, the emotion that got to her after panic and confusion was…irritation. Rob came through, and voiced the feeling they both had. “Ew, what the…Jesus, what is this stuff!?” he exclaimed, causing Jen to start processing what she was looking at.
Gazing down, she saw that the liquid around her legs was completely opaque, and a bright red. Seemed like the muddy water they’d expect in a cave like this. A bit thicker and more sludge-like than water, but not enough to really be a slog. “it’s so bright… looks like that jelly stuff they use for blood in horror movies” she said, more to herself, but Rob apparently agreed, “yeah…never even heard of stuff like this appearing out of nowhere…I mean, there are places where the water’s red, but…this doesn’t feel like water…I don’t know what this is” Jen looked over to him, seeing the irritation on his face that presumably matched her own. looking around their special place, they saw it wasn’t the only thing that changed, Rob as the first one to point it out, “as dumb as this is going to sound, I think we found our culprit” he said, pointing to the middle of the area, where the other major change made itself apparent to the pair.
Jen had seen a great number of stalagmites in her time, even if lots of them were images on the internet, and this…was not like any of them. It was large, and bizarrely shaped, in such a way where it seemed unlikely to have formed from water dripping from the ceiling. “It looks like…what the hell, it looks like a maple leaf” Rob commented, and Jen could only agree. Like a massive, stony version of a maple leaf, but still, that was what it looked like “makes me think of those heavy metal album covers for their album full of depressing songs where they want to try something else…” Jen noted, taking off her glove, an running her hands over the strange rock, ‘warm to the touch…that’s weird’ she thought, while Rob fumbled into one of his pockets, taking out his phone, “gotta admit though…the rock looks cool” he says, snapping a picture or three, while Jen just kicked the red gunk around, annoyed at herself for getting so upset about it…but this was their special place, dammit…it was beautiful, and clean, it wasn’t…this horror movie bullshit.
Horror movie bullshit indeed, as Rob’s phone…and Jen’s too…started ringing. Rob was the more tech savvy one, so Jen turned to him, “uh…can phones get any signal down here?” she asked, Rob shaking his head, “the satellites couldn’t get a signal here, and everyone knows where we are, and not to call anyways. also…take a look” he said, showing his phone to her, indicating there was no number, just a stream of letters. Jen took her phone out, and saw she was getting a call from…ostensibly the same mystery caller, but the string of letters was different. All As, Cs, Ts, and Gs, but smashed together in a different way. Looking at Rob, she asked,” so…should I get it, or should you?” she asked, while her boyfriend just shrugged, “I’ll put mine on speaker, save you the trouble” he offered, tapping on his phone, and then answering the phone, “hello?”
The other end gave out a harsh blast of static, causing both to hiss in pain. The blast only lasted a second, before being replaced with…music? the instruments were hard to recognize, but it sounded…eastern-ish? Jen and Rob couldn’t place it
“It sounds like something from the middle east…maybe Asia?” she offered; a suggestion that became more plausible as the music gave way to lyrics…
“Lapau da upala
Pṛthvī́ ākāśaḥ
Kiráṇaḥ ihá kiráṇaḥ
Agníḥ udakám….
Lāka ihá kāla
Nítyam durgá
Maunám da maunám
Vāyú īśá”
“What the hell is that…what does any of this mean?” he asked, Jen having no idea. The song just kept playing, the lyrics continuing in whatever language that was, the red fluid…was it starting to move? No doubt about it, the liquid was pulling away from them, leaving wet stone and nothing else under their feet. Flowing backwards, the liquid continued its nonsensical push, starting to…flow up the maple rock? “oookkkaaay, now’s the time we start leaving” Jen offered, Rob only nodding mutely, as the red mass covered the stone, as their phones only sang louder. Turning and leaving, moving as fast as they could, Jen and Rob moved towards the exist they remembered being there, as they heard a cacophonous SPLAT! Behind them, the song continuing with another verse, so loud it was starting to hurt…
“Saṃkalpáḥ saṃvādam
Kaivalya karma
Īśvara pūjā
Hṛti hṛti dā́nam”
Rob stumbled and fell, Jen not hesitating to help him up, and they both heard it in the same instant. The song was continuing to play, lyrics going on and on, repeating and replaying, as they heard another sound. Like metal poles sticking into the rocks, over and over again, alongside a high-pitched chittering noise following behind them. Managing to escape the cave, after several moments of running, they stopped from exhaustion outside the cave, legs wobbling like jelly, as the terror-born adrenaline faded, leaving fatigue and aching muscles.
Jen was trying to come up with something, anything to say in this scenario, but Rob got there first, “what…whatever that was…we need to talk to somebody about it…” he started, Jen asking the immediate question, “who are we supposed to tell? Who would believe us, and who would even be able to do something about it?” she asked, between gasps, trying to get air back.
Rob was going to add something, before that chittering noise returned…and then a large black blade appeared in his chest.
Jen started screaming, and terror gave her the strength to run from the chittering, twitching horror before her, trying to get the image of her limp, bloodied boyfriend out of her mind….