Chapter Text
Or: On the Subject of Vows and Valor
Lawrence and Mariah Lethe had gone to the Marengo caverns for their honeymoon, and Lawrence had regretted that day ever since. The newlyweds had spent ages debating the limits of their imagination and budget. The main hamper came in travel costs, and so they stayed in their home state of Indiana. There weren’t...many spectacular places to visit, but the pair hosted a love for exploration, and so the caves had been decided on. They cast their reservations, and were lucky enough to get a spot soon after the wedding, which had been a small but lively spring event. There were delays. Some unexpected flash flooding had occurred with the March showers (agitated by a hurricane elsewhere in the country), but they’d managed to schedule the very first slot as soon as tours were open again. Well, in reality, a bit earlier than reopening, thanks to a friend of a friend. The newlyweds would have the whole drip stone trail to themselves, a prospect both found delightful.
They jumped over puddles, laughing. Flowstone traced down from the ceiling in sharp lines, water still streaming off and glistening from dew. Odd patches of determined lichens dotted the inside. Supposedly there were to be rare spotlights for the admiration of certain spectacular formations, but the electricity had been malfunctioning due to the floods and it was decided to fix it later. It was safe, their friend assured, just not enough for the strict scrutiny of public attractions. So, the pair was armed with their own light. Mariah’s eyes sparkled a brilliant emerald, reflecting the glow of the flashlight, as she glanced back at her husband, filled with mirth. She grasped firmly onto his hand, leading him further and further into the cave. Mariah had always been braver than Lawrence could ever hope to be. Her hand fit neatly into his own, nice and warm and perfect in their entanglement, pulling him along in her excitement to see the next part of the cave, past spiraling stalagmites and creeping frostwork, atop thin walkways.
He missed the jade of her eyes, the perfect shape of her smile, the way her hand fit neatly into his.
The pair raced ahead, laughter echoing in the walls of the cavern, tracing the marked path. Stairs carved into stone led further up into the mountain cave. Lawrence was always sure they’d slip, but Mariah danced ahead, steps precise, and neither of them fell despite the slippery stone beneath their feet. At the top they took in the majesty of the cavern. Drapery came down like swirling curtains frozen in time, like the spiraling horns of some ancient beast now at peace. Straws formed tiny castles and infrastructure, architecture for ants. Bodies formed in twisted shapes, alien creatures petrified. The whole cavern had a symmetry to it, and should gravity relent its eternal grasp on their bones, there would be no way to tell up from down. The thought was dizzying.
The pair marveled, pointing out various intriguing structures. They talked of...well, anything really, the past that shaped the cave, the present that shaped their encompassing new lives, the future they hoped to shape together. The world never felt so conquerable than when Lawrence saw it reflecting in his wife’s emerald eyes.
And then they heard the scream. They hadn’t known that’s what the sound was. It had been faint, rebounding off the walls off the cave, distorted into a noise unrecognizable. It was unearthly, but not frightening for it.
Neither of them had known to be afraid, not then.
Not yet.
——
He’d thought he’d be safe, tucked beneath the earth. No one to see them. The Foundation couldn’t take him back if they couldn’t find him.
The caverns held a clear sign of humans, but it had appeared abandoned. There weren’t cars parked above, no people in the lodges or staffing the various check-ins and activity booths. It was...a little eerie, to be honest. But they'd traveled hundreds of miles, and were tired. Rain had started to fall in thick droplets, burning his flesh, and so he’d taken refuge. Not in the buildings, because humans could come back. No, they'd turned to the cave, thanking the eons that had formed it for giving them shelter.
The illusion of safety was dashed once the flood waters had started to rise. He couldn’t leave due to the torrents of rain outside, and so had gone farther in, hoping to avoid both the pooling liquid and the torrents that released from the ceiling of the cavern. He was trapped, and so found the highest place he could, praying this wouldn’t be how he died. The hospital gown offered little protection against the water. They'd watched, dread and water level rising together. The steps had slowly been consumed by the murky liquid, until only ten steps were left. Nine. Six. One. The vile water had rushed over the last precipice, racing toward the terrified creature. In desperation he’d scaled the tallest stalagmite he could find, burrowing sharp clawed fingers into the stone.
The nature of stalagmites was that they grew through mineral deposits from water, which meant somewhere up above was a crack. Every few minutes, a drop would land on him, burning into his flesh. The flood waters stilled mere feet away from them, and there they'd remained for days, the only barrier between their demise being their claws burrowed into soft limestone. Drip. Drip. Acid ate away at their skin, a stark reminder of their fate should they let go.
There was no escape. The cave offered no other high ground in sight, and he feared the result of a botched teleport. And then, ever so slowly, the water had fallen, draining away to some other place. The stone was still moist, and it hurt his feet, but it was almost manageable. Once they could bear to walk, then they'd leave. He didn’t know where he’d go, but that had always been the case. As long as it was far from the Foundation, he could manage.
But then he heard the humans, and his heart sank. He tucked himself behind a column formed by the union of a stalactite and stalagmite. He hadn’t realized that moisture still clung to it, and his hands spasmed in pain when he touched the brown stone spire. Their reflexive cry reverberated and increased in magnitude in the cavern walls. They slapped their hands over their mouth, whimpering as they unwittingly transferred moisture from their palms to face.
The voices stilled, and a flashlight swung to meet them, casting sharp shadows from the rock formations onto the cavern walls. The light was blinding.
——
“Do you see that?” Mariah whispered. The barest flicker of movement was drowned in the dancing shadows from the minuscule movement of the hands grasped on the flashlights.
“Maybe a bat?”
“No, there’d be more, wouldn’t there? And it’d be higher,” Mariah reasoned. “And it’s calls are too low, anyways.” Lawrence wracked his brain for other cave dwelling species that’d be able to produce such a noise. He thought that maybe they should be cautious, but around Mariah he always felt braver. She made him want to be the best possible version of himself.
“Maybe you should turn off the light, it could be frightened,” Lawrence suggested. “Aren’t cave dwellers photon sensitive?” The flashlight turned off with a click. They could hear what might have been slight shuffling, if the cave didn’t magnify the sound. As it was, the newlyweds could detect the sound of heavy breathing and faint whimpers quite clearly, if not pinpoint the exact origin. “Shouldn’t all the bigger animals have been driven out by human activities?” Lawrence whispered.
“Everyone’s been gone since it flooded. Poor thing, must’ve gotten caught up in the rains.” They’d inched as close to the sound as they could without actually leaving the path. Something shifted in the shadows, perhaps thirty feet from the trail. “Come on, we won’t hurt you,” Mariah cooed. She’s always had a soft spot for animals, particularly their cat, Cho.
“...are you sure about that?” the thing asked softly, voice hoarse and deep. Lawrence found Mariah’s hand in the dark, grasping it tight.
“Hello? Hello? Who’s there?” Mariah called. Official tours weren’t open yet, how did someone get in? How long had they been here? And why weren’t they on the path? There wasn’t a response. Something unraveled in the dark, the person rising. And then they continued to rise, drawing to a staggering height that dwarfed the stalagmites. Their head brushed the stalactites, nearly. Surely that was a trick of the light? Or, not light, it was the lack of light that led to the misinterpretation. “I’m going to turn on the flashlight, ok?”
“...please don’t,” the voice responded, barely above a whisper, almost a moan.
“I won’t point it at your eyes, I’ll give you time to adjust, alright?” Mariah offered gently. She started with it illuminating the ground directly beneath them, then slowly drawing closer to the person.
“That’s a terrible idea, really,” the person announced again. The first thing the Lethes' saw of the person was a pale white foot with sharp elongated claws for toes. It was nearly skeletal, with thin skin stretched across it. Their flesh glinted like moonlight, almost blinding. Raise a little higher, and they saw the second foot, this time a deep black, the ebony of the space between the stars. The extensive yin and yang legs led up and up, past knobby knees. Then came the hands, each long spindly finger sporting gleaming scythe-like talons, each either raven or snow in coloration. He could see the ripple of each metacarpal, knuckles rolling as its hands twitched, spider like. Lawrence’s hold on Mariah became like a vice, constricting in terror. Already it was apparent that the thing was far too tall, even shrunk by the perspective of distance. A thin, ratty hospital gown billowed around its skeletal frame. Lawrence could count the ribs through the thin cotton and skin. The light drew up, and up-
“Don’t, please don’t, don’t look at me,” the thing whispered. Lawrence couldn’t bear to see its face. Instead he turned to Mariah, his comfort, watching the growing bewilderment on her lovely face, viridian eyes blown open, not in fear, but not in any recognizable emotion either. He wondered what she possibly saw, but found he could not make himself look. He’d always known he was a coward, after all. The most dangerous thing for a coward to be was ignorant to that fact. Lawrence accepted his fear.
——
His face was hollow and gaunt, split between colors in an uneven stripe. And for all the dissimilarities to a human, Mariah couldn’t shake herself of the notion that it was an undeniably young visage. Maybe it was the naked fear they displayed, the way their shoulders scrunched or their large, clawed hands trembled as they tried to hide their eyes. Small divots pockmarked his white side, like the craters of the moon. Presumably the same happened on the other side, just not as visible. He was shaking. His jaw unhinged farther then it should have, and it quivered as he spoke, pleading with them to leave.
“Shhhh, shhhhh,” Mariah soothed. “Don’t be afraid. We’re not going to hurt you. We can help, alright? We can show you how to get out.”
“Really, I’m fine, just stop looking, please, just-” and suddenly he froze. Slowly lowered his hands, revealing a single open eye set into the midnight portion of their face. Pale, bone white flesh stretched over the place a second one should have been.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” He didn’t respond. Something about the eye was...strange. There wasn’t any white to the eye, quite the opposite in fact. Well, it was on the black side, so maybe that was why. It was much larger than a normal eye, the iris an intense shade of pine, a deep dark blue green. It was oddly shiny as well. “Their...eye?” She didn’t mean to speak aloud.
She hadn’t realized that it wasn’t an eye at all, really just a hollow socket in which the odd sphere sat, until the long, bony claws of the person reached into it, popping it out with a sickening squelch noise. Optic nerves trailed out from the empty socket, arcing after the now missing eyeball. The lengthy onyx arm swept back in a practiced throw, target straight at her.
——
She was looking at him. She was looking at him. Her eyes burrowed into their mind, eating away at their thoughts, leaving smoking craters in the aftermath. All he could see were her emerald eyes, glaring through him. Why was she looking at him? What did she know? The light previously blinding them dimmed. In fact, everything faded away until the only thing remaining was those despicable eyes, ripping through them, seeing everything. The green eyes danced before him, taunting. The gaze needed to go away. She was looking athi m she waslooking at himshewasl ooking she saw she-
They scratched at their face, hoping to end the terrible, scathing pain of her gaze. They ripped out their eye, granting peaceful, judgeless dark. But he could still see her eyes. The devouring gaze, consuming all he was and leaving behind only smoking ashes of agony. It was worse than the water, worse than the Foundation. They could only see her eyes.
He had to get rid of them.
She was looking at him she was look̴i̶n̶g̸ ̶a̴t̵ ̷h̶i̸m̶ s̸h̴e̴ ̸w̴a̶s̵ ̶l̵o̴o̷k̵i̷n̶g̵ ̸a̶t̵ ̶h̵i̷m̶ş̴̇ḧ̵̞́e̴͕̔ ̷̪̽w̷̬͒ȧ̵̟s̵̈́͜ ̵̻̅l̷̕͜o̶̢̐ȍ̷̬k̵̥̈́i̶͔͑ǹ̴͚g̷̲̏ ̵̥̽a̸͔͝t̶͙̓̎̅͝ ̸̼̱̜̭̫̀̇̄̊̀͋h̴̼̞̊͂̈̈͛̈ḭ̷̩͙̓̈͒̂͜m̵͈̲̖̑͗̈́̆ ̵̯̫̹̹͓͚̿͠s̴̫̬͍̣͛̈͒͛͝h̷̨̬̯̓̕ę̶̭͚̦̮̉̆̅͑ ̵͇̐w̶̜̥̟̃͌ă̵͙̗̙̯͉̿̉̆͝s̷̡̜͖̩͛ ̶̤̾́͒͘l̷͕̙̱͚̤͗̍̒̍́̕ó̸̤̺̊̈ő̴̩̳̩̳͙k̴̤͔̲̖͍̅i̴͙̦͇̹̊͝n̴͙͍͐̉g̷̨̢̯̰͊̽̈́̍͂̕ ̶̮̙̏͗ͅä̶̡̲́̂t̸͚̱͔̊̎͒̋̀ ̷̭̤̻̀́́h̷͈͛̓̀̿̇̕ì̵̢̘͙̭̞̹̇m̷̩̹̼͓̽s̴̫̬͍̣͛̈͒͛͝h̷̨̬̯̓̕ę̶̭͚̦̮̉̆̅͑
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ḥ̵̢͉̤̜̪̹̙͚͇̼̤̯͉̜̪̘̈́̈́̅͐̊͗̈́́̉̒̆̿͛̈́́̄̉̆̚̕͝͠i̶̡̘̠̥͎̱͖̭͍̗̤͇͑̈́̓̓̇͗͐͂̈̅͑͊̓͒̐̇̈́͂̇̈́̈́̔͆́̒̾̑̈́̌̚̕͠m̶̡̡̛̰̙͍̥͈͚̭͓̬̟̠̙̲͍̝͕̬̱̮̘͔̝̦̯͊̾̽͛̀̔̅̎͛̆͒̍̿̿͐̊͑́̓͛̈́̽́̇̈́̈́̓̇̀̅͑͒̚͝
——
The pearl slammed into his wife’s chest, shattering into shards and smoke. The creature was suddenly upon them, wailing, though surely it had been thirty feet away, nestled behind a pillar of salt. Its scream wracked Lawrence with fear. It was an unearthly noise, distorted and inhuman, bouncing off the cavern walls and becoming overwhelming. It brought its terrible claws down upon Mariah, tossing her body aside with ease. Lawrence tensed, unprepared to die. He had a whole life ahead of him. He and Mariah were supposed to die old and together, peacefully, after a long and blissful life. Never had he expected for life to be this short, their decimated bodies to be destroyed by a beast of nightmares.
And then the monster continued past him, stumbling to the prone body of Mariah. Lawrence snatched the dropped flashlight. The monster had hated it before. Lawrence started shouting loudly, spamming the flashlight on and off. Mariah snapped her eyes closed, and the monster paused, tilting its head. Lawrence’s shouts echoed through the room, quelling the screams of the monster, who had stopped completely, swinging its head around as if searching. Its face met Lawrence’s, but briefly, and it dawned on him that the thing didn’t have any eyes, the only gap for one just a hollow socket.
He stopped his makeshift strobe. Lawrence carefully picked his way over to his wife. Noise was distorted terribly in the cave, but he was still cautious. Lawrence knelt before Mariah, gently shaking her. Her jade eyes fluttered open, filling Lawrence with short lived relief. Fear quickly swallowed it, as the creature began to scream again. Lawrence slapped a hand to shield his wife from the view of his imminent death…and the wail cut short.
He bent to whisper in her ear. “Keep your eyes closed. Trust me.” Mariah nodded sharply. Lawrence took her hand, rubbing a thumb along her wedding band as an assurance. They were going to make it out together. In health as well as sickness, or the sick twisted actions of a monster made of day and night and wrath, as the case may be. Steadily they rose together, Mariah clutching at his arm. They crept towards the stairs, Lawrence leading the way for the first time. He tried to be brave, but knowing their fate lay in his hands made him nauseous. The ragged breathing of the blind juxtaposition of a creature filled the cavern walls.
And then...and then Lawrence made his first mistake. He’d been too focused on making sure the creature couldn’t pinpoint their location that he’d forgotten to guide Mariah as carefully as he should have. A pebble flew from the force of her step, skidding across the floor and clattering down the stone steps, amplified vibrations filling the room. The creature turned, stumbling after the sound of the rock, bare feet crumbling the sharp straws underfoot. It picked up speed as it grew more sure of its direction, slamming into a column and barely slowing.
Lawrence froze. This was it, they were going to die. He was going to have killed the both of them. Mariah’s hand, still entangled with his, squeezed reassurance. She was still trusting him, eyes shut tight. Right. He could do this. He drew her to the start of the stairs, stilling her motion first before stepping down to show the change in elevation. Her foot searched for the step below, tapping a bit before setting down. It was slow going, but they made it about ten steps before the monster got to the top of the flight. It didn’t react to the flashlight illuminating its features. It tested the step in a way disgustingly similar to how Mariah herself had.
He pulled her with increasing speed, fear that seconds too long and they’d both be killed. Only a few more steps, and he looked back. Something glinted near the strange eye socket. The optic nerves were attached to something now, a dangling, glimmering, pendulum. Lawrence pulled Mariah, racing down the last few steps. His second mistake. She crashed to the ground, the sound filling the massive chamber. The monster renewed its urgency. Lawrence lifted her up, racing down the path, Mariah trailing blindly behind. The cavern opened up, echos increasing. The Lethes ran nonetheless, slowing slightly for bends in the path. Lawrence glanced back, and saw that the abomination was gaining, long legs eating up the distance between. He yanked Mariah to a stop, releasing her entirely and scrambling at the cavern floor, swinging his flashlight around frantically, finding nothing weapon like. Desperately, he snapped the hollow straws from the floor and threw them at the being. The small rock projectiles missed, but still clattered to the ground behind the contradicting mess of a monster, who turned to examine the source of the sound.
It would have to buy some time for now. “Lawrence?” Mariah whispered. He retook her hands, trying to force his heart to slow. The monster swung its unseeing gaze around, the small gem object handing out of the eye socket swinging in a way that made him nauseous to behold.
“Could see before. How?” Lawrence pressed into his wife’s ear. Only the minimum of words he would get away with, the skeleton of a sentence, so as to limit the sound.
“Thing thrown at me. Eye. Maybe.” Mariah’s message still amplified, but didn’t seem to catch the monster’s attention yet.
“How look?”
“Blue orb.” Lawrence’s heart froze. Mariah began to tug at him (in the wrong direction) to start going again. Should he tell her? Wait, that was a terrible question. Of course she needed to know!
“Regrowing.” And unlike him, the mere possibility of their one advantage disappearing didn’t root her to the spot. Instead, she bared her lips into a wild grin, pressing a blind kiss to his cheek and words to his heart.
“We’ll be faster, then.” They crept at first, but the amplified sound made sneaking do little good. Soon, the black and white abomination followed after them, elongated gait meaning it could be the same speed as them and get twice as far. They made it maybe halfway through the chamber when it started to gain on them. The Lethes splashed through puddles, racing along the path cut out for human entertainment. It screamed again, and Lawrence first looked back to check Mariah’s eyes, but they were still squeezed tight. When he glanced at the monster, he was just in time to see it open its skeletal jaw and scream again, the raw cry of agony. The cavern wall duplicated the harrowing wail, but he’d almost gotten used to the earth shattering noise. He halted Mariah again, keeping his gaze trained on it. The discolored abomination drew closer…closer...there! Another scream, right as it ran through the puddles. The bottoms of its feet were bent in and looked almost scarred. Another weakness.
Lawrence regripped Mariah’s hand and broke into a run again. He didn’t know what he could do with the information yet, but he’d find a way. The glow of his flashlight revealed that up ahead, the cavern filtered into the facsimile of a room, splitting off into two paths. One was brightly lit with the promise of humans and escape, the other dark, a small sign politely saying to not go into it as the flooding was still substantial there. Lawrence checked the distance again. He might have time. Maybe.
“Stay. Trust me,” he whispered, pressing Mariah to the wall next to the exit tunnel. Lawrence squeezed her hand once for comfort. He was going to be brave, for her sake. He dashed back, to the cavern, snatching at straws and a good sized rock he found, ignoring the monster drawing near. He slipped back into the smaller chamber, back pushed into the wall, trying not to breathe as the lanky abomination bumped into the natural doorframe before ducking down and joining the newlyweds in the room. The flashlight shook in his hand, sending its hulking shadow into a frenzied dance. Lawrence whispered a prayer, and hurdled the straws as far as he could manage into the dark, flooded tunnel. The monster’s face turned, following the motion.
And then it didn’t follow.
Lawrence’s mind went blank. He thought that would work, hadn’t expected the abomination to realize the trick. He couldn’t do this, he wasn’t brave enough. He was only a coward who’d forgotten his nature, a foolish mistake that only prolonged their deaths.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered to the room. The monster whirled to him. Its strange eye was almost large enough to fill the socket, but still did not seem to work. Lawrence watched as the great, bone white hand arced down towards him, talons slashing through his shoulder and causing him to drop the flashlight as he screamed. “Mariah run!” he called, determined that his last act may somehow let her live. She stood, rooted to the floor. It wasn’t a surprise her infinite courage had finally failed; humans weren’t designed to understand or survive in the face of such abominations.
But no. It wasn’t fear that froze her, Lawrence realized, his own terror clutching at his heart and choking his throat, sending pains down his scratched shoulder. He wanted to scream, wanted to stop her, somehow, but he was a coward.
It was determination that held her in that spot. Breathtaking, foolish, bravery. Her wide, glaring emerald eyes glinting from the dropped flashlight’s glow, teeth bared in a courageous smile. The creature stilled, sharply twisting around to latch its sightless gaze onto her. Lawrence finally unclenched his jaw, shouts rivaling the starkly colored abomination in volume and anguish. It ignored the sound, transfixed on the viridian eyes of Mariah, screeching.
And then, it approached her, wrapping its long, thin, moonlight claws around her neck, pinning her to the wall. It didn’t seem to be limiting her breathing, merely preventing her escape. Then, it took a long, ebony talon, tracing the outline of her still defiant jade eyes.
And then, it ripped them out.
The screams of Lawrence and Mariah Lethe intertwined, echoing and reverberating in the small room, shaking dust from the ceiling. Lawrence’s screams continued even as Mariah’s cut short. The white hand released Mariah and her corpse crumpled to the floor. It bent in twain, and dug its claws into her empty eye sockets, leaving deep gouges where her beautiful features once were. Over and over, it tore back and forth through her skull, until it broke in half, cranium in one piece, jaw in the other.
——
She was no longer looking at him. Those haunting emerald eyes were gone, quenched. The agony died, relief filling in the remaining arches. The tension in their skull vanished, their thoughts cleared, no longer scrutinized and decimated by those terrible eyes. The fire had been put out.
He took a calming breath. He was ok now! He...he still couldn’t see, but it should be regrowing soon. She was no longer looking at them.
Instinct twitched, and they gently slid the dangling pearl into his eye socket, popping it into place and blinking a bit before realizing why she wasn’t observing him anymore. Sight bleared in flashes of black and white static before revealing the scene. Visceral horror and disgust clenched his stomach and he almost puked. They slapped their hands to their mouth to bite down a scream. Sticky blood and gore coated them and he gagged on the flavor of humanity. They hadn’t remembered how bad it could be. The Foundation had always taken care to use the work arounds, or at least remove the bodies before he regained his sight.
She was no longer looked at him. Nausea swelled up inside, burning acidic bile in their throat.
——
Both creature and husband stared at the body that was once Mariah. And then, the towering beast began to shake. Its massive, multicolored and gore coated hands clutched at its split skull. “Oh god,” it whispered, voice rough and seeped with horror. “Oh. Oh my god. I just-not again-how did-oh god I just killed someone. Oh god oh god oh god oh-” it sank to its bare knees, holding its head. Lawrence bent down slowly, and turned off the flashlight. He didn’t want to see anymore, didn’t want to think anymore. Everything felt faint and far away. Even the gouges in his shoulder were distant. “Who-oh-oh, jeeze, I’m sorry you had to-had to see that-I-yeah, just-just keep that light off. My eye has reformed. Don’t-dont look at me. I…I’m going to throw up now,” the deep voice said. Sure, might as well have his wife’s killer apologize. He’d hit suspension of disbelief when he’d first seen the yin and yang clawed hands. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be capable of surprise ever again.
The noise of retching echoed in the dark room. After a time, it spoke again, voice sending sharp ice shards of abhorrence into Lawrence’s heart. “Do...do you know the way out? I don’t-we probably can’t get an ambulance, but…”
“Sure,” Lawrence found himself saying faintly. A bitter taste filled his mouth. Was that it? He was just going to go along with the creature that had brutalized his wife’s corpse? Cowardice clasped his heart. But, just between his thumping cardiovascular system and his daunted existence languished a thin layer of malice and resentment. Vengeance sang a sweet siren’s call to him.
Faintly, he could make out the silhouette of the monstrosity, filling the exit of the Marengo caverns even hunched over. “If you walk in the light, I’ll see you,” Lawrence stated flatly, able to keep the loathing from his voice if not imbue it with civility. “The unlit tunnel goes roughly the same way, just a different exit.”
The plan had been to lure the abomination into the submerged pathway while the Lethes had escaped. The plan had been to escape.
The plan had been to die old, but it had also been to die together. Lawrence didn’t have a guarantee that he’d make it out of this one. His coward’s heart wept at this, but he’d found a better motivation: revenge.
Lawrence and the towering, skeletal beast slowly crept into the tunnel. Lawrence kept a good distance between them, an isolation it seemed to accept. “Sorry again, about-about that. Um. That...that hasn’t happened in a while. The Foundation used to...um. St-preve-reduce the damage.” The promise of some sort of prevention methods, some sort of organization nestled in the back of his mind. That might be useful later, should there be a later. He inched forward, hypersensitive to the possibility of signs of flooding. He couldn’t make a splash and alert the being.
“I forgive you,” Lawrence managed to choke out. The words burned his tongue, setting his soul on fire, a blaze of loathing both for himself and the creature that had murdered his wife.
But the lie did its work, a rattling sigh of relief coming from the black and white monster. “I know you can’t-won’t understand, but I swear I didn’t mean to. I wasn’t in control, I’d never do that.”
The sensation he’d been waiting for. His shoe squished into water, sending out ripples in the pitch black surface. It would have to be enough. Maybe it wouldn’t work, but he’d have tried. He gripped tightly, squeezing his fingers into the rubber grip of the flashlight and the jagged surface of the limestone rock. He halted at the top of the descent. For one last moment he could picture himself letting go, finding grief and letting retribution stay unsatisfied.
Are you really going to do this? Some small quiet part of him asked. There’s no going back once you do.
Good, he thought. I want this to be permanent.
The picture of his wife’s corpse was certainly going to be, forever trapped just behind his eyelids. Wasn’t that supposed to be a thing? The last thing a person ever saw imprinted on their retinas? It couldn’t be true, he thought. Mariah certainly couldn’t hold that last image, and so it was the living forced to bear the memory.
“Is...is there anything I can do? To help?” The creature asked softly, misinterpreting the pause as some kind of moment. It was right, almost, but it was its mistake to think it was softness of any sort.
“Yes.”
“Really?” The voice was almost hopeful. Almost human. Almost young. It was a shame it had torn Mariah’s eyes out.
“Die,” Lawrence offered simply, twisting around and turning on the light. It covered its eye, screeching. Between the sudden blazing illumination and the massive hand blocking its vision, the abomination didn’t see the large rock soaring in an arc and slamming into its face. Its visage twisted from an almost soft demeanor into the demented creature that Lawrence was much more familiar with. Fake humanity was wasted on him. A long, scythed hand reached into its own eye socket, plucking out the strange orb. Just as Lawrence had been counting on. It began its blind throw, except even before the optic nerves had disconnected, Lawrence had been interfering. The flashlight acted in two fold, blinding and distracting the monster while casting the area behind Lawrence into deep, pitch-black shadows. The sphere cast an arc towards him, trailing acidic smoke. Lawrence ducked beneath it, letting it smack into a stalactite behind him.
The monster vanished briefly, reappearing where the orb shattered against the limestone spire. The extreme change in mass managed to send cracks into the stalactite, and the vile abomination plummeted to the ground, fall broken by the murky residual flood waters.
Its scream was swallowed by the water, splashes duplicating and reverberating in the cavern walls. The creature unfortunately resurfaced, wail dramatically increasing in volume. It floundered in the water, before finding some purchase and drawing close to Lawrence, whose eyes were wide open, watching the tortured killer flounder. It crawled, hospital gown dripping, limbs shaking and deformed, eaten away by the water. Dark black pieces and blinding white chunks peeled off, swirling away in the flooded Marengo caverns. Its twitching claw reached dry stone. Almost saved.
Lawrence ground his heel into the skeletal hand. It lashed out, slashing at his ankles, but Lawrence danced out of the way, tossing aside the light. It clattered, rolling on the stone floor, illuminating the murky water depths and writhing monstrosity. He checked his calculations one more time, and closed his eyes, becoming invisible to the wretched fiend. He leapt onto the back of the creature, holding its head under the water. It thrashed beneath him, was far stronger and nearly twice his size, but it was blind and its body was being eaten away by water. The thinner sections snapped first as parts were eaten through. The frame of a piceous hand detached from its wrist, floating away in the choppy water. Lawrence kept his grip steady even as the creature washed away like fistfuls of sand, yin and yang blurred into dappled gray. It bucked under him. He pressed a knee to its back. Something shattered beneath him. Likewise, it released an earth shattering scream. The stalactite the abomination had cracked crumbled, sending shards of stone into the pool. Ripples expanded from the impact, sloshing against the wrestling foes.
Slowly, the struggle faded. He almost released it then, but some last desperation filled the creature, some final attempt to survive. Its thrashing renewed. Lawrence made sure to hold it down and count to a minute after it had stopped twitching. He lost count and started again, and then did it again and again until he was sure it was long dead.
When he dragged it out of the water, its legs didn’t follow. Somewhere along its spine a vertebrae had snapped. He could see the arc of a bone white pelvis surface the flood, then dissolve to snowy powder. He didn’t recognize the body in the water. It was barely a body at all anymore. Lawrence towed the creature by its ridged neck, its elongated torso trailing behind. Even that grew too much. The neck vertebrae disintegrated. He caught the skull, and let the chest fall. Its arms were at odd angles. Its ribcage maintained the illusion of volume in its hospital gown until that, too, crumbled. Lawrence’s hands felt gritty, grainy remnants of flesh and bone beneath his fingernails.
He carried the dichotomous skull into the room with Mariah’s corpse. He sat it beside her, like an offering still disintegrating on a pile of black and white sand. Assuring her that her death hadn’t gone unavenged. Her eyeless body did not acknowledge him. The dead could not witness.
Logically, there must be a next step, but Lawrence hadn’t expected to make it as far as he had. He’d expected to be sent right after Mariah. But now here he was. Avenged. It felt hollow, his head vaguely buzzing with static. So what was it, then? It sure didn’t feel like valor. And it couldn’t have been cowardice, otherwise he couldn’t have done it at all. Eventually, it would stop being the present. Eventually, that day would drive Lawrence into soul-wrenching guilt, would drive him to find the Foundation. And maybe that was bravery like Mariah had, the recklessness to act for the good of others to his detriment. Maybe that was just directionless wrath trying to find a target for a fulfilled revenge that yet felt hollow. But it wasn’t the future, not quite yet. The trio were still alone in the depths of the Marengo caverns. So Lawrence stood before the eyeless bodies of the love of his life and the bane of his life, and wept.