- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
visions. I would wake up in a panic, soaked in sweat and stay awake until exhaustion forced me sleep once again. It
was a brutal routine, which reached a climax yesterday. I was drained of energy and spirit and walking slowly from
the living room to my bedroom in the early evening. As I looked down the hall, I saw a dark figure at the far end. I
thought it was a thief and began to back up slowly. It didn't move, but the lights began to flicker off and on. Every
muscle in my body tensed and I froze in place, staring at the figure. Then the phone rang, startling me so badly I
stumbled over a chair. When I got up I wheeled around to look down the hall and nothing was there! I grabbed my
keys and left the house.
When he answered the door I thought Matt actually looked like he was doing fine, was even somewhat
happy. One look at me his disposition changed. I asked him if I could spend the night at his house and he eagerly
agreed. I didn't notice until later, but every light in his house was on. He led me to his spare room. "Help yourself."
I washed up in the bathroom, took some medication, and got the first decent sleep in a long time. I awoke early and
went home without even seeing Matt of thanks and told him to call me.
© Thomas Lera 1987 - 2004 15
Crawling head first through a tight passage into darkness and the unknown is as unnatural as climbing up
the side of a cliff, or jumping out of a perfectly good airplane for recreation. We do these things to satisfy our
hunger for adventure, as a subconscious desire to conquer our own little Everest. Matt once said, "Caving is the
last opportunity for exploration for the person with modest means.” If you define yourself only by your exploits, by
your feats of physical courage, when the time comes that you can no longer perform them, you have lost the
standard by which you measure yourself. If I am ever to experience restful slumber, if I am ever to walk the halls of
my own home in peace, I must return.
It took Matt another month to recover before he agreed to go back into the cave with me. Neither of us
could believe we were subjecting ourselves to the terrors of the cave but we could not avoid it. We spent a little time
enlarging the hole to make it easier to get through, stalling for time, working in tense silence. Then it was time. In
we went, one after the other, passing quickly through the Tomb. We brushed ourselves off, stood up, and looked
around the room. Then, just past the round rock, which had not moved back into its original position, my headlight
shown the bones I thought I’d seen last trip. Approaching them warily, we made a grisly discovery
There were shards bone and tattered clothing surrounding skull. Close by was another skull, this one neatly
sliced in two, again surrounded by scattered pieces of bone, and what looked like the lacy hem of woman’s shredded
skirt. Just as I started to approach the remains for closer inspection, I heard a sound that chilled me to the bone. A
girl’s voice seemed to whisper urgently in my ear, “Get out!” and then an even more desperately, “Run!”
Completely freaked, I turned to Matt who had obviously heard it too. We paused briefly to consider our
options, and then began simultaneously to move to the room’s exit, just as the floor of the chamber began to tremble.
The wind began to howl through the chamber much stronger last time, and the rumbling began deep within the
passage. Terrified already, we didn't want to stick around to find out what the hell was about to happen. As I
scrambled backwards towards the chamber’s exit, Matt quickly followed. The ground was now shaking so badly, I
was afraid there was an earthquake and the cave was going to collapse upon us.
I was the first to make it to the exit, which seemed little more than a mole hole now. I started squirming
and squeezing through, with Matt yelling for me to hurry. I obliged, skinning my knees and elbows as I forced my
way through. Once I was into the passage, I turned to help Matt who was frantically trying to squeeze through. If I
hadn’t known better, I would have thought the hole was shrinking right before my eyes. Matt had begun to struggle
© Thomas Lera 1987 - 2004 16
harder, and I pulled him through with both hands. Suddenly Matt screamed in what I thought was agony from being
tugged too hard, but he was looking up at me with complete terror in his eyes.
“Something is touching my legs! Something is touching my legs! Pull harder!” He screamed. I yanked him
once more with all my strength, and he finally popped through. As his feet appeared, my headlight revealed what
resembled a webbed hand or claw releasing its grip on Matt’s leg. Although it had shape, it was more opaque than
solid. The second Matt was on his feet he began running, and as it dawned on me what I had seen, I too turned and
ran as fast as I was able. The rumbling noise began to grow louder as a strange glow began to illuminate the passage
behind us, and the sickening smell of rotting meat and bile began to overtake us.
As we scrambled upward, the spiraling effect of the passage became disorienting and started to take its
effect on us. If Matt wasn't tripping on something or banging his head, then I was, and the escape to the surface
seemed to take forever. It was like a Laurel and Hardy movie scene gone terribly wrong. Since we had ascended
high enough through all of the twists and turns, the light from below should not have been visible. Instead it seemed
to be getting closer and brighter, now lighting the passage behind in a sickly blood-red light. Finally we reached the
long, straight passage that led directly to the cave entrance, and Matt and I were able to pick up speed putting more
distance between us, and the light from below and the overpowering stench. However, the rumbling continued to
grow louder, and became higher pitched, like a teakettle approaching the boiling point.
As we finally reached the ledge we turned to each other in shock. There was nothing but darkness ahead.
We had entered the cave about noon and had only been inside for about 2 hours. It should have still been bright
daylight. Matt aimed his headlight up to the cave entrance and what we saw chilled us to the bone. Our rope was
gone and the entrance looked blocked. We frantically jumped onto the slope and began to claw our way upward, but
for every two feet we gained, we slid back one. The light from below began once more to encroach on us and the
rumbling intensified.
We started screaming for help, though who would hear us we had no idea! The light behind suddenly came
racing towards us flickering with blinding speed and intensity. We covered our eyes and screamed for our lives.
Instantly, the light faded to complete darkness like a wave cresting over. The unbearable noise stopped and the
stench faded. The only sound was our own heavy breathing.
“What in the hell was that?” I gasped, trying to catch my breath lost to fear.
“I don't know, but let’s get out of here. Now!” Matt answered.
© Thomas Lera 1987 - 2004 17
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than we heard a horrible crash below followed by a sound that
still gives me nightmares. Our headlights immediately went dead and we were thrust into complete and total
darkness, as a horrific, tortured sound came rushing closer. We were now too scared even to scream. I remember
pressing myself against the rock wall, frozen in fear, reduced to no other capacity than to listen as the sound began
to transform into more of a primal, demonic scream as it flew up the passage towards us like a freight train going
200 miles per hour. The air grew searing hot and a putrid wind swirled around us. We were about to pass out from
fear and the ear-piercing pain of the scream when something semi-solid surged past. Almost reading each other’s
minds, we shot up the last few feet and through the exit, me first, then Matt. Not knowing whether to run or
collapse, we stared at each other waiting for the other to make a move, finally realizing daylight had returned. We
sighed with relief, after all things are always better in the light of day. Right? Wrong!
However, our ordeal had not yet ended. A man with long, unkempt hair and deep lines crisscrossing his
face appeared out of nowhere. Despite our initial reaction to shake off our immobility and run, there was something
about the man that made us stay, something non-threatening almost peaceful. As he approached us slowly, staring at
us with piercing red eyes, the screaming came roaring through the woods. Matt and I stood frozen, powerless to
stop the thing rushing towards us, powerless to move. The old man stopped his approach, his face one of steely
determination. He reached his arms up toward the sky and began forcefully chanting in a language I did not
recognize nor understand.
The scream crested the hill emb odied in a dark shape, almost like a black cloud of soot, with just enough
form to be called solid. It flew down the hill, snapping small trees that stood between it and the old man like
matchsticks. The haggard old man blocked the entity’s path towards us as he more loudly chanted those strange
words that echoed through the woods like the howl of a wolf.
The entity slowed, and, as if it had legs, seemed to take a step back just as the strange light began to
emanate from the entrance to the cave again. This time, however, it was not the sickly blood red from before, but a
brilliant white light. The entity, or whatever it was, struggled against the light. It was sucked back down into the
cave screaming loud in protest. Suddenly, silence as the light retreated into the cave, disappearing as quickly as it
had come.