“Wind.”
“I felt it,” Claire said.
Maybe it had been wind. Maybe they were alone, and it was her imagination befriending her fear. Except that Reyva had felt it too, that certainty that someone else was near.
They fell silent again, listening. Claire felt as if every hair on her arms was alert, every muscle tense. She kept turning her head, peering into the blackness, as if that would make it possible to see.
A low whistle.
Wind again? Or was it the sound from a throat?
She didn’t hear any footsteps. Only her own breathing, too fast, and the thump of her heart, also too fast. Beside her, she heard Mariana and Reyva breathing in syncopated rhythm with each other.
“There’s someone here,” Mariana said, her voice barely louder than an exhale.
“It’s the dark messing with us,” Reyva said. Claire heard the click of plastic, then a rattle. Then: “My phone won’t turn on. Battery must be out. Mariana?”
“Mine’s not working either,” Mariana reported. “Claire?”
All three phones couldn’t have simultaneously died. Yet they had. “Dead,” Claire said. Then amended, “The phone. Not me.”Yet, her brain helpfully added. She felt prickles all over her skin, as if the darkness were full of hands and claws reaching for her.
“Move toward me,” Mariana said, certainty in her voice. “We have to stick together.”
Shuffling her feet forward, Claire felt her way toward Mariana’s voice. She held out one hand in front of her, as if she could pierce the darkness. Mariana kept talking in a low murmur:“This way, toward me, over here...” At last, her hand met flesh. “Got you. Okay, Claire?”
“It’s me,” she said. “Where’s Reyva?”
A hand landed on Claire’s arm, and she bit back a scream.
“I’m here,” Reyva said.
Claire patted her hand. “This is you, yes?”
“Yes, obviously. Who else—” Reyva cut herself off. “Don’t answer that. There’s no evidence there’s anyone else here. We just need to stay calm and controlled and not let our imaginations run away with our common sense. Now that we’re together, which way—”
Pebbles rattled in the distance.
All three of them froze.
Claire tried to pinpoint where the sound had come from. Behind them?
She heard a grunt-like huff of air.That wasnotwind, she thought.Was it?It had come from the same direction as the pebbles. There was someone crawling through the same cave they’d used. She was sure of it. Mostly sure.
Wordlessly, she tugged on the others’ arms. They needed tomove. Stay here, and they’d be caught, or at the very least, scare themselves to death. They had to keep moving. Toward the visible shadows above them. Toward the wind, if they felt it again.
She inhaled deeply, as quietly as she could. The air still tasted musty.
She pulled them down so they could crawl—it would be safer if they felt their way forward, she thought. Together, bumpinginto one another, they crawled over the rocks. Claire led the way, keeping her gaze fixed upward on the lighter gray, hoping that meant the way to eventual sunlight.
She heard the others breathing beside her. Her knees scraped against the ground, but her primary goal was silence. Disturb nothing. Make no sound.
Reaching the wall of the cave, she felt for a handgrip. Her fingers touched a ledge. She gripped it. Slowly, she climbed upward, toward what she hoped was the way out. She heard the sounds of Reyva and Mariana climbing too, hand over hand, up toward the shadows.
She began to lose track of time. Had they been climbing for seconds or minutes? Had they been in this cave for hours or days? It felt as if nothing existed but the darkness and the silence. She wondered how high up they were. If they fell...
Keep climbing, she told herself.
Maybe she’d imagined that the shadows were grayer above. Maybe it wasn’t sunlight at all. Or maybe when they reached the light, it would be a crack too small for them to squeeze through.
