Page 205 of Silent Shadows

As we near the entrance, the temperature shifts. Subtle at first, then all at once cold air spills from inside, carrying the mineral smell of wet stone.

Everything out here feels old. Not centuries old, millennia old.

Daisy stops beside me. Her headlamp hangs loose around her neck.

“This feels illegal.”

“It’s public land.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

My headlamp isn’t doing much, so I switch on my flashlight for more light. The beam disappears into darkness. No immediate end, and no obvious chamber.

Behind us, wind whispers through brush.

Ahead, nothing. Just darkness and silence.

Daisy exhales slowly.

“Okay,” she pauses. “Question.”

“Mm-hmm?”

“If I die here, can you make sure to empty my nightstand drawers?”

I snort. “Why?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

My laugh echoes too loud, startling me back into silence. Laughing here feels wrong, like the cave is an ancient beast and I’m disturbing its sleep.

The echo disappears strangely fast, the cave amplifying then absorbing it.

Like the walls swallow more than echoes.

I touch the small of Daisy’s back, and she leans toward it instinctively.

“Stay close,” I say quietly.

Her eyes flick toward me. “Wasn’t planning on anything else.”

Then we step inside.

The beam of my flashlight cuts through floating dust to highlight uneven stone, catching strange mineral veins that gleam silver for half a second before vanishing again.

Our footsteps echo oddly. Sometimes loud. Sometimes not at all.

The tunnel bends. Tightens to the point that we have to duck and take the corner one at a time. Then, on the other side, it widens into a cavernous opening.

The air smells damp in a way that feels impossible this deep into the desert.

Cold brushes against my skin.

Somewhere farther inside a small, sharp sound echoes.

Daisy freezes and my hand finds hers in the dark.

“What was that?” she whispers.