“All right, we’ll do rock, paper, scissors, and whoever loses has to go in first, got it?” Mike O’Shea said in a sharp whisper, his pale face barely visible in the streetlights beneath his dark green hoody. A sharp wind blew the leaves around them, causing them to screech across the concrete sidewalk, and a shiver went up his spine.
“There’s no way I’m going down there at all,” his girlfriend, Tiffany Dickens, cried. She was wearing a faux fur coat and no hood, leaving her standing in the shadow of the brick wall shivering.
“All right, let’s do it,” Jo Benson, Mike’s best friend replied, his voice a little louder.
“Okay, but what about Tina?” Mike asked, eyeing Jo’s girlfriend who was standing next to Tiffany.
“Nah, let’s leave the girls out of it. If they don’t wanna do it, they don’t have to. This was our bet anyway.”
Mike accepted that response, and three shoots later, he smirked in Jo’s face. “Looks like you’re going first!”
Jo shrugged his shoulders and acted nonchalant, like it wasn’t a big deal. He’d been here before anyway, back in October, during the Halloween festivities, and he’d gone down there then, so it really wasn’t a big deal. Just because it was the middle of the night and he’d be alone this time, likely in the dark, that didn’t make it so different. After all, they’d taken the bus all the way over here just for the thrill of sneaking in and not getting caught. He couldn’t hardly chicken out now.
With a deep breath, Jo approached the opening to the stairwell. There was a metal grate over the top, and it took him a few seconds to get it off. He looked over his shoulder at Mike, thinking he might come and help, but he was standing a ways off, back with the girls, and he didn’t even step forward when he saw Jo struggling with it. Finally, the metal grate popped up, and he was able to sling it over to the side.
Jo looked down into darkness. He could barely see past the second step. “No wonder they called this The Hole,” he mumbled. He took another deep breath and cautiously put his foot on the top step.
He was tempted to laugh at himself. After all, what was there to be scared of? Ghosts? Goblins? Even if this place really was haunted the way everyone said, what were the chances he would actually see a ghost? Not likely. With another deep breath, he took another step, and before long, he was halfway down the steep staircase.
The only light down here was the faint glow of the distant streetlight and the few stars that hung in the sky. Even the moon was hidden behind some clouds as if it were frightened to see what might happen. Careful not to lose his footing, Jo took another step, seeing nothing in front of him except for black.
He came to what must be the bottom of the stairs, as he felt with his foot and could only find what seemed to be floor with no more drop offs. He wondered how far in he’d have to go to make Mike believe he’d done it, and figuring this was far enough, he turned to leave, but just as he began to place his foot back on the bottom step, a noise caught his attention.
It sounded like a growl, a low reverberation, off in the distance. Jo turned back around and peered into the darkness, but he still couldn’t see anything. He took a step forward. A flicker of motion caught his eye, like a shadow in the dark, making one spot even darker, and Jo felt the fear begin to well up inside of him. “Who… who is there?” he stammered, stepping backward up the bottom two steps.
The only answer was that low growl again, but this time it was closer. Without wasting another second, Jo turned and took off up the stairs, screaming as he did so, “Run!” but before he even reached halfway to the top, something grabbed his pant leg from behind. He felt claws gouge into his skin. He heard screaming echoing through the darkness and realized the voice he heard was his own as a second hand grabbed his chest and pulled him back down the stairs, spinning him around as it did so.
Jo looked into the steely gray eyes, the whites illuminated in the faint light, bared razor sharp teeth gleaming as the moon showed itself. “Oh, God!” Jo moaned as the monster’s teeth sank into his neck. The pain was sharp at first, as if he’d been stabbed, but the sensation subsided as he felt his lifeblood flowing out of him. His last thought was of his girlfriend, Tina. He hoped she’d heard his cry and that she had taken off when he screamed for her to run.
Cadence had fallen asleep on the couch and awoke in the middle of the night, realizing her IAC was going nuts with messages from hunts she’d intended to monitor from across the country. Her eyes were swollen from crying and her hair stuck to her cheek. She went to the bathroom to wash her face and avoided the mirror, certain she wouldn’t like what she saw, as she began to answer the messages she’d missed.
Luckily, there was nothing important, and everything was under control, which was one of the positives about having competent people in the field. She’d also missed a message from Aaron but didn’t bother to contact him at that moment since she was sure he’d be out in the field with the Connecticut team. He was just letting her know he’d arrived safely. And that he loved her, which made her start asking questions of herself all over again. Eventually, she had decided to call it a night and changed into pajamas and crawled into bed, hopeful that the next morning would bring the clarity she so desperately needed.
