“Do you remember when I told you that shaving half your head was the worst idea you’ve ever had?” Tommy’s breath came in harsh bursts from his lips, clouding the air before his eyes, making everything look like it was shrouded in a dense fog. Jack didn’t pause to answer, his short huff of a chuckle serving as enough of an indication that he’d heard. “Well, I take it back. This is the worst idea you’ve ever had.”

The Basin was far creepier at night than during the day. Tommy clutched his jacket closer to his body, pulling the flaps of his hunting cap down further over his jutting ears. He’d always hated his ears- they stuck out too far for even his fluffy mop of hair to obscure their sheer size. He’d been teased relentlessly in elementary school and only avoided carrying the bullying over to high school by chance. Hannah Grandier got braces over the summer between freshman year and sophomore, and the adhesive caused an allergic reaction that made her face swell up like a balloon. Attention turned to her and stuck, leaving Tommy and his dinner plate ears to enjoy a peaceful transition into teenagerhood.

That didn’t mean he was blessed with luck when it came to girls, though.

Tommy wished he didn’t care so much. Or, if he had to care, he wished he’d been more attracted to Gloria Tate when she’d asked him to Spring Fling. It wasn’t that he hated Gloria- she was nice enough- she was just... plain. Overalls, Mary-Janes, huge wire-rimmed glasses, and a big Bon Jovi poster taped to the inside of her locker. There was nothing wrong with Bon Jovi, but everyone liked Bon Jovi. Nothing about Gloria stood out as interesting. She looked like any other girl he’d see at the mall or the bowling alley, fading into the background so seamlessly you’d forget she was even there.

No, Tommy wasn’t attracted to Gloria. He was in love with Jodi. Beautiful, blonde, perfect Jodi. Logically, Tommy knew that Jodi dressed like a lot of the girls in his class with bright neon pinks, yellows, and greens. To him, though, Jodi stood out more than the others. Her ice-blue bomber jacket gleamed like a beacon in the dull brown halls of their high school, drawing attention wherever she walked. She was like light incarnate. Tommy would do anything to get a date with her. Including trekking through the Basin in the middle of the night with his knucklehead of a best friend.

“I can see the trail markers!” Jack called out from somewhere ahead of him. Tommy squinted into the darkness, mist clinging to his eyelashes and pooling on his upper lip. It hadn’t started raining yet, and he hoped it wouldn’t. The last thing they needed was a flash flood wiping out the mine while they were still in it.

His crush on Jodi was the only reason Tommy let Jack drag him out here. All the girls in their grade were buzzing about homecoming, flipping through magazines, and picking out offensively-coloured dresses with poofy sleeves and crinoline that looked itchy. The more popular ones already had dates. If Tommy wanted to ask Jodi to go with him, he needed to move fast. Three of her friends were already spoken for.

What better way to win a girl’s heart than to steal a raw gemstone from an abandoned mineshaft for her?

How Jack knew about this place was beyond him, but Tommy was never one to question his best friend. Jack had a way with information, often being the first to spread breaking news around their school. When he came to Tommy with some rumor about an old mining network threading through the Basin, Tommy hadn’t thought to doubt him. Now, though, he was beginning to have regrets.

They crested another hill, using ancient tree roots to secure their footing. The branches overhead tangled with each other, forming a canopy that protected them from the sky should it decide to open and drench them. Their flashlight beams bounced unsteadily through the foliage, catching iridescent insects and the reflective eyes of small animals before settling onto the uneven ground again. Tommy and Jack were no strangers to the Basin- they'd camped here just about every summer, even when they were old enough that their parents didn’t force family vacations on them anymore. They liked being out in the wilderness. Maybe just... not like this.

It was cold. Cold, wet, and confusing. The Basin was never a small forest, even with the town clear-cutting trees to make way for a new sheriff’s station. Looking at it from the road, the trees were deceptively thin. Staring into the Basin from the safety of a trail could easily trick someone into thinking that there wasn’t much skill needed to navigate uncharted land, but the reality was much scarier. Even during the day, with the sun illuminating everything as far as the eye could see, the Basin was capable of swallowing even skilled outdoorsmen. Tommy knew that. Jack knew that. And yet, here they were, trudging through fallen pine needles and wilting leaves, in search of a mineshaft that may or may not be buried by years of decay. They should turn around, go home, and forget they were here. It was the smart thing to do.

Not that Jack and Tommy were known for being smart.

Brown, crumpled leaves squelched under his foot as Tommy braced himself to leap over the next gnarled tree root blocking his way. His palm hit the damp bark, crushing an unsuspecting beetle under his thumb. He tried not to retch. Jack knew that Tommy hated bugs, and that it embarrassed him. That didn’t stop Jack from teasing him about it.

“Over here, I think I see the entrance.” Jack’s voice sounded much farther away than he was. If Tommy didn’t have eyes on his friend, he might’ve guessed that Jack wandered off on a diagonal, cutting westward through the Basin. The rocks and foliage distorted sound deep in the forest, confusing the senses and disorienting those who came unprepared. Tommy picked up his pace, intent on keeping Jack firmly in his line of sight. When he reached the boulder that Jack perched on, he could only stare.

The mineshaft was there, dotted with deteriorating caution tape and half-swallowed by moss. If he hadn’t been looking for it, Tommy might’ve skimmed over the entrance altogether. It was hidden in shadow, nestled in a dip in the landscape. How many animals had accidentally stumbled into this glorified pit? Was it a far drop? Could they get back out?

A horrible image of putrefied flesh and slick, brown skeletons forming a small mountain of death somewhere in the darkness below them made Tommy shudder. He dispelled the thought with conviction; if a pile of dead animals were anywhere close by, they’d smell it. Tommy inhaled and he found only the scent of rain, damp wood, and decaying plants.

“How are we supposed to get down there?” Tommy asked without thinking. The look Jack gave him confirmed that his friend had already planned for this obstacle.

“Use your head, Tommy-boy,” Jack said teasingly, pulling a length of fraying rope from the inside of his bright purple and black rain jacket. The rope unfurled from his fingers, hitting the soft ground with a barely audible thwack. “Feel like putting those PE classes to use?”

“Not at all,” Tommy shook his head, “but I don’t think you’re giving me a choice.”

Jack just winked.

With confidence, Jack reached for the nearest oak tree and swung the end of the rope around its massive trunk. His nimble fingers threaded an intricate knot, one that Tommy was sure had a name that he didn’t know. Jack gave the rope a few solid tugs, his high-tops sinking into the mulch with how much weight he was swinging. When the knot held firm, he brushed his palms clean on his acid-washed jeans and turned to face Tommy with a triumphant smile.

“We slide down this rope, grab some stones, and we’re home before your mom has a chance to wig out.”

“How deep is it?” Tommy leaned over the mineshaft, squinting. His flashlight beam only penetrated a few feet of darkness, not nearly enough to illuminate their path. A chill whispered along Tommy’s spine, warning him against going any further. He told his mind to stop being such a chickenshit. Jack wasn’t scared, so he shouldn’t be either.

“Deep enough, I guess,” Jack said with a shrug. “We’ll find out when we get down there.”

Tommy shifted his weight back, stretching his neck to peer into the gaping maw of the mineshaft. For a split second, he thought he spotted movement in the dark. Nothing alive- at least, he didn’t think it was alive- more like the light had bounced off of something just out of sight. He sucked in a breath, hoping that whatever it was would materialize in the shadows. When it didn’t, he straightened.

“What time do you have?” Jack pressed the light on his watch face, holding it up for Tommy to see. It was just after 1am. “Okay, if we’re going to do this, we should hurry.”

“Rad.” Jack looped the rope underneath his buttocks, gripping either side in white-knuckled fists. He lined himself up with the edge of a rock that was hanging over the open mineshaft, speckled with weeds and hairline fractures. Faced with committing to his descent, Tommy watched Jack’s confidence waver.

A rustling in the underbrush was their only warning before chaos erupted, snapped branches and watery mud spraying toward them from the top of the small hill they’d just descended. Tommy yelled in surprise and fear, throwing himself out of the path of the oncoming animal. He just managed to make out the tawny fur and white underbelly of a deer before his torso hit the ground hard, the impact jarring his bones until they rattled. Stabbing pain lanced through his right arm, his elbow aching where it had connected with a hidden stump.

The deer skirted the mineshaft at the last moment, darting around the oak tree and tripping on a root. It careened into shadows again, its escape marked by the occasional snap of a twig or the clomp of a hoof against stone.

Adrenaline pumped through Tommy’s blood, making his heart jump wildly in his chest. For a moment, he’d forgotten to breathe. Now that the immediate danger turned out to be nothing more than a spooked doe, laughter erupted from his gut in waves of relief and embarrassment.

“That’s one way to shake off the jitters.” Tommy lifted his head to smirk at Jack, but the smile froze on his lips.

Jack wasn’t there.

Tommy scrambled to his feet, diving for his flashlight that had fallen with him, landing in a pile of upturned dirt. He swung the beam frantically around the mineshaft, searching for signs of Jack sprawled on the ground as he had been. The deer didn’t run into him, Tommy was certain. So, where-?

An epiphany, strong and sure, rooted him to the spot. The deer. The oak tree. Tripped.

Tommy sprinted to the tree, his light confirming what he already knew. The deer hadn’t tripped on a root like he’d originally thought. It was there, half covered in fern leaves and stinging nettles. The deer’s front legs caught on the rope, yanking it clean to the other side of the oak tree, away from the mineshaft and out of Jack’s hands. Tommy went cold, panic creeping up the back of his throat. He fought it off, whirling around to peer into the pit where his friend had been preparing to drop slowly into. The rock Jack was standing on was unceremoniously wiped clean, the moss ripped from its home amongst the cracks in the stone surface.

The deer may not have fallen into the mineshaft, but Jack did.

“Shit!” Tommy clawed his way to the edge of the mineshaft, leaning as far as he dared into the open space. “Jack!”

His own voice answered him, echoing in diminishing volume until he was alone again.

“SHIT!”

Lungs burning, Tommy willed himself to breathe, to calm down, to think.

“Jack? Can you hear me, man?”

The call was less desperate than his first, but no more successful. If Jack was down there, it was either too deep for him to hear Tommy’s yells or Jack was unconscious. Or-

He stopped the thought before it formed. His best friend was not lying dead at the bottom of a dank pit. It was impossible. They had plans, big plans, and not a single one of them involved a premature funeral.

No, Jack was alive, Tommy told himself defiantly. He was alive, and Tommy was going to save him.

The rope fibers were rough against his palm, crisp and fraying as he squeezed them tightly in his fist. Tommy took a deep breath, positioning himself on the now-clean rock, the same way Jack had. Out of the two of them, Jack was by far the better climber. Tommy couldn’t remember the last time he’d scaled anything taller than a bike ramp.

Pushing his fear aside, Tommy leaned back into the opening of the mineshaft. Knowing there was nothing behind him to break his fall, should he slip, had his heart beating in his throat. He tried again to steady himself, forcing his mind to focus on Jack.

Jack, sneaking the latest Superman issue into his backpack at lunch.

Jack, grinning as he bowled his first perfect round at the alley.

Jack, pumping his fist in triumph as Amy Vagners gave him her phone number.

Jack, bleeding out in a shallow stream far below Tommy’s feet.

The rope cut into Tommy’s hands as he made one final, silent plea to the sky for Jack to be okay. Then, with a surge of determination that pushed out all other thoughts, Tommy jumped.

The blackness swallowed Tommy’s gasp as his stomach flipped, the drop from the edge of the mineshaft to the ground below being much shorter than he had anticipated. His boots struck against hard ground, jarring him from his heels to his knees. He swayed, catching himself on the packed dirt wall, and looked up.

He’d descended about ten feet from the surface. It was a sheer drop, but it was easily survivable. The realization flooded Tommy with a sense of relief- if the mineshaft was only ten feet deep, then Jack must be unconscious somewhere nearby. He probably hit his head or maybe had the wind knocked out of him. Either way, Tommy was confident that his friend was alive. He just needed to find him.

The flashlight swung in a wide circle around where Tommy stood. The beam bounced off of rocks, roots, litter, and broken tools before settling on a piece of bright green cloth. It was familiar to Tommy in a way that made his stomach churn. Without thinking about it, Tommy knew where the fabric had come from.

The tongue of Jack’s high-tops.

Streaks of disturbed dirt surrounded the clue, leading Tommy to a slight dip in the ground. There, more rocks and dirt were scattered, discoloured from being ripped from their resting place. Tommy trudged forward, testing the stability of the tunnel with each step. After three strides, he was confident that the earth wouldn’t slip out from under him. That was when he found Jack.

Tommy’s light snagged on something white and grey in the sea of brown and black. The bottom of Jack’s sneaker, propped on a rounded stone. Tommy quickly lifted his light, finding Jack’s dirt-streaked face in the shadows. He ran to him, taking in as much information as he could in a matter of seconds. Jack was leaning against the cave wall, his head tipped back, mouth slack, eyes closed. He looked bruised but otherwise uninjured.

“Jack?” Tommy crouched next to his friend, gently reaching behind his head to feel for blood. The rhythmic rise and fall of Jack’s chest comforted him, knowing that at least his friend was still alive. His fingers grazed something wet and sticky, his heart leaping into his throat.

“Shit, Jack.” Tommy blew air through his nose in a great huff. Now that he had eyes on Jack again, some of the adrenaline eased from his system. He tried to think- first things first, he needed to get Jack out of this hole.

“Okay, Johnny,” Tommy muttered under his breath. He looped an arm under Jack’s knees, holding the flashlight under his chin. “Let’s hope you haven’t gained much weight since track ended.”

“No more than you.”

“Jesus!”

Tommy jerked backward, landing hard on his ass. His flashlight whipped to Jack’s face, who was grinning like a jackal, very much awake. A myriad of emotions flickered through Tommy’s mind, beginning with shock and ending with outrage.

“Are you kidding?!” Jack’s laughter did nothing to soothe his anger. Tommy watched as Jack stood, perfectly mobile, and brushed the dirt from his jeans. He offered a hand to Tommy. “You gave me a heart attack! What’s wrong with you? I thought you were-”

“I know,” Jack snickered. “You should’ve seen your face. I almost fell asleep waiting for your ass. What took so long?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Tommy said, dripping with sarcasm. “Maybe the fact that you almost died right in front of me?”

“You’re being dramatic,” Jack dismissed. “Come on. We’re losing moonlight.”

The relief of Jack being alive and well wasn’t quite enough to overcome the irritation Tommy felt over Jack’s cavalier attitude toward the situation, but it was enough to get him to swallow his feelings and push himself to his feet.

“I’m never going anywhere with you again after this,” Tommy grumbled. “What happened, anyway? Did you fall or jump?”

“Both?” Jack shrugged. “The deer hit me as soon as I had my foot off the ledge. I fell most of the way.”

“Are you hurt?”

Jack spun in a circle, holding his arms wide for Tommy to see. He was covered in dirt and his clothes were torn in several places, but he looked to be in one piece aside from a bleeding scrape on the back of his hand, which was responsible for the warm and sticky substance Tommy had felt. His flashlight was tucked into the pocket of his rain slicker, which Jack promptly removed and powered on.

“This place is way bigger than I thought it would be,” Jack said, whistling low. He shone his light in all directions, taking note of the particularly gnarly-looking detritus and decaying roots.

“We shouldn’t go far,” Tommy insisted. He could see the wheels turning in Jack’s head, calculating how long they could stay down here and explore before they needed to return home. “There aren’t any signs or anything down here. We’ll get turned around at the first crossroads.”

“My sense of direction is better than yours,” Jack said. “Come on, we’ll only go far enough to get the goods. That won’t be too deep.”

“Wasn’t this mine abandoned?” Tommy reminded him. “What makes you think there’s anything down here, let alone close by?”

“Bit late to be bringing that up, don’t you think?”

It was. Tommy should’ve asked a lot more questions before he committed to this escapade, but that’s just not how things worked with Jack. When he had an idea, you answered him immediately or not at all. Tommy didn’t have time for fear and doubt to kickstart his reasoning before Jack was making plans for them to meet up at the turnpike between their houses.

“I’ve got a good feeling about this,” Jack said eventually, slapping Tommy on the back. “If we don’t find anything after like… an hour or so, we’ll turn around. Happy?”

No, he wasn’t, but a compromise from Jack was a rare enough phenomenon that Tommy didn’t have the heart to voice his trepidation. He nodded mutely, gesturing for Jack to lead the way. His friend’s face lifted into a victorious smile, and Tommy knew there was no chickening out now.

They began a slow and steady pace over the uneven ground, taking their time to avoid any more unplanned drops. After three unsuccessful attempts to get Tommy to talk, Jack resigned himself to whistling while they walked. As he did, Tommy took the chance to think.

He really should’ve asked more questions, considered more of the risks before coming down here. Now that the initial adrenaline had faded, Tommy’s brain was rebelling at him for being so stupid. Any number of things could be trapped in the mineshaft with them, things as small as venomous spiders or as big as slumbering bears. The animals weren’t even the only threats- toxic gas, unstable support beams, sinkholes, flash floods… the list was too long to dwell on. Tommy felt a sudden rush of resentment toward Jack, and then just as strongly at himself. He was smarter than this.

As Tommy continued to contemplate the situation they were in, he took in their surroundings more thoroughly. The oddness of the environment struck him all at once, raising even more questions than he’d had before. The tunnel was rounded and thin, barely wide enough for three people to walk side by side. He couldn’t see any signs of life, old or new. No ropes, no tools, no supports, nothing. It was suspiciously barren and, while it clearly wasn’t a manmade tunnel, it didn’t seem natural either.

They wandered in silence aside from Jack’s intermittent whistling. Tommy detected a gentle chill at the nape of his neck, creeping up his scalp and settling in his hair. Something was changing. He couldn’t see it yet, but he could sense it.

When they rounded the next bend, he laid eyes on the source. Their tunnel appeared to reach a dead-end, but it was an optical illusion. Instead, their path took a sharp right into a much larger tunnel, one that looked like a proper mine, albeit a decaying one.

“Now we’re getting somewhere!” Jack exclaimed happily, pulling an old T-shirt out of his jeans pocket and draping it over a rusted iron nail jutting from the wall at shoulder height. “To mark our exit,” Jack explained as Tommy raised an eyebrow at him.

Finding the remnants of a proper mine should’ve made Tommy feel better, but it didn’t. The wooden support beams used to keep the roof from caving in looked like they’d been submerged in a swamp for the last fifty years. They were black and rotten, sagging at unnatural angles with mold festering in between the splintered joists. Tommy followed the connections to a handful of intact beams that seemed to be all that was supporting the entire tunnel now. If all or even just one of those beams were to buckle, would they be buried down here? The sinking feeling in his stomach told him that the answer was yes.

The mine tunnel twisted and turned in ways that made Tommy think they’d stumbled into the wrong pit. Mines were supposed to be straight, with sharp corners and clear direction, weren’t they? This felt more like a maze, warping in on itself from all angles at once. It was disorienting and claustrophobic, magnifying Tommy’s unease to match his erratic heart rate.

“Hey, look here!” Jack raced ahead of him, dropping to his knees in front of a pile of sagging dirt and dusty rocks. “Jackpot!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Tommy stopped beside him, scrunching his nose at the apparent monument. “It’s just dirt.”

“What? No, it’s not!” Jack reached into the pile and plucked out a stone the size of his closed fist, brushing the loose gravel from the jagged surface. “This is what we came here for!”

Tommy blinked. The rock Jack cradled reverently in his hand looked like the same piece of junk he’d find on any lakeshore in the county. In the dark, it was difficult to discern its true colour, but from what he could tell it was the familiar grey-blue of river rocks and open cliff sides.

“We came here for trash?” Tommy didn’t bother to hide the disdain in his voice. Of all the stupid, reckless ideas-

“It’s not trash,” Jack said, standing. He thrust the poorly cleaned rock at Tommy. “This is topaz! Raw topaz!”

“How hard did you hit your head when you fell?” Tommy shoved the rock away from him, not caring if he knocked it from Jack’s hand. Jack held on, hugging the rock to his chest. “I’ve never seen anything like that in a jewelry store. Except maybe after a robbery.”

“That’s because it’s raw, you airhead,” Jack snapped. “Once we get it home and clean it up a bit, it’ll turn into a clear-ish yellow. We’d have to take it to a jeweler to get it looking like something you’d get at the mall. Did you think diamond rings just sprang up from the ground?”

Tommy was too embarrassed to admit that, yes, he had. Maybe not as cleanly as Jack put it, but he didn’t think that gems looked so boring and ordinary before they were processed. Jodi would take one look at this thing and laugh him out of school. He’d have to move.

“This was stupid,” Tommy said under his breath. “Grab your dumb rock and let’s roll.”

“Aren’t you going to take one?” Jack held out another rock, this one substantially smaller than the one he kept for himself. “You didn’t come all the way down here only to leave empty-handed, did you?”

It was looking that way, but Tommy swallowed his pride and accepted the stone. Who knows? Maybe Jack was right and, once he was home and the rock was cleaned properly, it would be nice enough to convince Jodi to go out with him. Tommy couldn’t think clearly about that yet, though. He was too tired, too drained, too pissed off at Jack to think about anything other than getting home as soon as possible.

“Fine, great, thank you,” Tommy muttered. “Now come on. It’s going to take us forever to find our way out of this and I have to get home before Dad wakes up or else I’m toast.”

“Wait, wait!” Jack brushed past Tommy and stepped excitedly into the darkness, his flashlight illuminating a sign hanging above their heads. “Look at this!”

Tommy didn’t want to look, but the awe in Jack’s voice was too tempting to ignore. He directed his light to the sign, reading the hastily scratched and faded letters through squinted eyes.

DANGER. TURN BACK.

“Cool!” Jack’s flashlight followed the tunnel as far as a few feet, and then it fell on a blockage. The tunnel was sealed with pieces of scrap board and metal, thrown together by inexperienced hands. Tommy stared at the barrier, his mind whirring as he tried to reconcile the sight with his reality.

“You think it was a collapse?” Jack guessed, kicking at the board closest to the ground. It shuddered worryingly, expelling clouds of dirt and dust in stuttered coughs. “Or a flood?”

“Does it matter?” Tommy didn’t like the eagerness in Jack’s tone. They’d known each other long enough that Tommy could recognize when his friend was about to have a terrible idea, one that would get them into unfathomable trouble. The problem was that he hadn’t yet figured out how to derail that train of thought once it started moving.

“Let’s find out,” Jack said, kicking at the board again. To Tommy’s dismay, it crumbled under the force of the blow. The barricade wavered, some pieces dislodging along with the broken board, others remaining stubbornly in place. Jack fell to the ground, peering into the shadows beyond. “It’s clear on the other side. Whatever happened must be deeper.”

“Do you have a death wish?” Tommy couldn’t understand the panic creeping up the back of his neck. He and Jack had explored dozens of questionable locales, some of which had resulted in injuries worthy of the emergency room. Not once had he felt the same trepidation plaguing him now.

The board had all but disintegrated under Jack’s kick, admitting a sharp, cold breeze through the now-open passage. The air on this side of the barricade felt stale in comparison, cloying at the inside of Tommy’s throat and coating his tongue with dirt. The cool air should have been a welcome reprieve, but he recoiled from it.

“We won’t go far, Tomcat,” Jack promised. “Just far enough to see what’s up. Then I swear we’ll leave, okay?”

The pleading look Jack gave him fell on iron resolve, but it didn’t matter. While Tommy had no intention of entertaining the idea, Jack wasn’t giving him the chance. As soon as he saw the defiance in Tommy’s face, Jack began to shimmy his way through the small opening he’d created.

“Damnit! Jack-” Tommy lunged for Jack’s ankle, just missing him as his foot disappeared through the hole. Jack’s triumphant grin was palpable in the air even though Tommy couldn’t see him anymore. He cursed, kicking the ground until his toes hurt.

As much as he hated this, as badly as he wanted to turn tail and run, Tommy knew he wouldn’t leave Jack. Not alone. Not here. He took a steadying breath, grabbed his fear by the balls, and shoved it to the far recesses of his mind. Nervous Tommy could wait. Brave Tommy was needed.

Jack’s hand appeared through the hole as if sensing Tommy’s shift in determination. Brushing away the offer of help, Tommy army-crawled his way to the other side of the barricade. Standing, he cleaned his shirt and pants of as much dirt as he could, shining his flashlight around their new path. Visibly, it was the same as the tunnel they’d just exited. Intangibly, though…

Tommy stifled a chill that tickled the base of his neck. Jack was already several feet ahead of him, bouncing his flashlight beam from crevice to crack, examining the very walls for whatever danger had condemned this tunnel. Tommy felt it again, that insistent tugging at the back of his mind telling him that he was missing something, or forgetting something, or maybe just telling him that he was being a colossal idiot. Whatever the feeling was, when Tommy tried to grab it, it drifted farther from his reach.

It was only as he caught up with Jack, falling into careful step beside him, that Tommy placed the unease settling in the pit of his stomach. It was primal, some long-forgotten instinct of a humanoid species that had to stay alert to stay alive. Tommy’s body was telling him something his brain couldn’t, something his gut knew and continuously screamed at him even as he stubbornly ignored it. He knew it, buried in his core, Tommy knew.

They were being watched.

The sensation prickling the back of Tommy’s neck seemed to grow worse the farther they walked. After some time, he managed to convince himself that the creeping chills tickling his spine were the result of rats or other vermin observing their descent into the dark. If Jack noticed it, he hid it well. Tommy’s friend strolled beside him at a leisurely pace, thumbs hooked in his pockets, holding the flashlight in the crook of one arm and primarily relying on Tommy’s light to lead the way. If he didn’t know any better, Tommy would think Jack practically lived down here.

Tommy had never been in a mineshaft before, so he didn’t know if what he was seeing qualified as normal. The clean lines and direct passages he’d been envisioning were nowhere to be seen; yes, this tunnel was more deliberately laid out than the last, but it was a far cry from organized. He and Jack continued to make their way into the depths of unknown danger, sinking into a slow, misshapen spiral. That couldn’t be right. Mines didn’t spiral, did they?

Jack continued to whistle merrily, either oblivious to Tommy’s sense of foreboding or choosing to be ignorant of it. Each was an equally likely option.

Time seemed to crawl as the tunnel stretched on, no clear beginning or end regardless of which direction they turned. It wound into the very foundation of the Basin Forest, carving a path to layers of earth not meant to be explored by man. Tommy felt like they’d been sinking down, down, down for ages now, so long that they might very well emerge on the other side of the world. If it weren’t for Jack’s blustering confidence, he’d have turned back at the first deviation from the main tunnel. As it was, Tommy was rehearsing their path over and over in his head so he wouldn’t forget.

Right, right, left, right, left, left.

The list became a mantra that he clung to, mentally tethering him to an escape. It was a comfort, some small act of control that Tommy could exercise when he felt he had none. He was so focused on the repetition of his mantra that Jack’s voice startled him so badly, his heart skipped a beat.

“Man, I don’t know what danger these old-timers were worried about, but it’s gone now.” Jack shrugged. Relief immediately surged through Tommy; if Jack was getting bored, that meant they could soon leave. “What do you think it was? Earthquake? Flood maybe?”

“Could be anything,” Tommy said, trying for the same nonchalance that Jack had mastered. “Whatever it was, it’s no danger now. We should probably head back, though. You know what my old man will say if we don’t-”

The words lodged in Tommy’s throat, thick and sour at the back of his tongue. He stopped midstride, startling Jack into tripping over the uneven ground.

“Jeez! Watch it, dude! What gives?” Jack pushed his hair out of his eyes, looking more surprised than angry. “You see a snake or something?”

Tommy said nothing, letting his blank stare do the talking for him. By the time Jack clued in enough to follow his gaze, chills had taken over Tommy’s entire body.

The scenery hadn’t changed much since they entered the mine proper, all crumbling rock and packed dirt. While their surroundings were far from comforting, the monotony of the space slowly became familiar in a way that made Tommy feel like they were entering the realm of safety. That feeling was abruptly choked from him as the mine tunnel gave way to something more sinister, something he couldn’t quite process while looking directly at it.

Damp, putrid air swam in front of Tommy’s eyes, so thick it was nearly visible. The temperature plummeted, making his breath plume in great white clouds from his slackened lips. Shock and dread fought for dominance in his chest, resulting in a tangled web of emotions that left him feeling nauseated and faint.

Bodies. Hundreds of them.

To call them bodies was perhaps an overstatement. Skeletal remains cluttered the ground, mummified flesh stretching between broken bones, brittle and fluttering in the inexplicable breeze. They crowded the tunnel, limbs outstretched, gnarled finger bones reaching for Tommy and Jack as though they could offer them salvation, like their arrival wasn’t several decades too late. The feeling of being watched expanded until it was a firm pressure behind Tommy’s eyes.

“What the hell…” Jack whispered, staring into the abyss. Their flashlights highlighted more and more bones, piling so far back into the tunnel that the air turned to shadow before they ended. Tommy willed his brain to work faster, to catch up with the fear coursing through the primal parts of his awareness. These men, these victims, were trying to tell him something. Something wavering on the edge of his mind.

Jack took a step forward, and the air growled.

He faltered just as quickly, latching onto Tommy’s arm in fright. It truly sounded as though the tunnel around them was breathing in ragged, angry huffs. Flash floods and earthquakes ran through Tommy’s thoughts, but he dismissed them both. The rumble felt too deliberate, too alive to be anything as mundane as a natural disaster.

Again, the feeling of being watched flared, coasting across his skin like the hot, rancid breath of a predator.

“We need to go,” Tommy said quietly, feeling the truth of his words as an urgent thrumming in his blood. He didn’t care if he sounded like a pussy or if Jack made fun of him until the end of their days. His muscles itched to flee, some long-forgotten prey instinct screaming at him to get moving. “Now, Jack. We need to go right now!”

“Damned if I argue,” Jack agreed, spinning on his heel. He held out the flashlight ahead of him and began to walk, something about the motion triggering recognition in Tommy’s mind. The bodies… they were poised as though they were running. Like they were trying to escape.

Escape from… what?

A cold, surreal panic settled in the pit of Tommy’s stomach. It took him far too long to understand that the shivers racking his body weren’t from his own fear, but instead from the sudden freeze that descended upon them. The air collected around them like ice, coalescing into shimmering fractals of frost along the jagged walls of the mine. The tunnel was literally freezing around them, sheets of ice swallowing the ill-fated bodies clogging their way.

Snap!

A great, echoing crack split the atmosphere, clawing at Tommy’s eardrums. He clutched the sides of his head in pain, crouching to steady himself against the waves of dizziness overtaking him. The sound reverberated through the mine, getting louder and louder the longer it went. Finally, when Tommy could take no more, silence descended again.

He peeled his eyes open, searching for Jack. Immediately he wished he hadn’t.

Jack’s flashlight had been discarded, dropped on the ground and wedged on an angled stone so that the beam created a soft halo of light. In the darkness, Tommy saw shattered fragments of bone and shreds of cloth, shrapnel cast off from the violent disruption of the makeshift graveyard behind him. Amidst the frost, the debris, and the shadows, Jack was there. Just not… all of him.

The bright splashes of red looked out of place in the darkened tunnel. Jack’s torso was torn in half, crimson blood pooling in the divots in the ground. His entrails hung loosely from the top half of his body, squelching and splattering as the last dregs of life flowed from him. His lower half was thrown haphazardly across the tunnel, leaving sprays of offensively colourful red trailing over the ground. Tommy didn’t look hard enough to register more details, covering his mouth with his muddy palm. He dry-heaved helplessly, shock and confusion keeping the bile from burning up his throat. Something had killed his friend. Something-

A screech, inhuman and desperate, had him running before he could see what hellish creature made it.

The darkness rippled and solidified, moving around him as he sprinted back the way they’d come. As Tommy ran, he caught glimpses of a monstrous pursuer, as thin and skeletal as the bodies he’d just abandoned. Unlike the remains, this creature was alive with slick, blackened skin holding its gangly limbs in place. Claws, massive, curved things with tips like hypodermic needles dug into the dirt, giving the creature traction as it chased Tommy down the winding tunnel. It was fast- too fast for Tommy to outrun.

Right, right, left, right, left.

His legs were going to give out. Between the hike, the climb, and the long journey over hard ground, Tommy’s legs burned with every step. He gritted his teeth, praying to whatever god would listen to help him, to keep him on his feet.

Right, right, left, right.

He wasn’t going to make it. The creature’s snarling accosted his ears, agitated by the erratic pattern of light coming from his flashlight. He couldn’t put it away- it was too dark to navigate the tunnels without it- and yet it was a dead giveaway for his position. Tommy felt a pinprick of pain at the center of his back, followed by a gust of wind so cold it turned hot against his skin. The monster was practically on top of him.

Right, right, left-

He ducked into a side tunnel, nearly tripping over a rusted rail track. The creature skidded further down the main tunnel before doubling back, giving Tommy just enough time to jam himself behind an upturned cart, bogged down with cobwebs and a thick layer of crusted dirt. He pulled his knees hard against his chest, cupping his palm over his mouth to muffle his breathing, and waited.

Fear was an overpowering emotion. Rational thoughts flitted through Tommy’s mind, questions and solutions and reasonings, all of which were drowned by the stuttered beat of his heart and the need for survival. He could hear the creature with its crackling movements and tangible cold making its way through the tunnel behind him, slowly, listening for signs of life.

Disbelief wasn’t an option for Tommy. If he was going to make it out of this alive, he needed to accept a lot of impossible things in a very short amount of time.

Jack was dead.

Tommy held his breath as the creature got closer, squeezing his eyes shut against the horrific situation he’d found himself in. He’d had just enough presence of mind to turn off his flashlight.

Jack was killed by a monster.

Stones crunched under the creature’s claws as it crept through the dark, searching.

Jack was killed by the same monster that killed all those men, likely miners. The monster that some brave survivor had tried to warn them about. The monster that, Tommy now knew, was sealed away in here by the wooden barrier that he and Jack had disregarded.

Whether the barricade would’ve held up had the creature tried to free itself recently was up for debate. The wood was old, crumbling. Any amount of force would’ve dislodged it. Did the monster know that? Was that the reason for the strange layout of these tunnels? Were they designed to be a maze, confusing the creature until it was too lost to be a threat?

Was he now leading it to the very thing it’d been deprived of all these years?

Tommy took a careful breath, soothing the burn in his lungs. The creature slunk further down the tunnel, past him, he thought.

This thing, whatever it was, had been down here for decades. He didn’t stop to wonder at the incredulity of it all; that sign had been a hastily scratched warning of imminent danger, a danger that existed back when the mine was still open. That meant the monster was old, that it could survive down here with no light, no water, and no food.

A rock fell somewhere in the distance, bouncing off another rock before settling in the dirt again. Tommy thought the temperature warmed just a little and, with it, clarity edged into his mind.

His escape would come at the cost of unleashing this monster on the world. Of granting it the freedom to go wherever, do whatever.

Kill whoever.

Jack and Tommy were probably the first humans this thing had seen in fifty years, and its first reaction had been to murder Jack in cold blood. It didn’t even take the time to eat him, chasing after Tommy and discarding Jack like a broken toy. It was dangerous, unquestionably dangerous, and Tommy was about to release it onto his unsuspecting friends and family.

He couldn’t do that. Tommy needed another plan, something that would free him and trap the monster. To do that, he needed to outsmart it. To outsmart it, he needed to understand it. Therein lay his problem.

From what he’d already seen, Tommy couldn’t expect the monster to behave like an ordinary animal. He couldn’t expect anything of his current circumstances. Tommy was always skilled at thinking on his feet. He had to be in order to be friends with Jack. His best friend was erratic, but once you understood Jack’s motivations, his decisions became predictable.

This monster, wherever it came from, however it lived, was the embodiment of unpredictability. Outsmarting this monster was the only way Tommy could see the light of day once again, but how was he supposed to outsmart something he didn’t- couldn’t- understand?

The more he thought, the more impossible his situation felt. Along with the sinking realization that he was royally fucked, Tommy felt an unexpected fire ignite in his chest.

He didn’t know how yet, but Tommy was determined to get out of this alive. Even if he had to kill that creature to do it.

Breathe in, breathe out.

If Tommy didn’t remind himself of that most basic bodily function, he’d stop. His lungs would burn from lack of oxygen. His throat would get tight, his eyes would water. He’d hold out until he couldn’t anymore and then his survival mechanics would take over and he’d gasp in great gulps of stale, damp air. Then, he’d be dead.

Breathe in, breathe out.

The creature was still in the tunnel with him. Without light, Tommy had no idea how close it was, which direction it was facing, anything. The crisp, quiet snaps of movement were his only indication of the creature’s whereabouts, but even that was unreliable at best. The shape of the tunnel warped the sounds, making it seem like the creature was everywhere and nowhere at once.

He needed a plan. A plan to get the creature as far away from the exit as possible. If Tommy could lead it back into the depths of the mine, he’d have a better chance of succeeding in his escape. He couldn’t outrun it, not for very long. Their brief chase down the spiraling path of the mine had proven that the creature was supernaturally fast and agile. Tommy had only avoided it so far due to a streak of luck. He couldn’t depend on luck to get him out of this.

A soft crash echoed through the absolute darkness, making him jump. Tommy willed his body to still, to keep from giving away his position. The creature sounded farther away, closer to the exit. That wasn’t good.

If that thing managed to escape to the surface…

Tommy had to stop thinking about the what ifs and focus. The creature had been stuck down here for longer than he’d been alive. With how easily it navigated the darkness, he very much doubted that the flimsy barricade was the sole reason for the creature’s entrapment. No, there must be something else keeping it confined to the mines. If he managed to make it to the exit, would the creature even be able to follow him?

Could he take the risk?

No, of course not. Without understanding what had kept this monster buried beneath the Basin Forest all these years, Tommy wasn’t going to take any chances. For all he knew, the monster really hadn’t tried to escape since the barricade began to crumble. If it hadn’t, then it wouldn’t know that freedom was available all this time. Tommy couldn’t bring that thing anywhere close to the exit. Not with so many unknowns.

So, what to do?

He could double back. Try to navigate the tunnel in the dark, as the creature was doing. If he kept quiet, he might be able to sneak his way back into the mine proper and lead the creature there with some well-timed noises. He could hide again, wait for it to follow the disturbance deeper into the earth, and then make a break for the surface. Once he was free, he could use a tree branch, a large rock, anything he could get his hands on to fill in the mine shaft, block it so that the creature remained trapped even if it managed to track him.

It was a risky plan, one that had no guarantee of working. It was also the only plan he had. Tommy couldn’t stay here. He couldn’t keep moving in the same direction as the creature. And he couldn’t shout for help. Not many options remained.

His heart was hammering a thunderous rhythm in his chest. Tommy silently pleaded with his body to move, to untangle itself from the contorted fetal position he’d adopted inside the upturned mine cart. Carefully, gently, Tommy extracted himself from his hiding place. Every small sound, ever swish of his jeans or crunch of pebble under his foot had his stomach roiling. How good was the creature’s hearing? Was he being too loud? Was it coming back?

Telling the endless stream of doubt to shove it, Tommy held his breath and stood.

Nothing happened.

The complete, inky darkness surrounded him entirely, pressing against his skin in a way that was almost tangible. Tommy was never good at navigating in the dark, and even then, it was never truly dark. Some residual light from his alarm clock or even the smoke detector was enough to illuminate the vague shapes of his room. This… this was like nothing he’d ever seen. With his flashlight hanging unused in his hand, the total absence of light coalesced into a formidable wall of darkness. Tommy half-expected his first step to meet resistance, like walking through water. When it didn’t, the dizzying sensation of moving without being able to see had him nearly pitching forward. He bit down on his lip to keep from gasping, steadying himself before trying again.

Failure wasn’t an option here. Not when so much was at stake.

With agonizing slowness, Tommy pressed his way forward. He moved like he was learning how to walk again, repeating the instructions in his mind before executing them. Lift foot, inch forward, drop foot. Arm out. Breathe.

His progress was far too slow. The steady thump of panic creeping up Tommy’s throat increased in volume and frequency, igniting an urgent need to flee. He fought it back, struggling to control his baser instincts. Tommy tried to tell himself that his mind was more powerful than his fear, that even though it seemed like the logical thing to do, fleeing would mean forfeiting his survival. The knowledge that giving in to his aching muscles was the complete wrong thing to do didn’t make it any easier to pace himself.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Terror clouded Tommy’s memory. He didn’t know how far he’d come down the tunnel before hiding himself, so he didn’t know when he should expect his hand to meet the opposite wall. Was it five steps? Ten? Had he run so far that it would take him an hour just to return to the last fork in the road at his glacial pace?

Step after step, and still Tommy felt nothing in his way. Nothing to guide his path.

The longer his fingers grazed only air, the more his trepidation grew. This was an idiotic plan. He should’ve stayed with the mine cart. He couldn’t even turn back to find it now, having no idea how far he’d walked. He was lost, completely without direction in an endless expanse of darkness. He’d doomed himself and he couldn’t even remember why.

Just as he felt the beginnings of tears collecting in his eyes, Tommy’s hand collided with a hard surface.

It startled him so badly that he yelped before he could stop himself, and the following seconds were filled with paralyzing fear, waiting for the telltale snap and crack of the creature skulking after him. Tommy was shivering too erratically to guess how cold it really was. The creature could be leagues away or it could be directly behind him, and Tommy would be none the wiser.

His palm smoothed against the surface in front of him, expecting dirt but finding splinters. Tommy winced, trying to navigate the rough wood without further pain. He must have found a support beam, one of the intact ones he and Jack had passed earlier. But that couldn’t be right. That’s not where the tunnel branched, not that Tommy could remember.

The sour taste of confusion melded with a sense of oncoming dread, a knowledge that he wasn’t ready to accept.

Tommy took a few more steady breaths, trying to think. He’d wandered off track somehow, but where? Were his memories of their path clear enough to help him out of here? He knew the answer was no before he’d fully formed the thought. With his path to this point unclear, the only chance Tommy had was if he turned on his flashlight to look around, try to find something he recognized.

It could also get him killed.

Weighing his options, Tommy realized it wasn’t really a choice. He could stay here, or wander aimlessly in the dark, or turn on the light. All three options had the distinct possibility of ending in death. Only one of them had a small chance of escape.

Gripping the flashlight in his sweaty hands, Tommy turned and pressed his back against the wooden support beam. He closed his eyes, although he wouldn’t have been able to tell if not for the deliberate movement, and counted to three. He’d turn on the flashlight, look around, and then turn it off again as quickly as possible. A few seconds, at most. Long enough to get an idea of where he was.

If the creature was nearby and spotted the light, well, that was out of his control.

One.

Two.

Three.

The flashlight beam flickered to life, illuminating a small pocket of warmth around Tommy’s shivering body. The relief it brought was short-lived as Tommy made several observations in the span of a single breath.

The first was that he didn’t recognize this tunnel at all. He’d wandered too far, got turned around in the dark. He was in unfamiliar territory now.

The second was that the ceiling was dangerously low, the cascade of rocks and dirt held in place by a series of wooden planks that looked like they’d been hastily thrown together to stall an impending cave in. The dirt had long since settled, but it was precarious. If Tommy had collided with the wall instead of the wooden support, it was possible the whole thing could’ve collapsed on him.

The third was that he wasn’t alone.

Cold, sinking resignation settled in the pit of Tommy’s stomach as his attention found the creature, lurking just outside the brightest circle of light. It was crouched there, watching him, yellow eyes glimmering in the shadows.

It had been following him all this time, and Tommy had no idea.

There never was a chance for him to escape, he knew that now. Tommy’s life was forfeit the moment he’d dove into the cave after Jack. All his willpower, his careful consideration of the best way to survive, it was pointless. The creature could’ve killed him at any point, but it let him go on believing he had a chance.

Not a mindless monster, then. A cruel, intelligent predator.

Tommy couldn’t see the creature any better than he could before. It skirted the edge of his light, keeping its body mostly hidden in the dark. Now that Tommy had seen it, had caught onto its game, he knew he wouldn’t live much longer. He’d ruined the fun by spotting his pursuer. The inevitability of his approaching death struck him like a blow to the chest, bringing with it a surge of clarity.

Tommy was going to die here, but so was the creature.

Drawing himself to his full height, Tommy sucked in a breath. His thumb flicked the flashlight switch off, plunging them into darkness once again.

Tommy willed his legs to stay put. He heard the creature shift, limps snapping, teeth clicking, claws scratching at the ground. It struck him that all this noise was intentional, meant to scare him. He hadn’t heard anything on his long walk through the tunnels, and the creature couldn’t have been much farther from him than it was now. It was choosing to let him know it was there. If there was any question that Tommy’s life was over, it was gone after that.

The creature snarled, and Tommy focused on other things.

He and Jack would never get to go to college together, share a dorm room, crash parties, sneak into bars. They’d never get to flunk out of stupid classes and excel at the important ones, choosing girls over assignments they never intended to finish in the first place.

He’d never get to ask Jodi to the dance. He’d never know if she’d accept, waiting impatiently for him to pick her up in his dad’s old rig, his heart in his throat and a gaudy corsage in his glove box that his mom made him bring.

Tommy would never get to live.

Tears spilled over his cheeks, the flashlight clasped to his chest in a white-knuckled grip. The creature hissed, and the whoosh of movement was the only warning Tommy had before a searing, breathtaking pain lanced through his entire body. He gasped, his lungs trying and failing to scream.

The pain didn’t last long. However the creature had hit him, his body quickly went numb to everything but the slowing of his own heart. Tommy clung to the last threads of his consciousness, willing himself to stay alive just long enough to-

A rumble, low and welcome, reverberated through the air. Relief flooded through the rest of Tommy’s senses, the smallest mercy in his final moments. He was dying, but he’d done it. The creature had struck not only him, but the support keeping the ceiling in place. Now, the earth was reclaiming what rightfully belonged to it.

Tommy imagined he heard the creature howl in a combination of anger and fear. He grabbed onto the knowledge that he’d used the last of his intelligence to save his friends, his family, Jodi. Tommy tried to ignore his regrets, the crushing weight of knowing that he wasn’t done here, that he had so much he wanted to do with his life. He didn’t succeed, the pain in his heart now the only sensation he could name.

Rocks came crashing down from above, and only then did Tommy sleep.

Ring! Ring!

Jodi scrambled for the phone on her bedside table, plastic and clear with neon-coloured gears on full display. She was going to kill Ashley! If her mother heard her phone ringing this late, she was done for!

“What?” Jodi snapped into the receiver, sleep muddling the annoyance in her words. “What do you want, Ash? What’s on fire?”

“Jodi?”

She froze, sitting up instantly in bed. It was a man’s voice, uncertain and hesitant.

“Yes, sorry, who’s this?” Jodi cleared her throat, trying to cover up her slip. The only person that ever called her personal line was Ashley, she hadn’t been expecting someone else.

“This is Tommy’s father, Cliff.” The gruff voice got gruffer still, like Tommy’s dad was getting increasingly uncomfortable. “I’m sorry to bother you so late, Jodi. I was just wondering if you knew where my son is?”

Jodi blinked, surprised.

“Um… no, sorry, I don’t.” Jodi hesitated, wondering how much she should say. “I know he goes out with Jack a lot.”

“Yeah, that’s the problem.” The line crackled. “No one’s heard from either of them.”

“I’m sure they’re just, like, off somewhere.” Jodi cringed at the fakeness in her own voice. Everyone knew that Jack liked to party, drink, and get into all kinds of trouble. He always dragged Tommy along for the ride, even though it always seemed to Jodi like Tommy wasn’t really the troublemaking type. Or maybe that was her crush speaking.

“Yeah,” Cliff said quietly. “Listen, Jodi, if you hear from either of them… I’m not mad. If they’re off getting drunk or high or… or anything like that. I just want to know if they’re safe, alright? Will you call me if you hear anything?”

“I promise,” Jodi said quickly, knowing that in all likelihood, she wouldn’t hear anything until school on Monday. Tommy’s dad seemed happy with that answer, and they quickly ended their call.

A nugget of worry started to form at the back of Jodi’s mind, wondering if Tommy was out with someone other than Jack. What if he was with a girl? Maybe Gina? Or Haley? They both liked him, but Tommy had never seemed interested before…

No, no. Jodi stopped herself. She had it on good authority that Evan heard from Owen who spoke to Kyle who overheard Jack say that Tommy was planning to ask her to the dance. He wouldn’t be spending the night with some other girl when he was going to ask her out, Jodi knew that Tommy wasn’t like that. He was probably just off with Jack, traipsing through the night, having completely lost track of time.

On Monday, Jodi would talk to him. Tell him that his dad called her in a panic. They could laugh about it and then maybe, just maybe, he’d finally do it. Tommy would finally ask Jodi to the dance.

The thought made her smile, and Jodi was lulled back to sleep by the warmth blossoming in her chest.

Monday would be a good day.