Redemption (Night Marchers #2) Written by: Rebecca Gober and Courtney Nuckels (10 page)

That's when I hear her groan, "Emma..." I
turn around to see Kaylee paddling in the water holding her hand to
her head.

"Kaylee!" Relief pours out of me knowing that
she's okay. Then the anger sets in. She was messing with me this
whole time! "What the freak Kaylee? You totally suck! I thought you
were dead or something!" I'm so frustrated that I want to lash out
at her, but I see the red mark forming on her forehead where my
foot met her skull only a few moments ago.

She paddles over to me and apologizes. "I'm
sorry, I found something really cool. I was coming to get you and
just jokingly pulled you under by your ankle. I didn't expect you
to kick me in the head!"

"You deserve it for scaring me to death! How
in the world did you hold your breath that long anyhow? I didn't
see you come up, not even once!" I ask out of breath.

"Oh, I wasn't holding my breath. Just wait
till you see this!" Excitedly she grabs my wrist and together we
start swimming towards the waterfall. I try to ask Kaylee what
she's talking about but the roaring noise of the spilling water
hitting the base makes it impossible to hear anything.

Kaylee gestures with her hand for me to hold
my nose. I comply and then, holding her hand, we dive under the
pounding waterfall. We emerge only a few seconds later behind the
pouring water. Because there is so much water spilling down, we
can't see the outside pool that surrounds its base anymore. I turn
around to see what is behind me and see that we are backed up
against a rock wall. One foot above my head is a crevice. It looks
like it might be a cave or a small inlet behind the fall.

I look to Kaylee and she mouths the words,
'told you,' to me. A look passes between us and then nodding, we
both work to lift ourselves up to get a better look. It's a cave
and it looks pretty deep. It's so dark that I don't think we will
be able to see much of anything in there. I try to yell out over
the rushing water to Kaylee, "We need a flashlight!" She looks at
me questioning, since she obviously can't hear me.

Mimicking her earlier mime gesture, I tell
her to hold her nose then grab her hand and swim back under the
waterfall. When we get to a point in which we can actually hear
each other, I repeat myself. "We need a flashlight."

"Oh! Good idea!" We jump out of the water and
head over to the campsite. I grab a waterproof Ziploc bag that I so
conveniently just happened to have and stuff two mini flashlights
into it. Then we both run back to the water and make our way to the
other side of the waterfall.

This time we lift ourselves all the way out
of the water and into the cave. Opening the bag, I hand Kaylee a
flashlight and take one for myself. We turn our lights on at
basically the same time and both suck in all the breath we can. The
view from where we are is breathtaking. Stalactites point
intimidatingly downwards from the tall, cathedral like ceiling.
While I can’t really say I’ve been officially spelunking, I will
say that this cave is definitely unique since it is made from
volcanic matter. Everything around us mimics a dark black obsidian
color with the rough texture of volcanic rock. The cave ceiling has
to be at least twenty feet high and there is about twenty feet from
one side to the other.

Back in Texas my dad and I would make short
weekend trips to some of the caverns around us. But this one is
completely different, this is a wild cave and it screams dark,
mysterious and dangerous.

Kaylee turns to me at the same time I turn to
her, both of us searching for the right words here, but neither
able to come up with any. “Wow,” is all I hear Kaylee whisper.

“Yeah, wow.” I reiterate.

We shine our lights around the room looking
at all of the different curvatures in the walls. Both of our lights
meet up towards the point of the room that seems to veer off to the
right. Turning to Kaylee I bite my lower lip, “Should we see where
it goes?” Why I am asking her this, I have no clue. It’s not like
Kaylee is the restrained one of the two of us.

“Well, yeah!” Kaylee says while putting some
spunk to her step. She’s on a mission now; there is
no
stopping her. I lag behind a little, still unsure about this cave.
I have no idea what to expect, and maybe I am overthinking all the
deadly dangers lurking at every turn.

The cave begins to constrict little by little
the further in we go. I am starting to get a queasy feeling in the
pit of my stomach but I try to ignore it. The cave walls feel like
they’re closing in on me and panic begins building in my veins.

“You okay back there?” Kaylee calls from up
ahead.

The distance she has put in front of me makes
me quiver so I begin picking up my pace. I definitely don’t want to
get left behind. “Yep, just great,” I manage to muster.

The light of my flashlight beams off the
walls creating spooky formations. While I'm still working to catch
up, I am stopped dead in my tracks when I hear a shrill scream. My
heart begins to race as I struggle to find Kaylee. In my panic I
trip over something and land hard on the volcanic rock. “Kaylee!” I
yell. “Kaylee, are you okay, can you hear me?” I’m trying to feel
my way around because everything around me has turned to black…my
flashlight broke.

“Oh my gosh Emma, I’m freaking out. Where are
you?” The panic and desperation in her voice is sending my panic
into overdrive.

“I’m over here; I dropped my flashlight and
can’t see a thing.”

“Emma, don’t move. I’m turning around now to
try and find you.” While she says this, her voice gets comfortingly
closer and I manage to get in some deep breaths. Finally I begin to
see a small light bouncing off one of the walls as Kaylee rounds
the corner. The light hits me straight in the face as I shield
myself from its overwhelming brightness. Kaylee rushes over and
helps me to my feet.

“What happened?” She asks me. I can see the
panic in her eyes and hear the franticness in her voice.

“I just tripped over something when I was
trying to get to you after I heard you scream. What was that all
about? You about gave me a heart attack!”

A look of utter horror flashes across
Kaylee’s face, “I—I found something.”

I’ve known Kaylee long enough to know that
she isn’t easily flustered. It doesn’t take long for me to figure
out something isn’t right—something
seriously
isn’t right.
Kaylee helps me to my feet and grabs my hand. Squeezing it tight
she takes me around a few bends in the rock. We manage to wiggle
through the last narrow opening and another great room opens up
before us.

The sight that lay before me makes me want to
throw up and curl into a ball. I am beyond stunned and I can tell
Kaylee feels the same. It’s not often she is at a loss for words.
All around us are meticulously placed skulls seated upon carved
pillars. They all face different directions, almost like they are
keeping watch beyond the grave. Necklaces and other artifacts lie
next to some of the skulls in a sacrificial manner. I find my body
shaking uncontrollably as I try and understand what I’m seeing.

“Burial Cave,” Kaylee whispers above the
deafening silence.

“How on earth do you know what this place
is?” I ask Kaylee just barely above a whisper.

“I read about it in one of my books. It looks
like an ancient burial site to me. But this one is unique because
it looks like it hasn’t been touched. All of the artifacts are
still intact and the skulls don’t look like they’ve been
moved.”

I'm shocked by Kaylee’s knowledge, but also
comforted by it. In my panic I forgot to understand the historical
significance of a place like this. Kaylee lets go of my hand and
begins to wander towards the skulls. I wrap my arms around my
middle and squeeze. It is the only thing holding me together right
now.

“Look at this one Emma, it’s so small.”

She was right. The skull was about half the
size of the others. “It must have been a child.” I find myself
saying aloud. I guess when we think of the dead, elderly people
come to mind, not usually a child. Whoever lost that child was
probably never the same.

I try to move on from that though when, out
of the corner of my eyes, I spot an empty pillar about twenty feet
away. “Kaylee, pssstt.” I call, trying to get her attention.

Kaylee turns towards me and I ask, “Why do
you think that pillar doesn’t have a skull on it?” It seems bizarre
that this one is empty. For some reason it feels so set apart from
the others, like it was of more importance.

Kaylee wanders over to the pillar and drags
her fingers across the top surface. “I’m not sure,” she says. “It
seems odd since nothing else is out of place.” Kaylee doesn’t dwell
on the fact too much before her flashlight spots another rather
large fissure in the cave; my guess is it leads deeper in.

“Kaylee, come on. Lets just get out of here,
it’s starting to give me the creeps.” But the fact of the matter
was, I have been having the creeps since we first stepped into the
cave.

“It’ll be just real quick. I’m curious now.”
Of course she was. I have no flashlight so there’s no chance at
staying put. Besides, I would have to stay in a room full of skulls
and we both know that’s not going to happen.

Kaylee slides along the fissure with her back
to the wall. There is barely enough room for us to get through, but
seeing Kaylee’s determination; I know we’ll make it. About twenty
feet in, the fissure starts to open up and once again we come
across a large room. Only this one is different—very different. It
looks like someone has basically moved in. There are different
pieces of furniture made from native woods scattered among the
room. You can tell they are homemade and not from the pottery barn
by the ruggedness of the structures. In one corner is a small bed,
just large enough for one, stuffed with long leaves and other soft
plants. Goosebumps begin gathering up my arms as I realize that
this might not be the best discovery to find.

I stand fast by the entrance while Kaylee
saunters over and gives the items further inspection. I watch her
pick up and examine some trinkets near the bedside table. The
nervous jitters running amuck in my stomach are telling me that
this is all a bad idea. "Kaylee, don't touch that stuff. We
need
to go.
Now
."

"Emma, I'm just looking. You know that I have
an insatiable curiosity. We’ll go in just a sec." She doesn't even
turn to look at me when she answers, which just steeps my
frustration.

"Well, you know what they say about
curiosity, It killed the...Oh bother." I say snidely under my
breath. I decide I might as well move away from the doorway and
have a look too. That's when I see it, in the corner of the room.
It looks like something dark splattered across the wall. I move
closer to get a better look and immediately regret my decision.
Nausea rolls in my stomach and my mouth starts salivating warning
me that I'm about to loose my breakfast. I turn away trying to calm
my stomach as to not puke all over this strange cave.

Kaylee turns around and alarm hits her face
when she sees me. "Emma, what’s wrong? You look green!" She walks
over to me and when she gets close enough to see the scene behind
me she gasps. "Blood!" She says as if most of her breath had
swooshed out of her.

I nod, grab her hand and say once again, "We
need to go!" Hopefully this time she will listen to me. I start
walking and she follows for which I am grateful.

We head out of the strange room someone must
be using as a bunker and back into the room with skulls. Thoughts
of murder and death begin filling my mind. I rush us as quickly as
possible back towards the main cavern while Kaylee works to keep
the light shining ahead of us as far as possible. The light from
the flashlight is shaky and I can tell that Kaylee must be freaked
out, if her hand is really that unsteady.

When we make it back to the cavern that faces
the back of the waterfall, I breathe a huge sigh of relief. I know
that I need to get to Tristan and tell him about this as soon as
possible. Whatever that was back there, I doubt it could be
good.

I hear a rustling noise, which puts me on
high alert. I can tell by how hard Kaylee is squeezing my hand that
she must have noticed it too. My heart starts pounding hard in my
chest and my breath quickens. Kaylee starts darting her flashlight
around the cave trying to find the source of the noise. Everything
inside me is screaming to run. We don't have a chance as the light
falls on a dark figure blocking the exit to the waterfall.

Kaylee and I simultaneously gasp and Kaylee
accidentally drops the flashlight. We both bend down floundering
frantically to grab the flashlight when instead a new light
appears. We bump our heads together when we move to stand up.

The dark figure is holding a lantern, which
shines directly at us like a spotlight. I can't see the person
though because they are cleverly holding the lantern just far
enough away from their face that they remain in the shadows. The
seemingly deafening silence is broken when I hear a man’s voice
whisper in surprise, "Heleya."

No!
My blood runs cold as ice as I
think of what that name means, who it signifies and the person who
must have spoken it. Having nowhere to bolt to, but back into the
pitch-black cave I decide that I have no choice but to stand my
ground. Here and now. Trying to not allow my fear to show through,
I bend down calmly and grab the flashlight that I can now see
thanks to his lantern's light. I turn it on and shine it directly
at the figure, which is soaking wet, confirming that it is whom I
thought it was.
Kao.
At first sight, my brain wants to tell
me to run up and hug him because he looks so strikingly identical
to Kai. But, my heart knows better, this is not Kai. Kao's obsidian
black eyes stare inquisitively at me. I take a deep shaky breath
and decide that since I can't run, I will have to figure out some
other way around the monster who is all too human, standing in
front of me. I put my hand on my hip and try to give off my
toughest girl impression. "
That
is not my name."