I got off the bus bored out of my mind, but I need the extra-curricular activities to apply for a scholarship to the university. I don’t have a real interest in geology but a trip to the Blanchard Springs Caverns was better than playing sports, or one of the bigger clubs and being subjected to carwashes and other such fund raising activities, not to mention having to deal with the other people in the clubs. The truth is that the geology club had very few people and very few requirements, other than going on at least one event, so it was ideal for my idea of participation. There were only a few weeks left before graduation, so this was my last chance to fulfill the club requirements, plus it was closer to our school's location than some of the other proposed trip sites so less time on a stinky bus, so overall win, win situation. There were just four of us on this trip, so really the bus seemed like overkill, but school rules would not allow the use of personal vehicles, not that I had one, but someone else’s would have been great.

The teacher over us Mr. Jackson, calls us over to the sign by the entrance to the building and starts giving us the lecture about the caves and what we can expect. Overall he tells us that it will take about an hour to two hours to go through the cave then we can explore on our own for another hour and a half before we have to leave. The other two students there with me Amy Wong and Jimmy Cross start asking questions about geological formations and sediments, and runoff. Honestly, I did not know they actually cared this much about this stuff, but then again I really have not gone out of my way to talk to them either. All I want to do is finish out this year and forget about my school, town and get on with building my life. I am not really a people person, I guess I would compare my social skills to that weird guy on that nerd comedy show, except that I just want to be able to read and work on a computer, and not the physics stuff or comics. That’s about all I really need so I plan on taking computer courses in college so that maybe I can work from home in that field when I get done.

I finally hear Mr. Jackson calling me and when I finally notice he tells me “Alex, we are heading inside now, just keep up with us for the next hour then you can do what you want until time to go.” Mr. Jackson is pretty cool actually when he noticed that I failed to sign up for any of the trips he pulled me aside and when I explained what I had joined the club for he had no issue with it. He just told me I had to go on at least one trip to be counted as part of the club, and otherwise, he leaves me alone. Then again in the classes, I take with him I pretty much ace the tests without trying so, on the whole, I guess he doesn’t really have too much room to complain about me. Honestly, school is easy, always has been. I have never had to study for a test in my life and always ace them, it’s just that they don’t seem to be hard. I can never figure out why other people seem to struggle.

Once we leave the information center and hike to the caverns, I find that I am glad I brought my camera, it’s really quite beautiful in here with all the pond like areas with the stalagmites and stalactites and the other sediment deposits, it’s like another world down here. I actually start to find myself interested and listen to Mr. Jackson talking about all the different features we come across, and I barely realize the time passing by before he allows us to explore on our own. Amy and Jimmy take off together without me, not that I blame them since I never actually participated before today so I start walking around on my own looking for anything interesting.

I don’t worry about getting lost because there are rails up everywhere so I can stick to the railed-in areas and find my way around. I wander around for about half an hour and realize that I have not seen anyone in about 10 to 15 minutes, so I turn around to head back up when I hear something coming from off to the right where I see a small hole in the wall. I stop and listen, and it sounds almost like a girl screaming. I look around and do not see anyone, or any cameras or anything to try to get attention, so I jump over the railing and go closer to the hole to see what’s going on. It is about 100 feet to the hole, so I jog over to it and use my flashlight to look inside the next cavern, there is nothing in sight, but I do see a couple of different footprints going through the cave, and I am still hearing the screaming, though it's less often. I look around again and still see no one to get help, and my phone is showing no bars due to being underground, so I decide to climb through the hole and move quickly towards where I think the noise is coming from.

I end up going through two more caves when I find an underground stream running through I continue on towards the noise and find the next section of the cavern has a wet slope. After seeing too many tube videos of people slipping and falling on the wet rock I almost decided to try running back for help. Then I hear another loud scream and take an almost involuntary step forward onto the slope, and of course, I slip and bust my ass immediately and start sliding down the slope. I slid about 30 seconds before ending up in a small lake or river underground where I was able to swim to shore and climb out.

Now I am freaking out though because I don’t think I can go back the way I came and the only way out now would be to move forwards towards a screaming girl, I stop to listen and besides the sounds of the girl I can also hear the lower more urgent sounds of some guy too. I slowly move towards the sounds, and after a couple of minutes, I can see some flickering light ahead. I shut off my flashlight and move towards it to see what the hell is going on and if nothing else try to find an alternate way out of here. Instead, when I get to the opening where the light is, I see a nightmare instead.

The room is surrounded by candles and on the floor in the center of the chamber is a pentagram on the floor. A man in a robe is stalking around the outside of the circle and in the middle is a creature about a two feet tall. From what I can see it has the torso and head like a human female, but the head has horns on it and sharply pointed ears, the mouth is open in a snarl showing sharp pointed teeth as she tracks the man’s movements around her. She also has bat-like wings that she is using as a shield trying to keep them between her and the man. She also has a tail like a scorpions and claws for feet and hands, though all her appendages are encased in glowing chains that are attached to the floor.

“You will submit to me!” the man says and lashes at the creature with a whip which causes her to scream out again and says “Never!, I will die first”. I notice at this time the pool of black blood around the creature and the numerous cuts on her body, and I become more afraid of what’s going on in here than being lost. This goes on for another few minutes before the man approaches a book I had not noticed set up along one of the walls opposite of me and the creature turns and looks directly at me while the man is distracted and I can clearly see her mouth out help please towards me.

I duck back again because if she knows I am here, then if she submits to this guy, she may tell him about me and who knows what will happen. I then hear him say. “I will get you bound to me yet, willingly would have been better, but I can do it by spell too.” And I hear her call out “No, Kill me please” and I realize that she directed that last statement to me. For some reason, I feel protective of this creature. It’s obviously not human by any stretch of the imagination, but the man in there is less than human with his torturous methods too. I hear the man starting to chant and see that his back is to me and I pick up a large rock and sneak into the room. The creature nods her head, and I see a tear fall, and she places her head on the ground I move forward and raise the rock and bring it down with all of my strength….