The Feeding by Leigh Clark

Author:Leigh Clark [Clark, Leigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

The Pit

The darkness had them.

Joshua knew it the minute he and Kyle stepped inside the abandoned Kemmering Mine.

The darkness and the damp and the strange, dank smell engulfed them. The soft, barely heard sounds of chill water trickled over cold stone, dropping slowly, drip by drip, onto more stone. The mine was its own world, and once inside, you were part of it. Joshua turned and looked back at their bikes outside propped against a pine, the sun shining through the pine needles, deep blue sky in the background streaked with thin wisps of scudding clouds. It was so close. A few steps and you were back out in the sunlight and safety.

But the darkness had them now, and the bright world outside was like a brilliant, flat photograph - unreal and unreachable. Even the outside sounds seemed to disappear. The rustle of wind through tree boughs and the chirping of birds were all swallowed up by the soft, sinister muttering noises of the darkness.

Joshua turned away from the distant brightness and hurried to catch up with Kyle, who was rushing forward into the darkness, the thin beam of his pocket flashlight bouncing in front of him. Damn his stupid ass, Joshua thought resentfully. This was all Kyle's fault. If he had brains instead of bullshit we wouldn't even be here now.

Kyle stumbled over something in the darkness. "Shit!" His voice rang off the cold stone walls.

"What's wrong?" Joshua asked, moving up behind him.

The flashlight beam dipped to reveal a roughly pyramidal shape. "One of those goddamn stalagmites," Kyle said.

Joshua squatted down to study it. After a few seconds he said, "Looks more like a pile of horseshit or somethin'."

"Horseshit?" Kyle's laughter echoed in the darkness. "When's the last time some horse dragged his butt in here?"

"It's not rock," Joshua insisted. "That's for sure."

"Horseshit!" Kyle laughed again.

The sound came then, a sharp, squeaking sound, followed by a dry rustling of leathery wings, as if some dead, petrified bird had come to life suddenly, awakened from years of stony sleep by Kyle's laughter. The squeaking came again. The wings rustled.

"What the fuck's that?" Kyle whispered, turning his narrow flashlight beam toward the sounds.

When the light fell on the bat hanging upside down from a supporting beam, the creature opened its mouth and screamed. The weak light outlined a mouth full of small, sharp fangs. Unfurling its wings, the bat dropped from its perch and began to swoop around the dark mine. In the middle of one swoop it veered suddenly and headed straight for the flashlight, missing it by inches. Dusty wings scraped Kyle's face as the creature shot past.

"Goddamn it!" Kyle roared, hands raised to protect his face. "Get it the fuck away from me!"

The bat swooped at him again. Kyle screamed in pure terror, drowning out the bat's own piercing squeals. He struck out awkwardly at it with his flashlight, but that only made things worse. In the darkness beyond Kyle's screams, Joshua could hear more squeals and flapping wings.

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