The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories

by James D. Jenkins

  ‘An amazing feeling,’ she whispered.

  ‘At least thirty thousand years separate you,’ Alex said. ‘You and the person who made that print.’

  ‘It feels like there’s nothing between us.’ Nina sounded rapturous. ‘We have a connection.’

  ‘Great to hear you say that,’ Alex chuckled. ‘I felt the same the first time I came here.’

  He placed his hand on Nina’s shoulder. The gesture was innocent, but Petri’s eyes were nailed to it and he couldn’t see anything else. No messages on the wall from thirty thousand years away.

  There were only twenty-­eight years and three months between Petri and Nina. Just a blink of an eye. But it was utter darkness, that fleeting moment.

  Alex turned toward Petri.

  ‘Come closer,’ he said and removed his hand from Nina’s shoulder.

  Petri did as he was told and came to stand in front of the wall. Nina took hold of his wrist determinedly.

  ‘Try for yourself.’

  Petri’s hand was in a fist when Nina pressed it against the wall. When he opened his hand, his fingers were in the wrong places. His hand and the dark stain in the stone formed a strange, ten-­fingered pattern.

  ‘Can you feel it?’ Nina asked.

  ‘I can,’ Petri lied.

  Just cold stone.

  ‘And now, ladies and gentlemen,’ Alex interrupted. ‘A moment of choice.’

  Petri wiped his hands on the hem of his coat.

  ‘Tell us,’ Nina whispered excitedly.

  ‘The last cave,’ Alex said. ‘Do you want to see it?’

  ‘Of course we do.’

  Nina’s voice was still husky with emotion.

  ‘Very well,’ Alex said without waiting for Petri’s answer, ‘but it’s going to take some special measures.’

  ‘What kind?’

  Alex lifted his index finger, like a magician preparing for a trick, and took off his backpack. Then he took off his coat and shirt, yanking them over his head with one movement.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Petri asked when the man started to open his pants.

  ‘A special measure,’ Alex said and continued to undress himself. ‘Like I said, our ancestors were smaller than us. The passage ahead is pretty narrow. Clothes could get stuck.’

  Suddenly Alex stood naked before them, only his headlamp remained.

  ‘You can leave your underwear on, but I don’t recommend it.’

  Alex looked at them both in turn. He looked at Petri longer.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, spreading his arms. ‘You’re from Finland. You bathe in the sauna with the whole village, right?’

  Nina laughed at that and started to take her clothes off.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Petri asked in Finnish.

  ‘We’ve come this far, so I want to see that cave,’ Nina said. ‘Don’t you?’

  ‘Good,’ Alex said and dug out a plastic bottle from his backpack. He twisted the cap open and poured silky liquid on his shoulders and sides. The oil dripped down his chest when he spread it over his skin in quick movements.

  ‘The stone is mostly smooth, so we will slip through in seconds with some oil on.’

  ‘Are you serious?’ Petri asked.

  ‘Of course. Trust me. I’ve been there twenty-­three times. No one has been left behind in the cave. I’ll take care of that.’

  Petri looked around, confused. A man oiling himself and Nina, who only had her bra on and was struggling with her shirt. Petri undid his belt quickly. He wanted to be naked before Nina. It would somehow make the situation more bearable.

  Alex tossed the oil bottle to Petri and stood there watching when Petri took his underwear off. Petri didn’t let that bother him. He poured some oil on his palms and started to slather it over his skin defiantly. He knew his skin was stretchy. He had gray in his pubes. Alex was probably wondering if he could get it up anymore.

  Petri threw the bottle back to Alex. It slipped through the man’s fingers and fell to the ground. Alex didn’t bend down to pick it up but kicked the bottle in Nina’s direction. She picked it up and started to oil herself. Alex stared at her shamelessly. It was obvious that Nina knew it.

  Soon, they stood there naked and shiny, headlamps on, like in some weird ritual.

  ‘Remember Mel Gibson,’ Alex said. ‘Move slowly, but determinedly.’

  They nodded.

  ‘Your body knows what to do, so trust your body. Just slither like snakes. And if you start to feel like you’re getting stuck, just back up a few centimeters and try again, changing your position a little. Okay?’

  A nod.

  ‘Staying calm is the key. Remember, no one has gotten stuck. Once, I took in this fat Chinese dude, who insisted on going, although I had some doubts about him. But this guy just popped out on the other side like a cork out of a champagne bottle. No problem at all.’

  Nina laughed.

  ‘Right,’ Alex said and clapped his hands together. ‘Follow me.’

  They walked behind the man through a passage that was narrower than the ones before it. Nina had cut in front of Petri. Her shiny back glistened in the lamplight. Her hair was stuck to her skin.

  Soon Alex stopped.

  ‘Here it is. I’ll go first, then you.’

  He pointed at Nina.

  ‘Put your arms against your sides, like this.’

  Petri couldn’t see because Nina was standing in front of him, but he understood what Alex meant.

  ‘I know that you want to put your arms ahead, like you were about to dive, but that takes more space. Believe me. One time this Slovenian . . . Well, that went okay too, in the end. But yeah, arms to the sides and shoulders to the front, like this. Okay?’

  In front of Petri, Nina nodded. Her shoulder blades bulged as she repeated the movement Alex was showing them.

  ‘And remember that I’ll be on the other side, waiting, and I’ll help you if necessary. I’ll pull you in by the head, like a midwife, okay?’

  Petri, too, chuckled nervously at that.

  ‘And here we go.’

  Alex disappeared somewhere. Nina apparently saw where he had gone, as she bent down and then disappeared, too. Petri saw her white legs vanishing into a hole. He stooped down to feel its edges. Nina’s legs were still visible, and then they were gone. He heard yelling and laughter at the end of the passage. Petri counted to three, put his arms against his hips and dove in.

  Stone pressed against his skin, but Alex had been right: his body knew what to do. His anxiety disappeared. Even though he felt the pressure all around his body, the constricting sensation was not unpleasant. On the contrary. It was a carefree feeling, like being embraced by some large, benevolent creature. When Petri saw Nina’s and Alex’s headlamps, he was even a little disappointed. He could have stayed in the womb-­like pressure longer.

  ‘Well done, Mr. Gibson,’ Alex said and slapped Petri on his oily back.

  Petri turned around and hooted out loud. It was the pure joy of success. Like when he was a little boy and managed to score a winning goal in a soccer game.

  Petri looked at the ceiling of the cave and saw a strange, phosphoric glow. Something in the stone reacted to the light of his lamp. It was like looking at a starry sky.

  Petri sat up and looked over his shoulder.

  Nina was standing in the middle of the cave, her back to him. She was naked, and glowing, and her black hair stuck to her shoulders and back. There was something primally beautiful in that sight. Petri wanted to fuck her right then and there. Press his old, stretchy skin against her smoothness and forget everything that had come between them.

  Then his eyes moved to the wall. He realized what had Nina so enchanted.

  ‘Unbelievable,’ Petri heard himself muttering.

  ‘Isn’t it?’ Alex said. Petri had
spoken Finnish, but the man must have understood the tone of his voice.

  Phosphoric crystals had formed an image on the wall in front of Nina.

  Petri stood up and went to stand beside her.

  ‘How can it glow like that?’ the girl asked.

  ‘No one knows,’ Alex said from behind them. ‘Like I said, this cave is not in any official records. No one has studied it.’

  ‘Can I take a picture?’ Nina asked.

  ‘Go ahead,’ Alex said.

  They all laughed when Nina fumbled around her body before she realized she was naked and without a phone. Without the chance to communicate with the outside world, for once. Right now, when she finally saw something truly amazing.

  ‘Is that a face?’ Petri asked in Finnish.

  Nina didn’t answer him.

  The glowing dots formed a large oval shape. Inside, there clearly were two eyes, a nose, a mouth. The expression on the face changed with the waves of their light beams. Like on that bulging stone Alex had called their first greeting.

  ‘Some species of mold glow,’ Alex said. ‘Maybe our ancestors knew how to plant it on stone to make pictures. No one truly knows. But isn’t it amazing?’

  Petri moved his head from side to side slowly. The expressions on the face shifted with the light, but none of them looked pleasant. Petri’s eyes started to hurt. He turned around. Alex stood smugly near the hole through which they had come to the cave. He had probably been watching Nina, but now he was smiling at Petri.

  The beam of light revealed something else.

  ‘What are those?’ Petri asked.

  His lamp pointed at the cave entrance. It was surrounded by dark, oblong tracks.

  ‘Footprints,’ Alex said.

  Petri went closer. He bent down.

  They were same the kinds of prints as in the previous cave, rough stains, but made with feet. They surrounded the hole. Most were on the sides, especially towards the bottom of it. Petri put his hand on one of the prints.

  ‘There are toes missing,’ he said.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Alex asked.

  The light changed in a way that told Petri that the man was now standing behind him.

  ‘Only the big toe is visible,’ he said.

  ‘That’s normal,’ Alex said. ‘The big toe just leaves a clearer impression. Those black dots there are from other toes. See?’

  Petri didn’t, but the explanation sounded believable. He removed his hand from the footprint.

  ‘Petri?’

  Nina’s voice was quiet and sleepy.

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘I can’t stop.’

  Petri stood up and looked at Nina. Slumped shoulders. Arms flush against her hips. Glistening skin.

  ‘Stop what?’

  ‘Looking.’

  Nina’s whole body was bent forward.

  ‘It’s really . . . captivating,’ Petri said.

  He started to stare at the image again, too. It really was a captivating sight. The expression on the simplistic face changed with even the tiniest movement of light. Like the picture was trying to talk. His eyes started to hurt again; a sharp sensation behind his eyeballs, like unused capillaries were filling with blood again.

  Petri made himself look away. He lifted his right hand in front of him, the one that had touched the footprint on the wall.

  Blood. This close, the headlamp did not transform the color to black. The grooves of his palm were filled with bright red liquid.

  ‘What the fu—’

  The noise started gradually. At first, Petri thought that Alex had switched on some device, maybe a video camera or some other gadget that let out a broken, whining sound. He turned to Alex.

  The man was standing against the wall. Almost as if he was waiting for something.

  ‘What was that?’ Petri asked.

  Alex didn’t answer him. Petri held out his palm to the man.

  ‘Blood,’ he said slowly. ‘Fresh blood.’

  It sounded like an accusation, but it wasn’t. He only wanted an explanation.

  Alex’s expression was unreadable. Maybe fear, maybe excitement. A movement in his groin drew Petri’s attention. A twitching movement. The man’s member was swaying from side to side. Twitching to life.

  ‘What the hell?’ Petri said.

  ‘Do not panic,’ Alex said calmly. ‘That will only make things worse. The most important rule.’

  ‘Panic?’

  The broken sound started again. It traveled along the stone. Alex did not react to it. Only his half-­hard erection kept twitching expectantly.

  ‘Nina?’ Petri said.

  No answer.

  Petri turned to look. Nina was still staring at the image on the wall. Her shoulders were pointed forward, like she was diving in a cave again. Clear liquid ran along her inner thighs. It pooled around the girl’s feet.

  When the sound came for the third time, Alex finally reacted. He began to shout in a trembling voice. Petri didn’t understand the words, but he did understand their meaning.

  This way. We are here.

  Petri’s breathing grew shallow. Again, he felt how close the walls were. He felt all that stone and soil and the weight of eras that surrounded them. At least thirty thousand years. Handprints. Footprints. Holes in the walls. They were everywhere, identical to the ones they had come through.

  Petri panicked. He chose to do it. Panic was a friend. Made him mad with rage. Showed him the rock on the ground.

  When Petri hit Alex for the first time, the man didn’t even try to dodge.

  ‘Just give them what they want,’ he said when Petri had already raised his arm. ‘They won’t ask for much.’

  The blow hit him above his left ear. Alex’s head jerked to the side, his expression distorted with pain. Then the same empty look returned.

  ‘They basically live on handouts,’ the man rushed to speak, ‘even when people have taken everyth—’

  The second blow landed directly on his nose. There was a crunch, blood spilled out on his pale chest. Only the third blow made Alex stop talking. He started to scream. The fourth one stopped that, too. There were splatters on the wall. A roar in Petri’s head. Now there was blood on both of his hands. Alex had slumped into a sitting position. His head was lolling towards his chest, but he was still trying to climb back on his feet, like a wounded spider.

  Petri dropped the rock and rushed towards Nina.

  ‘We are getting out of here, right now,’ he said, shaking Nina by her shoulder.

  The girl looked at him, her face slack.

  ‘I’ll go first and pull you onto the other side,’ Petri said. ‘Like a midwife, right?’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘You’ll come right behind me. Do you understand?’

  The screeching sound was closer now.

  ‘Do you understand?’ Petri yelled.

  ‘Okay.’

  Young, beautiful Nina.

  Petri pulled her towards the hole and squatted beside it. He put his arms against his sides and dove.

  ‘What is that?’ Nina asked somewhere behind him.

  Petri pushed himself deeper into the hole.

  What is that?

  Nina’s shouts were dimmer now, as if muffled by cotton. Petri sped up, let his body twist and turn instinctively, allowed it to remember what it was like to be a fish or a snake.

  When the constricting feeling started, Petri remembered what Alex had said: just back up a few centimeters and try again, changing your position a little. But Alex was a nutcase and a foreign perv who used Mel Gibson as his example. Nina was still in the cave, seeing something she didn’t understand. Petri’s heartbeat was ringing in his ears.

  And so he kept pushing forward. Pushed even when he realized that his body didn’t remember what being
a fish or a snake felt like. Pushed because the fat Chinese man had gotten through, pushed until he was completely stuck.

  Petri remained sensible about the situation, even when he realized he was screaming. He tried to move, although the stone squeezed his upper body harder and harder. His body tried to fix the situation with instinctive movements. Stupid, unnecessary, dangerous movements, constantly growing more violent. The beam of his headlamp swayed everywhere, but there was nothing but darkness there.

  He heard a crunch.

  Pain flooded through his left arm. All sensation of other limbs disappeared.

  Petri screamed louder. The scream filled his head. It was a small space, his head. Small like the space he was in.

  He had to think reasonably, but reason told him that some big bone had just broken and that the spot would soon start to swell.

  Swell and swell like a fat Chinese man.

  Petri jerked his head from side to side, the only thing he was still capable of moving. His headlamp hit the wall and went out.

  Swell and swell and—

  Reason told him that everyone had gotten through this hole, and that everyone got to the surface and sent pictures to their friends and said that the experience was earth-­shattering, but never again.

  Swell and—

  Dark and tight and dark.

  This can’t be happening, Petri thought, in some calm corner of his mind. The world is not this evil.

  Not dark; darkness.

  The point at which a fat Chinese man swells beyond all comprehensible limits.

  Swells, and then, something pushing out, black sh—

  Darkness comes.

  The worst possible.

  The darkness of a fat Chinese man.

  —it.

  Completely stuck.

  Completely stuck and, in the darkness, it was difficult to say when he was conscious and when not. Sometimes, Petri fell through an endless space, sometimes nothing but choking pressure all around him, like sweaty skin.

  Sometimes, he fell asleep.

  Petri was in his childhood, in a movie theater. The scent of the red fitted carpet. The white screen glowed in the shadows. The breath of something huge snuffled and wheezed in the back row. Smacking sounds, like something was eating with great relish. Petri covered his ears with his hands and looked at the movie screen; it was like uneven glass, and there was night behind it and, in the night, flickering naked people or white reptiles in muddy water.