The Other Side of Midnight

by Sidney Sheldon

  But when they returned to their bungalow, and Catherine put her arms around him and started to kiss him, Larry told her that he was tired.

  At three o'clock in the morning Catherine lay in bed, too excited to sleep. It had been a long day and a frightening one. She thought of the mountain path and the shaky bridge and the climb up the face of the rock. And finally she fell asleep.

  The following morning Larry went to talk to the reception clerk.

  "Those caves you mentioned the other day," Larry began.

  "Ah, yes," the clerk replied. "The Caves of Perama. Very colorful. Very interesting. You must not miss them."

  "I guess I'll have to see them," Larry said lightly. "I don't care for caves much, but my wife heard about them and she's been after me to take her there. She loves that kind of thing."

  "I am certain you will both enjoy it, Mr. Douglas. Just be sure to hire a guide."

  "Do I need one?" Larry asked.

  The clerk nodded. "It is advisable. There have been several tragedies there, people getting lost." He lowered his voice. "One young couple has not been found to this day."

  "If it's so dangerous," Larry asked, "why do they allow people in?"

  "It is only the new section that is dangerous," the clerk explained. "It has not been explored yet and there are no lights. But with a guide you will not have to worry."

  "What time do they close the caves?"

  "At six o'clock."

  Larry found Catherine outside, reclining under a giant oxya tree, the beautiful Greek oak, reading.

  "How's the book?" he asked.

  "Put-downable."

  He hunched beside her. "The hotel clerk told me about some caves near here."

  Catherine looked up, faintly apprehensive. "Caves?"

  "He said it's a must. All the honeymooners go there. You make a wish inside, and it comes true." His voice was boyish and eager. "How about it?"

  Catherine hesitated a moment, thinking how like a little boy Larry really was. "If you would like it," she said.

  He smiled. "Great. We'll go after lunch. You go ahead and read. I have to drive into town and pick up a few things."

  "Would you like me to come with you?"

  "No," he said easily, "I'll be right back. You take it easy."

  She nodded. "All right."

  He turned and left.

  In town Larry found a small general store that was able to supply him with a pocket flashlight, some fresh batteries and a ball of twine.

  "Are you staying up at the hotel?" the shopkeeper asked as he counted out Larry's change.

  "No," Larry said. "Just passing through on my way to Athens."

  "I'd be careful if I was you," the man advised.

  Larry looked up at him sharply. "Of what?"

  "There's a storm coming up. You can hear the sheep crying."

  Larry returned to the hotel at three o'clock. At four o'clock, Larry and Catherine left for the caves. A troubled wind had sprung up, and to the north large thunderheads were starting to form, erasing the sun from the sky.

  The Caves of Perama lie thirty kilometers east of Ioannina. Over the centuries tremendous stalagmites and stalactites have formed into the shapes of animals and palaces and jewels, and the caves have become an important tourist attraction.

  When Catherine and Larry arrived at the caves, it was five o'clock, one hour before closing. Larry bought two tickets and a pamphlet at the ticket booth. A shabbily dressed guide came up and offered his services.

  "Only fifty drachmas," he intoned, "and I will give you the best guided tour."

  "We don't need a guide," Larry said, curtly.

  Catherine looked at him, surprised by his sharp tone.

  He took Catherine's arm. "Come on."

  "Are you sure we shouldn't have a guide?"

  "What for? It's a racket. All we do is go inside and look at the cave. The pamphlet will tell us anything we need to know."

  "All right," Catherine said agreeably.

  The entrance to the cave was larger than she had expected, brightly lit with flood lamps and filled with milling tourists. The walls and roof of the cave seemed to be crammed with heroic figures sculpted out of the rocks: birds and giants and flowers and crowns.

  "It's fantastic," Catherine exclaimed. She studied the pamphlet. "No one knows how old it is."

  Her voice sounded hollow, reverberating against the rock ceiling. Over their heads, stalactites hung down. A tunnel carved into the rock led to a second smaller room that was lit by naked bulbs wired near the ceiling of the cave. There were more fanciful figures in here, a wild profligate display of nature's art. At the far end of the cave was a printed sign that read: Danger: Keep Away.

  Beyond the sign was the entrance to a yawning black cavern. Casually Larry walked over to it and looked around. Catherine was studying a carving near the entrance. Larry took the sign and tossed it to one side. He walked back to Catherine.

  "It's damp in here," she said. "Shall we leave?"

  "No." Larry's tone was firm.

  She looked at him in surprise.

  "There's more to see," Larry explained. "The hotel clerk told me that the most interesting part is the new section. He said we mustn't miss it."

  "Where is it?" Catherine asked.

  "Over there." Larry took her arm and they walked toward the rear of the cave and stood in front of the gaping black chasm.

  "We can't go in there," Catherine said. "It's dark."

  Larry patted her arm. "Not to worry. He told me to bring a flashlight." He produced it from his pocket. "And--voila--see?" He turned it on, and its narrow beam lit up a long dark corridor of ancient rock.

  Catherine stood there, staring at the tunnel. "It looks so big," she said uncertainly. "Are you sure it's safe?"

  "Of course," Larry replied. "They bring schoolchildren here."

  Catherine still hesitated, wishing they could stay with the other tourists. Somehow this seemed dangerous to her.

  "All right," she said.

  They started into the passage. They had traveled only a few feet when the circle of light from the main cave behind them was swallowed up in the blackness. The passage made an abrupt turn to the left and then curved to the right. They were alone in a cold, timeless primeval world. In the beam of Larry's flashlight Catherine caught a glimpse of his face in the reflection of light and she saw that look of animation again. It was the same way he had looked on the mountain. Catherine tightened her grip on his arm.

  Ahead of them the tunnel forked. Catherine could see the rough stone on the low ceiling as it split off in separate directions. She thought of Theseus and the Minotaur in the cave, and she wondered whether they were going to bump into them. She opened her mouth to suggest that they turn back, but before she could speak, Larry said, "We go to the left."

  She looked at him and said in what she hoped was a casual voice, "Darling, don't you think we should start back? It's getting late. The caves will be closing."

  "They're open until nine," Larry replied. "There's one particular cave I want to find. They just excavated it. It's supposed to be really fantastic." He started to move forward.

  Catherine hesitated, casting about for an excuse not to go farther. After all why shouldn't they go exploring? Larry was enjoying it. If that was what it took to make him happy, she would become the world's greatest--what was the word?--spelunker.

  Larry had stopped and was waiting for her. "Coming?" he asked impatiently.

  She tried to sound enthusiastic. "Yes. Just don't lose me," she said.

  Larry did not reply. They took the fork that branched to the left and began walking, careful of the small stones that slipped under their feet. Larry reached into his pocket, and a moment later Catherine heard something fall to the ground. Larry kept walking.

  "Did you drop something?" Catherine asked. "I thought I heard--"

  "I kicked a stone," he said. "Let's walk faster." And they moved ahead, Catherine unaware that behind them a ball of twine wa
s unwinding.

  The ceiling of the cave seemed to be lower here and the walls damper and--Catherine laughed at herself for thinking it--ominous. It was as though the tunnel was beginning to close in on them, threatening and maleficent. "I don't think this place likes us," Catherine said.

  "Don't be ridiculous, Cathy; it's just a cave."

  "Why do you suppose we're the only ones here?"

  Larry hesitated. "Not many people know about this section."

  They walked on and on until Catherine began to lose all sense of time and place.

  The passage was narrowing again, and the rocks on the sides tore at them with sharp, unexpected protuberances.

  "How much farther do you think it is?" Catherine asked. "We must be getting near China."

  "It's not far now."

  When they spoke, their voices sounded muffled and hollow, like a series of continuous dying echoes.

  It was getting cold now, but it was a damp, clammy cold. Catherine shivered. Ahead the beam of the flashlight caught another bifurcation of the passage. They walked up to it and stopped. The tunnel running to the right seemed smaller than the one to the left.

  "They should put up neon road signs," Catherine said. "We've probably gone too far."

  "No," Larry said. "I'm sure it's the one on the right."

  "I'm really getting chilly, darling," she said. "Let's go back now."

  He turned to look at her. "We're almost there, Cathy." He squeezed her arm. "I'll warm you up when we get back to our bungalow." He saw the reluctance on her face. "I'll tell you what--if we haven't found the place in the next two minutes, we'll turn around and go home. OK?"

  Catherine felt her heart lighten. "OK," she said thankfully.

  "Come on."

  They turned down the tunnel to the right, the beam of the flashlight making an eerie, wavering pattern on the gray rock ahead. Catherine glanced back over her shoulder and behind her was complete blackness. It was as though the little flashlight was carving brightness out of the Stygian gloom, moving it forward a few feet at a time, encapsulating them in its tiny womb of light. Larry stopped suddenly.

  "Damn!" he said.

  "What's the matter?"

  "I think we took the wrong turn back there."

  Catherine nodded. "All right. Let's go back."

  "Let me make sure. You stay here."

  She looked at him in surprise. "Where are you going?"

  "Just a few feet. Back to that entrance." His voice sounded strained and unnatural.

  "I'll come with you."

  "I can do it faster alone, Catherine. I just want to check the fork where we made the last turn." He sounded impatient. "I'll be back in ten seconds."

  "All right," she said, uneasily.

  Catherine stood there watching as Larry turned away from her and walked back into the dark from which they had come, enclosed in a halo of light like a moving angel in the bowels of the earth. A moment later the light disappeared, and she was plunged into the deepest blackness she had ever known. She stood there, shivering, counting off the seconds in her mind. And then the minutes.

  Larry did not return.

  Catherine waited, feeling the blackness lapping around her like malicious invisible waves. She called out, "Larry?" and her voice was hoarse and uncertain, and she cleared her throat and tried again louder. "Larry?" She could hear the sound dying a few feet away from her, murdered by the darkness. It was as though nothing could live in this place, and Catherine began to feel the first tendrils of terror. Of course Larry will be right back, she told herself. All I have to do is stay where I am and remain calm.

  The black minutes dragged by, and she began to face the fact that something had gone terribly wrong. Larry could have had an accident, he could have slipped on the loose stones and hit his head on the sharp sides of the cave. Perhaps at this moment he was lying just a few feet away from her, bleeding to death. Or perhaps he was lost. His flashlight could have gone out and he might be somewhere in the bowels of this cave trapped, as she was trapped.

  A feeling of suffocation began to close in on Catherine, choking her, filling her with a mindless panic. She turned and began to walk slowly in the direction from which she had come. The tunnel was narrow, and if Larry was lying on the ground, helpless and hurt, she had a good chance of finding him. Soon she would come to the place where the passage had divided. She moved cautiously, the loose stones rolling beneath her feet. She thought she heard a distant sound and stopped to listen. Larry? It was gone, and she began to move again, and then she heard it once more. It was a whirring sound, as though someone were running a tape recorder. There was someone down here!

  Catherine yelled aloud and then listened as the sound of her voice drowned in the silence. There it was again! The whirring noise. It was coming this way. It grew louder, racing toward her in a great screaming rush of wind. It was getting closer and closer. Suddenly it leaped on her in the dark; cold and clammy skin brushed against her cheeks and kissed her lips and she felt something crawling on her head and sharp claws in her hair and her face was smothered by the mad beating of wings of some nameless horror attacking her in the blackness.

  She fainted.

  She was lying on a sharp spike of stone and the discomfort of it brought her back to consciousness. Her cheek was warm and sticky, and it was a minute before Catherine realized that it was her blood. She remembered the wings and the claws that had attacked her in the dark and she began to shiver.

  There were bats in the cave.

  She tried to recall what she knew about bats. She had read somewhere that they were flying rats and that they congregated by the thousands. The only other information she could conjure up from her memory was that there were vampire bats, and she quickly dropped that thought. Reluctantly Catherine sat up, the palms of her hands stinging from being scraped on the sharp stones.

  You can't just sit here, she told herself. You've got to get up and do something. Painfully she dragged herself to her feet. She had lost a shoe somehow and her dress was torn, but Larry would buy her a new one tomorrow. She pictured the two of them going into a little shop in the village, laughing and happy and buying a white summer dress for her, but somehow the dress became a shroud and her mind began to fill with panic again. She must keep thinking about tomorrow, not the nightmare she was engulfed in now. She must keep walking. But which way? She was turned around. If she walked the wrong way, she would be going deeper into the cave, and yet she knew she could not stay here. Catherine tried to estimate how much time had elapsed since they had entered the cave. It must have been an hour, possibly two. There was no way of knowing how long she had been unconscious. Surely they would be looking for Larry and her. But what if no one missed them? There was no check on who went in or out of the caves. She could be down here forever.

  She took off her other shoe and began to walk, taking slow, careful steps, holding her burning hands out to avoid bumping into the rough sides of the tunnel. The longest journey begins with but a single step, Catherine told herself. The Chinese said that and look how smart they are. They invented firecrackers and chop suey, and they were too clever to get caught in some dark hole in the ground where no one could find them. If I keep walking, I'm going to bump into Larry or some tourists and we'll go back to the hotel and have a drink and laugh about all this. All I have to do is keep walking.

  She stopped suddenly. In the distance she could hear the whirring sound again, moving toward her like some ghostly, phantom express train, and her body began to tremble uncontrollably, and she began to scream. An instant later, they were on her, hundreds of them, swarming over her, beating at her with their cold, clammy wings and smothering her with their furry rodent bodies in a nightmare of unspeakable horror.

  The last thing she remembered before losing consciousness was calling Larry's name.

  She was lying on the cold, damp floor of the cave. Her eyes were closed, but her mind had suddenly awakened, and she thought, Larry wants to kill me. It was as thoug
h her subconscious had put the idea there intact. In a series of kaleidoscopic flashes she heard Larry saying, I'm in love with someone else...I want a divorce...and Larry moving toward her through the cloud on the mountaintop, his hands reaching for her...She remembered looking down the steep mountain and saying, It will take a long time to get down, and Larry saying, No, it won't...and Larry saying, We don't need a guide...I think we took the wrong turn. Wait here...I'll be back in ten seconds...And then the terrifying blackness.

  Larry had never intended to return for her. The reconciliation, the honeymoon...it was all pretense, part of a plan to murder her. All the time she had been smugly thanking God for giving her a second chance, Larry was plotting to kill her. And he had succeeded, for Catherine knew she would never get out of here. She was buried alive in a black tomb of horror. The bats had gone, but she could feel and smell the filthy slime they had left all over her face and body, and she knew that they would be back for her. She did not know if she could keep her sanity through another attack. The thought of them made her begin to tremble again, and she forced herself to take slow, deep breaths.

  And then Catherine heard it again and knew she could not stand it another time. It started as a low humming, and then a louder wave of sound, moving toward her. There was a sudden, anguished scream, and it rang out into the darkness over and over, and the other sound kept coming louder and louder, and out of the black tunnel a light appeared, and she heard voices calling out and hands began to reach for her and lift her and she wanted to warn them about the bats, but she was unable to stop screaming.

  NOELLE AND CATHERINE

  Athens: 1946

  22

  She lay still and rigid so that the bats could not find her, and she listened for the whirr of their wings, her eyes tightly shut.

  A man's voice said, "It is a miracle that we found her."

  "Is she going to be all right?"

  It was Larry's voice.

  Terror suddenly flooded through Catherine again. It was as though her body were filled with screaming nerves that warned her to flee. Her killer had come for her. She moaned, "No..." and opened her eyes. She was in her bed in the bungalow. Larry stood at the foot of the bed, and next to him was a man she had never seen before. Larry moved toward her. "Catherine..."