Shadows Deepen

by Mirren Hogan

  In spite of Flynn clinging onto her, a sense of foreboding followed them all of the way there. As the bike slowed and came to a stop, she let Flynn climb off first, his expression grim in the darkness. He pulled out the headlamps and silently handed one to Makani. He divided the salt, lighters and spray between them and leaned forward to kiss her mouth.

  “Here we go again.” He sighed.

  She squeezed his shoulders for a long moment, not wanting to part just yet. “We’ll get them all, and then . . . maybe we can have a little peace again.” Makani wanted nothing more right now. It wasn’t fair, having to sit and wait for the next attack while trying to fit their lives around them. It wasn’t fair, that she’d finally found someone who could hang with her and all her ridiculous whims and adventures, only to have an expiration date on their time together, on top of having these things happen.

  Makani reluctantly let him go, and shoved a can into her pants pocket before flicking her lamp on. “Love you. Stay close. Watch my back, and I’ll watch yours. Okay?” She turned and started walking into the forest, taking them on a service trail through the trees.

  “I’ve got your back. And I won’t even photograph it this time,” he joked lightly. He squeezed her hand before turning his headlamp on and lighting up the opposite side of the trail. “And I love you too,” he added, his voice low. “We can kick these guys’ asses. They don’t stand a chance.” He didn’t sound completely convinced.

  “Here’s to hoping.” Makani led them through the trees, their feet crunching along the layer of ash and fallen leaves. Kailauea was close enough that a gray rain of soot would coat everything along the south and east ends of the islands when the trade-winds blew. It provided fantastic topsoil, but also threw acid rains over much of the area.

  They made it deep into the forest, and were greeted by the sight of pillars of lava rock. In 1790, a lava flow had poured through the area and crept up through the trunks of massive ohi’a lehua trees. They’d formed into the shape of the trunks, before burning the wood away, revealing castings of their molds.

  Makani looked at these formations in wonder, reaching out to touch one. They were solid, not as fragile as she’d thought they’d be. Flynn tapped at a petrified tree with his knuckles. “Now I know I’m living in a horror movie.”

  A rustling overhead broke her from the revelry. “Flynn . . . ” she said as a warning. Bringing her spray can and lighter up, Makani scanned the sky for what might come at them. A shadow moved in a tree up ahead. As they got closer it took flight, slowly moving deeper into the forest.

  Makani motioned forward, and they started to follow the creature. She turned her headlamp off, not worried about what might find them on the ground now. Tearing through the brush, they came to another clearing. Having lost whatever had flown through the trees, Makani stopped to look around, checking for signs that something might have disturbed the area before them.

  Pausing to peek under a bush, Makani knelt down—only to be knocked back by a long, squirming tongue. “Flynn!” She wrestled out her knife and started hacking at the proboscis, trying to stop it from crawling up her leg.

  For its trouble, it got covered in salt, courtesy of Flynn, who had put his spray can under his arm long enough to free his right hand. The tongue snapped back and started to sizzle and bubble like barbecued mud.

  “Oh, sick!” She kicked at the meaty thing and watched it snap back into the brush. Makani and Flynn locked eyes for a second, before they both turned their heads. Apparently, that tongue had been attached to a manananggal that was now very, very angry. It scrabbled on its hands toward them both, with Makani dropping her knife and flipping out her lighter and spray can. The creature caught hold of her leg, and Makani lost the can as it yanked her into the underbrush.

  “Makani!” Flynn ran around the bushes, meeting the manananggal as it came out the other side. He dropped his salt on the ground, aimed his spray can and lighter and fired, setting what passed for a manananggal ass on fire.

  Trailing guts and organs started to burn, and the creature let go of its prey, trying to stop the fire that was consuming its innards. It screeched in pain as Makani squiggled free and retrieved her own can, setting the beast’s face on fire. It wiggled and convulsed for a few moments, but the manananggal was quickly consumed by the flames and stopped moving.

  Panting, Makani looked up at Flynn. “I guess we’re going in the right direction?”

  “Yeah.” He reached out his hand. “You might want to get up before that bush catches fire.” He grabbed her hand and hauled her up just in time. The fire was small and fizzled out quickly, but the smoke was enough to draw out anything looking for them.

  “So much for sneaking in.” She dusted herself off and retrieved her dropped gear. The trees overhead seemed to come alive and Makani flipped on her headlamp. Eye-shine from a dozen creatures greeted the beam of light, just before she flicked it off.

  “Oh, shit—” She grabbed Flynn’s hand and started tearing through the brush back onto a service trail.

  “Great, manananggal central,” he muttered, panting lightly as they ran. “Duck!” He pulled her down as one swooped, narrowly missing both of their heads. It flew on, and they got back to their feet and kept on moving.

  It was a long run through the vegetation, narrowly avoiding branches and claws trying to nab them from above. Tree roots seemed to appear from nowhere to trip them. Makani was sure she saw green tails dart away from their feet as they ran.

  The trail ended at the entrance of the lava tube, with screeches coming from behind them. “We’re going in,” she panted, and got her spray can and lighter ready. “You’ve gotta lead. My battery’s dead.” Makani sounded apologetic, as she stepped behind Flynn.

  Flynn nodded and stepped inside first.

  The lights that had been rigged along the path were out for the night. Damn the cut-backs to the park’s budget. Darkness swallowed the beam from Flynn’s headlamp, making it difficult to see anything beyond it. The tube wasn’t especially long, but it was wide and high. The ground was wet and slick from the water that seeped through the bedrock, funneling down from stalactites. Off-shoots into dark nothing seemed to echo with their footsteps, and occasionally, one of the examples of subterranean insect life popped out. Just out of the corner of their eyes, something seemed to move out of place, but it would turn out to be nothing. Hopefully.

  They kept on looking back, but nothing seemed to be following. Yet.

  “Do you get the feeling they were herding us into here?” he whispered. “Instead of us drawing them out?”

  “Yeah, but they’re also leading us where we need to g—ooohhh!” Makani missed a step and slid, mashing her arm against the rock wall. She rubbed her smarting arm and butt, hand fishing for the dropped can that clattered a few feet away.

  It rolled past Flynn just as the earth moved, vibrating beneath their feet. “Hey, you feel that?”

  “Yes, there’s tectonic activity around here. I hope that’s all it is!” She grabbed Flynn and pulled him down, dragging them both flat against the wall. The rumbling shook and lightbulbs burst. Creatures that had been hiding poured out and scrambled around. Kappa skittered about, and ran down an off-shoot across from them. “Look—watch where they’re going!”

  “Fight club?” he quipped, whispering in her ear. “Killing each other off would help. I’m not sure we’re well enough armed. I wish I had my water gun. If nothing else, it’d make less mess. I’m not sure this tourist attraction is getting off unscathed.”

  “At least it’s not our fault, this time.” She watched the creatures escape, and steeled herself for the inevitable. “We’ve gotta follow them.” When the ground stopped shaking, she stood up and picked her way around debris and glass to the off-shoot. “Just like Alice in Wonderland— “

  “No rabbit would be silly enough to go down there. Or last very long.” He handed back her spray can and held his out in front of him. “A mad hatter, maybe.”

  “Wel
l—put your hat on.” She held onto the top edge and slowly slid down feet-first. The descent started out as a squiggling crawl, but quickly, the tunnel became slick, and Makani found herself on an unchecked slide down. She was sure they would fall onto sharp rocks and lie impaled together on a stalagmite for the rest of eternity. Luckily, it evened out like a children’s slide and she found herself staring up at a pair of legs with organelle hanging down from the top. These legs needed a good shave, and probably a wax job. She cringed away from the massive bush and rolled to the side. “Flynn? Watch out for the nastiness in front of us.”

  “You mean there’s something nastier than that comment about me being mad—oh, crap.” He landed beside her. “Yeah, that’s much worse. Ready for a barbecue?”

  “As long as we don’t eat it, yeah.” The light cast by Flynn’s lamp revealed a dozen pairs of legs, much in the same state. White nodules in a corner gave Makani pause, and she slowly started to creep around the obstacles. Along the walls, manananggal hissed and gnashed their teeth, looking ready to strike, but afraid of what the intruders could do to their vulnerable halves. Reaching a hand down, Makani gasped and drew it back. “I think these are eggs!”

  “So, we have scrambled eggs with our barbecue.” Flynn shrugged and sprayed the first sets of legs, setting them alight with a savage grin. “Or do you prefer your eggs boiled?” He didn’t sound too perturbed either way.

  “I prefer mine dead, I guess.” The kappa moved down from their perches, and started surrounding Makani. One lunged, but she ducked and set it blazing, a little tumbling fireball that took out two of its own kind. The eggs would have to wait—their parents were obviously protective of their young. “How you doin’ over there?” She said as she kicked a kappa from her leg, and proceeded to set it on fire.

  “Having the time of my— “ Flynn ducked under a swooping manananggal whose tongue grasped his cheek, reopening and lengthening the wound there “—life,” he finished. He set another pair of legs on fire and the manananggal who had tried to attack him promptly screamed. “Three more to . . . ” And there was silence from his end of the lava tube.

  “Flynn? Flynn?!” Makani wrestled herself away from the pack of lizard men and made her way back where she’d left Flynn. She chastised herself for leaving him alone, and not sticking to his side. She kicked over a pair of legs and started torching them, before she found Flynn.

  He lay very still, blood trickling down his cheek. The injury on his temple where he’d been spat out by the Green Lady had split open as well and was starting to seep. Around his ankles was the tongue of a dead manananggal that had managed to trip him before it died. By the look of it, he’d fallen hard, maybe hitting his head on the ground.

  Makani struggled to get his legs free, before pressing her ear to his chest. His heart was still beating steadily, thank God. Upon visual inspection, he was pale, but nothing looked broken. Hopefully, he hadn’t cracked his skull open in the back. “Flynn! Flynn! C’mon, get up!”

  She shook him, trying to get some response. A lizard creature tried to attack, but she caught it with her makeshift flame thrower. Taking hold of his shoulders, ignoring the training she’d gotten in First Aid classes, she started dragging him toward the chute that brought them down. The going was slow, as she stopped to light everything on fire that was within her reach, or to torch what came close enough under its own steam.

  Flynn groaned as she lay him down. Slowly, his eyes flickered open. “M’kani . . . ?” He murmured. “M’head bloody hurts.” His eyes closed again, but his feet moved and his fingers wriggled. “Nothin’ broken.” He looked up at her. “You killed ‘em all?” His voice was weak but sounding stronger with each word. Struggling, he sat up, his back against the wall. He rubbed the back of his head and winced.

  “Not all . . . ” She looked at the conflagration she’d caused. It was like a scene right out of Dante’s Inferno, or Hearn’s Kwaidan. Peering through the slowly extinguishing flames and smoke, she saw the cluster of eggs. The creatures would have a chance to come back, if they didn’t get rid of those, too. But to destroy innocent young? “Should we . . . get rid of those, too?”

  Flynn blinked up at her and winced again as he frowned. “Why wouldn’t we? It would save killing them when they hatch and decide that we look like lunch.” He put his hand on the side of the tube and pushed himself up onto his feet. “If you don’t want to, I will.” He looked ready to kick them to pieces.

  “Wait—you can barely stand!” She moved to one side of Flynn and got under his arm. Makani looked around, and made sure nothing else was hanging from the ceiling or hiding in a corner. Slowly, they made their way through, clothes getting singed as they passed the remains of a dozen legs and torsos, and two dozen lizards with indented heads. It was hot, smelly and disgusting.

  They had to kick a pair of legs away to the side, but finally they reached the nest. Makani counted quickly, finding a total of three dozen in varying stages of gestation. She leaned close to get a better look, only to startle when one rocked under its own power. “How do we do this?”

  Leaning on her, Flynn raised his foot and kicked one egg, sending it flying like a football. It smashed against the far wall, leaving a yolky, fetal smear down the wall. “Like that,” he said, sounding satisfied.

  “I’m gonna be sick.” But Makani did the same thing, sending an egg tumbling end over end to smash open and dump its contents stillborn onto the rocky floor. “I just wanna say—” she picked up the egg that rocked and hefted it over her head “—that as a female, this feels really wrong!” She chucked it and watched a lizard creature the size of a poorly grown iguana snap its neck as it slid to the ground.

  “As someone who prefers to end this insanity before I end up dead, it feels fine to me.” He picked up an egg, dropped it and kicked it just before it hit the ground. It flew over the rest of the eggs and landed on another, smashing them both. “Woo, two for one!” he said cheerfully.

  When he put it that way . . . She started chucking eggs in earnest. It was surreal, watching the fetal creatures with wings mixed with the little lizards. It put Makani in mind of Filipino cooking and what she could charge for a single egg, if she knew anyone in the Chinatown black market.

  Flynn stomped on the last egg. His foot went right through. When he lifted his leg, the shell came up like a shoe. The expression on his face was somewhere between laughter and disgust. He shook it loose, yolk sprinkling everywhere.

  “I’ve heard of snake and alligator shoes, but never this.” And then he sagged down onto the ground, clutching his head and exhaling wearily.

  Makani knelt by his side and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “We’ve gotta get outta here, before we end up like these things.” Smoke had filled the chamber, and while the fires were going out, it was hard to see where they would be going. The air was thick, and she coughed hard enough to jostle her ribs.

  “Yeah.” He leaned against her. “Your turn to help me. Let’s hope we don’t run into anything else on the way out. Then we should get the hell off this island.” He sounded like he was right at the end of his rope. With all that had gone on over the last month, who could blame him?

  “And I want a bath.”

  She looked at Flynn for a long second, before nodding. Something formulated in Makani’s mind, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she hoisted him up a little farther and started the long trek out of the cave.

  Climbing back out the way they’d come was a struggle. The route was slippery and dark, with both lamps out. By the time they reached the main lava tube, Makani was huffing and puffing, favoring her injured side and struggling, nearly doubled over under Flynn’s weight.

  He almost fell to the ground when they got back out. “Just give me a minute to get my breath.” He glanced at his watch and sighed. “Almost breakfast time again. This is getting to be a bad habit, being up all night.” For once, he didn’t sound like he was joking. He looked exhausted and filthy with dirt and blood.


  “Yeah . . . don’t worry. No more of this for you.” She shook her head, her voice small and weak. Makani looked toward the entrance and saw the dawn’s light filtering in. “Shit . . . it’s a long walk back to the bike.” She struggled to get up, and wound her arms around Flynn’s waist after she pulled him up. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

  CHAPTER 21

  The sun was a hand high in the sky by the time they arrived back at the plantation. Flynn had barely said a word since they left the lava forest. He’d clung onto her, his mind turning over and over faster than the bike’s tires. He was tired, filthy and hungry, and all of those things combined with a massive headache suppressed his usual positivity. Those and the fact that fighting monsters and getting injured was becoming normal and there was nothing normal about it. His life was one long, insanity-driven nightmare. He loved Makani with every part of him, but he wanted their lives to be safe and calm.

  As soon as the bike stopped, he slipped off, gave Makani a hug and went to get clean clothes and a towel. “You coming to bathe too?”

  She slipped the helmets onto the handles and nodded. “I’m gonna set up the flight arrangements first. We need to go.” Makani started wheeling the bike back toward the side of their hut, her shoulders slumped.

  He watched her walk away. She looked exhausted. They could both use a good, long sleep. He turned and walked to the bath house. Luckily no one else was in there, because when he peered in the mirror, he looked as though he’d been bashed. Both sides of his face were smeared with dried blood and he had a huge bruise forming near his gunshot wound.

  He stripped and slipped into the hot water of one of the showers. It was almost too hot for comfort, but it washed away the dirt, blood and whatever else was caked into his skin. He scrubbed everywhere and then scrubbed it again. No one could say he wouldn’t be spotless by the time he was done. He wanted to stay under the spray but got out before wasting too much water.