It wasn’t long before we’re parked the car and started on foot. The temperature is beginning to drop, but thankfully, all the trees block the wind from hitting us. “Shit!”
“Be careful. It’s hard to see now, but this is all slick rock.”
“Have you been here before?” He talks about this area as if he knows it like the back of his hand.
“All the time.”
This must be where he goes off missing for hours. I don’t understand why, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out sooner or later.
“Can I ask you something?”
“You just did.”
Rolling my eyes, I continue on with my question anyway, “What happened to your parents?”
A long stretch of silence answered, and I began to feel like I was prodding too much. He inhales deeply and sighs. “I was eight. I had a sister too, she had just turned three. Our parents tucked us into bed like they normally did at night, read us a book, and after my sister fell asleep, they would carry her to her room across the hall. My parents’ room was downstairs. I remember waking up to loud bangs, which I quickly learned were gunshots. I ran to my closet and hid like a little bitch. After a while, when it got silent, I ran out. I thought it was safe since it was silent.”
He bites his lip, and pain flashes across his shadow-obscured face. My heart aches already knowing where this story is going. I reach out, laying my hand on his forearm as we continue walking. “Hayden…”
“I went to my sister first, and that image will haunt me the rest of my life. Seeing her lying in her bed, I thought she was safe and asleep, until I called her name over and over and got no response. Two bullet holes. Two. One in her chest and one through her temple.”
“Fuck,” I say on bated breath.
He nods slowly. “I ran downstairs screaming for mymom and dad—nobody answered. I found my mom in a puddle of blood on the wood kitchen floor, and my dad was hunched over in his recliner as if he was trying to get up. I called the police, but it’s been over seventeen years without any information on who did it.”
“Hayden, I’m so sorry. It wasn’t your fault. You were just a little kid.”
He nods silently, walking faster ahead of me. “We’re here,” He announces. My feet ache from the hike, and I wish I had packed water. Now I understand the need for tennis shoes and comfy clothes.
“Holy shit!” I exclaim under my breath. “Acave!?”
I have never seen a cave before, never even knew we had them this close to us. It’s not a huge opening. We have to duck down to go inside. Hayden flicks open his lighter to light the way. The cave walls illuminate in an orange glow, lighting the dampened walls all around us. There’s a drastic change in humidity inside here compared to outside.
“What’s that sound?” A trickling sound reverberates around us, and a chill sweeps over my body as the temperature continues to decline the further we go.
“You’ll see. Patience.” He glances over his shoulder at me pointedly. I wrap my arms around me, trying to warm myself from the biting cold. The trickling sound turns into more of a steady flow of water as we creep further into the cave.
“Watch your step up here,” He warns, pointing his flaming lighter down at the ground. There’s about a footdrop in the path. I brace one hand on the cool, damp wall and hold Hayden’s hand with the other as I step down. The ground is slippery with mud and mineral deposits.
“You come all the way down here by yourself?”
“Every week.”
“Why? Aren’t you afraid of… Cave spiders or something lurking down here?”
Hayden barks out a laugh, “Cave spiders? This isn’t Minecraft.”
I smack his arm playfully, “They’re real!!”
“Well, to answer your question, no, I’m not afraid, and I come here because it’s peaceful, I can escape reality for a while, and…” He trails off.
“And?”
“It’s nothing, but we’re getting closer.”
I don’t miss his lousy attempt at changing the subject, but I’ve already butted into his business enough for the time being, so I let it slide…for now.
As the rushing water gets louder, it finally clicks where we’re headed. “Is that a waterfall?” I squeal, forgetting just how loud everything echoes around us. Moonlight glistens off puddles of water at the end of the cave. It’s absolutely stunning.
