The Town Whispers: Season 1

Chapter 3: The Man in the Cave

When Albit had taken the first child, his heart had hammered beneath his fleshy ribs for hours.

Albit had just snatched him.

The little boy had tripped, walking down an dilapidated access road through the back of old man Alfie's farm, and Albit had been there to help pick him up and dust off his knees, and then they chased an imaginary deer together, off into the woods bobbing and weaving beneath branches and out of sight.

All of his carefully laid plans had been for nothing.

Albit had spent hours pacing, and staying up late staring at the inky black of his room, peering into it, consumed by the idea of taking a child....it seemed a shame for all of that effort to be reduced to a simple impulse, but that's exactly what had happened.

Grab now, think later.

The second child was easier though. And, if truth be told, Albit was more anxious and excited than nervous. The urge wasn't sudden and overwhelming, like it had been with the first child.

No.

Albit's second child was a slow accumulation of wanting; he wanted to take another child at first, just a small ember of a want, but the ember slowly burst into an overwhelming need, and every second he wasn't out looking for a little boy or girl who slipped into the space between all the peering eyes of the town, he felt a strong physical frustration, like a stubborn yawn, that wouldn't fully come up and out.

And then he finally found her, playing hide and go seek.

She was great at hiding. Albit had watched her play a couple rounds, and seen her shrink down into a tiny ball at the end of a fallen and hollow tree, quietly giggling as the neighborhood child finally got frustrated and called "Uncle" at the top of their lungs hoping for her to come out and start the game once more. But as she shimmied herself from her tight little nook, Albit came and told her not to end the game yet...

"I know a place where they'll never find you"

And she followed him deeper into the woods, like the first child had, giggling and playing along the way.


The third one was even easier than that, and then the fourth, and the fifth, and eventually Albit lost track of all the boys and girls he'd helped.

He lost count of how many boys and girls he'd taken. How many he'd liberated from their parents. Albit was only 13, but he was big for his age. Not big enough to give his father pause when he felt like throwing a right hook after a few drinks though. A little booze and a right hook.
That's what had put his little brother, Bart, to sleep for good.

God, he missed him....

But that wasn't going to happen to Albit. No, he'd be damned if he let that happen.

He didn't have the sharpest mind, so he couldn't quite figure out how it was that he was going to escape his father, all he knew was he was going to help as many others get away before he left for good too. Albit couldn't remember where the idea had come from. It had just been so, the thoughts, and wants, and know-hows all just in his mind one day.

And so that's what he was doing, when he took the children, helping them...... that's what he told himself. He'd have a little brother or sister for an hour or two as they weaved their way through the trees, and he never hurt them, not once, that wasn't what he wanted to do.

He wanted to take them somewhere safe.

He would take them to the man in the cave, and the man in the cave would take them away.

Albit didn't know where he took them, he just... took them.

He asked once, and the man said simply.

"Into the tunnels,"

That's it, just into the tunnels...

The dark, wet, and terrifying tunnels, which you couldn't pay Albit himself to go into to, but luckily the man in the cave was always just there, in the cave, which had the light from the sun that trickled in, and the man would just be there, sitting on a rock right where the light met the dark.

He thought maybe he should ask what "into the tunnels" meant, or where they led, but as much as Albit trusted the man in the cave, he also unsettled Albit, with his thick ragged jacket and hood pulled up, he hadn't even fully seen his face in the dank and dark cave, the many times they'd met.

But he had a wonderfully smooth, caring voice; a voice you could trust, a voice that didn't sound like the voice of a man who was cruel or mean like his parents were... like Albit's parents were.

So even if the cave was a little creepy to walk into, and even if the children Albit took weren't exactly excited about going with the Man in the Cave, Albit knew he was doing good.

And he would continue to do good, as long as he got to play for a little bit, got to laugh, and jump from tree to tree.

It reminded him of Bart, of playing and laughing with Bart, until his father's right hook sent him to the promised land. Poor, small, sweet little Bart.

[hang]

ALBIT: Race you to the cave!

Matthew: Hey, no fair!

Matthew was 7 years old when Albit took him. The latest in a long line of children which had ceremoniously taken the place of his brother for an hour or two at a time.

Albit, who was clearly the larger, faster, stronger of the two, took off through the woods.

The leaves which had fallen, as they do when autumn arrives, crunched beneath their feet, and punctuated the chilled air.

He could hear Matthew behind him, huffing and puffing and trying his hardest to catch up, trying his hardest to impress the older boy, but Albit had already reached the cave, and running backwards most of the way, sticking out his tongue at Matthew.

MATTHEW: You cheated, you didn't countdown!

ALBIT: I did! You just didn't hear me! I'm thirsty. Are you thirsty? There's fresh water in the cave, come and have a sip.

The two of them joked and jumped around as they entered the cave.

Water dripped from the cavern walls and ceiling, and dark wet slime covered most of the rocky surfaces.

It was a cave that had sheltered, that had buried, and that had summoned. The cave was a maw in the earth. The mouth to a great tunneling snake with a belly filled of terrors. There were bats and bears, shadows and whispers. And, there was the Man in the Cave of course.

Albit pointed to the corner where the shadows creeped forward further than the rest of the cave, but Matthew could hear the sound of water trickling into a pool. It sounded so cold, and sweet, the way water spilt from a rock can be when it's soaked in the crystals and wonders in the earth, and Matthew ran forward with a greedy, parched mouth.

He saw the tiny pool of water as he got closer, he saw it glint and shimmer in the dark, and when he got to the edge, he dropped to his knees and stuck his whole face in the water. Little Matthew had never been so thirsty in his whole life, and it tasted wonderful, and he felt the sweat on his neck chill as his body filled with-

[Splashing as something is forced into water]

The man in the caves hand remained firmly on Matthews neck, as he waited out the final twitches and spasms of life that were left in the young boy's body. And Albit just watched, as the man in the cave helped Matthew escape the pain, and the troubles of life.... And most importantly his parents.

Matthew was finally free of his parents.

The Man in the Cave smiled.

Albit couldn't see his face from where he stood, in fact he'd never seen his face, but he could hear his dry lips peel back off his teeth into a grin

THE MAN: You've done so well my boy. You are so very smart and clever to have brought me so many young ones.

ALBIT: It was nothing.

THE MAN: Oh no it is something, a very big something, and you are a very special someone. A special someone who deserves a reward.

ALBIT: Uhhh...okay, what kind of reward?

Albit's face lit up and his heart felt warm with love. He'd never heard anyone call him smart or clever or special, not once in his life. But the Man in the Cave thought he was smart, and clever, and he thought Albit was special.

THE MAN: Come over here, it's right here in my pocket, I know you'll like it. I got it specially for you.

Albit felt wary about walking further into the cave, he liked staying in the light, and if he was being honest, Albit was afraid of the dark. But he wanted his reward, his special reward that was just for him. Albit hesitated but he looked at the man in the cave, and started walking towards him, slow at first and then a little faster as the eagerness in him grew.

As Albit got closer, he could make out the whites of the man's eyes in the dark, and they stared at Albit, staring at him, locked on him, then he could see his mouth, wide in a smile.

Too wide....

It almost reached from ear to ear.

And his skin was a tent stretched from cheekbone to cheekbone, down to his chin. It was so tightly stretched it looked as if it might tear at the corners.

Albit didn't like this.

No, no this wasn't right at all, Albit thought, get out of the cave.

Albit opened his mouth wide as he felt a scream bursting out of his chest

The man in the cave's shot at him like a bullet and Albit felt as his fingers dove into his mouth, the sharp nails scratching at the back of his throat and digging painfully into his tongue. The grip tightened, and the man's thumb pushed up on the soft underbelly of Albit's chin like a fishing hook.

[Smashing]

The Man in the Cave stood in where the dark met the light. In his hand his held tight, hooked into the bottom jaw of the young boy, who meant nothing to him, and who was unrecognizable, and no longer breathing. His face leaked onto the floor.

The man in the cave, still smiling let go of Albit, who fell backwards and hit the ground with a limp, sickly thud.

THE MAN: What should we do with this dead little insect? Shall we fill him with secrets and whispers?"

WHISPER: I am a whisper and i will be your secret.

It was the size of a rat, a bald sickly rat, but with the hands and face of a man. Its skin folded on itself and scabby pox were visible on its back, and from the deep of the cave, its claws skittered and scratched at the rocky floor as it scampered forward, leapt, and jumped into the mouth of Albit, clawing and digging its dirty little body down his gullet, deep into his chest.

The man in the cave grabbed the limp corpse that was Matthew by the hair, and dragged it behind him as he walked deep into the cave. The man in the cave whistled, as he made his way down the dark snaking tunnels. 

...

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