Strange Fields (Chronicle)

2) Discovery

The group I was following were talking extremely loud in the quiet forest. I was beginning to think I had made a wrong decision to follow them to something strange in the middle of the woods but I had nothing better to do and a little part of me felt bad for acting so cold to the guy named –

     ‘Matt, right?’ I asked the boy who invited me to come along.

     ‘Yeah,’ he smiled, turning around and falling back with my steps. ‘I’m sorry; I can’t remember your name. I mean, I’ve seen you around school; that’s why I thought to ask you along. Is it ... Hannah? Or Anna?’

     ‘My name’s Demi,’ I said, unimpressed. ‘Anna’s my twin sister.’ I grinned as the look of apologetic embarrassment spread across Matt’s face. ‘Don’t apologize; a smile is the only difference between our appearances.’

     ‘I’m sorry,’ Matt said without thinking. ‘I mean – It’s sad to hear that.’

     ‘Hear what?’

     I walked ahead of him, closer to the group as they stepped into an opening, as I didn’t want to continue conversing with Matt. I didn’t find it comforting to talk about myself and I hardly knew anything about him; I was lucky to get his name right.

     What happened in the next few minutes was unbelievable. These people dragged me close to a gaping hole in the ground, pushed my head in to hear a loud, vibrating piercing sound shoot through the air. Some of them laughed and leaned in to try and hear more but it never came again. A dark skinned boy I recognized to be Steve Montgomery from the election flyers announced he was going to fetch a boy he saw holding a camera so they could film the hole.  I didn’t find it any more interesting than I did three minutes ago.

     After Steve left, people started to get tired of waiting around for the hole to do more tricks and left before Steve came back with the boy whom Matt said was named Andrew. So then I had a name to the face behind the bulky camera.

     The conversation Matt was trying to conjure between us as we waited wasn’t really lifting. I wasn’t at all interested in talking with him; we had nothing in common apart from a few classes at school. Moments after Matt took out his phone and started fiddling with it, voices arose from the bushes up ahead.

     ‘Garetty!’ I guessed was Steve’s voice calling out.

     ‘Down here!’ Matt cried out.

     ‘Garetty, I see you!’ Steve continued. ‘Where’d everybody go?

     ‘They left. Except Demi, here.’

     I gave them a wave as they came into sight, Andrew still with his face behind the camera.

     ‘Come on, let’s go!’ Matt called up to them. ‘Can you see it? Is that the camera?’

     Once Steve and Andrew had climbed their way down, Steve was jumping with excitement and energy as Andrew lagged behind him with the camera, hesitating to record the hole. I managed to avoid looking at Andrew in the eye. I still felt a small pang of guilt from just watching him get bullied.

     ‘Do you guys know how to get back from here?’ Andrew asked, making it dawn on me that I hadn’t even concentrated on the steps we had taken to get here.

     Steve and Matt didn’t answer, however Steve seemed to be obsessing over the mysterious hole.

     ‘Listen to this,’ said Steve, jumping to lie down on the ground with his head in the hole. ‘No, you gotta get in!’

     Andrew was pulled by Steve to get his camera closer to the hole. I played along, too, kneeling down and craning my neck over the edge to see darkness inside.

     ‘Listen, listen, do you hear that?’

     ‘What?’ Andrew asked.

     Within seconds, another piercing sound pushed its way out of the hole and into the cold air. Matt and Steve laughed as they commented on how creepy it was.

     ‘Hello?’ Steve yelled into the hole.

     ‘I don’t think there’s anyone down there,’ I spoke up, seeming to shock Matt and Steve that I had said anything.

     ‘I’m going back,’ said Andrew. ‘Matt, seriously.’

     Before Matt could answer, Steve had jumped into the hole like a lightning bolt. I gasped in horror and took a step back, wondering how big the hole must be.

     ‘Shit, he’s a ninja,’ Matt laughed before he, too, began to climb inside the hole.

     ‘Matt,’ said Andrew. ‘Matt, what are you doing? Matt, you’re my ride home!’

     ‘Don’t wait up, Andrew,’ I said with a small smile before I climbed in after Matt.

     It was almost impossible to suppress a cough in the hole. It was tall enough to stand at full height and wide enough for at least two people to walk side by side, but it was wet, dark and I couldn’t see a thing in front of me. Luckily, I grasped the back of Matt’s jacket. He turned around and held my hand so I wouldn’t get lost while Steve went back to scare Andrew. He had actually followed us into the hole.

     ‘Does it go much deeper?’ I heard Andrew ask.

     ‘Yeah, it goes really far.’ Steve answered, catching up to Matt and me.

     Feeling fear bubble up inside my stomach and a heavy sensation all around, I tuned out the rest of the boys’ conversation. Gripping Matt’s hand harder, we finally found a turn in the dirt corridor, stopped and were amazed.

     ‘Holy shit,’