I'll Tell You a Story

Nyx of the Night

"Did you hear that?" Nyx pauses and throws Cooper a short glance as her fingers bury deeper on the handle of pickaxe.

"Hear what?" Cooper's tone suggests she's delusional.

"Nothing." she lets out a dramatic sigh, and back to mine the carbon.

"If not for this stupid documentary project, I would get my ass here in this pit. This place is really spooking me out." Cooper's voice is laced with barely controlled anger.

Nyx bites her lips to keep from laughing. They both know whose idea is this--to document how miners get carbon underground.

"Yeah, I know. I know. My bad." Cooper says much too quickly.

After a moment, Nyx hears the same noise a while ago. The eerie sound is now clear to her. It's more of a man's distant wail. It's something scary and thrilling twirls around my chest and settles in her belly.

As she shoot a glance on him, he makes an affirmative little grunt in the back of her throat. He heard it too.

"Hello? Is somebody there?" he tries to search the deeper place with the light from his helmet flashlight. But nobody answers no matter how many times he asks. In her mind, she thinks his voice us less confident than she expects.

In the middle of the silence, the crying and roaring in obvious torment of the man continues. They both want to investigate its source further, but a shadow of a man suddenly materialized. It immediately rings alarm bells in their minds. Upon failing to see the man, they do not know which brings a jolt of horror--that a shadow appears or it is motionless after.

"Hello?" Nyx's voice is a bit grumpy, yet still there is no response. It makes him pale a little. But to Nyx, her fear is a razor-blade, scalpel in her skin.

"Help me," the man finally shows himself to them. His voice was breathless tragic.

He attempts to get closer but he topples on the floor. His body is painted with dry blooda and his eyes are plucked out. He is in popover shirt, but it looks like it was caked with mud. Nyx, cannot bear the horror she is witnessing, gives a breathy little sob and nestles up against Cooper's shoulder.

"You shouldn't be here! You shouldn't be here!" the man's voice lifts a little whine.

"Get out of here!" the man shouted as loud as he can to scare them away.

"Take it easy, man." Cooper voice is just a soft whisper when huge rocks begin to fall from nowhere, blocking the entrance of the pit.

"I told you. Now you're gonna stay with me here forever..." The man gives a wry smile, then turn into insulting laughter.

"Shh! I heard something!" Nyx snorts, walking towards the entrance of the pit.

"Hear what?" Cooper can't believe she's hearing things again.

"Here van bloed, aanvaar ons aanbiedinge!" Nyx is sure there are people out there. And they sound like they are performing a chant.

Suddenly the chant stops, the next thing that Nyx hear is cracking of the man's bones. Consequently, their hearts start to race at nauseating pace. The man bends backward with his stomach protruding. He twists until he drops flat on the ground. Suprisingly, the man has eight legs now.

They were expecting him to attack them, but it turns out he's not much of a danger.

"Spare me, my lord! Spare me!" the spider-like man shortly stares at the pickaxe Nyx is holding, then plead and kiss her foot frighteningly.