July 1998
The moment…
The group found Holly as they approached the mouth of the mine. She was covered in black soot from the old coal remains that hung in the air and stuck to the walls. She shook like a small dog.
‘Holly, where’s Chloe?’ Neve asked.
‘I – I…’ was all Holly could reply.
‘Holly, have you seen her?’
Again, Holly was unresponsive until Neve slapped her, snapping her back into the situation. ‘Holly, have you seen Chloe?’
‘She’s still down there. I tried to get her to follow me, but she said I was disorientated, going the wrong way. I tried to get her to follow me, but she wouldn’t. She’s down there still.’
Baz charged past the group, shouting Chloe’s name as he descended into the darkness, Michael close behind, followed by the others who were reluctant to go back. As they traversed the main line wall, calling Chloe’s name, Neve felt the darkness was somehow blacker than before. Eventually they came across the tracks where they had seen the Drifter. They hoped he wasn’t still down there, waiting for them.
‘Which way did she go?’ Baz asked, desperation in his voice.
‘I told her to follow me up the way we’ve just come. She didn’t – she went that way,’ she replied between sobs, pointing in the opposite direction. Baz didn’t hesitate and ran on, his zippo lighter’s flame barely holding out against the wind he generated running. The others followed as close as they could, stumbling blind in the dark, until they reached a huge cavern that stretched fifty feet away from them, and the same upwards. Baz had stopped and was crouched, looking at the floor.
‘What is it?’ Michael asked.
‘Footprints,’ he said quietly, before calling her name.
‘Did she have a torch?’
‘No,’ Holly replied.
‘She’s blind down here,’ he said standing and slowly moving forward, following her footprints in the dirt. Neve didn’t know why, but she couldn’t follow. Something came over her, something terrible, freezing her to the spot. The others felt it too, and watched Baz take one step in front of the other until he stopped.
‘There is something here,’ he called back. ‘Michael, I need your torch.’
Michael wound his torch and joined Baz’s side. Once it had enough charge, he pointed it towards the thing he could also now see. And when the light hit it, it vanished, sucked into a dark hole in the ground. Michael stepped forwards, and just before the light faded out, he could make out the shape of Chloe twenty feet below. Her head split wide open.
Falling backwards he let out a cry and Baz – who had not seen – shouted to tell him what he could see. Michael couldn’t respond. Grabbing the torch Baz wound it up, flicked it on and pointed it down. The beam shook in his hands as the others joined his side to see what had caused Michael to cry.
Everyone but Neve.