Cave

Leaves crunched underfoot as a slight figure dashed through the dimly lit forest.  A fair arm was raised to shield sensitive eyes from a splash of sunlight that filtered through the trees overhead.  Those same squinted, midnight blue eyes darted about, picking out the path that would lead to where the runner wished to go, if he wished to go anywhere at all.

“I can’t believe this,” he groaned softly, adjusting rectangular glasses as an irritated frown settled on delicate features.  What was he thinking, coming out here alone?  There was no way he’d make it back to the group before dark… and who knew what might lurk at night on the outskirts of the lake.  But what was the point of turning back now?  It would be like climbing three quarters of the way up a mountain, only to give up and climb back down.  And besides, he knew what the others would say when he returned.

“Are you crazy?”

“Do you want to get yourself killed?”

“What would your brother say?”

“I can’t believe you’d do something like this, Ethan!”

“Forget it, guys.  He’ll never be what Justin was.  Just give it up.”

Ethan cringed.  Well, he would get that when he returned anyway… might as well have something to show for his little adventure.

He didn’t know what his brother would say – honestly, he hardly cared.  Justin had always been more of a symbol to Ethan than an older brother.  A symbol of everything that the younger brother was not, everything he couldn’t do, everything he would never be, no matter what he did.  The group he was so reluctant to go back to wasn’t even made of his own friends; much like everything else, they all belonged to his brother.  It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that resentment was the only noticeable feeling Ethan held in regard to his sibling.

And it wasn’t as if he wanted to go back.  Some of the others – he had never cared enough to remember their names – were just so nosy.  Curiosity was a good thing to have, certainly, but there was always such thing as too much of a good thing.  He wasn’t some specimen to poke and pry at!

The lake was in sight now.  The late afternoon sun glimmered on its surface, once again bringing a spark of pain to hastily averted eyes.  The air was laced with the scents of flowers and standing water.  The reeds rustled; a water bird left its shelter and took flight.  Dragonflies buzzed about, the light reflecting off their colorful wings.  For a moment, the boy was mesmerized by the dancing flashes of blue and green that flitted to and fro in the scene before him.  But a quick toss of the head drew him out of his trance – this wasn’t what he had come here to do, was it?

A graceful hand pushing strawberry blond overlong bangs out of his eyes, he began to move once again, skirting along the lake shore.  There was no path, but then again, there were few paths in this forest.  Before long, he had reached the stone face of a cliff.

Ah… the cave.

How had he ended up here?

While he was running, that was all he had been doing.  He hadn’t given the slightest thought to where he was going.  He had simply let his feet carry him where they liked.  He hadn’t been too particular about where he had ended up, as long as it was away from the group. He needed… some time to himself, he supposed.  Was he just trying to avoid them?  Maybe.  Or just trying to think?  Perhaps.

Avoiding the issue?

Unquestionably.

Ethan was by no means a “people person.”  He kept himself distant, pushed others away lest they learn something he didn’t want them to know, ran from them before he could be forced to think about something he’d rather be left forgotten.

“Why’re you always so distant, Ethan?” Lillian had asked once, seven years before.  “I can read just about everybody.  But you… you’re a closed book.  I can’t see what’s happening.  All I can see is the cover.  Can’t you ever open up, give us a peek at what’s really written in that book?”  Don’t you trust me? was the silent addition, but the ten-year-old boy could tell it was what was supposed to have gone there.

And yet, he had merely sighed.  Sighed, and thought.  Half a minute or so later, he looked up into the older girl’s eyes.

“I used to be an open book, Lily.”

She looked a bit surprised – not because of the answer, but because he had actually answered.  He had actually given her question some thought.  He hadn’t just brushed her off and gone back to his book.  But it seemed he didn’t plan to give a clearer answer.  Or had she thought too soon?

“But you know what happens when you leave a book open for everyone to read?”
Dark blue eyes seemed to pierce right through her, even through those rather thick glasses.  Stringy, red-blond hair framed that delicate, childish face… that innocent face on which those frigid eyes should have had no place.

A slender pair of hands snapped his heavy book shut, and she had his full attention.  “Everyone flips through it.  See if there’s anything useful.  If there is, they keep it in mind.  If not, they get rid of it.”  He frowned and pushed his glasses further up his nose.  “And after so long of being looked through, its pages get tattered and torn.  And eventually, people start ripping them out.”

She looked intently at her friend’s brother, eager to hear more.  To hear what the boy who hardly anyone noticed was really thinking.  To get a tiny glimpse into that heavily guarded mind.

But he didn’t continue.  There was nothing more to say.

Lily never did have the most complex mind, in the boy’s opinion.  He hadn’t expected her to fully grasp what he was saying, and that was half the reason he had told her.

But she smiled anyway, even as he cracked the book open once more and was lost again in his own little world.  That locked clasp on his book hid a lot.  Maybe someone would find that someday.  After all, there was more to Justin’s little brother than just his cover.

But someone had taken a pin and picked that lock.  Someone had slipped past that nondescript cover.  And Ethan did not like it.

Pressing a small, fine-boned hand to the stone wall of the cave mouth as he slowed to a halt, he slumped a bit, panting.  He wasn’t really in the best shape.  As he tried to force his breathing back to a normal rate, he looked around, taking in his surroundings.  So this was what the Aura Cavern looked like up close.  He had never been this near it before.

It was a legend of sorts among the inhabitants of the forest surrounding Lake Ivera that no good could come from the cavern.  It told that the cave spilled raw power, uncontained and uncontrolled.  That there was something inside that was the source of the spill.  That, whatever this thing was, it would awaken someday.
But frankly he doubted the tale.  Some sort of apocalyptic being rising from the cave?  Please.  As if that would ever happen.

Besides, he hadn’t seen it.  And if something important would happen to this forest, he would have surely seen it long ago.  Nothing.  There was nothing.

Ethan was not exactly average, after all.  Like the others he took shelter with, he was what people called a “chime” – a human with special abilities that set them apart from the rest of the species.  Chimes most frequently displayed only basic telekinetic powers, though there was always the rare case that had something more at his or her disposal.  His brother had wielded lightning; Lillian had teleported to wherever she wished.  Ethan had clairvoyance on his side – he saw the future, whether he was looking for it or not.  And with everything he saw, his visions had never once been wrong.  Visions of disaster, visions of death, visions of dark times to come… and over the years, it had warped him almost beyond recognition.  The once wide-eyed and naïve child had become a bitter, jaded fatalist.  Where was the hope for the boy who already knew what was to come?  What was the point in trying his hardest at anything if it was going to end the same anyway?  There was no adrenaline rush in risky behavior when he knew there was no risk to begin with.  The Blind Seer – the nickname earned for his almost humorously thick lenses – hardly saw the merit in anything.  What could a pathetic, insignificant human do that would have more of an effect than a falling leaf on the great river of fate?

Even so, if his current little adventure was going to get him killed, he would know by now.  So what was the harm in going, right?

But still, there was something about the cave that wasn’t just a myth.  Justin had never let him go anywhere near it, back when he was still around.  And, well… his brother was the realistic type.  So if he had believed in something, there was probably at least a shred of truth in it, wasn’t there?  Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea after all…

…No!  He wasn’t going to fear this place!  He would brave the place that even the group’s precious and wonderful Justin wouldn’t dare venture.  He wouldn’t spend his life being seen as lesser!

His jaw set in a firm line, he moved away from the wall and took a few steps further into the hole.  There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?  This place was calm, not foreboding.  The sunlight peeking through the cave mouth cast a soft, yellow glow over the stone around him.  It was pleasantly cool, especially on this hot day.  The soft whispering of breezes coming from deeper underground drove away the cries of birds and frogs from outside.  Even the air was peaceful; it smelled of wet rock and of cold, not at all like the murky, muddy scent the lake tended to carry.
Yes, as far as anyone would ever be able to tell, these tunnels were a quiet place of refuge.  That ridiculous story must have been what whoever found this place first made up to keep everyone else out.

But if that was all there was to the Aura Cavern… then why was his stomach tying itself in fancy knots and bows?

It’s nothing, there isn’t anything here, don’t be such an idiot, Ethan told himself rather forcefully.  There was nothing.  To think anything else was just foolish superstition.  There were no such things as monsters and ghosts; if there was something other than mice and bats in there, it was just as human as he was.

With that mindset, he continued to walk.  Very little changed as he got deeper; even the light never seemed to get dimmer.  In fact, it was impossible to tell if he had gone anywhere at all – until a flash of green caught his eye.

Was that… a plant?  What was it doing here?  There was no way anything could grow this far underground; there was no soil, no sunlight, nothing.  The only thing down here ought to be moss, if anything.

Curious, Ethan made his way over to it and knelt to get a better look.  It was clearly a fern of sorts, which would have been odd enough on the surface in this area – ferns weren’t exactly native flora in a predominantly evergreen forest.  And down here it was even stranger.  Peering at its leaves, he pursed his lips and raised a brow.  He’d never seen this exact species of plant anywhere, not even in a book.  Just what was this?

Perhaps there was something off in this place.

Drawing in a deep breath, he turned his head to glance deeper into the rock.  The air felt oppressive, heavy with static, suddenly unpleasant.  Dimly, his mind registered the faint crackle of supernatural energy in that breath.

This wasn’t something that happened by itself.  There had to be something giving it off.  But he wasn’t so sure he wanted to know what it was anymore.

“That’s enough exploring for one day,” he said to the empty space around him, his nervous laugh bouncing and echoing off the walls.  Well, he had to find something to prove he’d been here.

Returning his attention to the fern, he reached out, intent on plucking a leaf – that would be proof enough.  Gingerly, he closed in on it, until his hand brushed a frond—

Exhausted gasps tore at an air-starved pair of lungs.  Legs that sprinted as hard as they could screamed with overexertion; they would give out soon.  His emerald eyes never looked back as he wove through the trees and scrambled over the rocks.

The midnight forest was as bright as day, lit up by six searchlights that swung around, threatening to point him out.  In the distance, men were shouting atop deafening vehicles.  A shiver shot down his spine as he heard rapidly approaching barks and howls – they had set the hounds on him.  They’d find his trail any moment now.  Was this the end?

A wave of panic made him nearly choke on his own breath as he frantically clambered up the rocky cliff.

“Let’s move!” came a distant roar, slamming his painfully fatigued body into a frenzy of motion.  Pulling himself up onto the top of the wall as fast as should have been humanly possible, he jerked to a halt, abruptly frozen in his tracks.

Coming from each direction was a different sound.  From the left, a low, vicious growl.  From the right, the soft click of a released safety mechanism.

Backing into another stone wall in terror, a harsh, white glow flashed in those vibrant green eyes.

The soldier and dog were sent flying backwards by a sudden shockwave that exploded off of their target, respectively crashing into another rock and a tree.  But he didn’t waste a second basking in his small victory; the instant his path was cleared, he took off once more at a run.

The peak was in sight.  Closing in on it, he noticed an opening into the cold, gray stone.

There was no time to think.  With the hounds on his heels, he ducked into the cave and resumed his pace, not even realizing just how deep he was going.
But finally… it was quiet.  His sharp ears confirmed what his gut was telling him – he’d lost them.  For now, anyway.

A wheezy sigh was the only sign he gave of his relief, before his knees buckled and his legs collapsed underneath him.  His head harshly striking the cavern floor, he cried out and, by instinct, forced himself back up onto his hands and knees.  His mind spun; he’d pass out any minute now, surely.

It was now or never.  Fear gripped his soul once again as he dredged up all the mental strength he had left—

Ethan’s wide, navy blue eyes snapped open with a start.  His hand, which had been keeping an unconscious death grip on the fern, slackened and fell to the stone floor that he must have collapsed on.  His breath came in short, nerve-laced bursts as his heart thudded in his chest like a stampeding herd of elephants.  Wh-what was going on?!  What was that?!

Who was the stranger fleeing for his life?

Slowly, slowly, his heartbeat slowed to a normal pace, his breathing calmed, the trembling that had captured his small body faded away.  But as his capacity for calm, rational thought returned, he couldn’t help but notice that his desire to get out as fast as he could had been completely overwhelmed by a nervous, sinking feeling… yet he couldn’t deny that, blended and mixed into that feeling, was a powerful wave of morbid curiosity.

…there was no backing out, not now.  His only choice was to see this through himself.