Into the Depths of Darkness

Yet another story featured in "Generational Tales of Terror". Enjoy!

No real content warnings for this one - pretty PG honestly. Kind of gives a "Goonies" vibe.

Get cozy now boys, Grandpa’s got an extra spooky story for you tonight. Ah yes, I see you were admiring my old miner’s helm on the mantle above the fireplace. In fact, young ones, there is quite the tale behind that old helmet and where I procured it. That will be the focal point of tonight’s story. Now settle down as we plunge beneath our feet into the depths of the darkness below…

To truly understand tonight’s tale, we must first delve into the history of our small town. You see, way back when, long before even my time, when the civilization of the east had yet to reach this far west save for the odd fort or village, they built a railway. This railway stretched from sea to shining sea, east to west, all the way across our vast and, at the time, largely unexplored wilderness. I’m sure it was a sight to behold! Those old lines still run, sure, but it all seems so small a thing nowadays. Back then I’m sure it was quite extraordinary!

There was one issue with this new railway though. I ask you, what are the two things that old steam locomotives need to chug and churn their way across the rails? Yep! Water is one of them! That’s why the rails needed to follow along a river. And now what’s the second one? I’ll give you a hint, Santa Claus is bringing all of you a lump of it for Christmas. Yes! Ha! Coal! They burned the coal and it boiled the water. That boiling water created steam which powered all that chugging and the churning.

As luck would have it, when those brave souls who built the railway came across the land which would later house our little corner of the earth they must’ve tripped over a lump of the stuff in the grass. They decided to go exploring underground and dig a mine. Thus, Refueling Tank 87, our town’s first name, was born! Long before we dug irrigation canals and agriculture boomed, our town was nothing more than a ramshackle little group of houses, a general store by the river, and below it all, a great and vast coal mine slithered and carved its way downward under the dark prairie soil. All so there could be a pit-stop for the locomotives to fuel up on their great march west!

Nowadays, and even when I was a young child like yourselves, the mines have all but ceased to exist as the locomotives moved to diesel power and there simply isn’t a need for coal in this area any longer. The entrance and the vast tunnels below, however, remained back in my childhood. Untouched for generations the memory of the layout or what had happened down there slowly faded into distant memory. That is, of course, save for us children at the time. I remember the day like it was yesterday. We had learned about the history of our town in school, and the mines had come up. We’d all seen the entrance, just a hop-skip-and-a-jump away from the football fields and just adjacent the cemetery, yet we’d never thought twice of it until that day. When class let out, we gathered around outside the school with our bikes in hand and discussed our plans.

In the circle were my closest friends. To my left, Robbie, you’ve heard of him, but this was before his tragic disappearance. To his left, a young lad by the name of Michael who had just recently come to town and considered himself the rebellious type. Across from me, Amy, the girl I’d been pining after since third grade. And to her left and my right, my little brother, your great-uncle, who always seemed to hang around with my friends and I. The five of us were inseparable. We loitered around the town nearly every day. Skipping class to grab sodas from the grocers or throw rocks off the bridge and watch in awe as they’d splash into the river below. Well, on that fateful day, we decided to go and check out the entrance to the mines.

We split up and rode to our respectful homes as fast as our young legs could pedal. I remember calling back to Christopher to keep up as the road flew by beneath my tires. “Come on Chrissy!” I called, “They’ll go down without us if we don’t hurry!”

Like a gale-force wind I blew through the front door of our home and up the stairs to Chris and my room. With a zip and a crash, I emptied the contents of my bookbag onto the floor and threw it on the bed. I heaved open the lid to the great wooden footlocker which contained my greatest treasures and gadgets, leaned nearly entirely into the thing, and retrieved what I was after, two flashlights, the old aluminum kind with the plastic switch, one for me and one for Chrissy. I shoved them deep into my bag and raced again down the stairs, yelling to mum, “We’re going to the park!” As I raced out the door. I lied because I knew she would not approve of our plan to delve into the depths of the mine.

Flustered and confused I remember her calling out, “Be careful!” and “Look out for Chrissy!”

I feel for my young brother now that I think back children for just as his little legs dropped to the ground and his bike came to a halt in the driveway I flew by and shouted, “Let’s go Chrissy!” He was drenched in sweat and huffing hard, yet he whipped his bike around and followed right along.

***

“You first!”

“No, You!”

We were standing at the gate of the old mine, each of us a little reluctant now, arguing over who’d open the ramshackle wooden door and go in first. It was just the boys at that point, but when Amy showed up, for some reason I can’t explain, I volunteered nearly immediately. “Come on Chris.” I said and tossed him the other flashlight from my bag.

That’s when something happened that I deeply regret to this day children. Amy smacked her forehead and groaned proclaiming that she’d forgotten her flashlight at home. I, regrettably, said, “No problem!” and ripped the aluminum light from Chrissy’s little hands and tossed it to her. He looked at me in defeat, but I didn’t care since Amy looked at me with a smile.

“Just stick close to me and you’ll be fine.” I spat at Christopher and turned toward the gate. Back then I thought it was cool to be mean to my “embarrassing” younger brother. Today, and I warn the older of you, my young kin, I realize it is not, in fact, cool. With Chris, still distraught yet obediently at my heels, I threw the fading pinewood door marked with a sign reading “Danger” wide and stepped into the declining darkness of the shafts beyond.

The mineshaft started simple, a declining grade that sloped slowly into the darkness. There were rotting wooden beams every five feet or so and like rows of Atlas with aching, creaking backs they stood holding the earth above us. Michael curiously kicked at the base of one of them and the wood mushed and splintered with the light force of his sneaker. “Well, that’s reassuring.” I remember Amy spatting with a roll of her eyes.

After a while of steady descent, we came across what appeared to be a sort of staging area for the activities of the mine which once commenced below. The grade grew flat and the passage widened. The yellow beams of our old flashlights darted around the area. There was a procession of old minecarts on rails which ran in a loop around the flat ground before disappearing down three splitting shafts. We oo’d and awe’d as we saw the carts, the one nearest the steep, central shaft contained a full load of dark black coal chunks. Only a small wooden shim held it firmly yet precariously against the heavy pull of gravity steadily trying to haul the cart down into the murky black depths beyond the staging area.

“Check this out!” Robbie shouted from somewhere in the corner. He was soon drowned in a flood of yellow light, and, holding one hand against the bombardment of light, he pointed with the other to the corner. The beams of light converged on a pile of old tools: helmets with lanterns, pickaxes, and old garments covered in midnight coal dust on the floor.

“Neat-o!” Michael let out as the five of us congregated around the pile. I knelt and swiped the dust from the lens of one of the helms. Mounted on the forefront of the heavy steel lid was an early electric lamp. Remarkably, a switch on the side illuminated the ancient lamp when flipped. I turned to Chrissy and set the old helmet onto his head.

“There you go Chrissy.” I muttered. Smiling wide with a baby-toothed grin, he tilted the ridiculously oversized helm from over his eyes and turned to explore the area.

***

              “Lets split up and go deeper.” Michael urged the group after exploration of the staging area grew tiresome to our ever-curious young minds.

              “Sure.” Amy replied while the rest of us nodded. I tell you children my heart nearly skipped a beat at the thought of potentially getting some alone time with Amy as we explored.

              With anticipation I looked her way and spoke, “Who should the groups be?”

***

              Beyond annoyed I trudged along down the righthand shaft with my brother lagging behind on his small legs. He paused every few paces to tilt the large lamp helmet up and off his eyes. I had wanted nothing more than to get some one-on-one time with Amy, but since Christopher was my brother I’d been stuck with him headed down the right shaft while the rest of the gang, Amy included, set off down the left.

              “Come on Chris!” I snapped when he paused again to maneuver the helmet from his line of sight. At this point I just wanted to get to the end of our designated shaft and meet back up with the gang at the staging area so we could follow the central shaft together as we’d planned. And so, in silence and contempt, Chrissy and I plodded along into the darkness.

              After seemingly an eternity of finding nothing of significance the tunnel began to level off and curve slowly to the left. Ahead, I could hear shouts of excitement and giggling reverberating off the damp stone walls. “Check this out!” I heard. “Woah… woah… woah!” The voices echoed. “Hello… Hello… Hello!” they were growing closer.

              “Hurry up Chris!” I remember shouting as I quickened my pace to a run, leaving him and his oversized helmet behind. I ignored his pleas to slow down and wait, instead opting to focus the beam of my light on the ground before me and race through the curving corridor as the dim beam of Chris’ lamp on my back grew evermore faint until it disappeared behind the curving beams of the tunnel. I was sprinting fast when I came across a fork in the shaft. My sneakers skidded to a halt on the dust-covered rocky surface as I stopped and inspected. The right fork appeared to delve deeper into the mine; I shone my beam down its steep slope and froze. For a split second I thought I saw some sort of reflection, strange red circles peeking around from behind one of the beams before dipping out of sight.

The sharp chill which had run down my spine soon changed to butterflies in my stomach when from the left fork I heard the giggling of Amy. They were close, and so, with a tinge of jealousy in my mind, I turned and raced down the path to the left, all the while pushing the stinging tinge of worry about my young brother behind me out of my mind. I should have waited children… I should have waited for him.

***

“Woah!” The word escaped my lips when I reached the end of the curving mineshaft. The entire thing opened to a massive, cavernous space. My path, the one on the right of the staging area that Chris and I had reluctantly embarked, connected across and overtop what must have been the central path with the left path, the one the others had gone down, via a rickety log bridge with seemingly more gaps in its surface than logs. Amy, Robbie, and Michael, stood at the other end of the bridge shouting words which echoed back slightly distorted yet clear into the abyss below.

“Hi!” Amy shouted with a smile from across the bridge.

“Nice of you to join us, slowpoke!” Michael teased at me.

I crept to the edge of the bridge and peered down. The center path running level into the floor of the cavern had to be nearly thirty feet below. I allowed my beam to follow the ground out into the monstrous cavern. The walls ran in strips of black coal deposits running like the stripes of a zebra through light grey stone. My beam didn’t quite reach the ground of the cave from that high up.

“Well, are you going to join us?” Michael teased again and threw an arm over Amy’s shoulder, an arm which she did not seem to shy away from. “Unless you’re a chicken, of course!” He taunted again and Amy let out a giggle. I hesitated as I scanned the bridge again. Its logs were rotting and held together by old hemp rope. The slats tied to the crossbeams were nearly half missing; a pile of crumbling pine on the floor thirty feet below sat as an eerie warning of potential for catastrophe.

“Yuh… Yeah, of course.” I puffed my chest and took a step toward the bridge as I met Amy’s eye, and she pushed off Michael’s arm.

Her demeanor changed as the light I’d given her shone my way, “That bridge doesn’t look very safe… Maybe you should go back around?” She spoke with genuine worry that I may give in to Michaels taunts, “We’ll wait here, I promise.”

“Yeah man, just go around.” Robbie piped up in agreeance.

Michael chuckled and rolled his eyes, “Whatever… scaredy cat.” He tiffed.

That was the final straw children, and so, as the light of Chrissy’s headlamp finally rounded the corner behind, I took the first step onto the bridge, not even considering how my young brother would join us once I was across.

Creeeeak! The slats and crossmembers shifted and groaned beneath my weight. I took another step, and like the breakfast cereal the logs below my sneakers crackled and popped. Another step, and the entire bridge began to buckle. I looked down. I shouldn’t have, but I did. The ground below seemed to stretch and fall further and further away. I froze. I couldn’t move; I was petrified in fear. The crossmembers began crumbling and splinters shattered and dropped into the abyss below. The bridge was going to collapse and bring me along with it!

“Run!” Robbie and Amy shouted in unison, snapping me from my terrified trance. I pushed off a crossmember and it broke beneath my weight. I dopped my flashlight and it hurtled and onto the hard bedrock below. Two more steps and the bridge’s support beams split in two. I leapt. I was too far. I wasn’t going to make it!

My chest collided with the edge of the left path. It knocked the wind out of me, and I wheezed for breath as my arms and hands scrambled to hold myself aloft as the bridge crashed onto the hard stone below. Robbie dove and his hand locked onto my arm just above the elbow. Hard he pulled but I was too heavy, I was still slipping. Amy followed Robbie’s lead and together the two aided my panicked scramble onto the safety of the cliff’s edge.

“What the f***!” – don’t tell your parents I swore children – I screamed as I scrambled to my feet and shoved Michael. “Why didn’t you help!” I was beyond angry. First, he taunted me and I actually listened. Then, I nearly die and he can’t even help! Michael didn’t react to my beratement. He didn’t even look at me. His eyes were locked in a terrified stare over my shoulder. A terrified stare across the empty gap where the bridge had been. A terrified stare which I followed, and, when my eyes locked on the end of Michaels flashlight beam, a terrified stare I matched.

The light was locked on Chrissy, well, behind Chrissy. My brother pushed his helmet up over his eyes; he returned our terrified gaze with one of confusion. “Wha…” he started before being cut off by a deep low growl from behind. He whipped around and was met by… it. It was huge. A beast. A real-life monster. Its grey fur stained black with coal dust. It stood on all fours and looked remotely ape-like in the beams of our lights. Its head curled down from near the roof of the path and its eyes, two circles of red reflecting above an extended canine maw, locked with young Chrissy’s. It sniffed once, twice, its nose inches from Chrissy’s face. Opening its wide jaw to reveal shining, razor-like teeth, it let out a deafening roar which covered Chrissy’s face in slimy mucous.

Chrissy turned away and wiped the snot from his face. He glanced toward us for just a moment, a young face twisted in unimaginable fear, before the beast snatched his abdomen in a clawed hand and dragged Chrissy up the dark curving path we’d come down.

***

Old mining paraphernalia flew across the staging area as I rifled through the pile in the corner. My hand finally laid purchase and gripped tight on the old wooden handle of a pickaxe, “I’m going.” I stammered sternly as I stood and spun the tool in my hand.

The group was trying to convince me to come back to the surface with them to get help. “Guns.” Michael said. “Adults.” Amy pleaded. I wasn’t having it. He was my brother. I was the one who’d left him behind! Contrition and regret waged war but fear lay deep and unaffecting on my mind as I pushed through the trio. Michael stood, cowering in fear at the entrance to the staging area, ready to bolt to the top. Robbie nodded to me, put his hand on my shoulder and said devotedly, “ We’ll get help as soon as we can. Be safe. Don’t be stupid.” I nodded and took a step toward the tunnel Chrissy and I had embarked down what seemed like ages before. As I moved past Amy I was halted by her firm grip on my arm. She was crying, and she leaned in and kissed me on the cheek while speaking a line matching Robbie’s. I should have felt butterflies at the kiss, but I didn’t children. Family, I’d come to learn very quickly, was more important than some boyhood crush. After all, it’d been my stupid infatuation with her that’d led me to abandon Chrissy in the first place. I shouldn’t have blamed her, but I did. Deep in my young mind I knew I only had myself to blame, but that was a thought for a later, wiser version of myself to unravel after I saved Chrissy. When she pushed the flashlight I’d ripped from Chris’s hands into mine, I simply nodded and turned down the tunnel without another word.

***

I paced down the tunnel, steady and determined, ready to slash at the beast with the pickaxe at any moment. I made it to the part where the path began to bend. I skirted the outer right wall of the tunnel so I could get a good look around past the beams as I went, hoping to avoid any surprises. I trudged along until I came upon the fork in the tunnels where I’d first seen the beast’s eyes reflecting in the darkness of the path on the right. A tear rolled down my face as the beam of my flashlight fell upon a helmet, its dim light still shining on the wall of the shaft as it lay overturned on the rocky ground before the descending path ahead.

I knelt, letting my hand brush on the helmet, and whispered, “I’m sorry Chrissy, when I find you, I’ll never leave you behind again, I promise.” I grasped the helmet, swung off my bookbag and shoved it within. Then slowly I stood, wiped a tear from my eye with the back of my hand, sniffled away another tear, and crept down the descending path into the darkness.

I walked slowly yet steadily, stepping with the outside of my foot and allowing the surface of my shoe to roll inward – a trick your great-grandfather had taught me that was used by hunters to keep their footsteps silent - as I moved down the steep grade.

The path wasn’t long, only curved about thirty feet down, and as I reached the bottom I frantically shut the switch of my light and slunk behind a beam at the end of the passage for cover. The path had led to the bottom of the cavern, and I could hear shuffling and grunting in the darkness beyond the doorway. I peeked around the corner of the wood beam I hid behind just enough to get a look at what I was dealing with. There was a light in the cavern. As I studied and my eyes adjusted to the darkness I realized it was the flashlight I’d dropped off the bridge. It lay amongst the rubble of the bridge at the entrance of the center path and shone into the cavern.

There were large off-white stalactites towering up from the floor of the cave and drips of water rained down onto their tips from reflected spires above. The walls looked moist and slime-covered, and a putrid smell of rotted meat and wild animal overpowered my senses and caused my eyes to water.

I scanned the area and saw the dark shadow of the beast lumbering just beyond a large grouping of stalactites in the center of the cave. The moving darkness on the wall turned its long canid head high, sniffed the shadowy air, and skulked off out of the flashlights beam. I listened as the grunting faded away and decided this was my chance. I sprung from my place behind the beam and scurried silently through and around the rock formations to the large spires in the center of the creatures stoney lair. Heart racing, I peered between off-white stones and laid my eyes upon Chrissy sitting in the corner with his knees tucked close and his head down. Scattered before and around him lay the dead remnants of other creatures: antlers, bones, and pelts lay strewn across the rocky floor.

“Psst.” I tried to get Chrissy’s attention over his soft whimpering. He looked up, and when he saw my face behind the spires, hope filled his terrified, tear-filled eyes. “Where is it?” I whispered urgently. He shook his head, he knew as well as I. With another burst of courage, I slipped through the rocks and raced to my little brother. I grabbed him in a hug and he pushed me away, “You left me! All for a girl!” He whispered softly yet angrily.

“I know buddy… Never again.” I spoke with certainty in my voice. I pulled his small head close and comforted him as he wept silently.

“Promise?” He curled away and looked up into my eyes.

“I promise Chrissy. Now let’s get out of here…” I tussled his hair as I reassured him, “Oh… I got something for you. This time we’ll strap it up, so it doesn’t fall down.” I pulled out the miner’s helm and placed it on his head, drawing the leather strap tightly across his chin so this time it wouldn’t fall into his line of sight. He smiled, and we snuck back through the rock formations toward the fork path entrance.

***

I hope this one isn’t too scary for you grandchildren. I know it was a terrifying ordeal at the time but now, there’s truly nothing to worry about. I warn you, this last bit gets pretty intense, but I want you older children to make sure your younger siblings don’t get too scared, just as I did for young Chrissy, okay? Here goes the rest…

***

We had just about reached the mouth of the right fork path when we heard it: a loud, earth-rattling, blood-curdling, roar from behind us. The beast knew Chrissy was gone. And it would be hunting us now. Chrissy froze in terror, but I was somehow cool-as-a-cucumber. I grabbed his arm and we bolted for the path I’d come down. As we ran Chrissy stumbled and fell over a chewed-up femur bone on the ground. He let out a cry, and I turned back to see the beast barreling toward the sound. It reached him at the same time I did, but this time, this time I wouldn’t leave Chrissy.

It loomed over his small body scrawled on the ground. The lamp on Chris’s helmet shone into the face of the beast as it barred its off-white, sharp, pointed, stalactite-like teeth. I dropped the light and swung the pickaxe in a large two-handed arc. Its point found purchase in the red right eye of the beast just as it lunged at Chris. The beast howled and lurched away. I grabbed at Chrissy and drug him to his feet. The beast pulled the pick from his eye with its large, clawed hand and threw it to the side. It leapt, blasting through a stalactite to block our way to the fork-path exit. I thought fast, I grabbed Chris’s hand and half-dragged him toward the other exit, the one where the center path met the cave.

We reached it just in time as the beast howled and crashed through the cave behind us. We snuck around and over the remnants of the bridge which had fallen from above and scrambled up the path. I looked back for a moment and saw the beast at the entrance, maw wide in a grin-like portrait of horror as the fallen flashlight beam lit its face. It howled again and began clawing and clamoring its way up behind us.

The grade was steep, but we were able to grip the railcar rails and climb as fast as we could. We raced up the inclining tunnel with the beast at our heels. I glanced up and saw light ahead! The staging area! We were almost there! Chrissy reached the top first, he skirted around the loaded minecart and reached out a hand for mine. He pulled, trying to help me up, but I was heavy, too heavy, and my ankle started to burn a white-hot pain. The beast’s claws had sunk deep into the flesh of my calf! It was going to drag me back! I screamed at Chrissy. “Run!” I shouted. “Leave me!” I pleaded with my brother, but he wouldn’t let go. His face screwed tight as he gritted his little teeth and pulled as hard as he could.

All seemed lost. I was going to get drug back down and if Christopher didn’t let go he’d come with. That’s when I saw it: the wedge. The thin wood wedge which was holding up the loaded-full minecart. I shouted at Chrissy to move and whacked at his hand. He let go and cried out to me as he fell onto his back in the staging area. I rolled to the side. As the beast clawed at my left leg I shifted and kicked the wedge free with the other. I twisted out of the way just as the impossibly heavy cart started to roll. I was small enough to let it pass, but the beast was not. The cart slammed into its chest. The beast released its grip on my leg and braced against the cart. I scrambled to my feet beside Christopher and we watched in horror. For a moment, the beast held the cart steady, defying the heavy gravity of the load. The beast pushed with its great hind muscles and the cart creeped ever so slightly upward, but the beast couldn’t hold it. With a scream its legs gave way and the cart, along with the beast, went crashing down the center path into murky black below.

***

Not long after that, children, the rest of the gang, save for Michael, returned with not just adults, but armed police officers. They found Christopher and I huddled together at the mouth of the mine. Red blood streaked through the coal dust on my leg, and Chrissy’s headlamp shone in the starlit night. We were safe. Safe-enough anyway.

The authorities decided it must have been a wild bear or a cougar which attacked us, though they never ventured into the mine themselves, no, they listened to us there. Instead, they covered the entrance in a foot-thick layer of cement, trapping the beast forever in the depths of darkness.