Blood on the Water
I fled down the cavern, my head lamp making the jagged walls and floor cast shadows that stretched and flickered. I grasped a necklace in my hand, a large gold pendant set with rubies swinging freely on its golden chain. The air was cool and light, with a crispness from the pure underground streams. It would have been idyllic if it wasn’t for the shouting behind me, and the sudden deafening popping of gunshots. The cave narrowed to a slight tunnel, then it opened up to an underground lake. My headlamp just able to outline another cave across the water. I put the pendant around my neck, and dove in.
I choked on the freezing water, chest tightening up, leaving me gasping for air, clawing up the the surface, headlamp flickering from the sudden submersion. I knew I had to get moving, I had to get away from the men with their guns. I managed to paddle my way halfway across when the panting, trigger-happy man squoze through the entrance tunnel.
“The game’s over!” he shouted, a bullet impacting the water a foot from my face. “Stop swimming ya brat,” he viciously screeched, “that pendants mine, and I don’t fancy getting wet.” I turned, illuminating him with my lamp. He was thin and sickly, in a business suit, but it was caked in mud and torn so much it loosely hung onto him. His hair was damp and his forehead was dripping blood. A revolver was pointed at me, and behind it I saw eyes like I’ve never seen before. Red with strained vessels, pupils so dilated his eyes looked black.
Fear set in quickly, I could tell this was no normal man.
“That’s mine!” shrieked around the cave as spit flew from the deranged man’s mouth. I heard the gunshot before I felt it, a head splitting crack followed by a sharp chilling pain, my blood dissipating into the once clear water. My eyes locked straight ahead as I sunk, frozen in shock. I was slowly consumed into darkness, my vision narrowing, and my headlamp beginning to flood. I was left in black, and I closed my eyes.
I woke to a strange crimson world. I assumed Hell, until I took a breath and found myself choking on water. I swam up as fast as I could, and hauled myself up onto the cave floor, into the bed of the shallow cave stream. My chest was burning and I rolled over expecting to throw up, but I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t feel bad at all. I felt strong, confident. Sitting up I looked down, expecting to find torn flesh. Instead, I saw a glowing pendant embedded into my chest, outlined in my blood, casting a devilish glow.
