Part III:
Again, we walked to Carlsbad Caverns from the hotel, but this time Stephanie and I stayed together, along with Jennifer who was more than happy to be the third wheel. Surprisingly, the walk was mostly quiet.
When we arrived at Carlsbad Caverns, the energy heightened within the group. Some were excited, while others were uneasy, but for one reason or another, everyone’s emotions were high.
After Mrs. Seagraves spoke to the attendant at the welcome center, we were given our tickets. The elevator took us down into the caverns in groups. Stephanie, Jennifer and I were among the first group, and we were instructed not to wonder off while waiting for the rest of the class to join us down below.
We reached the caverns after the lengthy elevator ride. We found that there really was a gift shop, as well as a cafeteria and restrooms, nearly one thousand feet below ground.
The rest of the class followed soon, and after the chaperones performed a head count confirming all thirty students were present, our guide led us off into the caves.
The serpentine walkway for visitors made the tour easy to navigate. It was lined with handrails and was complete with stairs in areas of incline or decline. It also separated us from the rocky structures around us, as much for the cave’s protection as for our own.
As we walked, the teachers were careful to make sure none of us wondered too far behind, and to quiet any whisperers. “Listen!” they’d tell us, as the guide talked about the caves.
“I’ll point out all the important land marks along the way,” the guide told us. “There’s the Witch’s Finger, the Hall of Giants, and of course the Devil’s Den. That’s where the most exciting part of the tour happens.”
As he mentioned this, I felt a tap on my elbow. I looked back to see Jake behind me. I didn’t realize he had been there, tailing me and the girls. He leaned in to whisper something to me.
“I’ll take Jennifer off your hands, don’t worry,” Jake said quietly.
Then the tour guide concluded “The Devil’s Den is where we turn of all the lights.”
Jake raised his eyebrows and smiled, then slunk to his right, next to Jennifer.
“Hey, Jen, what do you think of Mr. Ransum?” he asked her.
“Oh my gosh, he’s so weird,” Jennifer began. “And you know what?”
Jake made eye contact with me, and I saw the sparkle in his eye. He subtly nodded toward Stephanie, and then replied to Jennifer. “Tell me,” he said. Jennifer began a story, probably one she’d told before, but when Jake sped up his pace and feigned interest, she kept up with him and continued on with it. Stephanie and I drifted behind, and Jennifer didn’t notice.
Stephanie was clever, and I think she had recognized Jake’s ploy to get us alone together, but she didn’t seem to mind.
We meandered through the caves on the tour path. As we followed behind the majority of the class, taking in the awesome expanses of the underground, her hand brushed against mine several times, a gesture that could easily have been accidental, but I knew it wasn’t.
The tour guide was up ahead, defining the difference between a stalactite and a stalagmite, when Stephanie asked me a question.
“How do you think they do the part with no lights?” she asked.
When I looked up at her, I thought I saw a figure moving quickly amidst the cave formations in the distance. But the movement only lasted a short moment, and then I lost any indication of it. It could have been a shadow, but being at least a dozen yards from the walking path, I couldn’t imagine who or what would have cast it.
“If it’s pitch dark, don’t you think we’ll trip, or run into each other?” Stephanie continued.
I remained distracted by the movement I had perceived, but tried to answer her question. “Well, I guess we’ll all be still.”
I searched the various cave structures behind her for any other signs of movement. The area off the path was nothing but outcroppings of rock and cave deposits. There was an enormous crack in the cave wall nearest to us. It was wide enough that a person could have squeezed into it sideways, but it didn’t appear to go very deep. As I looked around, I noticed a particularly offensive smell.
“I guess they’ll have us all sit down,” Stephanie said. “That’s probably how they do it.”
“Do you smell that?” I asked.
Stephanie sniffed the air. “A little. It smells like rotten eggs.”
“Maybe sulfur.” I suggested. “I hear caves can smell like sulfur.” But I wasn’t quite convinced.
In my mind, the foul odor was connected with whatever shape I had seen in the distance behind Stephanie.
“We should catch up a little closer to the group,” I suggested.
We continued on, marveling at the humongous structures in this world-within-the-world. Eerie shapes and forms produced over thousands of years, drop by drop. Throughout it, I was watchful for any other strange signs of life around us.
Slowly I became at ease once again, and then we arrived at the Devil’s Den.
There was a final stretch of path leading to the Devil’s Den, which was the largest of the underground expanses we had seen yet. The cave ceiling abruptly rose. It felt like descending into the belly of the earth.
The tour path stretched from the opening which served as our entrance, across to the opposite side, where there was another alcove though which we would exit. The path in this area was lined with a man-made stone bench on the left. There would easily be room for the entire class to sit while they turned off the lights and the Devil’s Den was covered in blackness.
The guide explained that we were each to find a seat on the bench. The students filed all the way down to the opposite end and began to sit. The teachers stood for a while at first, but eventually found places between the students.
Since Stephanie and I had been in the back of the group, she and I occupied the last two spots on the bench.
All thirty students were finally seated. Stephanie was to my right, occupying the very end, and the rest of the class was to my left. Soon the lights would be shut off, and we would get to experience complete darkness. I was beginning to get anxious. If I was going to kiss Stephanie, I would only have several minutes during which to do so.
The tour guide gave us a few last words.
“In a few moments, I’m going to shut off all of the artificial lighting in this section of the cave, as well as the surrounding ones,” he started. “I promise you will never see a place this dark for the rest of your life. I just want to say a few things first.”
Suddenly, I noticed that stinky, hot-wet smell again. The smell of filth. It was the same smell as before, following us it seemed.
“First of all, please stay in your seat, please don’t scream, and absolutely no cell phones,” the tour guide continued. “The screen will shine a bright light and completely ruin it for everyone.”
The smell was not simply back again, it seemed to be stronger than before.
“Everyone ready?” the tour guide asked.
I looked around, not exactly sure what I was looking for. I noticed Stephanie was smiling at me, though. She leaned over.
“It’s ok,” she whispered.
Stephanie could tell I was nervous. Maybe she knew I planned on trying to kiss her. Jake had probably told someone. But my first kiss was not all I was worried about at that moment.
“Okay then,” the tour guide said. “Let’s have a count down.”
The smell was stronger this time, much stronger.
“Three!” the tour guide shouted.
The whole class joined in. “Two! One!”
Then, blackness.
The smell was still bothering me, but I tried to ignore it. I didn’t have long, if I wanted a kiss, this was the time. But I just froze there.
The darkness was complete and overwhelming. All thirty of us were completely silent, not even whispers arose from classmates. I wondered if this is what an astronaut felt like in space, only instead of being amidst nothing, we were amidst everything, trapped inside the world and secluded from the universe outside.
“In most darkness, your eyes would eventually adjust and you’d start to see something,” the guide said, his voice seemed louder now in the blanketing darkness. “But not down here. There is literally no light whatsoever.”
I heard Stephanie shift her weight. I wanted to reach out and touch her, but I didn’t move. I kept blinking my eyes, but other than the slight sensation in my eyelids, I couldn’t even tell I was doing it. The world was black, it was nothing.
Then, either by accident or as a subtle nudge of encouragement, I will never know which, Stephanie’s knee lightly bumped into mine. And for some reason, that was all it took.
I slowly reached out, found Stephanie, and ran my hand up the length of her back until I found the nape of her neck. My thumb grazed her ear. I could feel she was facing me, so I leaned in gradually. As I inched my face closer to hers, I began to hear her breathing, I could smell her perfume, and I felt her breath on my lips.
Then, finally, we kissed.
The sensation was sweet and delicate, and wholly unique. I hadn’t known what to expect from my first kiss. I had no idea what it would be like or feel like, but suddenly it made so much sense. It felt exactly how it should feel. It was simple.
Her hand searched and found my thigh. She grasped my knee with her fingers.
Then, unexpectedly, I felt her slip her tongue briefly into our kiss. It grazed my upper lip. When our tongues gently met, it was a sensation I felt throughout my whole body, and it took the feeling from my body, all at once.
I felt her hand leave my knee. She lifted up my shirt and stroked my abdomen with her fingertips. Her fingernails were not long, but long enough to tickle me and take my breath away as she traced my bellybutton. I reached down and felt where the bottom of her shirt met the small of her back. I ran my fingers along her skin. It felt so smooth. I reached down further, and slipped my fingers under the waist of her jeans, and felt the swells of her butt and the crease in between. All while we kissed.
Then, I heard movement nearby, the scruff-scruff of something large scampering across the cave floor behind us. And the smell, the sour-rotten smell like a wad of moldy hair yanked from a clogged drain.
A moment later, Stephanie was taken from me. Her entire body was jerked away, inhumanly fast. I heard a short startled breath escape her as our mouths suddenly parted and she left my grasp. Her forehead knocked into mine when her head whiplashed forward as she was yanked away. I heard the scuffle of her body being dragged on the ground, but the sound was quickly fleeing. I wondered why she wasn’t crying out for help.
“Somebody help!” I shouted as I got up from the bench. I reached my arms in front of me, and began to shuffle in the direction Stephanie had been dragged away. With one hand I fished out my cell phone from my pocket, flipped it open, and shined it on the ground. I saw marks on the ground in the dust. But no blood, thank God.
I shined the light out directly in front of me, but saw nothing. I followed the marks on the ground out the opening through which we had entered the Devil’s Den. Then I lost the trail.
Suddenly, the world was bright again. The lights came back on. My shout had caused a commotion. I could hear the class murmuring.
“Over here!” I shouted. I backtracked further, leaving the Devil’s Den behind. I continued back the way we had originally come. I looked all around, shouting Stephanie’s name, but saw no sign of her. I began to run through the Caverns. Whatever had taken her had dragged her in this direction.
I ran along the path. I noticed I was getting closer to the spot where I had originally seen movement, and smelled the awful stench. I shouted for Stephanie, but got no reply.
I rounded a wide corner in the path, and then I saw the creature standing there. And it had Stephanie. The creature was both bat-like and cat-like, but it stood as tall as a man. It was covered completely with black matted fur. Instead of arms, it had two sinewy wings coursing with red veins. At the end of each wing was a small hand with four clawed fingers. Each skinny leg ended in a three-toed foot, but unlike a bird’s talons, all three claws pointed forward. Two bulbous, yellow eyes with no pupils peered at me, emotionless and unblinking. Huge triangular ears jutted sideways from its head.
Stephanie’s limp body was suspended in the creature’s…grasp. It was difficult to understand what I was seeing. The creature had Stephanie’s entire head in its huge mouth, like a human lollypop. Her body dangled in the air. The creature’s purple lips and yellow teeth were firmly planted around the circumference of Stephanie’s neck, forming a grotesque and slimy choker necklace. Drool and blood seeped out and soaked the collar of Stephanie’s shirt. She weakly kicked her legs, but the creature was strong and stupid. I now heard her muffled cries coming from inside the creature’s bulging cheeks. I could only imagine the thing’s tongue slithering against her face. She could maybe even see the sphincter of his throat, hear its lungs expanding and contracting, if indeed it had any lungs.
“Let her go!” I shouted. “Spit her out!” I began to cry.
The creature lifted one if its legs, and grasped Stephanie’s shoulder, its sharp claws sinking deep. Then I saw its jaw clench. It twisted its neck and pulled with its leg in opposite directions, separating Stephanie’s head from her body. The creature’s head jerked to one side at the force of Stephanie’s tendons and spine and muscle tearing and giving free. The last I saw of Stephanie’s head was a protuberance in the creature’s throat as he swallowed it whole.
The creature dropped her lifeless, headless body to the ground, before bending over and taking hold of her torso in its mouth. The creature backed up toward the large crack in the cave wall. It dragged away Stephanie’s body, while staring at me. The creature scurried backwards through the crack, contorting its body to make itself fit, and finally disappeared all except for its head. With jaws still clenching tight, it writhed and tugged on Stephanie’s body, trying to pull what was left of her through the crack. It was taking her away, saving her body for later. It would probably eat the rest of her after it digested her head. Her body dangled and trembled while getting wedged further in the crack. Her limbs looked like branches sticking out of a wood chipper, being slowly eaten up from the other end. The creature pulled and pulled, until eventually every part of Stephanie’s body disappeared, forever. Guess that crack in the cave wall went deeper than I had thought.
All that was left of Stephanie was the moisture on my lips from our kiss.
I heard commotion behind me. “Are you alright?” someone shouted. The teachers, they were coming fast, probably running. I supposed Mrs. Seagraves and Mr. Ransum would want to know what happened to Stephanie, and I wondered what the Hell I was going to tell them.
In the end, what I told them was that Stephanie ran off when the lights were out, and I didn’t know where she went.
This naturally begged the question of why she would do that. So I just told them that I had kissed her and it must have freaked her out. The teachers were furious at me, Stephanie’s parents were furious at the school, the school was furious at the Search and Rescue team that couldn’t manage to find her. I was furious at that damn creature, and furious at myself for not having been able to protect her.
I hated the fact that Stephanie’s parents were convinced that their little girl was supposedly lost and hungry in the caverns somewhere. They wondered why someone couldn’t find her; she couldn’t have gotten that far. Later, there were suspicions that a Carlsbad Caverns employee had kidnapped her, though there was never an actual suspect.
I was also under suspicion at one point. Some folks were under the impression I might have killed her and stashed her body somewhere secret. I could envision the headlines in the tabloids: Middle School Murderer, Killer in the Caves, or some other nonsense. But I never even considered telling Stephanie’s parents, or anyone else, what I had seen. How could I have expected anyone to believe it? And for that matter, was the truth any better? Thinking that your little girl died cold and lonely in a cave is pretty bad, but knowing she got her head eaten off while she was still alive is worse, in my opinion.
I don’t know what that awful creature was. But I think about it most days, and every night. I can still remember that terrible smell, like it crawled right out from the guts of a sewer covered in muck and filth. It might be easier if I believed that creature was pure evil, a demon that crept through a crack from Hell to eat little girls for dessert. But I don’t know if it was evil. I don’t think it had any idea of the pain and torment and confusion it was about to cause before it bit her head right off and swallowed it whole. I think maybe it was just hungry, simple as that.
Eventually the local news reporters and the police stopped asking for my story. I was glad they did, because it hurts to lie. And the story replaying in my head while I lied was a lot worse. But the neighbors still gave me looks, and the students in my 9th grade classes knew who I was on the first day. I was glad I couldn’t hear whatever it was they whispered about me. Later, my parents moved so I could change school districts. After that, high school passed by uneventfully, as did the rest of my days.
I still keep an eye out for the headlines in Carlsbad, New Mexico, seeing if any other kids go missing down there. So far, no one. Just my Stephanie.
Truthfully though, Stephanie was not the only one who never emerged from those caves; I never really made it out either.
To this day, that kiss was the last bright moment of life I ever experienced. Ever since I watched Stephanie’s decapitated body dragged into some abyss beneath the earth, I’ve been just a boy, groping in the darkness, trying to find my way out.
