It has been one year since the group of friends was trapped in the cave. Ever since that day, none of them felt, or acted, the same. Many things have changed for all of them since that day. Alice and Chris broke up. Chris didn’t seem to act the same to Alice anymore. After High School he ended up moving to Massachusetts to go to college. Alice tried to get in the same school, but was rejected and ended up going to a local school instead. Steve and Ryan went to a local technical school together and still remain friends. Alice keeps in contact with them, too, but not as much as she would like to.

            Michelle stayed and went to a local school as well. Dan moved away for college. They try to keep a relationship together, but being that far away it is hard to maintain a relationship. They rarely talk to each other anymore, and when they do the conversation is over quickly.

            The biggest change, though, happened to Ashley. While in the cave, she was injured badly. Both of her legs were broken, and one of her arms was cut cleanly off. She was in the hospital for over a week when one day, the nurses found her dead. At first, it was investigated, but nobody could figure out the cause of death, and since she was injured that badly and she died in the hospital, it was assumed she died from her injuries, even though she seemed fine for the week she was in there.

        Alice wakes up and looks at the calendar. Tomorrow will make one year since she lost her friends in the cave. She has her four flowers ready for tomorrow. Every month besides the first two she went back and placed four flowers, one for each of her dead friends, inside the cave. This time, though, she decided to call the rest of her friends to see if they would come as well. She called Steve then Michelle then Dan then Ryan. She did not call Chris and did not plan to. Dan didn’t go because he lived too far away, and the other three said they weren’t going to. All of them were afraid of going there, especially Michelle, who had been in the cave before. Alice gets ready for tomorrow knowing it will be a rough day.

            Alice arrives at the cave to find people in and around the cave. There is a news van outside the cave as well. She expected a few people, there always has been lately, but she did not expect that many. Most of the time it was just kids and teenagers who came as jokes and dares, but she did not see anyone younger than herself. When she goes into the cave she sees a bunch of people. There was light shining in from the outside. In the corner she sees the news reporter with her cameraman. Alice overhears her.

            “It has been one year since the tragic death of four local teenagers, but was it all an accident? More at eleven.” The cameraman signals to her that she is now off the air. “Wow, this is a dumber story than our train story last week.” The reporter said.

            Alice looks around more. In the corner of her eye she sees two familiar people. It is Steve and Ryan. She asks, “I thought you two weren’t coming.”

            “So did we,” Ryan said, “but we felt bad, especially with you coming here by yourself.”

            The cameraman and the reporter start heading toward the door. Just then, the entrance starts closing. Alice recognizes what is happening. She shouts, “Get away from the door!” The reporter stops running, noticing that the entrance was closing, but the cameraman runs outside. He makes it out fine, but he looks back just in time to see that the reporter was trapped inside the cave. It shuts completely before he could do anything.

            Alice shouts, “Relax everyone. Please stay clam. I know the way out of here, just follow me.” Just as she finished saying it, though, the ground starts shaking, almost like an earthquake. She is standing next to Ryan and Steve. Before they know it, they are falling through a hole in the ground. Most of the other people do as well. Only the reporter and one younger man are still on the top of the cave. The reporter asks, “What do we do now? Do you think they are okay?”

            The young man says “They should be fine, I heard a bang fairly quickly so they probably didn’t fall too far. I think we should wait for them to come back. In the meantime, my name’s Matt.”

            “My name is Kate,” she says. They look down the hole together. They don’t see or hear anything.

            Alice stands up and looks at the others that fell. She sees six people; Steve and Ryan, a married couple, a guy by himself, and furthest away, she sees Michelle. “Michelle, I thought you weren’t coming.” Alice says slightly annoyed.

            “I wasn’t going to, but Ryan called me and convinced me to come, so here I am.” The other three ask what is going on. They explain everything, but none of them believe them. Eventually they asked everyone’s name. The married couple’s name is Andrew and Sarah. The guy by himself is named John. The seven of them think of a plan to get out when Alice remembers the light. She suggests her and Ryan go down and turn the lights on and if the others hear the two of them scream, then just run away. Steve, Ryan, and Michelle agree, but the other three think they are all crazy. Ryan and Alice head downward out of sight while the other five find a place to wait that is visible to Alice and Ryan even if they don’t turn on the lights.

            Alice and Ryan head down the dark ramp. The whole time Alice starts remembering the first time her, Chris, and Dan found the way up. She also remembers her dead friend that she found on the bottom.

            “Hey are you alright Alice? I can do this by myself if you need me to.” Ryan said.

            “I’ll be fine Ryan. Anyways, it would take you a while to fine the lights, it is kind of hidden, especially when it’s dark.”

            They reach the bottom. Alice tells Ryan to start searching the walls. Ryan was about to make a comment about how she didn’t know where it was either when they hear people screaming from above. They hear a bunch of footsteps running, a guy’s scream which ends quickly, and a girl’s scream, which is much louder. Ryan runs back up the ramp leaving Alice alone. Alice knows the only thing she can do to help is to turn on the light. She hears a girl scream again. She hears no more screams, only running. She finds the light switch and the lights turn on. She runs up the ramp to find everyone.

            Alice runs up to where the other five were. She spots Ryan staring down. There is blood everywhere on the walls. Alice asked, “What happened? Where is everyone” Ryan turns around and is covered in blood. “Oh my god, are you okay?” She notices a girl’s body on the floor.

            “It’s not my blood, it’s Sarah’s. I got here just before he killed her. I don’t know where the rest are but I think they might be…”

            “I heard two people scream, and I heard a lot of people running. I think the rest are safe, just missing.

            Kate and Matt look at each other. They heard the scream from below. They were now frightened too. They also saw far away a few different paths they could go. Two were lit up and one wasn’t. The two directions to the left were the lit up ones. They could also go to the right, but that way was darker. They didn’t know which direction the others would come from.

            “What should we do? We can’t just sit, but if we leave and they come here, we may all get lost.” Kate said shaking.

            “I’m sure they’re coming. I think we should just sit here and wait for the others to come here.”

            Michelle starts running. She seen two people killed, thought it was too dark to see who they were. She hears running behind her and someone in front of her. She notices the lights are on, but she is too afraid to stop. She tells herself that she is safe, though she cannot stop running.

            Alice and Ryan decide they should go up too. They walk quickly to try and catch up with the others. They are too far away to even hear running.

            Matt is leaning against a wall. Kate is lying on the ground. They haven’t said anything since they decided to stay here. Matt hears a noise and looks around. He notices something standing near the entrance of the cave. He jumps up.

            “Kate!” he screams, “Run!” She has a confused look on her face, but looks behind her. She sees a beast like creature holding a sword staring at her. It grabs her neck and Matt runs toward her. He tries to break her free from his grip, but nothing is working. The beast life his sword and stabs Kate through her chest. He lifts his sword upward though Kate’s body until it exits through the top of her head. Matt looks at this monster, and then at its victim, and then back at him. He walks away backwards very slowly. He isn’t doing this to try and escape. He’s not even doing this on purpose. He is doing this because he is stunned and doesn’t know what else to do.

            The beast throws Kate’s body onto the ground and looks up at Matt. Matt is only about five feet away at this point. The beast starts moving toward Matt when Steve comes up from below. Matt turns toward Steve and just stares at him, not moving now. It is only two feet away from Matt now. He lifts his sword now. Steve runs and tackles Matt to the ground, keeping the blade from striking either of them. They try to get up, but have trouble since they just took a hard hit against the cave’s floor. The creature lowers its blade into Steve’s heart, barely missing Matt’s face. Matt is now pinned beneath Steve’s bleeding corpse. He tries to move Steve but the monster’s blade is still in Steve, and he is pushing down on it.

            Eventually, the beast wants to kill Matt, so he lifts his blade out of Steve. Matt pushes the body off himself and runs. He isn’t moving in any general direction, just running, until he hears a girl’s voice scream, “watch out!” Matt turns toward that direction and runs that way. He passes the turn that Michelle is standing at and keeps running. She screams at him to stop and to go her direction, but he doesn’t. She sees the beast is now far away and decides to follow Matt who is now far ahead. They go down a darkened direction that Michelle had never noticed before. It is very narrow and turns a lot. She cannot even see Matt anymore. She wonders if both of them would be able to run side by side, in case they saw the beast down here. In a way, she hopes they would find out, because she isn’t sure if both of them will make it that long.

            John runs up and reaches the top. He eventually slowed down because he was constantly looking behind himself to see if that creature was behind him. Now, he only hears footsteps behind him, while before he heard them in front of him as well. He is still running. He almost goes into the darkness when he sees something in the distance. It is Steve’s mangled body. John stops running and almost collapses. There is blood-surrounding Steve, and his face looks like something took a bite out of it. When John notices the bite, he does fall. He starts to stand up until he hears his name called out. It is Ryan’s voice. He turns to see Ryan and Alice coming up the ramp. They ask where everyone else is and John points to Steve. Ryan runs over and Alice tries to stop him. She fails, so she goes with him too. She looks around making sure nothing is near them. She notices the other girl’s body. She doesn’t look familiar so she assumes it is the reporter. She wonders where Michelle went.

            “Wasn’t there people up here,” John asks.

            “Apparently one,” Alice says, “where do you think Michelle went.”

            “You said before that you two know a way out. I am guessing she is either leaving or is dead.” He says.

            “I know her too well, she wouldn’t leave us” replies Alice

            “Alice, if I knew a way out and saw Steve like that, I’d leave too.” Ryan says. They argue what they should do. Alice wants to wait while the others want to go. They were planning on talking more until they see the beast near them. He made the decision for them. They run to find the exit.

            After a while, Michelle is able to catch up to Matt. She grabs his arm and convinces him to stop. “There is a bunch of other people in this cave with us. We need to find them so we can get out of here. We don’t know what is down this direction.” Michelle says.

            “Do you know the way out of here?” Matt asks

            “Yes, but I also know that the others will be looking for us. If we don’t find them I doubt they would ever leave here. Now come on, this is the wrong direction. Follow me.” She convinced him so he follows.

            Alice, Ryan, and John reach the exit. They see the ladder and the opening to the top.

            “That’s it?” John asks.

            Ryan leads followed by Alice and then John. They are climbing the ladder when Ryan looks back. He sees the beast getting closer to them. Ryan moves faster. It is clear to him that him and Alice will make it to the top, but John might not. He screams for everyone to move faster and he nearly reaches the top, but then he hears the ladder start creaking. He jumps to the top, but then the ladder starts to fall. Ryan grabs Alice’s arm. John falls to the bottom and the beast grabs him by the top of his neck. He swings his sword into the bottom of John’s neck, decapitating him. He throws John’s body against a wall and blood flies everywhere.

            The beast turns his attention to Ryan and Alice who are still hanging onto each other. Alice is barely in the beast’s reach. He tries to grab Alice’s leg and misses. Then he swings at her with his sword and misses. He tries grabbing her again, this time catching her foot. He yanks her down, and she slips from Ryan’s grip. He is now only holding onto two of her fingers. She slowly falls more and more until Ryan cannot hold on anymore. She falls to the ground landing next to John’s body. She looks up at the beast and sees she is trapped. Above she can see the opening closing and Ryan looking down at her. She signals him to leave, and, seeing that there isn’t an exit anymore, he does. He looks off the edge of the cave and sees more reporters than there were before. He yells at them to call the police to help him down. Eventually, firemen do lower him down, but still nobody believes his story.

            Michelle and Matt come to the areas to choose which direction to go. They turn to go downward but they see the beast standing that way.

 “We have no choice. We have to leave now. This way.” Michelle says. Matt follows her out toward the exit. When they arrive, they notice blood everywhere, the ladder missing, and the top closed.

            “Well, this was the exit.” Michelle says.

            “There’s a body here,” Matt says. “t looks like John, but it is beaten up badly.

            They turn around and see the beast. He is blocking the exit. Michelle tells him what to do. They both sprint at him at opposite sides. They make it past him. They make it to where they choose their direction. Michelle chooses the new direction. It is not lit up, so they have to move quickly to escape.

            They are running side by side through the narrow jagged path. Michelle looks back and doesn’t see anything, but she can hear it nearing them. They also both hear something in the distance ahead of them. To them, it sounds like thunder. That would hopefully mean that this is also and exit. She turns around again and cannot see it, but she can see its sword swinging up and down as it is running. He is moving much faster than them, and if they don’t do something fast he will catch up to them.

            Breathing heavily, Michelle says, “We need to run faster.” The beast is now in sight behind them. They are almost within his reach. They can hear the thunder louder now, but now it almost sounds like it is coming from below them. The passage gets wider, almost enough for three people, and ahead of them they can see it starts to get even wider. The beast swings at both of them and misses. He gets ready to swing again, but both Michelle and Matt start falling. Even before Michelle landed she realized what that “thunder” really was.

            They had fallen into a river. The “thunder” was the current crashing against the rocks below. Michelle swims to the top of the water and looks for Matt. She cannot find him so she screams out his name. She has trouble staying above the water so her words are hard to hear. Matt doesn’t respond. She looks up hoping to see Matt and sees nothing, not even the beast. She wonders what to do and she decides just to let the current take her wherever it wants her to go.

            Eventually, the water starts sounding louder than before. She thinks there might be a waterfall soon. She looks to her left and to her right. The rocks are now too high to climb out of the water. She tries to think what to do and tries swimming the other direction. She manages to slow herself down, but is too tired to swim against the current. She stops trying, but then hears her name called out. She looks above herself and sees Matt with his arms out. Michelle grabs him and he pulls her out of the water. She lies on the ground panting staring at Matt. She tries thanking him, but is too tired.

            After a few minutes, Michelle sits up and looks at Matt. “Ready?” he asks. She nods yes and they get up. Up ahead, Matt thinks he sees an exit. There is a door and light is coming through it. He goes in and looks around. It looks like a living room to a house and wonders what it is doing down here.

            Noticing the lights are on, the two take their time and look around. The room is mostly empty except for a nearly empty bookcase and a chair. Matt looks at the bookcase and finds only two books, one large and one small. He grabs the large one and opens it. He starts reading, but it is in a different language. Even the letters are different. He wonders what language this is. He keeps trying to read until Michelle calls his name.

            “Look what I found.” Michelle says. It’s a door to a darker room. They open the door and walk inside. It shuts quickly, but makes no noise. A small stream of light is coming from a small hole in the door. In the furthest corner, they see the beast hunched over, looking in the other direction. He is standing over a pile of corpses. Some of them are skeletons, while others are decaying. They can see some are missing limbs, while others have huge bite marks. He is holding Alice in his arms now. She is nearly unconscious and is all bruised. The beast swings his sword slicing her neck, and Alice falls to the floor. Michelle screams and the beast turns around. Matt starts pulling on the door trying to open it. He gets it open but Michelle is too scared too move. He runs over and grabs her throwing her in the other room. He runs through too and slams the door shut. He sees Michelle on the ground crying, and he tries to calm her.

            Eventually, Matt calms Michelle enough so she can think clearly. They decide to rest and regain strength before leaving. It had been over sixteen hours since they had gotten trapped inside, and most of that time was running. Michelle fell asleep quickly lying next to Matt. Matt was thinking too much to sleep. He was trying to remember what it looked like outside this room so he would know where to go when they did leave. He starts to doze off when he sees something moving outside the door. He doesn’t think much of it and starts dozing off again, but then the lights go off. For a second, he was happy they went out thinking it would help him rest, but then he remembered that they needed those. He wakes Michelle up and she looks around and sees the beast in the same room that they are in. Matt and Michelle jump up to run and they leave the room. Matt is still carrying the book he was holding before. He completely forgets he has it even though he is still carrying it.

            As they close the door, Matt looks around and sees out of the corner of his eye run to his left. He runs that way, but the beast comes around the corner, so they change direction. Far away they can see a very dim light. They run that way and can now tell that it is from the rising sun shining from outside. Some small rocks block the exit, and the beast is nearing them. He grabs his sword and gets ready to swing at them. They push enough rocks for Michelle to fit through, but the hole is not big enough for Matt to fit through. Matt pushes Michelle outside. The beast is too close now. The hole is too small. Matt closes his eyes thinking of what is about to happen. He does this for a few seconds until Michelle calls his name. The beast stopped. The sunlight coming from the hole was enough to stop the beast. Matt doesn’t move still, until Michelle makes the hole big enough for him. He runs through still shaking from before. They don’t know where they are or how to get to the front of the cave, but they are safe. Matt looks at the book he is still carrying. He thinks of throwing it, but decides against it. He turns around and he sees lights turn on from inside the cave. He is confused but doesn’t care anymore he is out.