Inktober 2022
Oct. 18: Scrape

« It was dark and dry inside the cave, each of the team members slowly sliding down the rope which hung from an opening at the top. Once we had all gotten down to the ground, we just started the exploration as we planned, walking around together, taking a few samples of rocks and minerals and recording some clips on the cameras we had brought. There wasn’t much down there, a couple of bats and bugs, but otherwise nothing else. The whole environnement inside was extremely dry, which was one of the reasons why we chose to go take a look anyways.

About 10 minutes after we had entered the lower floor of the cave, one of the team members spoke out about a noise that was bothering him. We all froze to see what was causing it, but the sound just disappeared, so we went back to work. After that however, we were all a bit more conscious of noises, so when it came back after a few more minutes, we all heard it around the same time.

It was a scraping sound between two hard surfaces, one probably being stone. As we looked around, trying to replace the source, we realized that it probably wasn’t caused by us explorers since we had stopped moving one by one to see if we made the noise. Once we had eliminated everyone and all our equipment, that’s when we really got worried.

As it turned out, the sound was actually coming from one of the naturally formed tunnels towards the west, which we all saw and took account of but hadn’t gone to yet. Our discussions had all gone silent at some point as we pointed all our light sources towards the opening in the wall. Suddenly, another identical sound joined in from another entrance behind us, which made our alertness spike even higher.

It was then that everything just fell apart. Our lights, cameras and electric equipment suddenly started to fail and we tried to call the surface, but there was no answer. Once all the lights had gone out and most of the team were half whispering, half yelling at each other for directives, the scraping got louder, closer and came from even more directions.

It was completely dark, so I don’t know what exactly happened afterwards, but the sound that first appeared first had gotten incredibly close before stopping before the team, nothing but eerie silence hanging in the cave for several long moments. Then it was the sound of a large breath being taken that broke the quiet. It sounded like a large creature’s exhale or sniffing, but I can’t be sure of it since the next thing that was heard was a team member’s scream of pain as he was snatched from our group, although we could hear his body being dragged away by whatever made the scraping noise.

It was terrifying as the cavern erupted into yelling and flailing limbs. I just ran as quickly as I could in a direction I thought was quiet. I left my team behind since I was scared for my life. I must’ve ran into a wall of the cavern or something because I felt something hit my head so hard that I just blacked out. »

A neatly dressed investigator stared at the shaking male sitting before him and let out an exhale to disguise a confused sigh.

« Is that all you can remember? » The man lifted his heavily bandaged head and nodded helplessly. « Well then, focus on your recovery for now. We’ll ask for you again sooner or later, but if you remember anything, just contact me. »

The investigator gathered some of his materials and got up, leaving with a curt but polite goodbye. Once he was outside, a younger man joined him and took over the files on the interview he had conducted.

« I can’t believe that was all you got out of him, » he said in an unconvinced tone. « If only he didn’t get a concussion, perhaps he could’ve given us some more acceptable answers. »

The older man looked at his colleague and frowned. « Regardless of whether those answers are ‘acceptable’ or not, we have no other choice. He’s our only witness and survivor from the attack on that team. »