The Crevice

A Tommy Goround-inspired tale written by Lily Finch.

Madeleine, a young skier, slayed the terrain near the Jackson Hole Inclusive Ski Resort. She was not frightened of double black diamonds; rather, she welcomed the challenge. She was the day's last competitor at the Ski Resort, and ice and snow were making for some challenging conditions on the slopes. The competition for the other skiers was over the instant they fell or veered out of bounds. Madeleine was outstanding in her field. She was an expert skier.

By the time Madeleine skied towards one of the country's most challenging passes, Corbet's Couloir, her heart rate quickened and her excitement was off the charts. In addition to trying to win the competition, Madeleine had set her own goal. She wanted to fly over the gap between the two massive rock walls without touching snow on either side of the rock face. She was confident she could do this with focused attention.

Her hands tightened around the poles. She took the leap with resolve and fit through the space between the two massive rock walls with ease. Madeleine broke into a smile. She made it; she had accomplished the jump! 

She didn’t expect what happened next. It was a chasm. It started out at a distance of three to six metres. “Oh sh*t!”, she screamed. She was giving it her all, but she was still not going to make it. The rush she felt while she fit between the rock faces quickly faded. Madeleine shook violently as she slid far down into a chasm. She landed on a ledge and began to survey the area. There was only her, the sunlight where she fell, and the bitter cold. 

Fear and panic took over. "Christ! This isn’t happening!” She screamed.

Her eyes welled with tears, which barely ran down her cheeks before they solidified. She popped off her skis and secured them on her back. Her poles dangled from her wrists. 

She was amazed and horrified by what she saw next. There before her stood Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.

It was the sight of the plane snapped in half that sent her over the edge. Their faces froze in the last moments before they died. Amelia's broken neck dangled her head in an awkward position. Amelia looked terrified. Her eyes were bulging out of their sockets, and her fingers pointed skyward. The internal organs of Fred were compressed, and his entrails spilt at his feet. His arms were wrapped around Amelia, and he appeared to be holding her as they died.

Madeleine, overcome with fear, vomited. Her knees gave out, and her heart rate skyrocketed as she plunged to the frozen ground beneath her. 

“Do come in, Madeleine; we’ve been waiting for you.” Their invitation sent chills down her spine. Madeleine struggled to stand. This place, she realised, was real; it was not a dream. She stood with her hair on end.

Madeleine screamed. Her pupils dilated, and she blinked rapidly.

The blood in her veins turned to ice. She saw shadows as monsters everywhere. She shut her eyes and told herself to “wake up already,” but when she opened her eyes, the terror was still there and she was still in the crevice. 

In almost complete darkness, she saw no way out of her freezing tomb. She begged God for help. She needed a miracle to take her away from the ugliness of the frozen deathsicles.

She knew freezing to death in the crevice would be her fate unless she kept moving and found a way out. She heard a noise and saw a drone flying towards her. Madeleine was a bit reluctant to follow the drone, thinking it belonged to Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan at first. Then she thought it could be from a rescue team sent in to find her.

The drone stopped and set down on the ground near a ladder that went out through a manhole. A man climbed down the ladder. She fought the urge to run to him, but she wanted to see what he was doing there. Patiently, she awaited her chance to escape the crevice. 

Madeleine clambered up the ladder as soon as the man spraying the water on the iced-over walls was out of sight. Outside in the fresh alpine air, she strapped on her skis and raced down the mountain. 

Arriving at the resort, she discovered that no one had any memory of her. Someone else, who did not make the leap through the rock faces, was victorious in the competition.

She rushed to her competitors to share the details of her encounter inside the crevice. They listened, but nobody took her seriously. 

She grabbed a smoothie and helped herself to a sandwich. She extended an invitation to anyone interested in accompanying her back down the manhole. Four eager adventurers joined her on her return journey to visit Amelia and Fred.

Madeleine could barely wait to show them, Earhart and Noonan. Once they were all inside and had walked toward where Madeleine had encountered the pair earlier, there was nothing there. Something was wrong. There were only ice walls, no Amelia or Fred. 

"But they were right here! I spoke with them. That’s the truth!" She looked dumbfounded and dejected. There was a lot of whispering and speculation about her mental state. They assured her that everything would be all right when they got back to the resort. 

The quartet, however, shrugged and shook their heads once they were back at the resort. Madeleine looked down at her ski boots. She knew her credibility was shot. 

 She returned alone to the manhole. This time with a camera. 

She captured everything on film. She took photographs from every angle with her Polaroid camera. This gave her physical evidence her story was true. She tucked them in her pocket as she headed back to the resort. 

When she tried to tell people again about her big news, nobody paid attention to her. She grabbed hold of one of the four people who had gone into the cave with her earlier and showed her the photographs. But from the look on her face, Madeleine knew something was off. Madeleine looked at the photos in disbelief; they were all black. 

An accomplished younger skier overheard what Madeleine was saying. He believed her. He took it upon himself to ski up to the manhole to see if Madeleine was telling the truth. 

He was stunned when he entered the crevice. Madeleine was right! He too met Amelia and Fred, who greeted him by name. At that moment, he fled He couldn’t get out of there fast enough. He climbed rapidly up the ladder and out into the crisp air. The drone flew out after him. He swatted the drone, and it crashed into a rock. He threw on his skis and started down the mountain.

He skied down the hill as fast as he could. The slope gripped his skis, and he began to slide. His speed was too fast for him to correct it in time. He collided with a tree and died on impact. Skiers and snowboarders in the gondola and on the chairs witnessed the tragedy. The snow patrol gathered up his body and took it away. His death shocked everyone in the competition. They raised their mugs of Scnapp’s to toast the young skier.

There was no sign of Madeleine anywhere. She returned to the manhole. The man sprayed water on Madeleine’s face. She stood beside Amelia and Fred. She was frozen in the ice. Madeleine became a frozen deathsicle.