DO YOU TAKE THE DARE?

“Yes” I whispered. But I don’t think Cam heard. He was too busy goading me.

“You are not chickening out on me, Are You Allison?” Cameron said with a cruel glint in his eyes that I have never seen before. But I ignored it. He has been behaving extremely weird today. But all of my questions have been rebuffed with one taunt or another. So, I finally gave up.

Maybe it was his parents. I sighed. It was not like he was treated badly; they didn’t beat him or anything but neither do they care much for him. He was generally ignored by both sets of his parents. Mr Parker is a high-rise businessman who travels a lot and doesn’t have time for mundane things like attending his son’s football games. Mrs. Parker has lack of what we call maternal gene. Her first love is for parties and booze and her adulteries perhaps the worst kept secret in town.

“I don’t think its safe guys” Martha said with a little frown on her face. “and we have all heard the stories…” She was of course right. We have all heard the stories of ghost cave of our town since childhood.

“Oh! Come on…they are just stories M told by parents to keep little Martha away from scary places” Mark said laughingly. Martha glared at him.

“it’s not just that” Martha persisted “My mom told me that some of the boys from her class once went into the cave as a dare and came screaming out after five minutes. Apparently, they heard a woman crying” she whispered ominously and shivered slightly as though hearing the scream herself.

“They were probably just trying to impress the girls” Mark sniggered.

“And my Uncle Reginal told me that once when he was camping near the cave and he was sure that he was woken up screams echoing in the night."

“Isn’t he the same uncle who believes that Elvis Presley is still alive?” Mark smirked while Martha fumed at him. They were both always at odd with each other. While Mark was outspoken, fun and an only child of a gay couple. Martha is the “serious” one of the gang and probably the only one with normal parents.

“So, what do you say Ally Cat” Cam interrupted before another argument broke out between them “Do you take the dare.”

All of them turn towards me now and I remember why we were here. The sound of a plate smashing woke me up. A cold sweat run down my body and my chest feel hollow.  Though the shouts were muffled through my bedroom door I knew they were fighting again. There was a heavy tension in the air that was squeezing my lungs painfully. I needed to get out of here. I called my friends and asked them to meet me at the at the edge of the forest. We were going camping. Maybe looking at the stars will remove this dreadful pit in my stomach.

But that has not gone as per plan. We were playing truth and dare by the fire. I know juvenile, but there is not much to do in the forest. So here I am dared to go into a cave haunted by a woman and god knows what other boogeymen lurking in its shadow.

“Have I ever said no” I said looking at him with challenge. He smiled. It looked oddly sinister with half of his face covered in shadow.

“Okay then, call us if you meet a ghost Allyson. I want to ask her if we can have our next Halloween party here” Mark said with a devilish glint in his eyes.

 “Okay”, I said..but hesitated for a moment in the front of the cave. I am a little scared of the stories as well. But no now is now is the time to wear my big girl panties, I told myself stubbornly. After taking a deep breath, I enter the cave.

The torchlight blinks balefully at me twice and then settles into a lightning beam. It illuminated the three-foot-wide tunnel. Nothing to look here but grey rocks and mud-covered lime. The darkness was absolute, so much so that it looked like the torch was dangling by itself in the air. There were times when I had longed to get lost in that darkness when raised voices had shook the foundations of our home. Sometimes I had hidden into the shadows and wondered if anyone will ever see me. But your friends see you.

Yes..i thought my friends see me. Shaking off the other morbid notions I instead focus on coming up with ideas of revenge dares. At least these thoughts would keep me from thinking too much about the darkness surrounding me or the odd shuffling sounds (probably rats).

As I moved deeper into the caves, I discovered that the tunnel was getting narrow in some places. It was so narrow in one place that I thought of turning around and going back. A reasonable voice in my head informing me of the dangers of the cave in. It sounded suspiciously like Martha. But in the end my own stubbornness prevailed and I squeezed myself through that narrow opening only to come out to a tunnel wider than I had been travelling. That’s when it happened, the temperature dropped a few degrees and the hair on the nape of my neck stood up. I shivered a little. All was silent in the cave and I could hear the thin rasp of my breath. Suddenly, I heard shuffling behind me. I whirl and move the torchlight. There was nothing there. Rats probably some rat. I thought desperately.

I never knew that it will take so much bravery to put one foot in front of another and move in the dark depths of the caves. Cursing my stubbornness, I move forward. Now, it felt like I was entering into another unknown dimension and the spawns of hell were surely waiting for me at the end. As I moved deeper, I came across what looked like a big chamber in the cave and I could hear a trickle of water dripping somewhere. I was moving my torch searching toward when I heard a loud keening moan from behind me.

I froze, all my muscles locking themselves and I couldn’t move at all. My breathing turned heavy and my heartbeat was banging in my ears like drums. Everything sharpened and it felt like my heart was in my throat. Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! I chanted and looked back..i couldn’t help it. It was a compulsion. My body was moving before the message even received my mind. Aahhhh….i screamed as I saw was a flash of white hurtling toward me.

Amahara Dillson looked out from the small window of her hut. You are just being paranoid. She consoled herself. Turning away from the window she looked at her daughter sleeping in the pallet. Maybe she couldn’t have helped it even if she had tried. That poor five year old girl had such a bad cough. Her tiny lungs rattling like window panes during a storm. But this village seems more superstitious than any other she has lived before. Putting a medicinal paste or making a kadha sounds less witch crafty than anything that village ojha can do. Surely exorcising ghosts and evil spirits sounds more witch like than providing medicines to children, I reassured myself. But I could still see that scared look in anya’s mother eyes when the little girl’s cough eased a little. But what’s greatness for men is sin for women my dear” my grandmother’s voice echoes in my head. Maybe I will just leave this village in the morning I sighed to myself. Nothing to be done at the dead of the night and went to sleep curling around my children.

But the morning never came for her. After hearing everything from Anya’s father, the outlier was termed as witch doctor by the ojha. Four men lead by Anya’s father broke down the witch’s door. Two of them took the screaming witch out of the village while the other two killed the children. As the children were small they were not initiated in the witch satanism but the witch has be killed outside the village or her death may bring a plague here.

“Pppplease..” pleaded Amhara..”Please leave my child…Do not harmmm her..Please…” she begged and cried and tried to claw at her captors but to no avail. Her poverty ridden body a mere twig to their strengths. Please god please, save my child she thought desperately. She dragged her legs as they took her into the cave. She bit savagely into her captor’s arm and he howled and dropped her while the other men kicked her hard on the head. Things became dazed then. Time passing in the blink of her eyes. Blink they were dragging her through the tunnel. Blink a narrow opening ahead. They couldn’t possibly fit themselves through that..she thought dazedly. They didn’t need to..they killed her there and threw her body into the hole. Then just left leaving not the women but a mother who only wanted to be with her child.

Allison woke gasping. There was sweat all over her body. Someone was making an odd keening sound. As soon as she thought this entered, she realized that it was coming from her mouth. Putting a hand on her throat she stopped and looked around. She could see her flashlight ten feet from her leg. Allison stood up shaking and picked up the torchlight. Oh god! Oh god! She chanted and started running toward the entrance of the cave. She ran blindly stumbling, falling and colliding with the walls of the cave. Her only thought on escaping the nightmare that took place there.

At long last she came out of the cave gasping and mindless with fright.

Cameron and Martha surrounded Allison. “What happened” demanded Cameron. “Are you alright? You look like you have seen a ghost”

But Allison couldn’t form a word. Her legs gave away as the adrenaline left her body. Cameron caught her and they made her sit. Martha made soothing circles on her back while Cameron started warming her hands and Mark stood guard looking suspiciously at the entrance of the cave. It was quite a while before Allison told her friends on haltingly what happened in the cave. They exchanged a look when she finished telling them what she saw of that women’s murder.

“You believe me..don’t you” she whispered hoarsely. Dread spread in her stomach. She needed someone to believe her at the same time she wanted to forget this whole nightmare.

“Yes” said Cameron at once. “I am so sorry Amhara. It was my fault.”

“It’s not your fault Cam..you couldn’t have known…”

“But I knew” he shouted miserably cutting me off. “I went there yesterday to explore..i thought it would be cool to boast to you guys. But I don’t know what happened something felt wrong in that canve and as I got deeper my instinct were screaming at me to just get off. So, I ran out of there but I have been feeling off since.” He said looking sick. “and when today you asked for a dare the words were out of my mouth..it was like I had lost connection with my body and I am sorry Allison I made you go there”

“But you could have told us cam” Martha said “I already told you guys it wasn’t a good idea”

“No need to say I told you so” Mark said furiously.

“It ok..i am fine cam..it wasn’t your fault” I interjected before it can turn into another fight. But I really thought it wasn’t his fault. None of what happened today seemed coincidental.

“Let’s get out of here” Cam said looking uneasy. “The far away from this place we are the better”

We all agreed and over the months that followed we were able to put that incident behind us. But I never forgot those memories that horrific event that took place in that cave. I had to do something. So the four of us convinced the police and town mayor that we came upon a skeleton in the cave while we were exploring it. From there after almost whole of the town got involved and the remains of Allyson were extracted. After various handling and analysis, they were buried in the oldest cemetery of the town where hopefully she will meet her child.

 As for me, I found out that hiding in the darkness is not for me. Maybe someday I will even fight for some people who live in the shadows. In the mean-time I had my friends.