Part Seven – The Cold Ones

At first, Jack tried to imprint the route they were taking in his mind. A left. Right. A straight stretch. Right again. But try as he might, as time went by, the way got far too complicated: a myriad warren of unseen tunnels. He gave up on the recital in his head.

It was difficult enough to concentrate on staying on his feet. Every boulder, invisible to him, almost sent him toppling. He would have fallen twenty times over were it not for the rough hands on his back, pulling him upright whenever he tripped. Breathing wasn't too easy either. The air black bag obscuring his vision was stifled and his throat itched.

The unseen captors didn't say a word, their footfalls on the stones were quiet and light in comparison to Jack's laboured stumbles. He could not have guessed how many there were, otherwise he might tried lashing out at them, But it would be pointless if they could easily overpower him, if even by sheer numbers rather than strength. A smile tugged at his lips despite everything. So much for a man who knew no cautions, he thought wryly. Jane was probably laughing at him.

His smile faded. If she was alright, that was.

With a sudden forceful jerk, Jack's captor pulled him to a halt. A boot between his shoulder blades sent him sprawling painfully on the array of jagged stones. He suppressed a shout and lay still. Straining, he listened until the footsteps had faded from hearing and the only sound was his own rasping breath in his ears.

"Jane?" he whispered hoarsely, the stones clattering as he shifted into a sitting position. "Jane, are you here?"

Relief hit him when her voice sounded a decidedly wavery, "Jack?"

"Yeah, I'm here! Are you okay?" The cords that had been fastened around his wrists, though not tight, had rubbed his skin and it stung as he tried wriggling his hands out.

"I suppose."

"That's good. I – Hang on a sec." A final tug and his hands were free. He wasted no time pulling the bag off and taking a deep breath of cool, clean air.

Blinking, he realised that he could see. They were still in the cave, but this one was dimly lit. Not by lamps or candles though. Somehow. The diffuse glow took him a moment to adjust to.

Jane was on her knees a few yards away, her hands behind her back, visibly trembling. He crawled over to her, his cold hand fumbling at her bonds. She gasped with relief and rubbed her raw wrists, tears shining in her eyes.

"Don't let them come back, Jack," she mumbled.

"I don't understand what this is about," Jack said, the frustration working up inside him. "What did they want? Why put us here? Who were they?"

"Please, don't ask questions." She reached out and gripped his cold hand.

He smiled grimly at her before getting slowly to his feet. Before he had managed to stand fully upright, his head hit the stone ceiling of the cave. Jack bit off a curse before dropping back to a crouch.

"It's too low to stand in here. Looks like we'll literally be crawling." He grimaced. "Lovely."

Pulling himself forward, he heard Jane do something that sounded very like a whimper. "Can we not stay?" she asked, but the sound of stones skittering told him she was following.

The glow seemed to be getting brighter. Jack could make out the rocks in front of him and could see the redness of his wrists. It was a cold glow, bluish and harsh.

Jack paused for a moment, forgetting the aching in his knees. The stones in front of him seemed to suddenly disappear. He edged slowly forward and peered ahead.

They had reached the source of the glow and it stole his breath away.

A massive cavern opened out in front of him, an immense cave stretching out endlessly. Jack would never have believed it possible to find such a huge cave anywhere, let alone tucked away under the windswept 19th century Yorkshire Dales.

However, it wasn't exactly the vastness of the cave that left him so absolutely speechless. It was the blue tinged glow that lit the cavern, filling the space. It was the air, bathed in the translucent brightness. The men and the women and the children, every one with pale faces devoid of life, arms limp at their sides, still dressed in the tattered clothing they had worn on their farms. Now they dangled, paralysed, in mid-air in their dozens. Hundreds maybe.

Biting his lip, Jack leaned away from the edge of the ledge, his mind whirling, feeling sick. Those people, they looked dead. No one could be so white and cold and still be alive. Heck, whatever had happened to them, he fervently hoped it had been quick. And painless.

A soft murmuring beside him made him turn to Jane. She was reciting what sounded like a prayer under her breath, her hands shaking.

"I don't think prayers will help them now," Jack said hollowly. "You've seen this before, haven't you? That's why you were so reluctant to come poking around down here."

She took a deep breath before answering, visibly steeling herself. "People… people started disappearing a couple of months ago. Not long after the fog appeared. Just a few at first, but unusual. Most unusual. They returned after a day or two. But they were different. They had changed – or been changed – somehow. I don't know, they were suddenly cold and distant. Not long after, more people started vanishing from the outlying farms and soon from the villages as well."

She glanced down and picked up a pebble, toying with it. "Some always returned, but they were always changed. It did not take us long to realise the fog, the disappearances and those who returned were somehow connected. We shut ourselves into our homes and feared for our lives, dreading the inevitable return of the disappeared. Because the cold ones stole anyone who was left."

She dropped the pebble back onto the ground. "After Miss Tyler left my manor, I sought out Dominic, intending he search for her. When I found him, he grabbed me, trussed me up and dragged me down into the caves, his eyes as hard and as empty as the other cold ones. They had taken him and I had not even been aware of it!"

She shivered, fingering a rip in the silk folds of her skirts. "I fought him, though, and bested him somehow, managing to escape. But not before managing to catch a glimpse of this chamber." She looked up, locking his eyes in an intense gaze, only slightly marred by a flicker of fear. "Can we save them? Whatever it is, can we save them?"

Jack could only glance down at the cavern with a troubled frown and shrug.