The Cave

Isobel Tiller held her daughter tightly every night. The dream was always the same.

Maddy would hear a knock at the door, and run to it. She would fling the door open wildly and jump into her mother's embrace. Her mother would whisper sweet encouragement and advice into her ears. She would curl Maddy's soft blonde hair between her fingers, while Maddy spoke softly of the things that troubled her in waking life. "Madeleine, darling," her mother would say quietly, as the dream land around them became blurry, signaling the end of their time together. "It's time for you to leave now."

Maddy always woke with a bittersweet mixture of sadness and love. The dream made her feel like a special connection to her mother still existed, though she had been dead for almost 9 years. But it always left her slightly disappointed and jaded. Every night, her mother held her. Every morning, Maddy had to let her go all over again.

On May 31st, 2010, Maddy drifted into sleep after hours of tossing and turning. What would follow her sweet dream was the first day of June. And June was always a count down to the anniversary of the worst day of her life. The number 15 creeped around every corner of her mind. The fifteenth of June was an absolutely terrible day, and Maddy felt as if this year it had sped up to attack her.

The last second before her eyes finally closed, she thought of her mother's face.

The dream had changed. Maddy was standing in her normal place at the foot of the stairs. Not ten feet away stood the front door. Any second her mother would knock. Maddy's smile was strong and excited. Any minute now.

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and began to play with the hem of her shirt. She had never had time to fidget in the dream before.

The realization made her afraid. Something was different in her dream. It was the feeling of it, as if her shiny sweet space had been replaced with something cold and foreboding. She hesitated, and then bolted for the front door, ripping it open so violently that the effort almost threw her a off balance.

On the ground, where her mother normally stood, was a large pile of ash.

Maddy was frozen, terrified.

"That's what became of my body, my love," her mother said. Her voice came from behind Maddy.

Maddy spun around and found herself staring directly into her mother's eyes. Instead of being comforting and loving, they looked terrified.

"I hid you, darling," Isobel said, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I kept you safe. I brought you to a world where no one knew who you were. A world without magic."

Isobel grabbed her daughter's hands and held them tightly. Maddy felt a small electric surge run through their embraced hands.

"Madeleine, you must listen to me," she said. "This is the last time we will see each other like this. I can't risk them finding you through me. I will send help to you. You will understand when you see it. Trust your instincts, Maddy. You are so much more magnificent than you have ever imagined. I love you."

Isobel cupped her hands around Maddy's face.

"I love you," she repeated, tears wobbling down her cheeks. "NOW GO!"

Her mother's last word had been so strong, and so loud, that Maddy woke up jumping out of her bed.

When her feet hit the floor, she stumbled and fell against her night stand. The impact sent her stack of books and an ancient red alarm clock crashing onto the floor.

From the master bedroom down the hall from her, Maddy could hear shuffling and muffled bangs that got louder as her father stampeded towards her room. He threw the door open and jumped into her bedroom, his hands wrapped around what used to be the shaft of his bedroom lamp.

"I'm sorry, dad," Maddy said. She folded her lips over her teeth and bit down, shrugging. She was suddenly self conscious of her disheveled hair and the sweat that had gathered on her forehead. "I had a nightmare. I accidentally knocked my books down when I got up."

Vince eyed his daughter reproachfully. The alcohol that lingered in his system made him want to embrace irrational anger. It made him want to yell at her.

As if she could sense his thoughts, she took a step back. Vince shook his head, trying to shake out the violent thoughts that had infiltrated his mind. He wasn't an openly violent person, but when he drank, the booze made him want to do things that normally didn't cross his mind. He had never been harsh with Maddy. He hadn't hit her when she was a child, and ever since Isobel had died he couldn't even bring himself to punish her. He felt both protective and scared of his daughter; the only connection he had left to the love of his life. He feared losing Maddy too, but also feared loving her. As if showing her how much he cared would open up the opportunity for the world to take her away from him too.

Vince shook himself from his thoughts and mustered a weak smile for Maddy.

"It's already 6:30," he said. "You need to get ready for work." I love you, you precious thing, He thought. Standing there in her pajamas, shocked from her bad dream, she reminded him of how she was as a child. When she used to run screaming into his arms from the monsters she saw in the shadows outside her window. Vince brought his hand up to reach out for her, and then dropped it suddenly, and swiftly left the room.

Maddy stared at the spot where her father had stood. He always ran from her.

As she showered and got ready, she noticed a small tremor in her hands. Her palms felt slightly itchy and seemed clammy and cold. You need food and water, that's all, she thought, and tried to push her worries to the back of her mind.

But as much as she tried to forget about it, her dream repeated in her head over and over again. Her mother's words were haunting her. And the tremor in her hands didn't go away.

She wanted to believe that it was just a dream, but it had left her feeling so scared and uneasy that she found herself looking over her shoulder the entire walk to the coffee shop where she had worked since she was 16.

It was simply called "The Cup" and had square, blue rimmed windows and a hand decorated chalkboard sign on the sidewalk illustrating the daily specials. Today it read "Try our new anniversary frappucino. Celebrating 15 years of business. Thank you, Albuquerque." The building didn't look like anything special, but all the locals knew it was the best place in Nob Hill to get coffee. Voices carried outside from the cozy interior, and busy people hustled in and out. For as small a shop as it was, it was always packed with people. Maddy stepped to the side to avoid a mother and son as they scrambled out of the door, unaware of Maddy's presence. She smile despite herself and ducked inside.

"Maddy!" Yelled the gorgeous, doe eyed girl from behind the counter. Her name was Cameron and her personality was as vibrant as the bright red hair that dangled around her face in wild tendrils. "What the hell are you doing here? I can't get out of bed before 10 on my days off."

"I thought I worked today," Maddy answered, confusion in her voice. She came to a stop in front of the cash register.

"Let me check the schedule before you clock in, babe," Cameron called as she dashed around the corner into the back room.

The little shop was filled with chatter and the clinks of silverware. Maddy let the act of observing all the happy patrons distract her momentarily from her own issues.

"I told you!" Cameron sang as she reappeared. "No work for you today. But you come in tomorrow at 5. Want me to make you something special?"

Five minutes later, Maddy stood in front of a pawn shop a block down the road, a sugary blended concoction gripped in one hand and her cell phone in the other. She had dialed her best friends number, but now hesitated. She hated burdening Alicia with her troubles, but she was the only person who legitimately cared enough to listen.

Maddy sighed, sucked up her pride, and finally called her best friend.

Alicia answered on the second ring. "Good morning, sunshine." But it didn't sound like she was having a good morning either. He voice dripped with sarcasm.

"You sound like I feel," Maddy said, exhaling deeply. "It's June first."

"Well, shit." There was a short pause. "So are you coming over or am I going to have to go kidnap you?"

"I'm by that three story pawn shop. A kidnapping would actually be pretty convenient."

Maddy described her dream in great detail to Alicia while they packed up a couple of backpacks with all their hiking necessities. They had decided that an escape into the wilderness would be a good distraction.

"You just need to literally and physically distance yourself from this," Alicia told her as they clambered into her dad's 4Runner. "You'll feel so much better when we're out on the trail, I promise."

Maddy was thankful in that moment for the kind of person Alicia was. She wasn't the type to spew cheesy generic phrases, she jumped into action and actually made people feel better.

She blasted Fleetwood Mac the entire drive to the Jemez mountains. They sang along to their favorite songs, and lowered the volume so they could talk during the songs they didn't know the words to. Alicia, despite her grumpy demeanor earlier, had completely shaken off her bad mood when they finally parked at the base of their favorite trail.

"God, I love it out here," she said, stretching towards the sun. "If I could live in a cabin at the edge of the world, surrounded by nothing but books and trees I would die completely happy."

Maddy smiled at her friend, but even though Alicia had done a good job of making her feel better, a sense of dread still tugged at her. She just couldn't shake it. And though she had somewhat gotten used to the itchy, shaking sensation in her hands, it still made her uncomfortable.

They walked down the trail, admiring the many flowers the speckled the landscape. It smelled like rain and something else. Something sweet and almost metallic. She shivered despite the fact that the temperature was headed towards the high 80's. Something felt off to her but she couldn't tell if it was just a bad day, or if something more sinister lurked around the corner.

Suddenly, Maddy realized that they were no longer on the path.

"Alicia, hold up."

Alicia had been mid sentence, prattling on about some stupid boy she had recently dumped. "What?" But her eyes grew wide as she looked around them.

"What the hell! Where are we? Have we been off the trail this whole time? I could have sworn we were going the same way we always do."

"I don't see a trail anywhere, Ali," Maddy said. She had made a complete circle around where she stopped, but the only thing she could see was miles of forest surrounding them, and absolutely no paths.

"Shouldn't we have noticed? It looks like we're pretty far from it, wherever it is," Alicia said. She was still staring off into the wilderness around them, trying to discern the trail. "We've hiked this place so many damn times you'd think we'd have the sumbitch memorized by now."

"Apparently not," Maddy said quietly, real fear beginning to grip her.

Alicia dropped her backpack to the ground and fumbled through it until she pulled out a small black compass. She looked at Maddy and smiled. "At least we're not completely useless." She opened the compass and her smile immediately faltered.

"Maddy," she said. "What the-?"

Maddy grabbed the compass from her friend, cutting her off, and looked at it. The whole face had melted in on itself. The small arrow was sticking up at an awkward angle, twitching slightly. She looked at Alicia, who seemed only mildly phased by the incident.

"I could have sworn I checked it!" She said. She bounced her palm lightly off her forehead. "I feel so stupid. How does this even happen? I didn't know they melted like that. Gross." She tossed it over her shoulder into the brush behind her.

Alicia sighed, and then her eyes lit up once again. "Check your phone!"

Maddy pulled hers from the front pocket of her backpack and turned it over in her hands. It felt hot. Hesitantly, she pushed the middle button that caused the screen to blink into action. Nothing happened.

She pressed it several more times to no avail. By this time Alicia was cursing and smacking her phone against the ground.

"I don't think that will help," Maddy said, fear cracking her voice. Alicia looked up at her, defeated.

"I know for a fact mine was completely charged," she said, giving Maddy a dark look. "This feels like sabotage, even though that's completely ridiculous, right? Who the fuck would want to mess with our compass and phones?"

The fear that had plagued Maddy all morning was growing by the second, threatening to boil over.

"We'll be fine." Alicia said. She wasn't exactly an optimist, but she didn't like to give in to panic right away. "We've been lost before and we always find our way back."

Maddy managed a half hearted smile for her friend. "Let's retrace our steps."

But when the girls turned around to walk back the way they came, the found no trace of their trek through the woods.

Ten minutes of searching passed and they had yet to find their footprints. They were both beginning to panic, and Maddy felt her unease beginning to make her feel like a deer ready to bolt from predators.

"We didn't just fucking appear in this spot! Where are our fucking footprints?" Alicia was really fond of the F word when it came to stressful situations.

"Look!" She yelled at Maddy as she slammed her foot into the ground and lifted it to reveal a fresh, deep footprint. "And look at all the footprints we've left in this area. What the actual fuck? First the compass, then our phones, and now this? What's going on, Maddy?"

Maddy took a couple calming breaths before responding. "Something weird, Alicia. I don't know what, but I've had this terrible feeling all morning, and maybe it had something to do with this."

"Shut up," Alicia said quickly. "I don't want to hear any 'freaky feeling' stuff right now. This is weird, sure… Okay, so I'm really freaked if we just stand around in this spot panicking we're not going to find our way back to the car. When we stopped we were facing this direction here. Let's just start walking in the opposite direction."

Maddy agreed with her. It was the only plan of action that made sense. She had wanted to mention her mother's message again, but bit her tongue. Alicia was panicked and bringing up the dream wouldn't help their case any.

Maddy told herself that once they started walking, they would find the trail and that ugly old 4Runner and they'd be home before nightfall. But as they trudged on in the direction they hoped would take them to their car, Maddy began to feel like she was never going to make it out of the woods.

They trekked for another hour before stopping to eat a small portion of the food they had packed. They both ate very little, and didn't speak. Maddy fumbled with her thermos and noticed that the tremor had become worse, and the itch had spread into her wrists and resembled more of a light tickle.

She looked up at Alicia, who was taking the battery out of her phone for the ninth time. Though neither admitted it out loud, both girls were beginning to feel the fear of being completely and utterly lost. They sat in an uncomfortable silence that Maddy finally broke as they re-packed their bags. She had noticed a large rock formation down a small slope to their right. The biggest bolder was rounded on its sides but completely flat at the top like some sort of strange pastry.

"Let's walk down to that rock. Maybe from the top we can see the trail." Maddy suggested. She clenched and unclenched her fists, trying to fight off the tremor that was slowly beginning to intensify.

Alicia's face lit up. "That's such a good idea! It looks tall enough. Let's go."

Maddy let Alicia enthusiastically lead the way. As soon as the words had left her mouth, she realized how useless they were.

Overhead, a single boom of thunder signalled an immediate downpour of rain. It pelted Maddy and Alicia as they ran towards the rocks. Now that they were closer, they could see a small dark square at the base of the formation. It looked like a cave.

Alicia went first, her hands already pulling a small flashlight out of her bag to cast some light into the dark cavern. It was only a few inches taller than the girls, and as wide as a doorway and it smelled strongly of berries and wet rust. Alicia paused about five feet into the cave and turned towards Maddy, who had pulled out her flashlight as well. The light that emanated from it was dull and Maddy guessed the batteries wouldn't last more than ten minutes.

"At least we're dry."

Maddy didn't have the heart to respond. There was something odd about this cave. Trust your instincts, Maddy. Her hands shook, and the itching began to feel like a thousand tiny needles pricking her flesh.

"Should we leave?," she asked.

"What?" Demanded Alicia, "It's pouring out there! And if it keeps up we'll get even more lost and then we'll be soaking wet on top of not knowing where the hell we are!"

MADDY! She had felt the voice, more than heard it. It was her mother's voice, and it had come from somewhere beyond Alicia.

She froze, staring behind Alicia into the depths of the cave.

"What?" Alicia asked, fear in her voice. "What are you looking at? Maddy?"

"Shh," Maddy replied, slowly pushing her way passed her best friend. "I heard her voice."

She took a step beyond Alicia and felt a whoosh of cold air. The pathetic flashlight only illuminated more darkened cave.

"Never mind," she said, sighing. "I thought I heard my mom."

She reached back to grab Alicia's hand as she turned, but found herself grasping at air and utter darkness. Alicia and the cave entrance had completely vanished. The darkness of the cave had seemingly swallowed up every sound and light except for the sound of Maddy's own breathing and the feeble light from her flashlight.

Her voice died in her throat and she dropped her flashlight, the small light blinking out completely. Suddenly she was moving so fast she had no idea what she was doing.

"ALICIA!" Maddy screamed. She spun around wildly, reaching into the dark for her friend. "ALICIA WHERE ARE YOU?" She was moving around the darkness madly now, feeling panic and fear overwhelm her. "ALICIA!"

Maddy's foot hit something solid and she stumbled. She tried to catch herself, but fell. Though she braced herself for the impact of the cold cave floor, she felt nothing except the surge of butterflies in her stomach as she pitched forward into complete, dark emptiness.