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Chapter 6

The dinghy turned only a little as the water calmly started to sweep it into the gaping maw of the tunnel. That is to say, the tunnel within the tunnel. Tenebrae moved along the bench in the boat to press up against Lychinus, and dragged me with him. Tim scooched down as well, pushing Chase into Lych, and Ten moved me over to put me between him and Lych.

I was about to ask why they were doing this when I felt the boat shiver and jolt as it skidded along the rocky bed before the water and the dinghy's momentum carried it over some lip before it began to shoot down a long and narrow tunnel. The cavern went dark once more and I felt the air ruffling the fur on my face as the tunnel took the boat downward at a steep angle. I was sure something bad would happen when the boat suddenly lurched upwards and I felt it slow down as the tunnel carried it away at a curved angle.

I thought the boat might get stuck as it slowed to a near halt when the tunnel curved back down and swept the boat deeper into the earth. I was clutching Lych's hand and arm by now, and felt Tenebrae leaning on me, trying to comfort me. I'd only been on one roller coaster before, and only in the middle of the day. Not a water slide, and not in the pitch black. You know that rush of joy and fear as you clutch bar with all your life, despite knowing it's perfectly safe. Imagine that feeling, minus the joy and safety aspects.

The boat lurched upward again, at an even steeper angle and just as fast as it had fallen. It crested over the edge with just enough momentum to carry it down the slight slope with light at the end of the tunnel. I was finally happy when we came downwards to face the exit, a figure standing at the end, only thirty yards away.

Time. It's a fascinating thing. When you get scared, excited, or stressed, it feels like it slows down, when in memory it felt faster than it had been. And when you're bored, tired, or anxious, it slows down, both in reality and in memory. Sometimes, when all these emotions collide, it can slow, so much in fact, that you can feel it stop, and flicker like frames.

For one brief second I saw the black silhouette of the figure, standing there, neither ears nor tail, it stood but a black, anthroid line in space that chilled every bone, every vein, every cell, and every molecule in my body. I felt at the moment true terror strike my heart, my every thought concluded to this one figure before me, feeling- somehow- like it was part of something bigger, like it meant more than just a trick of the light.

And then we drew but inches nearer, and by some unknown source, the whole thing lit up. I then saw it. It was white, truly white, and had no ears, nor tail, nor snout, but the front of it's face- if you could call it that- was like a cheek with the bridge of a snout, and a long slit for a mouth and two small, vertical slits above it for nostrils. It's eyes were large, bizarre, and glimmering in the darkness by the same light that illuminated the wet, grayish flesh that covered the seemingly boneless monster before us.

Like another frame clicking by, I realized the light was Ten's flashlight, and saw the light upon the creature change. The thing was disturbing, it's very presence made the hairs on my neck stand up and the flesh of my arms horripilate almost painfully. I felt my spine chill and my fingertips go numb as fear gripped my very being.

Time suddenly seemed to move a little faster as I caught on to the dinghy approaching the thing. I was rooted still as Tim lunged forward and grabbed the oar, holding it like he was about to strike the thing in front of us. The boat was rushing towards it, and just as we were about to ram into it, time slowed once more, for me to catch every horrifying detail of the events that followed Tim swinging the oar at the monster's head.

The oar was inches from it's head when it's arm shot up and stopped the oar. The strength Tim had put into his swing suddenly being stopped sent him to the floor of the boat. The monster dropped the oar as soon as it had grabbed it, it falling onto Tim's head before the thing stepped aside as the boat rushed past it.

And then, as if to dwarf all the fear I already had inside myself, the thing spoke my name. No, 'spoke' doesn't even begin to cover it. It whispered_my name, but something about the tone, the pitch, the way it traveled through the air, the way it held more meaning than when other people said my name, the way it's voice almost seemed to be astonished, the way... it felt. Something about all of it's components, made it have this feeling, like it wasn't just a word, or even a name, but like it was this _thing_that shook the world. This _thing that would bring about the end of reality. This thing...

The ended reality.

And from that point forth, time was a blur. We shot out of the cavern into the river at some unknown speed, and within five minutes were hauling the boat up a muddy slope to the truck. Well, the others were, I barely even noticed we'd left the cave. I didn't really come to until Logan shook me awake.

Promptly, being grabbed and shaken into consciousness with that being your last memory, you scream. And attack. It took a couple seconds of me blindly flailing and kicking and screaming to catch on to the fact that I was "attacking" Logan. I blinked a couple times and saw him at the other end of Chase's couch with his arms up over his head to defend himself.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, I get it."

"No, you don't, you didn't see it! You don't know what happened!"

"Fyodor, they told me everything, it's okay."

"Oh... It doesn't sound crazy?"

"No, you were all probably shrooming, but-... Don't roll your eyes at me, at least I have the courtesy to accept that you're freaked out."

"Wait, who isn't-"

I stopped talking when Chase's mom started talking. I had to crane my neck around the back of the couch to see her, noticing the blanket that I'd been wrapped up in, "Logan, they're kids. They saw some freakish rock and got weirded out."

Chase shouted from the other side of the room, just past Logan, "That wasn't there the first time we went down!" I could hear it in his voice, how it quivered and shook, and I could see it in his face, how his eyes were full of tears, ready to leave more marks on his fur. He was scared.

Logan shook his head, "Cindy, I don't mean to be rude, but I think they'd be rationalizing already if they were just 'weirded out'."

Cindy got up and left the room with a grunt, giving Logan the chance to mutter under his breath, "Not to mention you're a thousand years old."

"I heard that!"

Logan grinned guiltily and looked at me, "So uh, what do you say to coming home and bundling up in a bunch of blankets?"

"I think my onesie's fine. Tim got it all padded." I squeezed my arms through the inch of fabric and stuffing, noting how warm I already was.

Tim sat down in front of me, the sudden movement startling me enough to instinctually kick him, "Dude, chill, I'm not that thing in the cave."

"Sorry, you startled me."

"Yeah, well, I'm gonna need that padding back, so..."

"Just buy more, it can't be that expensive."

"Each pad is like thirty bucks."

"So, umm..."

I looked down and started counting the pads when he cut me off, "You're wearing over two hundred bucks worth of padding. I want it back." His voice was a stern growl, as if I'd been the one to put them on, and without his permission.

"I..."

Logan saved me, "Tim, calm down, I'll buy you a new set."

"He doesn't need them, though, and-... wait, are you actually liking them?" The mischievous tone in his voice was the only hint I'd of needed to deny it.

"Shut up..." I fucking hate myself.

He burst out laughing, just long enough to make me feel bad before he grabbed me and snuggled up to me, pushing his own padded onesie against mine, "D'aww, and it's a good thing, too! You're so cute with that mudkip face!"

Cindy walked past the back of the couch and smacked Tim upside the head, "Not on my couch."

I noticed that he gripped my arm tighter when she did so, and how his whole body momentarily clenched up. Logan rolled his eyes once she'd walked past him, "So, Fyodor, I'm ready to go when you are."

I shoved Tim off of me, him giving me an almost begging look before I got up off the couch, "Bundling up in a blanket does sound pretty nice."

"Okay, and we can watch Signs again!"

"Not funny."

"Ha ha, it's kinda funny..." He got up off the couch and checked his phone as he pulled the keys out of his pocket.

Tim got up and cautiously asked, "Is it okay if I come over too?"

"Sure, just don't..." Logan trailed off as Chase shook his head, his eyes wide open and his face as serious as they come. "Don't, um... Dang it, it was just on the tip of my tongue. Uh- Parents, don't forget to tell your parents." I turned my head just enough to see Cindy walking back into the room, and caught on to why he'd done that.

Chase's face returned to normal, "Can I come over?"

Cindy scolded Chase, "Chase, you should wait until you're invited."

"I-"

Logan, being the best at handling parents, knows how they think, and knows how to use that to his advantage, "Oh, it's okay, Cindy, I was just about to invite him, anyways. I'm sure Tim and Fyodor would feel kinda awkward if it were just them."

"Okay, but this time I'd like him to be sensible when he comes home, and you're the one to blame for him being in this state tonight."

"I understand, it won't happen again, Mrs. Heck."

"It better not." We quickly padded out the front door and got in Logan's car, me being put in the middle of the back seat as Tim and Chase sandwiched me in. Before starting the car, Logan sighed and chuckled a little, "Chase, you're mom's crazy as hell."

"Yeah. And you're really good at lying."

"Hey, when you've watched as much TV as me, you learn that it's the _wrong_way to change key. Stumbling over your words, is the right way."

"Clearly. Man, if my mom found out I lost my virginity, she'd... I don't even wanna think about it."

"Yeah, if my dad had ever found out about that equine, I'd have been six feet under by my fifteenth birthday."

"Oh, you-"

I cocked my head to the side, "I thought you said you were in middle school, which-"

Logan nodded, "Yeah, I was thirteen, but he wasn't the last, Fyodor. Jeez, think about how the days used to be. You know how teen pregnancy rates are down? Yeah, well, imagine being able to have sex with someone and not have to worry about getting them pregnant, and he's a total slut that'll beg you to keep going. Trust me, I lucked out in not catching anything."

Tim scooched forward on his seat, "So you were just doing it for fun?"

"And rebellion. And it's not like I wasn't sticking my dick in anyone later on, half the kids I'd given my ass to..." He trailed off and came to a hard stop after rounding a corner, the stop forcing me and Chase forward, beholding a sight the made my skin crawl.

The streets were almost completely black, with a few lights in the houses on either side. Seeing the thing from the cave as a dear in the head lights was like seeing a bear at your front door; you felt safe, but still terrified that it was there. Those three seconds of watching it glare at us through the windshield felt more like three minutes of watching it gaze into our souls, learning our every thought and pushing us closer to the point where you no longer feel sacred.

And then it scampered off to the other side of the road, vanishing into the night. Logan's voice was soft, timid, and breathy, "Is... Is that what you saw?"

We all nodded, me being the only one to admit it vocally, "Yeah."

He slowly applied the gas and continued down the road, "You didn't mention that it had no snout."

Tim started relaxing, "Is that really an important detail?"

"I think right now it's important that we just stay calm."

"Yeah..."

We were silent as Logan pulled up to the driveway and parked. In the fifteen seconds that followed him unlocking the car doors we made it inside and were shutting all the windows and turning on all the lights. It took ten minutes, but even that didn't keep us from jumping when Corbin entered the front door.

"Jesus Christ, what's got you guys so tense?"

"Aliens!" Corbin cocked his head to the side at Chase's exclamation.

Logan shook his head, "It's... Okay, you know how I had to leave the bar? Well, it turns out that they saw something super fucking ugly and creepy, and then driving home from Chase's place, I almost hit it. Kinda wish I had, actually."

Corbin rolled his eyes, "Are you sure it wasn't just a dog-"

"Dogs don't walk on two legs, lack fur, or happen to be snoutless."

Corbin's eyes widened, "What? It didn't have a snout?"

Tim looked confused, "Why is that such a big deal?"

"It... It is, trust me."