Chapter 174: 136. Creepiness Intensifies

"So you recognize these markings?" Kaylee asked my cousin. "What are they, what do they mean?"

Sasha shook her head, "I don't know them, that's what bothers me. I have over six centuries of experience studying all manner of magic, enchantment, and runic systems, but I've never seen this before."

"I can tell they are old," she added, "And my intuition tells me they are meaningful and that their meaning is... Not necessarily dangerous, but likely not friendly either."

Willow stared wide-eyed at my cousin as she asked, "Six centuries? You're six hundred years old?"

"I'm seven hundred and thirty-five," Sasha replied. "But the last hundred and one years were spent isolated in exile. We can discuss my age or history some other time if you wish, for now we have more pressing matters at hand."

Our club leader seemed to agree. She gestured at the old markings as she said, "We scoured the internet looking for information on this stuff and came up with next to nothing. Similar markings were found in another cave about a thousand kilometres away from here, down in Kentucky? And they also showed up in a crop circle in England about fifty years ago. That's all we found, nothing else."

"Do you think these markings are related to the missing geologist?" Nina asked. "Maybe we should keep looking for him, and we can look at the runes again later?"

Kaylee nodded, "Good point. How about we keep on going into the cave?"

Cerys agreed, "Right. Missing person first, mystery runes second."

"Cassandra, Kaylee, please be wary?" Sasha asked as my girlfriend and I started leading the way again.

"We will," I replied quietly.

I couldn't help feeling anxious though, after that little discussion. For some reason I didn't have any problem with Willow getting her power from Hecate, but the idea of some other mysterious entity granting her access to sorcery left me feeling uneasy. Or maybe I was picking up on Sasha's discomfort, and that got me on edge.

My cousin definitely had the experience, like she said. And she was clearly worried about something in this cave, or the situation in general. I had a feeling we'd be having some long conversations about the subject later, when we were all safely back at the house again.

For now I tried to stay focused on the cave ahead. Unlike Kaylee I couldn't see in the dark naturally, but it was easy enough to temporarily fix that with magic. So my girlfriend and I could both see just fine, the only exception was colours were muted and everything was more or less shades of grey.

Before long we all came to another halt as we reached the part of the cave where Willow did her rituals. There weren't any traces left now, no chalk on the walls and no wax on the rough rocky floor. No eggshells or anything else to indicate she'd been doing rituals here.

"You really did a good job cleaning up after your rituals," Melanie commented.

The sorceress slowly shook her head, "No, I didn't. I left the markings on the wall after each full moon, but when I came back I found it had been cleaned up? So I had to redraw them every time."

The two wolfgirls exchanged a look. Cerys sounded nervous as she said, "When we were here in March we found that footprint in some dust, right? And when we came back in April the footprint and the dust were gone. Like someone had cleaned up."

"Right," Melanie nodded. "That's weird."

Sasha asked, "Willow, why did you do your rituals here? Why not closer to the entrance?"

"Mostly it was because of the weather," the sorceress replied. "January, February, I had trouble even getting into the cave with all the snow at the entrance? So I made sure to be far enough back inside that there wasn't any snow or wind or anything."

She added, "Same with March. There was a blizzard happening the night I was here. The entrance was mostly clear when I arrived, but with the wind and everything I needed to be far enough in that it wouldn't blow out my candles. And in April there was rain and more wind, so I just used the same spot again."

"Plus I was happier not trying my rituals near those old markings?" she admitted. "I guess I didn't want to risk invoking anything other than Hecate... Except I get the feeling you think that's what happened?"

My cousin sighed, "Perhaps. For now I suggest we continue searching for the missing geology student?"

"Agreed," Cerys stated. "I don't know if you folks can smell it like me and Mel can, but that rotting fruit odour is getting worse the further in we go."

Melanie nodded, "It's making my skin crawl. I hate to admit it but I've got a serious case of the creeps."

"Let's keep going," Kaylee said as she started moving again.

I stayed by her side as we continued deeper into the cave, with the others following behind us. Soon we reached the part where the cave was noticeably turning to one side as it angled downwards, deeper into the earth.

After another minute or two Nina commented quietly, "If he was caught in another cave-in we should be coming up to it really soon. So please be careful, Cass and Kaylee. The roof might be even more unstable here."

"Ok," I nodded as I kept an eye on the low rocky roof above us.

It was only about another minute or so before my girlfriend whispered, "I see something up ahead. There's something on the ground."

"It's a digital camera," I added. "It looks like it's been smashed."

We were all cautious as we approached, and soon there were a few flashlights shining on a fancy-looking digital camera. It was the kind with interchangeable lenses, and reminded me of the one Melody used when we visited the cave in April. Except this camera looked like someone had thrown it into the wall once or twice.

"We should take it back home with us," my girlfriend suggested. "There's a chance that the camera memory could have some identifying information, like the owner's name. At least that'd tell us if it was Rick's. We can probably get the pictures off the memory card too."

Cerys stated, "Nobody touch it yet. Let's get some pictures first, of the camera where it is."

"Good thinking," Willow agreed.

A few of us used our phone cameras to get pictures of the scene. Then Cerys pulled out a zip-lock bag from her jacket pocket. I figured she got the idea from Melody, the shape-shifter was really well-prepared when we were here before.

The two wolfgirls crouched down and carefully got the broken camera into the baggie. As they were doing that Melanie commented, "There's just one strong scent on it, probably Rick's. It's definitely a human scent."

"Yeah," Cerys agreed. "Apart from the rotting-fruit smell, that's the only thing I get here too. A human scent on the camera, nothing else."

Sasha ended up carrying the bag with the camera as we started moving again, and it was only another few meters before we made our next find. It was a key-ring, with a half dozen keys on it. There was a car key, a couple house keys, and some smaller ones like maybe for padlocks or a locker or something. Our club leader bagged that up in another zip-lock after taking some pictures, then handed it to Willow for safe-keeping.

The sorceress tucked it into one of her pockets as she asked, "What are we going to do with this stuff?"

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"Depends on what else we find," Cerys replied. "If we don't find Rick then maybe Cass can scry for him using the key-ring? And we'll see what we can get out of the camera memory. But if we find proof that the guy died in here then we're going to turn everything over to the authorities."

Sasha shook her head, "I really don't think it's a good idea sending more humans in here."

Melanie nodded, "Same. They wouldn't know what to do about it anyways, right? If there's something supernatural going on, they can't really help with that."

Cerys sighed, "I'm not expecting them to do anything about the supernatural side of things. But if we find a body, or evidence to suggest Kovacs died in here, we need to report it to the human authorities. Preferably anonymously. But if he's dead then his family need to know, and I'd rather leave that to the authorities."

We were all completely silent at that point. I wasn't sure if everyone else felt it, but for me it seemed like one of those moments where things suddenly became too real. Like chasing werewolfs or searching for fae or dealing with ghosts was all sort of fun supernatural stuff, even if it was kind of dangerous.

Except Cerys just reminded us that we were looking for a normal mundane mortal human, and after being missing for six days there was a very good chance he was dead. And he had normal mundane human parents and friends, and all those people would want to know what happened to him.

I finally nodded, "Ok Cerys. Let's keep going. That cave-in can't be too much further ahead, we have to be pretty close now."

Kaylee and I were still in the lead as we slowly started moving deeper into the cave again. It was still sloping downwards as it curved, and we probably covered another ten or twelve meters past where we found the keys before we made another discovery.

It was a notebook, the kind with the spiral spring along one edge that held it all together. It had a blue plastic front cover and a thick cardboard back cover, and looked well-worn. It was about five inches wide and eight inches high, and there was a clicky pen tucked into the spiral part.

By that point we were all hunched down low, except for Kaylee. And there was barely enough room for two of us to stand side by side. So my girlfriend and I had to move past the notebook before the wolfgirls could see it, and once again we all took some pictures of it before Cerys bagged it then handed it off to Willow again.

It was too big to go in her pockets so the sorceress just held onto it for now, as she commented "I'm surprised we haven't found his phone yet. Or maybe that'll be next?"

"Maybe?" Cerys shrugged. "Anyways let's keep moving."

We'd only gone another couple meters before Melanie stopped, "Hold up a sec?"

"What's wrong?" I asked as we all came to a stop.

The older wolfgirl shook her head and grimaced, "I don't wan't to go any further. I'm sorry gang, but this place is giving me the creeps and my instincts are telling me to get out of here."

"I'm positive this is where we found that cave-in back in April?" she added as she pointed her flashlight around at the walls and the ceiling. "But there's no sign of it now."

Willow and Sasha pointed their flashlights at the rocks on either side and above us, although neither of them were here back in April.

While they were doing that Cerys protested, "But we haven't found the missing guy yet? We can't turn back!"

She sounded torn, like part of her didn't want to give up until we solved the mystery. But part of her obviously agreed with her girlfriend, about not wanting to go deeper into the cave.

"Melanie's right," Nina said as she looked around. "We've already come further than we did back in April. The cave-in's gone."

After a couple seconds of silence Willow spoke up. "We've got the camera, notebook, and keys right? Assuming that stuff belonged to our missing guy, that ought to be enough to prove something happened to him in here. One of us could try and scry for him with these things, or we could turn it over to the cops. I'm sure they'd be able to confirm this stuff was his, even if it was just checking the keys against his car or house."

"It seems like a waste to turn back now," Kaylee sighed. "Ok last time you had to turn back because of a cave-in, but now there's nothing in our way. It's like the door's wide open, there's no reason to stop or go back."

Sasha responded, "That's an interesting analogy. From what you've described, it sounds like a door was open during your first visit, but it was closed for your second visit. Now we're here a third time and the door appears to be open once more. It might be an invitation."

"Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly?" Nina asked quietly. "Just because the door's open doesn't mean it's safe for us to go through it."

The blonde werewolf sighed as she looked around at all of us. Then she focused on me and asked, "What do you think Cass? You're our resident goddess, what's your take on it?"

That made me grimace, but I did my best to think it through and give her my honest opinion.

"I think it's pretty clear there's something creepy and possibly powerful going on here," I stated softly. "We don't know what it is or what it wants, but based on what we've seen so far it could be dangerous. More important though, Melanie said she isn't comfortable going further. And I don't think we should split up. So let's turn around and head out."

I added, "Maybe we can try and do more research, maybe these things we've found can help? Then we can come back later, when we have a better idea what we're dealing with."

There was a pause where everyone was quiet, until our club leader made the decision.

"All right. We're turning around," she stated. "As much as I want to know what's down here, it's not worth putting any of us at risk."

I was pretty sure Cerys was a little disappointed, but I was glad she made that decision. Melanie looked grateful for it, and Willow looked a bit relieved too. Sasha seemed ambivalent, like she could have gone further but wasn't unhappy to be leaving. And my girlfriend shared our club leader's disappointment, but she didn't complain or anything.

The trek back out of the cave was slow and we were all just as careful as we'd been on the way in. Me and Kaylee were at the back, and I couldn't help glancing over my shoulder every ten or twenty seconds. I kept getting that creepy sensation of being watched, but there was never anything there when I looked.

At long last we reached the entrance and emerged back into the damp overcast woods. There was a light but steady rain coming down, which didn't help anyone's mood at all. Clear of the cave most of us stood up and stretched and flexed our backs, while my girlfriend just looked smug again since she didn't have to crouch at all.

"Sorry for losing my nerve back there," Melanie commented quietly.

She sounded embarrassed, which I could understand. Usually she was the tough brave tomboy wolfgirl. In fact I had a feeling she probably toughed it out as long as she could before she finally spoke up.

I gave her a friendly smile, "It's ok. I'm glad you said something when you did."

"Yeah," Cerys agreed. "I shouldn't have been so pushy about going deeper."

Once we were ready to keep moving we started off on the hike back to the mini-van. We were all quiet again as we walked, it seemed like folks were either too focused on not slipping on the wet muddy ground or thinking about what we'd experienced and what we found in the cave.

When we reached the van we all quietly climbed inside, then as Cerys started driving us back home Willow suggested we could stop at a drive-thru to grab lunch on the way.