Deep underground

This is for Paul Stewart's Unnerve, Unsettle, and Scare Me Challenge which you can read more about here:

Here's my effort. Hope you like it, Paul but more than that, anyone else who reads this 744 word attempt to chill the very bones of a very sturdy Scot.

***

"It's going to be a long day so make sure you fill up!" Bob advised Scott before their *potholing trip.

Scott hated being hungry and the thought of scrabbling about in the dark on an empty stomach unnerved him a little and so, he gladly took another slice of bacon.

*

"Right! Are you ready for this, Scotty, my boy?" Bob rubbed his hands together in anticipation as Scott nervously nodded.

"I think so. I am a little nervous. But you said the caverns are wide, didn't you? No narrow spaces?"

Bob turned away from Scott and said, bent, adjusting his laces,

"Yes, all nice and wide, no narrow bits at all."

Scott felt reassured and adjusted his helmet with its light so that it felt secure and took some deep breaths. "What time is Steve coming?"

"Not sure," Bob said, although he had not invited Steve. "I'll just check my phone." Bob pretended to look through his texts and said, "Oh no. Steve can't make it."

Scott's heart leapt with something akin to panic. He had no reason to dislike Bob - he didn't know him that well - but he made him jittery when it was just them.

"It's better practice to have three but we can do this just us two, can't we, Scotty?" Bob looked at Scott, goading him with his expression to duck out, like the wimp he was.

Scott gulped. "No, it's fine. I'm sure it will be fine."

Bob clapped Scott on the back and said, "Good boy, Scotty. Good boy. Let's get going then."

They checked over their equipment, especially the lights on their helmets. All was working and so, slowly, they lowered themselves into the hole.

*

"I've gone wrong, Scotty. I'm sorry. You're going to have to crawl through," Bob coaxed, the other side of the narrow gap, barely wide enough for an average man to crawl through.

"I can't! I'll have to go back!" Scott was scared, panting and on the verge of tears.

"Come on, Scotty. You can do it! You can't go back, you don't know the way. Just take your time, head to one side and inch your way forward. I'll help you as best I can."

Bob knew Scott could get through most of it; it would be his chest and shoulders that would prove difficult on this side of the gap and he was particularly broad in that area.

Scott whimpered but realised he had no choice. He didn't know the way back and didn't think he could do it on his own. He was terrified. He got down on his hands and knees, head level with the gap and swallowing his fear, turned his head to the side and crawled into the cramped space.

*

"Bob! Are you there? I'm stuck! I can't move! Bob!" Scott was sandwiched between the cold, damp rock below him and the enormity of the world's weight above him. He had crawled slowly and painstakingly, suppressing his rising panic as the light on his helmet revealed just how small the space was he had entered and how narrow the opening was towards which he was headed.

He tried to wriggle but he was stuck fast.

"Bob!" His voice was shrill and Bob sat in the dark opposite revelling in the sheer terror emanating from Scott.

He let him shriek and sob for a minute before turning on his own helmet's light.

"Bob!" The relief was palpable. "Bob, where were you? Help me, Bob! Please!"

Bob walked over the wet rockbed to where Scott lay immobile, his head and helmet the only things visible.

"Thank God! Bob! Pull me out of here! Quick!" Scott was sobbing now, tears visible on his dirt-smeared face.

With one swift kick, Bob's boot shattered the bulb on Scott's helmet and there was a moment of shocked silence before Scott spoke again.

"Bob? Bob?" Quietly questioning, Scott felt the darkness like a shroud and disbelief was to be his new companion joining the fear and terror already surrounding him.

Bob turned away and headed towards where he knew the exit to the cave was.

The bobbing light of his lamp was accompanied by the wet crunch of his boots and the high-pitched shrieks and cries of the desperate man he had cruelly and mercilessly abandoned to his death, gradually diminishing in volume as he wend his way casually through the depths of the earth and its twists and turns to the light.

***

*potholing is what exploring caves is known as in Britain

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