The Whispering Caves

Chapter - 7 Do you hear that?

     We both stood at the entrance of the cave and looked around. There was no sign of a tourist or a guide. I started to wonder if this was a tourist spot at all. This cave doesn't look like a sightseeing wonder to me. Yet, I had a strong urge to get inside, as if some invisible force was attracting me.

"Leo, let's go inside and check if people are in there. Maybe the shift has already started and everyone's inside." I don't know why I even thought that. It was as if I wasn't thinking or speaking on my own account but someone was making me think that way.

"But Lera, there are no vehicles nearby. Look around you." Leo said making a full circle while waving his arms around. 

"Maybe they came on foot." I want to slap myself so badly for saying something so stupid. It was as if I was jinxed. 

"If you say so, sis." Leo shrugged. I just looked into the cave thinking 'What did I just say? Why did I say that?'. My mind was whirring around trying to understand the situation, but I felt out of control since the moment we got near the cave.

     As if my legs were walking on their own, I started stepping inside the cave it was dark but I could make out some light a bit more in the cave. 'That's weird! Why is there light deep inside the cave?'

"Lera, are you sure about this? I don't like the eeriness of this place. It's creeping me out." Leo asked while clinging tightly to Lera's right hand.

"Leo, it's just a cave. It's fine. There might be people inside. That could be the reason for the light inside." I said walking further into the cave. 'Aah!' I screamed out when a torch lighted up on its own. I realized that we arrived at the place where we saw the light.

"Lera, there are no people-" Leo cut his sentence short with a gasp.

"Lera... Leo... Lera... Leo..." A raspy voice was repeating our names... Wait, a raspy voice? I suddenly felt a knot forming in my stomach and my heart rate quickened. I remembered my dream. It's exactly like in my dream. Me and Leo in a cave and raspy voices were calling our names. I looked down at the floor half expecting it to swallow me. That's the only part that wasn't happening.

"Leo, do you hear that?" I asked in a frightened tone. He just nodded. He was in too much of a shock to speak.

"Let's get out of here." I said trying to sound calm but it wasn't working. I turned around and felt my soul leave my body. I stared at the sight I saw in pure horror. 6 identical paths! I don't remember seeing any diversion on our way in. It looked like it was just one straight path. How come we were entering a place where 6 paths were meeting and didn't even notice it? 

"Lera... What's going on?" Leo asked. He was starting to look pale and clearly, he was scared out of his wits. Just outside the cave, he talked about how he doesn't wanna be scared anymore and now I am giving him many reasons to. 

"Hey, don't worry. I think it's probably a way they scare the tourists. This must be all a setup. Come on, a torch that lights on its own, a cave that calls out our name, many paths to confuse us and prevent us from getting out? Those are all classic horror movie stuff." I said trying to cheer up Leo.

"Lera, I am pretty sure we never saw any movies with caves that whisper our name or paths like this..." Leo said questioningly. I think he understood that I was lying to make him calm.

"It's not like we have watched every single movie in the world. And besides, this could be a fresh idea that arose in someone's head, and that must be why we never heard of it before." Gosh, I was trying so hard to come up with lies for Leo. But deep down I knew I was also trying to calm myself down with these poorly made lies.

"Tell you what, let's walk through every single tunnel till we find the right one. We didn't walk too far. We try to trace back a few steps and if there isn't an exit there, we turn back and take the other path." I said and looked at Leo. He was looking at me with a confused expression. He clearly didn't trust this plan.

"What could be the worst that could happen?" I smiled at him reassuringly.

"We could get lost and never find our way back and starve to death. We could get eaten by a bear. We could die out of thirst. We could accidentally get separated in the dark. We could get haunted by ghosts. We could get chased by monsters. We could die of a heart attack if something suddenly bursts out. There could be an earthquake and the cave might fall on top of us. We could-" Leo kept saying a long list of things that could go wrong and half of them actually made sense while the rest was just his imagination going wild.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." I cut him short or this might go on forever. "We could get lost, yes, that's possible. There could be a bear, yes, that's also possible and we could also get separated in the dark. We are still kids, so don't worry about heart attacks since we don't have any disease that could cause them. But haunted by ghosts and chased by monsters, Leo are you even hearing yourself?" 

"I know what I am saying Lera, but look around you, LISTEN to what you are hearing. Now tell me, if those aren't ghosts that are whispering our names then what is?" Leo shot his eyebrows up questioningly.

"There could be hidden speakers." I tried to reason with him. I think the kid's losing his mind in here.

"If they are from speakers, how do they know our names?" His question left me in shock but I came up with another stupid reason.

"We called each other by our names after we entered the cave. They could also be listening." Someone slap me for my stupidity. I am more unreasonable than a 6-year-old. Yes, ghosts sound even more stupid but at least he has good reasoning for it.

"Lera, you asked me if I was hearing myself. Are you? Do you know what kind of weird reasons you are saying right now? And they say elders are supposed to be wiser." Leo started raising his voice. 'Great, now I am getting shouted at and mocked by a 6-year-old.' I thought.

"Listen here, mister! I am the big sister and you listen to me. I am going to check every single path until I find the exit. You can either come with me or stay here on your own and wait for one of those possible outcomes you were blabbering about." I started to stomp off into one of the tunnels. I felt bad for shouting at him but I just felt so mad. I am just as lost as he is. I am just 6 more years older than him, it's not easy for me to handle either. I turned back to look at Leo and he wasn't coming, he just stood there with tearful eyes. I turned back to the tunnel and was gonna take a step inside when I heard someone speak.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A young girl's voice sounded softly echoing through the cave walls stopping me at my path.