The Inexpressible Story [18+]

Chapter Two

Lily walked around the rock formation, it was surprisingly not very large, to an opening that could be the other end. She couldn't even find another hole. The ground was littered with dry leaves, sticks, and torn microtene bags. Disgusting. She peered into the cold darkness and shouted to her friends. The voice echoed, but strangely, as if it couldn't find any recipients, zigzagging off the stone outcroppings. She began to feel anxious. So she counted two minutes and headed back. Before she reached the pile of bags, Ezra and Thella came out."It's passable, but I don't know where it might lead," Thella uttered thoughtfully."Didn't you hear me? I was shouting at you. I was even waiting on the other side.""Then I guess you don't know how to shout, you couldn't hear a thing."Which was rather odd..."And you made it to the end?""No, the corridor goes on for miles.""It doesn't make sense, I got around in seconds, don't mess with me."But Ezra confirmed Thella's story. "We had to go with the flashlight. But we came back for you. Come with us.""Exactly, hurry up. Let's explore some new shit," Thella said enthusiastically, clapping her autistic hands."Sure, let's die together. I hate dark and cramped spaces.""I don't like them either. And if I can handle it, you can too. And it's not that cramped," Ezra huffed, glancing toward the entrance.Lily didn't want to look like a total wuss who was ruining all the fun, so she soon gave in to the collective pressure. Led by Thella, they made their way inside. Into the bowels of the cold, rough rock, the likely future eternal resting place of the three of them. Inside, after a few meters, they could see nothing at all, the darkness seeming to swallow the rays coming from outside. And the flashligt was useless, after a few minutes of dragging in the darkness it ran out of energy. How unexpected... The only way to get somewhere and not fall was to hold on to the sharp sides and hope that no one's hand would suddenly bump into something wet or hairy and moving. The path kept going further and further but it wasn't going anywhere, Lily couldn't fathom where the tunnel might lead if they kept going straight ahead. Theoretically, it shouldn't even be that dark. Except for the sounds of footsteps and gasps, nothing could be heard. And that nothing was a little frightening. Ezra's blood was rushing in her ears, she wished to be outside. Slowly the darkness began to give way to a brownish gloom, they walked on, hands bracing themselves against the hard cold rock walls as if they could save them from possible danger. At least some of them. Each of our heroines was creating catastrophic scenarios in her mind about the possibilities of an unpleasant, very painful and long death. What if the ceiling starts to cave in and block the way back? What if there's no tunnel and they suffocate? What if there's a hole in the ground and they all fall into it and their bodies are impaled on sharp rock outcroppings? What if only one of them gets killed? Or do they not kill themselves, but their legs break and one by one they go down in the dark and cold and after long nights of fear and homesickness? A light warm breeze, smelling of herbs, enveloped Thella's face as they neared the end, and everyone's imagination was again briefly left by a wave of depressing manifesting images. Lily was consumed with anxiety, if she could, she would beat her friends to be outside right now. She had a feeling that the walls and ceiling were closing in and would soon crush them all to a pulp. Behind the sharp start, a shaft of sunlight blinded Thella. Finally, they came out. And wherever they had arrived, it was definitely not any part of Bruntel Forest.If you know the very popular poem that begins with the words: I know a glade, spring crystal clear, in deepest woodland by J. V. Sládek, as if it would be a little suspicious if you don't, you know at least half of what the local nature looked like. Thick dark ferns seemed to grow in two sheets in different places, only instead of the well, water gurgled in a deep pool on the right. Yes, it makes no sense, as do many other local phenomena, as you will soon discover as you read the following pages. The air did smell of herbs and was unnaturally clean and sweet, teasing the smoking lungs of the redhead and the blonde. That sweet smell probably came from the massive trees that leaned over the dark pool. They resembled willow in appearance, but Ezra recognized wisteria blossoms in them. Even though they weren't really flowers, they were really interestingly shaped leaves. The white trunks contrasted sharply, but not too kitschily, with the aforementioned deep purple flowers on the lianas. The longest ones, and there weren't too many of them, were almost touching the gently swaying shimmering surface. Even though the sun was shining, the water remained darker than the night sky and it was impossible to see the very bottom. The pool seemed almost bottomless. Maybe it was. And maybe, but really only with a small probability, it was inhabited by bloodthirsty animals with four rows of small sharp teeth. The surrounding grass was soft and almost too green, with forget-me-nots, anemones and plants resembling overgrown snowdrops sprinkled with plastic glitter everywhere. From the ground, apart from the would-be wisteria bushes, there were quite ordinary deciduous trees from whose crowns came the shrill song of birds, and directly opposite them a massive oak tree that any greedy small-town dweller would have cut down long ago under the false pretext of rust and rot in order to have a supply of wood for four winters ahead.