Urban Legends

La Cueva del Pueblo

A/N: Dear readers, for the 150th part of this book, I will share a personal urban legend I heard when I was nine.

It's also kind of like story time, sooo enjoy!

When I was nine, my class went on a class trip to a little village near Lleida, Spain (I was born in Spain and grew up there till I turned ten). We were excited to be there, especially since my parents never let me go on a class trip - it was my first time.

We stayed at a little farm, and spent the first day playing around, feeding the animals, looking at the stars at night - it was awesome.

On the second day, we went on a little hiking trip. I despised it - I hated walking back then, let's say I was pretty lazy as a kid. So it was my class, two of our teachers, a lady from the farm, and a local to guide us.

We walked and walked until we were all tired and decided to sit down in front of a little waterfall. Besides the waterfall, there was an old wooden banner with a picture of an old water mill, and in front of that water mill stood a little girl, smiling for the photo.

For some reason, that picture made my stomach turn, however, I didn't pay much attention to it. I was more keen on eating my Nutella Sandwich.

That's when our guide decided to open his mouth and tell us a story. Literally - that's what he did.

"Once upon a time," he started. Not all of us were paying attention to him.

"Right where the fields are, there was a little village. The people in the village lived in harmony - helping each other out, and looking for each other. However, the village hid a dark secret," he paused, eerly smiling at us.

I remember squinting my eyes at him.

"There was a cave everyone in the village feared. That cave was said to be haunted, made by the devil. Anyone who went into that cave never came back. It is said, that due to helplessness, the villagers took desperate measures. They decided to let travelers stay the night in the cave, and whoever came back alive with an answer to the mystery, would get rewarded."

I made a face at that.  Sounded pretty sadistic.

"So whenever a traveler wanted to stay the night at their village, the villagers made the traveler sleep in the cave. And as predicted, none of the travelers ever returned. One day, three horsemen decided to stay the night in the village. The villagers kept the same rules, "You will have to stay the first night in the cave," said the head of the village. The three horsemen agreed, not thinking much of it. They were on their way to the cave when a little boy stopped them, "The cave is cursed," informed the little boy. "Anyone who goes inside disappears." 

The horsemen smiled at each other, "We don't fear anything, little one. We promise you we will find the truth about that cave," one of the horsemen smiled, ruffling the little boy's hair.

The horsemen entered the cave and made a plan - one would keep watch while the other two slept, and after three hours, they would switch. And that's exactly what they did. Three hours passed and nothing had happened until then. It was time to switch. The second horseman to keep watch decided to light up a fire, so he could see clearly. That is when he noticed something, up on the ceiling of the cave, hundreds of pig-sized spiders wandered around. Some of them were slowly creeping down towards the sleeping horsemen.

The man keeping the watch quickly woke up his friends and they all ran out of the cave. The horsemen realized that anyone who spent the night in the cave got eaten by spiders and that's why they never returned. The horsemen decided to burn the cave and so kill every spider inside.

Everyone in town was happy - they had finally gotten their answers. The horsemen got their reward and everyone lived happily ever after." He ended the story.

Silence.

"That's all?" Asked one of my classmates. The guide nodded his head.

"Sounds like he just made that story from scratch..." mumbled my friend from beside me, making me giggle.

We got up and started making our way back to the little farm we were staying at. However, I took a moment to look closely at the photo of the little girl. That's when the guide spoke from behind me, "That's Rosa. She disappeared twenty years ago. We searched for her everywhere, but we couldn't find her. She was last seen entering the cave."

I shot my head at him. 

"This photo is all we have left of her." He sighed, and hearing that gave me goosebumps. I knew that he wasn't bluffing, I could see that on his face. 

"Come on, kiddo, don't want the spiders getting us too, right?" And with that, we joined the group.

I don't remember so much, that's why the story sounds weird, but the part with that little girl stayed with me. I still remember her face clearly.