Echoes of Yesterday

Part 17 - The Ring of Despair

The cold, damp air of the cave was heavy as we walked deeper into the shadows, our footsteps echoing against the stone walls. The farther we went, the more the scent of something foul began to creep in—sharp and pungent, like decaying flesh. It hit us all at once, and I instinctively covered my nose.

"What is that?" Eric muttered, his face twisted in disgust. Maya coughed, pulling her shirt up over her mouth.

I stepped forward, and suddenly, something soft squished beneath my foot. I froze. "Maya, shine your light over here."

She did, the beam trembling as it flickered over the ground. At first, we couldn't make sense of what we were looking at. It was a pale, fleshy color, mixed with white and brown, twisted and unrecognizable. My stomach lurched, but curiosity forced my hand. I crouched down, reaching for it, the texture wet and cold.

Then, in the dim light, I saw it—a human eye.

It stared back at me, still clinging to its eyelashes, wet and glossy. For a moment, time seemed to stop. My breath hitched, my heart pounding in my chest like it was going to explode.

"Oh my God, Maya!" I screamed, my voice breaking. The eye rolled in my palm as I staggered back. Maya's scream joined mine, echoing off the cave walls as I threw the eye down, my hand shaking uncontrollably. I felt bile rise in my throat, and my entire body trembled in horror.

Eric's eyes widened in disbelief as he caught sight of the eye now lying on the cave floor. "Daisy, what the hell—" he muttered, his voice low but thick with urgency. He bent down, grabbing my shoulders to steady me, his grip firm but trembling. "You okay? Look at me, Daisy."

Just as I tried to catch my breath, something cold and wet dripped onto my shoulder. I flinched, instinctively brushing at it, but it only smeared more of the liquid across my skin. "What the—"

Theo, standing beside me, reached out, his hand smeared with the substance. He rubbed it between his fingers and then held it up to the light. His face drained of color as the realization hit all of us at the same time—it was blood. Thick, warm blood.

We all looked up, our bodies moving in slow motion, as Maya shakily raised her phone toward the ceiling of the cave. The beam of light crawled over the jagged rocks until it landed on something dangling from a rusted metal rod embedded in the cave wall. The light flickered, casting eerie shadows across what was unmistakably a human body.

It hung there, limp and broken, swaying ever so slightly. The skin was torn, hanging loosely, and blood dripped down from its grotesquely stretched mouth. The intestines spilled out, coiling from the body and trailing down to the floor, still wet with fresh blood. One eye was missing from its socket, leaving a hollow, gaping wound where it should have been.

"Oh my God," I whispered, barely able to comprehend what I was seeing.

The body's single remaining eye stared back at us, lifeless, while the other—the one I had just held—now lay discarded on the cave floor. My knees felt weak, and the air in the cave seemed to thicken as if it were suffocating us with the horror of the scene.

Maya's face turned ghostly pale, her lips trembling as she covered her mouth, fighting back sobs. Eric stood frozen, his jaw clenched, eyes wide with a mix of terror and revulsion.

"What... what kind of place is this?" Maya whispered, her voice barely audible, as though speaking too loudly would make the nightmare even more real.

I swallowed hard, trying to keep my voice steady. "We... we have to get out of here."

As we bolted forward, hands gripping tightly together, the adrenaline in our veins gave us speed we didn't know we had.