Whisper

Chapter 10, Trust

Hanging by the seams of my T-shirt, I look down to see what I would have fallen into. Seeing the rushing waters of an underground river, that would have swallowed me in its path, I look in the opposite direction to see what is keeping me from it. Breathless, I see that the creature that I had encountered earlier is grasping the ends of my T-shirt in its mouth.
Relieved, and terrified, I stay still and wait for what it will do next. At this point my fate lies with it, if I struggle and it let's me fall, I die, and if it eats me, I die. However if it doesn't eat me then I live. Taking my. Chances with the creature, I look up at it and wait for its next move. Illuminating the cavern, the creature looks back at me, all of a sudden I am hoisted up into the air.
Landing on something squishy, I open my eyes. Apparently my gamble paid off, as I see that I am sitting upon the creature, much like I would on a horse, instead of inside of its stomach. When I feel it lunge forwards, I wrap my arms around it, fearing that I would fall off, and cascade back into the gap, and tumble into the raging waters below.
When I look up, I see that I am flying through the series of tunnels that lie below the forest. My hair whips in the air rushing by me, I steady myself and reach out to touch the walls. I find that the walls appear to be soft like the thick patches of mud in my backyard that I would skate around on as a kid. As I remember doing this, all of the memories of fun stuff that I used to do as a kid.
We used to go on family camping trips, and tip over in our kayaks, then we'd hurry back home, soaking wet. I also remember where all four of us would go over to the neighbors campfire and tell each other spooky stories, that weren't even that scary. Becoming more captivated by the memory, I stare off into space, and drift off into the past.
"Would you pass the marshmellows, Joe?" My mother asked, she always spoke in a polite little tone, it was as if she was afraid to say anything too loud. She always seems to be the one person to keep to themselves at big gatherings, and she does quite the opposite. Take now for example, she clears her throat and tells the beginning of one of my favorite spooky stories.
"Once, a long, long time ago, so long that the tale has been long forgotten by most, there was a small boy, I believe his name was Johnny, he was no more than the age of eight. Johnny and his family went camping one weekend. When the family got there, it was still light outside, at the gate to the campgrounds they were met by a kind man, he told them to stay inside of the tent when it became dark outside, and to no mater what unzip the door until dawn.
The family thanked the man for his advice, and continued on their way through the camp ground. After they set up their housings, the little boy went to bed, as did his parents, and they all slept soundly throughout the rest of the night, and all was fine the next day. However after the boy went to bed the next day, he heard a noise outside of the tent. The boy shook his parents to wake them, but it was no use. Foolishly, the boy unzipped the tent and investigated what the noise was for himself.
After the boy had gone outside, he found that the noise was just as simple as someone humming. Curious, the boy went to find who was humming. Now the boy was traveling through the woods, and as he got closer and closer to the noise, he found that the noise wasn't humming like he thought it was, but a woman singing a phrase into the forest.
She sang, Johnny, I want my liver back, she repeated it over again, as if speaking directly to Johnny. She turned her head to the side and saw the little boy peering through the bushes. As the rest of her body angled to face him, he saw that there was a gaping hole in the middle of her, it went all of the way through. Screaming in terror, Johnny ran back through the forest, back to his tent. The woman followed, now chanting the phrase in a much louder manner. Once the boy reached the tent he zipped it shut, and he stayed there for the remainder the night. When the boy woke up the next day, he found that there was a liver on top of the wooden picnic table, accompanied with a fork and a knife.
The woman's voice rang through his head, he nervously clutched his stomach. Only when his hands reached where it should have been, he looked down and saw that there was a hole going right through him." My mother placed her hands on my stomach as she finished. I shivered to think about such a thing in a story, I never could've imagined that something like it would ever happen in real life.
As the flashback ends, I come back into reality. As I move through the tunnels, I find that time seems to go in slow motion, as I see my reflection in a thick stream of water cascading down from the ceiling above. I look into my eyes, and see pure joy, yet my face is frozen in the expressions of my past experiences, grief.
I stay close to the water for just long enough to see the change from being stunned by how much I miss those campfires, those stories, or those people, into a smile.
As time returns to its normal pace, I turn back to the path that slowly is slowly disappearing behind all of the twists and turns of the tunnel. Looking to the path ahead of me, I grip the creature more tightly, as I see that the trail ahead seems to have a bit of an uneven floor. We approach the masses of boulders that stand in the path. As we edge closer and closer to the clusters of rock, I begin to get very nervous. Then the world flips upside down.
Clutching tightly onto the creature I look around me and see that it has managed to be speeding through the tunnel on the sealing. I find that the goo behind me is sticking to the wall instead of sliding down it like I would have expected it to be, considering it seems very watery. However it does seem to make sense, since it holds its shape on the stone floor of the caves very well, and it has a very firm grip on whatever happens to fall into the substance.
The world shifts once again, but this time it seems to be a little less surprising. Feeling gravity keep me on the creature once again, I release my hold around it. As I do this, I notice that the creature retains the shape of my arms around it in the form of an indent. I watch as the hollow duplicate of my hand slowly fades away, much like memory foam usually does. I place my hand infront of me, and press it into the creature's soft tissue.
I watch in amazement as I watch that too disappear. Not wanting to anger the creature I subtly do the same exact thing again. I quickly become filled with joy as I watch my fingertips slowly get thinner, and thinner, until they are no longer visible. Watching the rest of it do the same, I stare at the creature's soft skin, I see that it is beginning to glow a rather beautiful mixture of green and blue. Sitting upon the creature, I become mesmerized by the chameleon-like properties of it. My eyes fill with wonder as I watch the creature fade from color to color.
Focused on the array of colors that the creature bestows, I notice that it stops on a rather odd color, which I recognize as the color of its slime. I watch as I see little bits of shiny white pigment appear, making it identical to the trail that it has behind it. I watch it closely as it seems to be shifting its body structure to become smaller, I find out why as we enter a thin portion of the cave.
As we emerge from the narrow passageway, I see that it hasn't moved back to its original form yet. It moves into a weirdly deformed caterpillar looking thing. As I begin to question its actions, I am speechless, as the creature slows its pace when we appear in an opening to a large circular room that has dozens of these same creatures inside.