The Black Crevasse

The Black Crevasse by Hugo de Waal

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It was a Thursday just like any other. The clouds were making their way across the darkening hills, sunlight peering over mountain tops and glowing radiantly. A stretch of road winds through and around these mountains in fantastic yet chaotic ways. A lone car's headlights suddenly flicker on as it rounds a corner and follows this immense stretch of road. It's headlights are full and bright; the skies overhead are long and rapidly blackening. "How much longer till we get there?" asked one man tiredly. The other man responded uneasily, "Shouldn't be too much longer, I'm fairly sure that we are going the right way, the map does say it's near here". The wheels of the car just went on turning and rolling, the journey getting more irritating with every turn of each jagged corner. Shadows of trees stretched and then snapped into nothing as the darkness moved across the final mountain in view. "Why are we leaving so late anyway, couldn't we just come here during the day like any other normal people?", the second man said somewhat bitterly. The first man looked over at him in a calm manner and told him "Don't fret I've told you it's going to be alright, you really do worry too much, we gotta come at night if we are gonna be the first to uncover it", (We're gonna find it first and everyone else can piss off, by the time they leave tomorrow morning, we would have already found it). Out of nowhere a wave of cicada noise rose up and softly exploded like static in their ears creating a meditative     

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 atmosphere. The countryside was now completely dark, no light of the sun to act as a nightlight for their growing worries. Suddenly the car made a vastly different turn into a seemingly endless tunnel of curved trees. The two men spoke very little. The road turned into a bed of rocks, then to patches of worn grass and finally to the kind of grass you just knew no car had ever driven across before. The gushing of nearby creeks, crickets and cicadas arguing, the soft whistle of the wheels as they drove over these blades of fresh grass. The trunk clattering over and over and over, this sound growing slightly more and more and more irritating as they bumped and thumped in their tragically unkept vehicle. "What's your phone reception like?", the first man asked. The second man stated in a somewhat worried tone, "Pretty bad actually, only got one bar at the moment, my guess is that this is the last chance to make any phone calls". The car suddenly slowed as the first man pointed out the window at a lightening-stricken tree and said comfortingly "I think we'll keep going,just remember that this darkish split looking tree is the marker for knowing you're in reception range, you got that?". The second man nodded with a slight hesitation. The two ended up opting to not to make any last-minute calls as the car moved back up to its regular speed, the split tree falling into the background,leaving the sight of the rear-view mirror. The car continued onward, moving over a dilapidated and worn bridge that almost     

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seemed to be clinging onto the cliff face. Their destination was growing nearer, not because the map informed them of this, but also because they could feel this in their chests, an almost primitive sense of either excitement or anxiety. It's strange how two completely different emotional sensations could produce a similar rhythm and beat of the heart. The second man looking out the window with listless eyes slowly gazed down to his phone and saw it, the final reception bar was now gone and now they were alone. The mountains now surrounded them and looked as if they were leaning over the car, as if they were watching them silently. After another 20 or so minutes of travelling the two men had arrived at their destination. The car ground to a halt, the silence after the engine stopped was almost deafening. "We're here, c'mon let's go and have a look" the first man said confidently. Right away the second man asked, "Do you think they were right about this place, I mean it might not even be here?". The first man looked over at him and said, "Just come on dumb dumb let's go". The two got out of the car like two weather-beaten old men, their crooked and contorted legs were just so relieved to be able to stretch outwards and upwards. The two men looked out across the vast expanse of silhouetted mountains and trees, the stars floating high above them like a sea of endless candles sweeping across the horizon. For a couple minutes the two just couldn't tear their eyes away from this immense and almost