Entering The Shadows

Big Day

Mason sat ecstatically waiting for his cake. It was his day and his day only. He had waited 365 days for this moment. The day he turns 14.

His parents had prepared a huge surprise for him and for the first year, Mason had no clue what it was. His parents walked out of the doorway to the empty dining room other than Mason sitting there looking happy as can be.

They smiled at their baby boy finally smiling after the rough times he's been through recently. They happily set down his birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to him, making sure to use their best singing voice to make him as happy as he can be.

Mason had already thought today was the perfect day but little did he know, it was gonna get better, however not for long.

His parents went to go get the knife to cut the cake when they pulled something out of the drawer in the kitchen. They walked in and told Mason to close his eyes, they slipped the ticket to Potomac Caverns into his hand and told him to open his eyes.

His eyes lit up with excitement. He had wanted to go explore a cave for years now since he was 7 years old. It was finally the day! His parents informed him that they would be going at 7:00 PM, it was only 3:40. Mason sighed loudly however he couldn't wait.

The clock was going to 5:20 now and Mason was still just as jumpy getting ready to go to the biggest event in his life to that date. He kept bothering his parents about it hoping they could change the time and go earlier. His parents informed him however the time had to stay, they already confirmed the time for the exploration.

It came to 6:10 and Mason and his parents got into their 2018 Ford Focus and started heading to Potomac Caverns for their exploration. The drive was fairly short, it was only about 20 minutes away from their house. Weirdly their radio wasn't turning on but they thought nothing of it.

Mason kept shaking the car with how excited he was to even be heading there to go explore. Mason was the type of kid to just want to go off on their own and explore their surroundings- dangerous or not.

Mason's parents were very protective however they knew as long as they could stay close to him he was perfectly fine.

They pulled into the parking lot to enter the Caverns- they noticed how no other cars were there and questioned it, however Mason rushed them out of the car and into the entrance.

The guard there informed them of what was going on- a category 4 earthquake was having foreshocks near their area so it was very dangerous to enter the caverns, however Mason tried to reassure them with his curiosity and optimism.

They decided to enter. They didn't want to ruin their baby boy's day and have him disappointed on his big day.

They entered, Mason looked around and saw beautiful sparkling gems scattered all over the walls. He kept on going, looking at the gems. They were everywhere, mesmerizing, absolutely gorgeous, their rigid edges, their bright purple color, Mason was almost hypnotized.

Suddenly something caught Mason's attention. A large violent shake took him off his balance falling to the ground, hitting his head off a rock- knocking him out cold.

He woke up- surrounded by rubble. He examined the cave surrounding him. It was pure rock all around him. Suddenly he heard a squeak coming from some rubble ahead of him. Suddenly something jumped out at him knocking him to the ground- he scrambled to get back to his feet and seen what caused it.

A rat! One that was about 3 feet!