The Girl in the Cave.

I'm sending this to you, dear Lucas, before it is too late. You knew what this holiday was supposed to be. A crossroads where I would truly embrace adulthood. I told you I was going to propose to Lara. As you know we travelled to Greece with Lara's college roommate Tina and her boyfriend Kostas. Tina's family owns a house in the mountains. She invited us to stay there for 2 weeks. I had told Tina and Kostas about my plans as well. We were going to wait and surprise Lara. Now it is too late. These passed days have proven to be seminal, but not in the way I anticipated. I fear we walked into a nightmare. Deep below us a nameless blasphemy awoke. It's still outside. Calling for me. I know now I cannot escape.

What follows is my account of our stay in this godforsaken place. I'm going to tell you what I saw as I saw it.

All of it is true.

I stared out of the car window. My eyes bright with awe. The Pindus mountains stretched out before me. Its peaks rose in the distance like they had been kneaded together by a titan of old.

Tina turned around in the passenger seat and sniggered as she saw my expression.

'They call these mountains the spine of Greece for a reason,' she said.

'I bet they do,' I answered absentmindedly.

Lara grabbed my hand and squeezed it gently.

'I'm happy we finally get to do this,' she said.

I turned towards her and smiled. Lara's golden locks swayed around her like molten gold. I leant forward and kissed her. 'Me too.'

Tina beamed at us. 'We deserve a break after finishing med school.'

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kostas glance at me through the rear-view mirror. He sighed. 'yes, everyone is happy.'

Tina slapped him on the shoulder. 'It's too early for you to sulk already.'

Kostas sighed again. 'Easy for you to say. You haven't been driving for hours.'

'I told you the house was in a remote area.' Tina snapped.

'I didn't think you meant this remote,' Kostas replied exasperatedly.

'I offered to drive,' I interjected.

Kostas grinned. 'No offence Adam, but I'd rather walk up these mountains then have you drive me.'

Tina and Lara nodded their heads in agreement.

'Fine,' I said. 'whatever.'

'How much longer Tina?' Lara asked.

'About 2 hours.'

Kostas groaned.

'Don't be so grumpy,' Tina said playfully. 'Besides, I'm sure this region has enough creepy crawlers to keep a brave entomologist like you interested.'

Kostas smirked.

'The house belonged to your grandparents, right?' Lara continued.

Tina nodded her head. 'Well actually it's been in my family for generations. I used to spend my summers there as a child but since my parents left Greece it has fallen in disuse. My mom only decided to renovate it a couple years ago and since then we have rented it out to tourists. Admittedly it's a little inaccessible. Only one way in and one way out but the nature is sublime. Anyways my mom made sure the house is stocked up on enough food and drink.'

'Perfect.' Lara said and beamed at me.

I returned a smile.

After almost two hours of climbing up mountains we reached a narrow bridge extending over a deep ravine.