The True One

Chapter 13 Part 2

Entering the cave would be a mistake—one I would be complicit in. If any of my friends, or God forbit, my father, were hurt in there, I wouldn't be able to blame it all on Alek. Still, Alek had cautioned me to withhold information from them—about Chip, about my possible weird werewolf status—and that meant they couldn't know fully what they were walking into.

But walk into it they did, Alek and Flora in the lead, with Macy and Dad behind them. That left me to take up the rear, stomach twisting with anxiety as we marched towards our impending doom, brain struggling to determine how to alert Alek to the danger without freaking out our companions.

First, though, he would have to stop talking.

"There is one piece of potential information, a major clue if true, that I haven't mentioned yet." He inched his way sideways through a slender portion of the cave's squeeze. "The owner of the tavern in which he died claimed to have spoken to Buckshot Barney prior to his murder. Although Barney didn't give up the location of the treasure, he did say it wasn't in a cave."

"Wait, what?" Macy tapped him on the shoulder. "But then, why are we in this creepy, nightmare-inducing, spider sanctuary of a cave if it's not where the treasure is?"

I seconded that. This might be a naturally occurring cave, but it felt like it was a tunnel on the verge of collapse. We had to duck our heads to avoid hitting random stalactites, and if the space got any narrower, claustrophobia was going to make me break out into hives. Before I could voice my hesitation, Alek continued with his story.

"That's not all Barney said, you see. He did mention a cave, or rather, that a cave led to where he'd buried it."

"So, you're saying..." Flora shined her flashlight up ahead of the group revealing more of the same gloomy tunnel. "This cave will lead us outside again, instead of further into the bowels of the mountain."

"What a delightful way to put it, Flora," Alek said. "And yes. That's the assumption. If we choose the correct path."

"How will we know what the correct path is?" asked my father.

"This whole path is incorrect." Finally, I'd managed to sputter out what needed to be said. "Alek, you were right to begin with. We should turn around and get out of here."

In this crowded space lit only by the glare of flashlights, it was impossible to read his expression. I shielded my eyes as four people's lights shone on me.

"It's too late to turn back now, Verity," he said, sounding like he was more than a bit tired of putting up with my shit. "The fate of Buckshot Barney's treasure is in our hands."

"It's our fate that I'm worried about."

Dad placed a hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "It's the tight space she doesn't like, isn't that right, Verity?"

"That's not right."

"No worries," Alek said. "If we keep going, I do believe we'll find ourselves on the other side soon."

I sniffed the air again. Still putrid. Still all kinds of wrong. "I'm serious, Alek!"

They weren't getting the significance of the alarm in my voice. Bile again pressed up into my throat. I plugged my nose with my thumb and index finger. This was a smell I hadn't minded only a month or two ago but now it made me feel like I was walking into my own death. Why hadn't I realized it before?

The group continued. I entertained the idea of drawing back and turning around on my own. But I could hardly abandon them to a fate I was partially responsible for creating. Before long, we reached a fork in the cave.