A Cannibal's Cave

A Cannibal’s Cave

The air is thin and cold. The chill of the crisp air burns my lungs. The moon fell over the trees; shadows piercing with fear. Faint screaming of children numbs the ears for a better listen.
‘I really do hear screaming.’
Frightening yelps; almost like a cat moaning in agony.
‘Where is this coming from? I don’t understand! What am I to believe? Do I go searching for this faint cry or do I just wait and listen in fear?’
The cry is gone. The deafening silence is now its’ evil twin. Standing in the cold dark;
‘I can’t focus my eyes. What is happening?’
There is a rustle in the bushes. Faint footsteps on dead leafs echoes through the trees.
‘What is happening?’
Slowly I start to move forward.
‘I can’t hear!’
I strained my ears so much that I cannot use them anymore.
‘What is happening?’
I sat at the foot of a nearby tree to gather my thoughts and calm myself. I close my eyes; not seeing any difference between the two. The crying is back!
‘No, wait. Is it?’
I can’t seem to get my thoughts straight. My mind is playing tricks on me.
‘I hear the screams! Is it real?’
There are loud footsteps now, sounding like hard thunder on a summers’ night storm. I jump to my feet. Behind me! In front of me! I start to run.
‘No! I can’t hear where it’s at!’
Where is it? I stumble and fall to the moist leaves. I lay there in silence. The footsteps are gone. The crying is now gone. I lift up my head slowly to stand to my feet. Then, I felt severe pain on the back of my head as I fell back to the ground. Just before I loose consciences, I see a shovel thud to the ground in front of me.

As I regained consciences the first thing that I notice was that my hands were tied above my head chained to a wall. I was in a slight kneeling position with my legs underneath me. I was hanging by my wrists because I had no energy to hold my body weight on my knees. I felt severe pain on the back of my head and all throughout my body. I noticed that I did not have the same clothes on as I did before. I was wearing a white tee shirt and black pants. I wasn’t wearing any shoes or socks. The floor was very wet. It was a stone like structure, almost like a cave. The ground was very wet; puddles accumulated around the dead spots of the floor. It was very cold.
‘What is this place?’
As I gained strength in my neck I tried to look around the mysterious place I was in. The first thing I noticed was that is was a circular room. Not only was the floor stone and lumping, but the walls were too. There wasn’t much light. There were small rays of sunlight beam through the center of the room lighting up the floor to its wake. There was a faint stench of sulfur. This must be some sort of cave that has sulfur deposits.
‘It seems that I am underground.’
Once again I realized that I was tied up. I started to panic. The adrenaline started pumping the course of my veins giving me a little energy. I gained enough energy to stand up. I somehow maneuvered my body to get my hands in front of me instead of behind. Now I am facing the wall.
‘Was this a good idea? Now I can’t see anything but the sodden wall.’
The stench is horrible. I started to get wheezy and it was very hard to breath. I stood quiet trying to figure out what was going on. I closed my eyes.
‘It smells so bad!’

My eyes were closed for a few minutes or what seemed like a few hours. I moaned and moved about in pain. A cold tear slithered down my cheek as I tried to wipe it.
‘What is happening?’
Then, out of the cold dense air I heard a screeching sound. The kind of sound a grocery store cart makes when the wheel has been worn out. Footsteps followed close behind. I heard more screeching as the wheel on the cart shot left and right trying to gain traction on the wet floor. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a tall, dark man pushing a very old medical cart that had three vertical shelving units. I shrieked in horror as I saw what was on the cart. There were all sorts of needles, blades, scissors, tweezers, axes, and even a chain saw which lay on the bottom.
‘What the…’
The man was dressed in a white doctors’ coat that had blood soaked splatters all over it. He had a white cap and a Cyclops eye patch on his right eye that had a mirror on the outside. He glanced over at me and made a sick smile. He started to laugh as he yelled, “Diner time!”
My jaw dropped and I panicked. My heart started racing faster and faster as he moved toward me slowly, laughing the whole time. My body went limp and I fainted.

I shot out of bed! Sat straight up with a pain on the back of my head and my whole body! I looked around the room. I was back in bedroom. My wife awoke suddenly, “Honey, are you okay?”
‘Oh, thank God, it was only a dream!’
“Yes, I just had the worst dream!”
“Oh no, honey, how many times do we have to go through this?”
“Go through what? And why does my head hurt so badly? Why can’t I feel my legs?”
“Honey, you were kidnapped by a mass murderer. You were found just in time. It was the day you went fishing out at the lake in the woods. You got lost. And this man found you. When I realized you had been gone for so long I called the police to come help me find you. We went searching for you all through the woods around the lake. We wouldn’t have found you unless we heard faint cries. We followed the cries and heard you screaming…”
“Why? Why? Why would you eat my legs?”