40 Feet Below (ARCHIVE Series)

1962:

It was very quiet.

Even on a bright, sunny day like this, it remained peaceful. If you lived in any other small town, you might not notice, but if you lived in Willow Falls, you'd know it could get as lively as Boston.

It was peculiar, yet it wasn't the only strange event in town. For instance, strange noises had been coming from the town's cave. Emily lived quite close to it and often heard these sounds from her bedroom window. She always described it as something crying before suddenly erupting in what sounded like a manic state.

Officer Matthew Sharp once investigated these reports after many residents complained that the noise prevented them from sleeping. When he looked, he couldn't find anything that could have caused the sound. "It must have been a bear or something," he reasoned, and most accepted this explanation, though very few accused Matthew of covering something up for the government or the Soviets. "There isn't a bear on earth that makes a sound like that and you know it."

People accused him, but the truth was Emily's parents just thought everyone was on edge because of the Cold War, so they didn't suspect Matthew was involved in anything sinister. He's a good person.

Or, should she say, was a good person? A few days ago, Matthew went missing—that was the second strange occurrence, and that is people vanishing. It began shortly after the cave sounds started, two weeks ago, beginning with Alfred Langley, aged 26, reported by his mother Marie, who was caring for him. Later, she also went missing.

But as Emily was walking past the cave heading back home from school she heard something. It wasn't the usual sounds that she and other people heard when outside the cave; instead, it was the voice of a man. "Help. Please help me."

Emily ran up to one of the neighbouring houses and began frantically knocking on the door. "Help, someone is in the cave, and he needs help" When no one answered she quickly went to one of the windows and tried to look in but saw no one there.

She saw a bowl of soup on the table still steaming but no one was there. Where was everyone she thought.

"Help!!"

She heard the man yell again and against her better judgment, stood at the entrance of the cave she yelled back, "Hang on, I'm coming in to save you". In her head, she asked, "What could I do? I have no medical training whatsoever and I don't even know who is down there."

In the cave it was cold, it was slippery, it was quiet, as she looked around she saw nothing but rocks. He could be anywhere, she didn't even know how deep it went until finally in the dark she saw the outline of a man on his stomach.

"Excuse me. Excuse me, are you alright?" She asked as she went over and flipped him over on his back. And no, he wasn't alright

His face was brutally mangled, so that his jaw was hanging on by a thread and she could see the man's skull. She screamed at the sight but quickly covered her mouth unsure if whatever did this was still in the cave.

But then she heard a noise behind her, it sounded like there were two of them, one by the wall of the cave and one crawling behind her.

Emily didn't want to turn and face what was there but she did anyway, and she was shocked. The creature on the wall was female and the one on the ground was male, they both had grey skin and sharp claws and long teeth other than that they looked human. And both of them were people Emily knew.

"M-mom, D-dad?"

Was all she could say as before they ripped her to shreds