“We keep going. The way out is down here.”
“Down?” Adam shook his head. “No. We can’t go down. That way was blocked after the cave-in of 1890.”
Jay stared at the man. “How do you know that?”
Adam looked nervous. “I… um… well, I guess we’ve all got our connections to this pit of ghosts, haven’t we? My great great grandfather was in charge of this section when it blew.” He ran his hand through his dirty hair. “I never knew much about it. The family didn’t mention it. Ya know.” He shrugged. “A lot of people died that day.”
“And David Hughes told the blasters where to set the charges.” Ewan stood over Adam. “Eighty-nine people dead. Including my great great grandfather.” He got closer to Adam until their faces almost touched. There was a dark cast in Ewan’s eyes. “With his last breath he cursed ten generations of your family, so it’s said. The mine will take you all, one by one.” Ewan let out a little laugh. “Ironic, isn’t it?”
“What?” Adam met Ewan’s gaze.
“That I’d be the one protecting your arse.”
“Do you believe in curses?” scoffed Adam.
“Do you?” Ewan snarled back.
“Guys, as much as I get your whole ‘the sins of my fathers’ therapy session, we got bigger issues to deal with here, don’t ya think?” Alex pointed back towards the way they’d come. He turned to Jay. “Okay, buddy. Me and the two Ghostbusters wanna get the hell outta here. You gonna make that happen?”
Jay nodded. “There’s another way through.” He stood up. “We need to get moving.”
Louise and Matt hauled their bags up and stood next to Alex. “And we’re not Ghostbusters, mate,” Matt growled. “We’re paranormal investigators.”
“Yeah, whatever, neckbeard. You want my advice?”
“No!”
“Getting it anyway. Lose the bags. They’ll just slow you down.”
Louise snapped back at the American. “Lose the bags? Do you have any idea how much this kit is worth?”
“Is it worth your lives?” Ewan strolled to the front of the group, leaving his boss sitting on a rock. “The Yank’s right. That stuff will just slow you down. You can always come back for it or, oh, I dunno, sue the tour company for the value of it?” He glanced back at Adam and smirked. “They’ve got plenty of money burning a hole in their pockets, haven’t they, Adam?”
Without thinking, Adam put his hand in his pocket and closed his fingers around the lump of stone. He felt the cold vein of gold running through the shale. Adam smiled in the gloom. More money than you’ll ever have, motherfucker! He stood up and stared at the ex-soldier. “We’ll make sure everyone has their ticket prices reimbursed and a complimentary tour once the mine has been made safe again.” He smiled a PR smile. “You have my word on that.”
“Safe? From creatures that tear you to pieces? Safe?” Louise’s voice was shrill. “Are you kidding me?”
Jay interrupted them. “If we want to get out of here alive, then I really suggest we leave the compensation claims until we get to the surface, don’t you?” He started walking down a tunnel. Screw waiting around for the rest of them. He wanted out of this pit of ghosts right fucking now.
A flapping and chittering stopped him in his tracks. Behind him, a worried Matt peered over his shoulder. “More bats?”
A white, ghostly form flickered out of the darkness, chirruping and tweeting. Behind it, a flurry of fluttering sent swirling vortexes through the dust-filled air.
“I don’t think these are bats.” Jay’s eyes widened in horror as a tiny skeletal bird fluttered in front of him. Empty eye sockets stared back at him as the canary buzzed and darted in front of his face. It opened its beak and let out a trill of notes so loud, so brittle and so penetrating that they were physically painful. Jay instantly felt blood gush from his nose. He yelled, “COVER YOUR EARS!”
The group covered their ears and dropped to the ground, trying to stay as low as possible.
A second later, the flock burst from the darkness and poured onto the crouching group like a swarm of angry bees. They seemed to target Louise, pecking and tangling in her red hair. The shrill chittering and cheeping reached a crescendo. Louise screamed, flailing at the birds and trying to get away from their pin-sharp little beaks. Each peck drew more blood.
Her handbag dropped from her shoulder and fell open. A bottle of perfume rolled out and came to rest next to Ewan’s feet. He scooped up the bottle, flicking off the lid with his finger. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter. Positioning the lighter immediately in front of the perfume bottle’s nozzle, he pressed down on the spray and ignited the lighter at the same time.
A jet of flame shot out and towards the canaries. Two caught in the first blast, immediately combusted, and crashed backwards into the main flock. The birds began to fall to the floor, flapping and thrashing, screeching all the while. Ewan, still sending out jets of perfumed flames into the flock, stamped on the skeletal birds, grinding their fragile bones into dust underneath his heel.
The rest of the flock circled upwards and, with one last chorus, fluttered back into the darkness.
“Holy fuck.” Alex uncovered his ears and slowly stood. “This place is the worst fucking theme park ever.” He turned to Ewan. “Nice work with the improvised flamethrower there, MacGyver.”
In the corner, a battered and bleeding Louise sobbed loudly. “Why do they keep going after me? Why?”
“You’ve got red hair. It’s thought to be seriously unlucky in a mine to have red hair,” Jay answered matter-of-factly and shrugged. “Perhaps put a hat on?”
“Fuck you!” Louise snapped back. “You’re the guide, aren’t you supposed to be getting us out of here?”
“Then get up, pull your panties up and let’s go.” Jay’s voice was sharper than he meant it to be, and he held a hand up. “Look, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. I’m as scared as you are. The only thing we can do is keep going, okay?”
“The kid’s right.” Alex stood next to Jay.
“Thanks for the moral support, but I’m twenty-five, buddy. Not a kid. Shall we get our arses moving?” Jay turned to Adam. “Oh, by the way, dickhead, once we’re out of here, I quit, okay?” Jay flicked the finger at Adam, turned back to the tunnel, and stepped forward.
Just in time, Ewan grabbed his arm and hauled him back from the edge of the huge shaft right in the middle of the track.
“Fuck!” Jay swayed backwards, pivoted and grabbed Ewan around the waist. “Damn this place, whose bright idea was it to open a fucking crappy old mine as an attraction anyway?” He staggered away from the shaft and sat down heavily in the dirt. “Can you see any way around that thing, Ewan?”
Ewan scanned the tunnel with his torch, the beam bouncing off solid rock. The shaft filled the entire floor. It was too wide to jump across. Ewan shook his head. “Nope. It’s a choice. Back that way—” He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “…and back into the warm embrace of the Coblynau, or down that.” He pointed to the side of the shaft.
Jay scowled at the big man. “How do you know they’re Coblynau?”
Ewan paused briefly, and then shrugged. “Process of elimination, fella. You mentioned them earlier. I figured they were scary-evil enough to be what you described, am I right?”
“Honestly, I have no idea. I’ve never seen one before. Because if I had, you can be damn sure I wouldn’t be back here today.” Jay peered down into the shaft. “Oh. Goody. It’s a rickety, rusty old ladder that looks like it’s been there since God was a lad. What the fuck did they mine here? Horror story clichés?”