Elena pulled away, shaking her head. “We have no choice. We have to stay low until morning. When the sun rises, we’ll leave.”
She ventured farther inside, and Aleandra’s panic intensified as the light left her. “B-but it’s not natural. Some animal made this. It’s not safe.”
“Do you see an animal?” Elena shone her light over the glittering surface. “Do you hear one?” Her voice had grown heavy with impatience. “Besides, even if there is an animal in here, it’s a hell of a lot better than what’s out there.”
THE CAVE WAS much larger than it had first appeared. Aleandra felt she’d been staggering after her friend for hours, with no end in sight. Thoughts of the structure collapsing and burying them alive tormented her, keeping her breathing shallow and her legs weak. She’d begged Elena to stop, trying to persuade her they were getting too far from the entrance, but her friend moved on as if possessed. She’d quit responding and wouldn’t answer questions about the others — just pushed forward.
Finally, she stopped, holding up her hand so Aleandra wouldn’t walk into her again.
“What is—”
“Ssh.” Elena held a finger to her lips. “Look.”
She peered over the other woman’s shoulder. The path split in two, each option packed down and free of obstacles. What snow cave was this large, or had more than one passage? No animal had made this.
As if Elena had read her mind, she cast the light over the path on the left. “There are stairs!”
They moved closer, gawking at an old yet sturdy-looking set of stairs heading into an abyss even more foul-smelling than the one they were in. “I don’t like it, Ellie. Let’s go.”
Elena cocked her head to the side. “Do you hear that?”
She could feel it more than hear it — a low, rumbling growl that vibrated through the earth and her boots, tickling her feet. “Are you crazy? There’s an animal down there. We have to get out of here, now.”
“That’s not an animal,” Elena said, shrugging her off. “It’s a generator, and from the sounds of it, it needs some help.”
“Ellie, what are you doing? Ellie, come back.”
“Do you want to spend the rest of the night blind, Allie?” She held up the flashlight, which had been flickering for the last ten minutes or so — a flicker Aleandra had desperately tried to ignore. “Maybe this place has heat too. I have to try.”
In a last attempt to keep her friend from descending, Aleandra seized her jacket. “I don’t like this. I don’t think we should be here. I’m going after the others. We never should have left them behind.”
“I told you, they’re gone. There’s nothing we can do for them now.”
“But — how can they be gone? They wouldn’t just leave us. Sasha wouldn’t—” Her words caught in her throat as she pictured her fiancé. How despondent he’d been that day, only brightening when she’d kissed him goodnight and held him close to her. At first, she’d been furious with him for abandoning her, but now a horrible thought occurred — what if he hadn’t abandoned her, but instead she’d unknowingly abandoned him, following a mad woman into the night? Tatiana had often joked that Elena was crazy, but maybe the jokes weren’t jokes after all.
The woman lunged at her, shoving her so hard the air went out of her and she lost her footing on the ice. Aleandra sat down hard, staring up at her friend, whom she no longer recognized. Elena’s eyes were wild, her expression that of a spooked horse. “Are you daft? They didn’t leave us.”
“But you said — you said they were gone.”
“They’re dead, Aleandra.” Her voice rose, echoing back to them.
“Wha—”
Time stopped, frozen. Aleandra gawked at Elena. The woman’s lips were moving, but she couldn’t hear. Sasha. No, he couldn’t be gone. They were going to be married in the spring. It was a trick, a cruel, horrible prank, and any minute, their friends would leap out to surprise them.
Elena crouched in front of her, resting her hands on Aleandra’s shoulders. Sighing, she leaned forward until their foreheads touched. Ellie’s tears fell on Aleandra’s face as she took a shuddering breath. “I heard someone screaming. I–I thought it was Tatiana, but it was Mishka. Something had him, something massive. I couldn’t tell what it was. It had a human shape, but it was too big. It was gigantic, Allie. I tried, but I couldn’t save the others. They were already… gone.”
“But maybe — maybe one is still alive. Oleg, Tatiana, Sasha — they can’t all be gone.” She couldn’t bring herself to say dead. It was impossible. She knew how Elena felt about Mishka; they all did. Obviously seeing her beloved killed had driven her insane, causing her to leave the others behind. “We have to go back for them.”
She attempted to get to her feet, but Elena pressed on her shoulders, holding her in place. “No, I saw them. I saw the blood, okay? I saw… what was left.”
“Not Sasha.”
“Yes, Sasha. You have to accept it, Allie — he’s gone. There is nothing more we can do for him or any of them. We have to protect ourselves now. We have to survive.”
Survive, without Sasha? It was unthinkable. Her world ended then, in cold, foul-smelling misery, as the truth of Elena’s words seeped into her unwilling brain. “I want to go back. I can’t just leave him there.”
“You don’t understand. Those creatures, they — they were feeding on them.”
A cry escaped her then, a thin wail that sounded more animal than human. Elena got to her feet, bringing Aleandra up with her as if she were a life-sized doll. “Sasha wouldn’t want you to die down here. Don’t you dare give up. Don’t you leave me alone.”
Death beckoned in the form of the treacherous stairs, and Aleandra pushed past her, flinging herself towards them. If she could break her neck, she wouldn’t feel the agony to come. She’d be spared the emptiness of a life without him, without Tatiana and Oleg and Mishka, her closest friends. Why had she been spared? For a moment, she despised Elena for dragging her out here. She longed for oblivion.
The slickness of the ice under her feet slowed her progress and the other woman easily caught up, catching her by the wrist. “Let me go first. I have the light.”
Aleandra pictured shoving her friend off the stairs. Whatever was down there, whatever was the cause of that ghastly stench, would surely kill them. Wouldn’t it be kinder to end it now, like this? A broken neck didn’t hurt — one snap and it would be over.
“Be careful. They’re slippery,” Elena whispered, bringing Aleandra’s murderous fantasies to an end. Even without her beloved Mishka, her friend clearly wanted to live.
Rather than it growing darker as they descended, the atmosphere lightened, making it easier to see. The bottom of the stairs was awash in green and red lights. “What is that?” The unnaturalness of it broke through her apathy and the fear returned. “Can you see anything?”
“It seems to be some kind of machine.”
Dread weighted her legs until they were made of lead. The smell was so strong her gorge rose, sending bile to coat her mouth. She choked it down. “Stop, Ellie.” The Reaper waited for them in the greenish-reddish glow, grinning — she was certain of it. But her warning came out as a strangled croak. Her friend didn’t hear.
Elena reached the last step and vanished. Aleandra pressed her gloved hand to the wall of the cave, ignoring the chill that crept through her fingers, stiffening them. Her eyes strained to see shadows in the dim light. She waited to hear the scream.