“Jesus Christ,” Kristi says. “Are you sure?”
“No,” he says, replacing the digit gingerly, as if it might shatter.
“What the hell is this?” George says.
“We need to leave,” Priya says. “Right now, we need to leave.”
“I think she might be right,” Kristi says.
“Just a little further,” Sarah says. “Please. I know this is—this is scary, I know. But please… We can’t leave Isabelle here. Please.”
“What makes you think she’s even in this place?” George says.
“I do not want to be here anymore,” Priya says. “We have to leave.”
“Sarah,” Kristi says.
Without another word, Sarah walks past the strange rock in the direction the crew was heading, her flashlight spreading its beam across the floor in front of her.
“Hey!” Kristi says.
“What is she doing?” Chad says.
“Making a command decision,” George says.
“Are we going to follow her?” Chad says.
“What choice do we have?” Kristi says. “We already lost Isabelle.” The camera moves after Sarah.
From behind, Priya says, “This is so unfair.”
After the next cut, the screen shows Sarah a half-dozen steps in front of the crew, trailing her light through blackness. “Sarah,” Kristi says. “Wait up.” The others join her in calling Sarah’s name, urging her to slow down. “Come on!” Priya says.
When Sarah stops, it isn’t because of the requests directed at her. Her light slides over the cave floor to her left, illuminating a low line of dark rocks. As she changes direction towards it, so do the others, aiming their lights at her destination. “What now?” George says.
Less than a foot tall, the line is composed of stones fist-sized and smaller. They’re black, porous, distinct from the rock on which they’re arranged. At either end, the row connects to a shorter line of the same rock, each of which joins another longer row of rocks, forming a rectangle the dimensions of a large door. The space within it sparkles and flashes in the lights. Chad kneels and reaches into the rectangle, towards the nearest piece of dazzle, only to snatch his hand back with a “Shit!”
“What is it?” Priya says.
“Glass,” Chad says, holding his fingers to display the blood welling from their tips. “It’s filled with broken glass.” He sticks his fingers into his mouth.
“Fuck,” Kristi says.
“What does this mean?” Priya says.
“Yeah, Sarah,” Kristi says, “what the fuck is this?”
“I—” Sarah starts, but George interrupts her: “Shh! Hear that?”
“What?” Kristi says.
“I do,” Priya says.
“What?” Chad says.
“Over here,” George says, waving his light at the blackness on the far side of the stone rectangle. “Listen.”
Everyone falls silent. From what seems a long way away, a faint groan is audible.
“Is that Isabelle?” Chad says.
“Who else would it be?” Kristi says. “Come on.” Now she takes the lead, skirting the edges of the stone design as she heads in the direction of the moaning. “Isabelle!” Kristi shouts. “We’re here!”
In the middle distance, the cave floor shimmers white. This is not the crystalline fracture of broken glass; rather, it’s the flat glow of light on liquid. “What the hell?” Kristi says. She is approaching the shore of a body of water, a lake, judging by the stillness of it surface. Given the limited range of the camera’s light, the lake’s margins are difficult to discern, which gives it the impression of size. This close to the water, the groaning has a curiously hollow quality. The camera swings right, left, and right again. “Isabelle!” Kristi shouts.
The rest of the crew catches up to her. Exclamations of surprise at the lake combine with calls to Isabelle. Flashlight beams chase one another across the water, roam the shore to either side. “Where…?” Kristi says.
“There,” Sarah says, pointing her flashlight to the right. At the very limit of the light’s reach, a pale figure stands in the water, a few feet out. Camera bouncing, the crew runs toward it.
Arms wrapped around herself, Isabelle Router stands in water ankle deep. Her eyes are closed, her mouth open to emit a wavering moan. Priya splashes into the lake, at Isabelle’s side in half a dozen high steps. When Priya touches her, Isabelle convulses, her groans breaking off. Her eyes remain closed. “It’s all right,” Priya says. “Isabelle, it’s all right. It’s me. It’s Priya. We’re here.”
“Priya?” Isabelle’s voice is a hoarse whisper.
“Yeah,” Priya says, “it’s me. Everyone’s here. We found you. It’s all right.”
Isabelle opens her eyes, lifts her hands against the lights.
“Isabelle,” Sarah says, “are you okay?”
“You’re here,” Isabelle says.
“We are,” Sarah says.
“What happened to you?” Kristi says.
“You’re all right,” Priya says.
Isabelle drops her eyes, mumbles something.
“What?” Priya says.
Her gait stiff-legged, Isabelle sloshes toward the shore. She does not stop once she’s on dry land; rather, she continues barefoot past the crew, the camera tracking her. “Wait a minute,” Kristi says, “where are you going?”
Without looking back, Isabelle says, “Out.”
“That’s it?” Kristi says. “We go to all this trouble and… that’s it? ‘Out?’ Really?”
“Kristi,” Sarah says.
“No, she’s right,” Chad says.
Priya steps out of the water. “She’s obviously freaked out,” she says.
“She’s obviously a pain in my ass,” Kristi says.
“Guys,” Sarah says, “could we have this discussion while we’re keeping up with Isabelle?”
“Yeah,” Chad says, “it’d suck to lose her a second time.”
“Shut up, Chad,” Kristi says.
Three quick scenes show the crew traversing the darkness that lies between the subterranean lake and the tunnel to the mine. Even after she cuts her right foot on a rock, leaving a bloody footprint until the others catch up to her and insist on bandaging it, which George does, Isabelle maintains a brisk pace. She does not let up after they have reentered the mine; though the comments from the others shift from complaint to relief. Throughout, Kristi continues to return to the question of what happened to Isabelle, asking it at sufficient volume for her to hear; Isabelle, however, does not answer.
Not until they have reached the portrait of the woman nearer the mine’s entrance does Isabelle stop. Immobile, she stares at the artwork as the rest of the crew gathers around her.
“What now?” Kristi says.
In reply, Isabelle screams, a loud, high-pitched shriek that startles everyone into stepping back. The scream goes on, and on, and on, doubling Isabelle over, breaking into static as it exceeds the limits of the recording equipment. While Isabelle staggers from foot to foot, bent in half, her mouth stretched too wide, the soundtrack cuts in and out, alternating her screaming with an electronic hum. The members of the crew stand stunned, their expressions shocked. Tears stream from Isabelle’s eyes, snot pours from her nostrils, flakes of blood spray onto her lips and chin. The audio gives up the fight, yielding to the empty hum. Finally, Priya runs to Isabelle, puts her arms around her, and steers her away from the drawing, toward the exit. While she remains doubled over, Isabelle goes with her. Chad and George follow. For a moment, Sarah studies the portrait, then she, too, turns to leave.
The camera remains focused on the wall, at the weird image that so strikingly resembles Isabelle Router. It zooms in, until the half-skeletal portion of the face fills the screen. As it does, the soundtrack recovers. Isabelle is still screaming, the sound echoing down the mine’s tunnels. The picture goes black. “Directed by Sarah Fiore” flashes onto the screen in white letters.