Bone Rattle by Marc Cameron (best ereader for pdf .TXT) 📕

Swimming blind now, Cutter struggled to stay oriented. The whooshing squeal of his pulse echoed in his head. His shoulder struck the wall hard, jolting him with bone-numbing pain. There was surely a cloud of blood there, but he couldn’t see it. He pushed away, as if fending off an attack. The movement pushed him upward, slamming him into the arched roof. Tooth-like outcroppings ripped at his shirt, gouged his flesh. Bubbles from his own escaping breath burbled past his ears as he careened upward again, a torpedo stuck in a closed tube.

Chapter 52

Donita Willets had recognized Childers and Dollarhyde while they were still sliding down their ropes. Light from the headlamps created long shadows, but there was no mistaking the cruelty on their faces. It was not enough for men like this to kill her by sealing off the mine.

They wanted to watch her die.

She cowered behind the support pillar farthest from the mouth of the Great Hall. Her back to the black pool, she’d run as far as she could. Levi hadn’t left her with a gun, but she had the knife on her belt. She would not make it easy for them.

The men turned off their lights. Maybe they had night vision. Or one of those devices that looked for heat. She pulled her arms tight against her body. It was over if that was the case. She choked back a sob. It was over anyway, no matter what they had.

Something cracked against the wall behind her, splashing into the pool. Instinctively, she inched around the stone pillar, away from the sound. Another snap echoed in the darkness, then another, this one clacking off the rock inches from her head. She drew a quick breath, caught herself in mid-yelp, but it was too late. They’d heard her.

Now it was over.

Mumbled voices buzzed by the far pillar like angry wasps. They were close now, where the Great Hall narrowed to become the smaller beetle’s head. Scornful laughter cut the darkness – and then quiet. Nothing but dripping water, the periodic clatter of rocks – and her own terrified breathing.

Then a strange hissing sound filled the cavern. It stopped, letting the dripping water and falling rocks take over for a time, before starting up again. At first she thought it was closer, behind her maybe – or to her right, or her left. The hissing sound grew louder, coming from everywhere at once. She’d been to Arizona, Texas, the places with snakes. If this was that, then there were hundreds of them, filling the Great Hall.

Ssssssshhhhhhhhh. Like a sinister rain.

It stopped.

“Donita!” a voice said, sneering. Childers. “You and me, we have some things to talk about.”

The ssshhhhhh started again.

“Levi sends his regards, by the way… at least I think that’s what he was boohooing about right before I blew his brains all over the wall.”

Donita’s knees buckled at the revelation.

“Anyway,” Childers sneered. “Your dude’s not coming to rescue you, so you can put that shit out of your pretty little mind.”

A sob caught hard in Donita’s throat. Hopelessness washed over her.

Sssshhhhhhhh.

“You’re Indian,” Childers said. “Ever seen one of these before at your powwows or whatever you guys do up here? I guess it’s some kind of witch doctor bone rattle. We got it from one of your buddies, next to a rotten skeleton.” He chuckled. “The guy who had it before me thought it was cursed.”

A voice yelled down from the portal above, echoing around the Great Hall. She recognized it as Harold Grimsson. “She down there? Somebody tell me what’s going on! Kill the little bitch and get out!”

If Childers heard the orders, he ignored them – for the time being.

Donita couldn’t see from her vantage point behind the stone column, but she imagined him shaking a Raven rattle.

Sssshhhhhhh.

The horrible hiss threatened to swallow her whole. Tears ran down her cheeks. She wanted to plug her ears but was afraid to move.

“I don’t know,” Childers went on. “Maybe this thing is cursed. Hey, maybe the old bones we found it with belong to one of your Indian relatives. Maybe I should bury it down here with you. Put it under the earth again where it belongs.”

Sssshhhhhh.

“You know what, though? This ugly old bone rattle is worth a buttload of cash. I think I’ll just hang on to it for now. I don’t believe in curses anyhow. Do you, Donita?”

Ssssshhhhh.

“What do you say? Ready to get this over with? If I remember right, you’re not too hard to look at. It could be me on top of you instead of a ton of rock. At least one of us would enjoy—”

A voice pierced the darkness to Donita’s left, somewhere near one of the other pillars.

“Now!”

It was Dollarhyde. He’d worked his way around while Childers talked.

“Took you long enough,” Childers said.

Both men flicked on their headlamps, flooding the room with light but momentarily blinding them in the process.

“Come on, Donita,” Childers said, menacingly, darker than the mine had ever been. “This is getting boring. Let’s spice things up!”

“I see her,” Dollarhyde said. “She’s—”

An ungodly croaking sound filled the Great Hall, bouncing off the roof and walls. Water erupted from the black pool, like the tail of a great fish breaching the surface. Another deep croak rose from the blackness, followed by more splashing.

Adrenaline spent, Donita slumped behind her rock, numb. One way or another, she was about to die, either at the hands of these two men or this creature from beneath the mountain rising from the inky water.

She mustered the energy for a blood-curdling scream. Dollarhyde’s scream put hers to shame.

Headlamp beams went crazy, bouncing this way and that as the men scrambled away from the dark form that emerged from the black pool. Dollarhyde screamed again – backpedaling into one of the stone columns, bouncing off to stagger toward Childers and firing wildly into the water.

Chapter 53

Thirty seconds earlier

Cutter dropped the useless headlamp and rolled onto his back. Facing a ceiling of stone fangs that