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Secrets of the Cave Ch. 1

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Kathleen opened her eyes, looking around the dark room until her eyes settled on the large window. At first she thought there was boy kneeling on the windowsill looking in at her. As a gust of wind blew the curtain farther open she could see that he wasn't human. Bat like wings hung partially folded at his back, as lightning flashed she could see that he had a long scale covered tail that was curled around a tree branch just outside of the window. Scales also appeared to cover the backs of his hands and arms. As another flash a lightning lit the room she noticed that he had small nub like horns at the hairline on his forehead and brilliant blue eyes.

The next flash of lightning was quickly followed by an ear splitting crack that shook the house, causing Kathleen to scream and dive under the covers.

Kathleen woke up gasping and nearly fell out of the chair she was sitting in, in the hospital room with her great, great aunt Maud. Outside the sun was starting to rise, turning the sky brilliant shades of orange and signaling the start of another beautiful spring day. It all seemed too bright and cheery, the rain and storms of her dream would have seemed more appropriate as she sat watching her aunt die.

Until a couple of days before Maud had been healthy enough at ninety-five to still live alone in her own home, but a wrong step had sent her falling down the basement stairs. She must have remained conscious long enough to call 911, but not long enough for them to answer. They had sent someone out to check and she was rushed to the hospital, but it wasn't enough. Aside from a few broken bones she also had several severe cuts that had quickly become infected and her body wasn't strong enough to fight it.

Now Kathleen sat in the hospital with her, praying each time that she faded in and out of consciousness that it wouldn't be the last time she woke up.

Kathleen walked into the bathroom, splashing some cold water on her face, not that it did much good. She looked horrible, there were dark circles under her brown eyes and her long brown hair was a mess. As soon as she had heard about her aunt's accident she had dropped everything and driven the three hours to the hospital. She had stayed with her, not leaving her side. There was no one else to stay with her. Maud's husband had died young, they had never had any children, all of her siblings had already died and most of Kathleen's cousins had never really gotten to know Maud well enough to care if they were there to say goodbye.

Kathleen stepped out of the bathroom and Maud said, "You look exhausted, you need to get some sleep."

"Thank goodness, I was beginning to think you weren't going to wake up again." Kathleen said as she walked over to her and took her hand.

"Of course I woke up again, there's so much I still need to tell you, but first, did you call my attorney?" Maud asked.

"Yes, she said she'd be here around seven." Kathleen told her, "Why did you want her here?"

"I don't want my house to sit empty while all the paper work and stuff is dealt with. I had her go ahead and get everything ready a few weeks ago. All you have to do is sign a few papers and the farm is yours. Just make sure you wake me up when she get's here." Maud told her.

"You're giving me the farm?" Kathleen asked.

"Who else could I trust it too, I know you'll take good care of it. I've known since you were little and came to stay with me after your parents died, that I'd entrust the farm and everything that goes with it to you." Maud told her.

"You know I just had a dream about that or more like the same dream I had when I was staying with you. Do you remember the dream I had about the strange boy in the window?" Kathleen asked.

"Oh yes, when I asked you if he had scared you, you said he wasn't scary, he just looked lonely. That's when I knew I'd leave you the farm, when I knew you could look at something that would terrify other people and see what's inside. You could see the truth, that he wasn't something to be afraid of, he may look different, but he has a good heart and would never hurt anyone." Maud replied.

"You decided to give me the farm because of how I reacted to a dream?" Kathleen asked then noticed that Maud had fallen back to sleep.

-

An hour or so later a woman in a business suit came into the room, "You must be Kathleen, I'm Susan Montgomery, your aunt's attorney." she said as she shook Kathleen's hand, "How is she doing?"

"She's been awake on and off, but the doctors say she probably won't make it another day." Kathleen told her trying to fight back tears.

"I'm so sorry, I know she said you two were close." Susan said.

"Yes, my parent's were killed by a drunk driver when I was five and she took me in, helped get me through the first week until my grandmother could come get me. Then I'd go back to stay with her for a week or two every summer." Kathleen told her.

"That's what she told me, I know it meant a lot to her that you spent that time with her. Do you think it would be okay if we wake her up?" Susan asked.

"We can try." Kathleen said then gently rested a hand on Maud's shoulder and called her name a few times until she woke up.

--

Fifteen minutes later all the papers had been signed and Susan left, "Now that, that's done I need to tell you a few things about the house." Maud said.

"What? Are there more secret passages I don't know about yet?" Kathleen asked.

Maud smiled, "Actually there are. You see back when the underground railroad went through there, hiding places like the rooms behind the walls and extra space in the walls in the attic were common and expected places for slaves to be hidden, if the person looking for them had been hunting run away slaves for very long they would know to look there. That's why those were created, as a distraction, the real hiding place was below the house. There was a large cave system on the property when the house was built, it was so close to the house that all they had to do was go through a few feet of rock to attach the cave to the basement."

"Do you remember how I always told you to stay out of the root cellar?" she asked.

"Yes, it drove me crazy wondering what you had hidden in there." Kathleen replied.

"Well, in the floor, under the dirt is a trapped door that leads down into the cave." Maud told her beginning to sound more and more tired.

"Were you afraid I'd sneak down there and get lost, is that why you never told me about it?" Kathleen asked.

"No… I, um, I think I'll just rest my eyes a bit." Maud said before dozing off again.

---

Nearly an hour later Maud woke up again, "Where were we?" she asked.

"You were telling me about the caves and why you never told me about them before." Kathleen told her.

"Oh yes, well first I have to tell you about the accident. It was back a couple of years before you were born, February seventeenth, there was a horrible blizzard. I was sitting in front of the fireplace working on a quilt when I heard a crash outside. When I went to look there was car and a truck in the ditch just down the road. I ran to them to see if I could help anyone. The driver of the truck was so drunk he couldn't figure out what had happened. There had been a young couple in the car, the man was already dead and his wife was badly injured and pregnant. I managed to get her out, she had gone into labor and begged me to save her babies, begged me to keep them safe and protect them. They were born right there on the snow covered road before the ambulances could get there. Twins, a boy and girl, their mother survived long enough to kiss them each once, name them, then asked me again to keep them safe, as soon as I assured her that I would she died." Maud told her.

"They lost their parents the same way I lost mine. Do you know what happened to them?" Kathleen asked, but received no response from Maud who had fallen back to sleep.

Nearly an hour later the machine monitoring Maud's heart started buzz, bringing a number of Doctors and nurses running, but they were unable to resuscitate her.
This is another one of my original stories, as with almost all of my writing it’s a romance with some mystery. Also as with all of my original stories I would love to get some feedback on it so if there’s anything that could be improved, from punctuation to things that could be written better let me know.

Chapter 2: [link]
Chapter 3: [link]
Chapter 4: [link]
Chapter 5: [link]
Chapter 6: [link]
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Werewolf9098's avatar
This story is going on really great :)