Instead, her friend’s voice floated up to her, sounding breathless and excited. “You have to see this!”
Gritting her teeth, she forced one boot in front of the other, her feet numb. Clomp-clomp, CLOMP. Clomp-clomp, CLOMP.
Far from the dour dungeon she’d expected, Aleandra gaped in shock as she stepped on the last stair. The cave opened into some kind of laboratory. One wall was filled with metal panels that were covered with numbered dials and blinking lights in multiple colors.
There was a gurney in the middle of the room — if this could be considered a room — with crisp white sheets and a cart with a tray of medical instruments alongside it. It appeared as sterile as a hospital, but who would need a hospital in such an isolated place? Perhaps it was for skiers who got injured in the mountains.
And yet, the foul smell thickened the air, rendering it poisonous. It spoke of blood and gore, of something unclean.
Over the hum of the machinery, she heard another noise, a sound that didn’t fit.
Her skin prickled, and she hurried to close the distance between her and Elena. “Did you hear that?”
Before the last word left her mouth, it happened again — the sound of chain links clinking against each other.
Elena shrugged. “Probably another machine.”
But it wasn’t. Aleandra recognized the sound from her childhood, when she’d had a St. Bernard dog her parents refused to let in the house. The pup had spent most of its days attached to a post in the backyard. She’d never forgotten the clatter its chain made as it rushed towards her, so happy for human companionship it would have garroted itself if she hadn’t gotten to it in time.
Her fingers sunk into Elena’s arm. “We have to get out of here. Now.”
Somewhere in that room, a creature was chained, and it was moving closer. There was no telling where it was, or how far the chain could reach. Or how strong it was.
Pulse racing, her head whipped in both directions as she searched for the source of the clanking, but everything was amplified in the cave. It could have come from anywhere. Her urgency finally inspired Elena, who willingly left with her at last. They shuffled back the way they’d come, even though the gloom above the stairs brought with it no promise of safety.
A white blur flew at them.
Elena tried to run, but the thing was faster, wrapping itself around her legs and tugging at her with incredible strength.
“No!” Aleandra yanked her friend away, the momentum freeing Elena and sending Aleandra toppling onto the stairs, the other woman in her grasp. Before they could escape, the creature spoke.
“Wait! Don’t leave.”
Shocked to hear it speak Russian, Aleandra’s eyes widened. Although it was hunched over and caked with filth, she recognized it as human. Elena crab-walked backwards until she rested against Aleandra’s lap, her breath coming in little shrieking whistles.
Long, scraggly hair the color of iron partly concealed the thing’s face, but the creature was undoubtedly a man. His chest was bare and sunken, and he wore a heavy metal collar around his scrawny neck. Every inch of his exposed flesh was scarred or peeling.
“Who are you?” Aleandra asked, her voice stronger than she felt. The smell was at least partially coming from this pitiful thing, who revealed a mouth of blackened and rotted teeth when he answered.
“Gri — Grigory.”
The name meant nothing to her at first, but the eyes did. They were the only non-offensive part of him, and she recognized them at once, as she’d been looking into them every day for the past year. Her own welled with tears.
“You’re Sasha’s father.”
He sprang towards her, but the chain went taut and his skin choked against the collar. Elena attempted to clamber over Aleandra and bolt up the stairs, but there wasn’t room. However, Aleandra was no longer afraid — at least not of this poor, withered, battered man. No matter how disturbed he had become, he was still Sasha’s kin and she could never fear him. She didn’t flinch as he grasped her boot, squeezing her toes.
“You know my boy?” His voice broke, and rheumy tears trickled down his cheeks. “But how? He is long dead.”
Swallowing her revulsion, Aleandra leaned forward, stretching out her hand. The man clung to it as fiercely as he’d wrapped his arms around Elena’s legs. “He survived the government’s attempts to murder him. I came here with him to look for you.”
“My son is here?” The man wavered, appearing on the verge of collapse, and Aleandra’s throat tightened. Though haunted by his father’s disappearance, Sasha had never dared to hope Grigory was still alive. And now the joyful reunion would never take place. She couldn’t bear to tell him the truth, so she nodded, staring into the eyes that were so like Sasha’s.
His grip on her hand tightened, crushing her bones and startling her. “Then get him out of here! You must leave before they return. They always come back.”
“Who? Who comes back? Who did this to you, Grigory?”
The dread in his voice was palpable, and the panic returned, chewing on her with sharp teeth, but she owed it to Sasha to find out as much as she could. “What happened to you?”
He pushed back against her hand with surprising power. “Go. They will kill you. The only reason you still breathe is they hoped I would do it.”
Before she could respond, the air reverberated with a howl that shook the stairs. The thunder of heavy footsteps thudded above. Elena launched herself over Aleandra and scrabbled up the stairs, disappearing into the darkness.
“Go — time is short.” Gregory shoved her again, this time by her foot. The edge of the stair above her bit painfully into her lower back.
“What are they?”
“Monsters,” he said, giving her boot a final push before retreating. His words echoed back at her. “They are monsters. Abominations against God… and my children.”
Reluctantly, Aleandra turned away from him and faced nothingness. The darkness was like a wall, it was so impenetrable. Stretching out tentative fingers, she tested the air like a blind person, ascending the stairs one by one, hoping she had time.
Something grasped her hand.
“Don’t yell; it’s me,” Elena whispered. Positive her friend had abandoned her, Aleandra wanted to weep with relief. “This way.”
Feeling the cave’s icy wall for guidance, they groped their way down the right-hand tunnel as quietly as they could, timing their footfalls with the creatures’ so the crunch of their boots on the ice wouldn’t give them away.
Descending into the complete blackness was a new level of terror, one Aleandra wouldn’t have been able to survive without the pressure of the creatures at her back. They were close enough now that their breathing was audible, along with a constant stream of grunts and snarls. They are communicating, she realized. They are sentient.
“It’s them,” Elena said, her voice breaking. “The ones that murdered Mishka. They will kill us.”
“No.” Aleandra had new purpose now. She must survive so she could tell the world what had happened to Sasha’s father. Her beloved might be gone forever, but she could see that his father lived his remaining days in comfort, rather than this disgusting cave.
“They’re playing with us, don’t you see? They’re massive — they could overtake us instantly if they wanted to. They want us to think we have a chance. It’s just a game to them.”
Aleandra ignored her friend’s warnings and took over the lead, walking them deeper into the cave. Whether man- or animal- made, sooner or later, it must end. And when it did, perhaps there would be another way out. A path to freedom and fresh air. The thought made her quicken her pace, hauling Elena along with her, even though she feared she’d walk straight into a creature any second. Only remembering Sasha’s eyes in that ragged face drove her forward.