Dark as Coal, Part Five

Walter Jones was walking down a cold, dark tunnel. For a second, he thought that maybe he was still in the mine…the cave-in had trapped him…had trapped them all. But no….that couldn’t be right. He had been saved. Pulled from the mine just when he thought that all was lost, he had been so relieved to wake up in the hospital with Mary by his side.

But Mary wasn’t the first person you saw when you woke up, came a voice from his left, and you know it.

Walter’s head jerked in that direction, “Who’s there?”

But of course, there was no answer.

He tried to remember that day….the day of the cave-in. What had happened? Something about a rock wall….what had it been?

“Hey Walter!” one of the guys had yelled out, “Come and look at this!”

A bunch of them had been standing in the far back part of the mine looking at something. As Walter walked toward them, he saw that something was indeed different. The seam of coal that they had been following seemed to grow larger and larger the deeper they went. And then…it ended. And it didn’t just peter out….it ended all at once. But that wasn’t the strangest thing of all.

“What do you think it is?” one of the guys had asked…had it been Kenneth? He couldn’t remember but he thought that it might have been.

The coal ended at a large slab of rock that they had uncovered. But not just any rock.

“Would you look at that?” Walter had said, astonished at what he was looking at.

The wall was full of strange, dark carvings. At first, he thought that it might have just been one of the guys…fooling around….trying to play a prank. But this wasn’t just some random gibberish. It was different…more detailed. He had seen a show on TLC once about the ancient Mayans. On it, they had shown ancient ruins and carvings. This looked something like that. What had they discovered?

“Look down there,” Walter had said, pointing to the bottom of the wall. The writings ended…and there at the bottom was a picture of some kind. It looked like some kind of beast…not a deer or buffalo….something larger. Something with horns. Something with lots and lots of teeth. Something dark.

Walter had bent down to brush some of the coal dust from it. And as his fingers touched the rock wall…everything had gone dark…..as dark as coal.

What had happened?

Walter tried to remember. His head started to hurt. Had something fallen on his head? He reached up and touched the back of his head. His fingers brushed up against the shard of coal that was imbedded in his head. A sharp jab of pain shot through his entire cranium.

You might not want to do that, the voice beside of him came floating out of the darkness again, If you want to live..that is.

Walter closed his eyes, although he didn’t know why. It was so dark in here. And then he remembered….there had been….screams?

Yes…he was pretty sure that there had been screams….and then the ground had been shaking. And then….the screams had stopped. There had only been silence…and darkness. Had they all died in there…had he?

Now Walter…if you had died….how would you still be here? the voice whispered.

Walter groaned. His head hurt. His eyes hurt. And he didn’t want to think anymore. He didn’t want to remember….what had happened in the tunnel. How he had survived. How he had been so hungry….for so long. What he had done…

I’m hungry right now Walter, the voice slithered around him like a cold wind, It’s time to eat.

“But you just ate!” Walter cried out, “Not again..not now…it’s too soon!”

The pain in his head increased making him cry out in agony. He dropped to his knees in the darkness. I SAID….I’M HUNGRY!

And in the darkness of the hospital room, Walter’s eyes opened. If his wife Mary had been awake at the moment…she wouldn’t have been pleased…she would have been very concerned. Both of Walter’s eyes were pitch black.

“Let’s go eat,” he whispered.

Until next week….class dismissed.