Kayla and Riley in the Cave of No Return - The End?
July is over, meaning the Substack Short Story Collaboration project has finished. Read the entire story here.
The end of July means “Kayla and Riley in the Cave of No Return” is complete! We have finished the first Substack short story collaboration project, and now we can all rest.
We want to express our deepest gratitude for your support throughout the month. It has been a thrilling experience, and we couldn’t have done it without you. Future collaborations are in the works, so make sure to follow these talented writers:
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Megan McCarthy
The glow from Kayla’s lantern dissolved the glacial darkness ahead. She and her best friend, Riley, were spelunking in a cave created by a river of lava some couple hundred thousand years ago. Ripples on the cave walls and on the ground beneath them told the story of the current of burning, liquid rock that rushed towards what would become the cave entrance. The heat must have been immense. Now, though, the cavernous tunnel remained below 50 degrees Fahrenheit year round.
Driven by the sweltering heat this first day of July, the cool air called Kayla and Riley to explore the Lava River Cave. Their “historic” apartment lacked air conditioning, and fans only moved the warm air around. The pair tired of milling about the empty mall with its boarded up shops, sitting for a couple of hours at the movie theater, or stepping into any number of stores that entice you to spend money in exchange for relief from the heat.
“We’re almost to the split!” Kayla called back to Riley, who was following Kayla’s trail.
Suddenly, her lantern flickered and winked out, plunging the two into a void of darkness.
Kayla blinked uselessly trying to bring her sight into focus. She knew there was no light for her eyes to adjust to this far into the cave, but that didn’t stop her from trying to peer through the black veil.
With the heel of her palm, Kayla smacked the side of the lantern, trying to dislodge any corrosion impeding the flow of electricity.
Nothing happened.
She tried turning it on and off again.
The darkness remained.
“Oh, come on! These batteries weren’t that old!” Kayla mumbled. Her voice echoed throughout the cave.
“Did you remember to bring extras?” Riley whispered.
Kayla shrugged her backpack off her shoulders and let it fall to the ground harder than she had intended, the sound bouncing off the walls and throughout the tunnel. Most of the cave was relatively smooth, but the floor was uneven and covered in jagged rocks. She hoped nothing inside the backpack broke.
Kayla carefully knelt on the flat rock she was standing on and felt around the face of the backpack for the front pocket. Her fingers found the zipper and tugged it open.
“Uh, let me check a different pocket,” Kayla said.
“If you forgot the extra batteries, I’m going to be so livid,” Riley replied. “I don't want to be trapped down here forever!”
“You can’t be pissed at me. You’re the one who dropped and broke your flashlight,” Kayla said as she felt around for the zipper pull on the side pocket.
“Besides, we won't be trapped down here forever. It's summer after all, and the Internet said this was the best time to explore this lava tube. We might have to wait a week to be rescued, but we'll be found,” she teased Riley.
“You mean our bodies will be found. We didn't bring enough food or water to last a week,” Riley said.
Kayla grabbed the plastic baggy holding the extra ‘D’ batteries from the side pocket.
“Got ‘em!” she said.
Grabbing two of the batteries, she shoved them into her pocket so they wouldn’t fall to the ground while she opened the battery panel. Using the fingers on her left hand to “see” which way the batteries faced, Kayla used her other hand to remove the old batteries and replace them with new ones. She then clicked the panel back into place.
With a flip of the switch, the light from the lantern sliced through the darkness. Kayla looked at Riley and grinned.
“Ready to keep going?” she asked.
“Ready!” Riley said.
Kayla took two steps forward and then the light flickered and went out.
“No!”
“When we get back, I’m sending an angry message to whatever company made those batteries. This is ridiculous!” Riley said.
Laura Nettles
Deep groaning filled the lava tube, as if the Earth itself was shifting. An eerie wind whipped through, whistling at the unseen entrance far behind them, ripping at their hair and coats. It swallowed their screams of surprise and fear, stealing their breathe.
Riley gripped Kayla’s coat, fingers digging in for both safety and comfort. “What—” she tried to yell.
Absolute stillness engulfed them, the silence thick and cloying. The howling wind had vanished as quickly as it had come.
Shifting uncomfortably, Kayla tried the flashlight again. Nothing. “Shit,” she cursed quietly.
“What was that?” whispered Riley. “Did that happen last time you were here?”
Kayla shook her head before remembering her roommate couldn’t see her. “No. It didn’t.” She squinted into the darkness. Were those tendrils of shadows moving in the absolute black? She swore she could see things shifting; shapes like broken arms and grasping hands. “Let’s keep our hand on the wall and make our way to the entrance again,” she whispered, still not wanting to disturb the unnatural silence more than necessary.
“Yeah, okay,” said Riley.
Kayla scooped up the backpack, not wanting to leave it behind. Together, the roommates shuffled to the wall of the lava tube, hands outstretched and feet shuffling. Thank goodness the cave was level with no major rock formations to have to weave around. As bare hands made contact with smoothly rippled stone, a new sound punctuated the hush.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
A chill ran up their spines at the methodical rhythm. Something was in this tunnel with them.
Kayla hurried towards the entrance as silently as she could, fingers against stone. With each step away from the source of the noise, it seemed to take one step closer. What if they didn’t make it? What if it caught up to them? Was it human? Riley’s hand pulled gently on her coat, grounding her. She wasn’t alone. They could do this. The entrance had to be near.
PART 2
Only, the entrance never came. At least, not where it had been before. It was as if realities had shifted. Instead of a sun lit incline, the slight glow of filtered moonlight seeped through a new exit in the ceiling of a dead end.
Charlie Dorsett
Kayla looked up in awe, bewildered. Was this a trick of the light? Had the run off course? How had they ended up here? She could have sworn that the tunnel had been going in the right direction…
Riley’s hand released her coat as she stepped forward, reaching towards the opening that shone invitingly above them. “What do you think it is?”
Before Kayla could reply, a gentle voice echoed through their minds like an echo, “Come closer and find out.”
Kayla held her breath, eyes darting back and forth between the glowing opening in the ceiling and her friend.
Riley’s face was lit up with the same mix of trepidation and excitement that Kayla felt coursing through her veins.
“Let’s go,” Riley whispered, taking tentative step forward. Slowly, she walked toward the wall directly under the opening.
Kayla followed close behind, heart pounding as she peered upwards into the unknown. An eerie silence filled the the tunnel, only broken by their steady breaths and ethereal song of chirping crickets nearby. She wasn’t sure what they were getting into but there was something about this place that made her feel oddly safe despite the looming darkness.
Riley slowly reached up to grasp a jutting rock at head-height, the loose edges crumbling under her fingers as she pulled herself onto the boulder. Kayla followed suit. They helped each other until they had both hoisted themselves up from their little dead end room.
At first Kayla thought the cave had been just one long hallway but now she looked through the hole in the ceiling she saw it was branching off into many different pathways all around them – some leading deeper down while others seemed to curl up towards what may have been an entrance of sorts farther away in the distance. With no clear indication of which way to turn, Kayla simply said a silent prayer before exhaling deeply and following after Riley as they headed further in to explore.
With hesitant steps, they climbed up towards the light. As their eyes adjusted, they realized they were standing at the edge of what appeared to be a meadow filled with wildflowers and lush grasses. The night air was filled with sweet scents and soft breezes that seemed to whisper secrets of a forgotten ancient past.
“What the…” Kayla murmured. She clicked off her flashlight and Riley’s hand tightened in hers as they looked around. Above, the night sky lit up with a million stars; a velvety blanket of silver light that seemed to stretch on forever. Below, something shimmered in the darkness from which they came.
Kayla moved closer and gasped. What had been blank darkness moments before was now illuminated with a faint blue light cast by an underground lake that stretched beyond what their eyes could see. The surface of the lake twinkled with thousands of tiny lights, like dancing stars caught in the depths below them.
Riley stepped forward, mouth wide open as she took in the magical sight before them. “It’s like we stepped through some kind of portal into another world!” she exclaimed quietly, barely believing her own words.
Kayla nodded slowly, smiling at her friend despite the fear that still lingered in her heart. Had they lost their minds, or wandered into some strange lost world?
Haley Spence
Kayla inched herself further and further away from the hole and the reality bending lake below. She could accept that they'd wandered the wrong way and somehow ended up in a different part of the caves. That this was probably a good three or four miles away from where they'd parked the car.
And as long as she didn't look at the flowers and grass too closely she could convince herself it was the truth.
She sat down hard in the grass, ignoring the blue hue, surely a trick of the moonlight, and set herself to using the starlight to disassemble and (hopefully) reassemble her lantern into some working fashion. A relatively simple and straightforward task. She could do this.
Riley however, was fucking fascinated by the underground lake. She laid down on her stomach and shimmied as close to the edge as she dared. Which was probably a lot closer than she should have dared.
But the sparkling water called to her. Like the fireflies in Nana's back yard. The way they'd sparkled and danced before the blackness of the treeline was exactly the way the lights danced on the lake.
Something rippled in the water. She leaned forward again, just a little bit more. Were there fish in the underground lake? Was that a thing? One more inch forward. But she still couldn't tell.
"Hey Kayla!" she turned slightly to look at her friend, "would it be possible for there to be fish in an underground lake?"
Kayla shrugged, engrossed in her task. Riley was about to say something else when the distinct crack of something plastic shattering, followed by a respectable string of curses, Riley decided it was better to keep her mouth shut for the moment.
She turned back to the water. But it was not the same twinkling mirror as before.
The cave sucked all the sound and the light into it and didn't let anything out. Riley froze and stared into the abyss.
She should back up.
She should get away.
She should blink.
But her body would do nothing she told it to. Instead, she found herself reaching out. Being called to the blackness.
"Riley? Are you okay?" Kayla's voice carried a suitcase of suspicion with it.
She opened her mouth to reply, but no words came out. A great croaking noise rose from her lungs just as the grass beneath her turned to ice and she slid straight back into the blackness.
Water filled her mouth, cutting off her scream as she struggled to return to the surface. After what had felt like an eternity of struggle she broke the surface, coughing and sputtering ancient muck into the markedly light blue sky and disturbing lack of cave surrounding her.
Even more disturbing, where the fuck was Kayla?
"Aw shit," she muttered and swam to shore.
Kat Leo
“RILEY!” Kayla screamed.
She stood abruptly the pieces of her lantern scattering around her. She moved to lunge forward to try and get to Riley.
‘Crash’
Kayla’s body slammed into the ground, something had hooked on her leg, causing her body to collide with the hard ground. The water splashed where Riley had fallen into the water. As the water hit the ground it turned to ice.
“Oh god!” Kayla cried, the ice spread towards her.
She tries to stand herself up, but the ground around her has also turned to ice. Every time she moves, she starts to slide closer and closer to the water’s edge.
“HELP! RILEY!” Kayla Screams, as it seemed to be invisible, hands press on her, pushing her closer to the water.
“Riley,” Kayla whispered one more time.
Splash
“Riley,”
“Kayla?” Riley says looking around, she heard Kayla’s voice in a whisper.
Glory Fink
Riley crawled out of the water and collapsed onto the shore to rest and catch her breath. As her heart’s pounding slowed down and her ragged breaths evened out she opened her eyes.
“Kayla? Kayla did you see what happened? It was like I was being pulled into the water…Kayla? WHERE ARE YOU!”
Riley frantically looked around searching for Kayla’s familiar face but no eyes met Riley’s. Riley stood up still soaking wet and smelling like pond water, a mixture of muck and aquatic plants. She looked around wondering if Kayla had run off to find help and that was when she noticed she was no longer in the lava cave but instead a jungle type clearing by the water. Moonlight was shining down and plenty of it. The moon looked familiar and yet somehow subtly different. It wasn’t quite the same familiar shadows and canyons the moon had always had but it still overall looked the same. Maybe the moon’s shadows looked less dark, more shallow? Like the moon had a facelift?
Familiar yet different was also how the trees and bushes around the water clearing looked, too. Why didn’t the trees look like proper pine and oak trees? These “trees” looked tropical and more like enormous ferns and palms and craggy things out of a bizarro comic book drawing. The adrenaline from nearly drowning was starting to wear off.
Riley mustered a full force holler for her roommate, “KAY-LAAAAAHHH!!!” And silently waited.
The breeze kissed Riley’s cheeks and damp hair. The moon shone and some leaves rustled in the middle distance but no one replied. Riley trudged, exhausted and confused, over to a few tall trees and plopped down to rest and think. Where was the backpack? And snacks? What to do…? Riley didn’t notice that her thoughts were drifting along the soft warm breeze. She eased down to lie on her side in a gentle fetal position with the tree still pressing into the small of her back in a reassuring way. Riley’s breathing took on a lovely even pace and even though she would continue to deny it when Kayla teased her, Riley hum-snored ever so slightly in such a way that three giant ground sloths heard her hum-snore in her sleep and slowly meandered over to check out the sleeping Riley.
The family of giant sloths carefully sniffed Riley and found she smelled of aquatic plants so the largest one licked Riley’s pants which caused her to roll over in her sleep and mumble. This surprised the sloths but when Riley just continued to hum-snore they curled up next to her in a pile that from afar looked like if full size sedan cadillacs could sleep in a contented pile of super fluff with Riley in the middle, keeping her warm and safe all night in this strange new land. Riley dreamt about Kayla still with the busted flashlight crying, “Riley, please don’t be dead.”
Megan
Kayla flailed about as invisible hands pushed her deep into the inky lake. She tried swimming against and then around the hands without any luck. The effort just wasted oxygen. And every second that passed was one second closer to drowning.
“If they're taking me to my death, I want to face it head-on,” Kayla thought.
She somersaulted and, using the invisible hands as a springboard, propelled herself deeper into the dark water.
Her lungs burned. Kayla just wanted to inhale. Instead, she let out some of the breath she'd been holding, buying her lungs a few extra seconds.
Without warning, Kayla swam headfirst into a mighty underwater current. It whipped her around like laundry in a washing machine, stripping her of a shoe and her jacket before spitting her onto the shore.
She crawled out of the treacherous waters, hacking fluid from her lungs and gasping for air in alternate breaths. Kayla couldn't get oxygen into her lungs fast enough, so she started hyperventilating, which quickly turned into racking sobs.
It was then that Kayla thought she heard a splash in the water behind her. She shouldn't stay here. She needed to get somewhere safe, somewhere the invisible hands couldn't reach her.
She wiped the tears from her eyes and surveyed her surroundings.
Violet bioluminescent moss covered the floors and crept up the walls of the massive cavern. To her right, the water flowed past her into the maw of a dark tunnel. She shivered.
“No more darkness,” she whispered to herself.
Just ahead of her towered the wall of the cavern. The moss crawled only partway up its surface, so the ceiling was all shadows. She could tell by the way sound echoed that it was high above her, though.
Another sound in the water made her jump. She could marvel at the height of the cavern, later.
Kayla turned to her left. The thick layer of moss illuminated a path through the rocks.
She took her remaining shoe off so it could dry, and then quickly tiptoed down the path to put as much distance between her and the lake as possible.
The moss was soft under her feet, and she was grateful she didn’t have to navigate rocky ground with a missing shoe. As she made her way past a craggy outcrop, her eyes peered ahead for any sign of danger. There, at the end of the path, was something coming into view.
Kayla relaxed when she realized she was looking at the foot of an ornate staircase. The finials on the staircase left monstrous shadows, but as she got closer she saw they were carved into open-mouthed hippopotamuses. Bizarre, but Kayla wasn’t about to question it.
She grabbed the banister and began her ascent.
Laura
The heaviness of the giant ground sloths was comforting to Riley more than her weighted blanket ever had been. And yet, something had woken her up while the sun was barely rising over the horizon.
The hair on her arms prickled.
The sloths began stirring.
All the possible predators that could be out there flitted through her mind. She’d done extensive research of extinct species in North America as a child. It was one of her obsessions. Was it an American lion? A saber-toothed cat? A dire wolf?
Growling emanated from all directions, leaves of bushes rustling from the approach of multiple creatures.
Riley scrambled, climbing up onto the back of the largest ground sloth, praying she would be out of range of whatever was going to attack. The thick coarse fur was long enough to grab as anchors.
She screamed as the predators came into view.
Haley
Kayla paused after the first 100 steps to catch her breath. She sat down hard on the stone stairs and desperately wished she still had her pack and the extra water bottles.
She leaned back on the steps, looking at the mosaic on the ceiling and appreciating the attention to detail her imagination was conjuring up. Since none of this was real in the slightest. It couldn’t be.
After a few more minutes of panting, she drew in a deep breath and proceeded on, ready to face whatever else was waiting for her in what was obviously a fever dream. A waft of fresh, and dry air filled her lungs and refreshed her. She began sprinting, taking the stairs two and three at a time until she finally burst through the purple glow and fell out onto the open space beyond.
She flopped onto her back, panting, and took stock of the new space around her. The floor and walls were a glowing purple type of stone, roughly formed together with some sort of black grouting, and a thatched ceiling. Big open arches in the stone let in the natural sunlight from outside.
As her heart rate eased and her breathing leveled out, she slowly became conscious of a splashing coming from the left side.
Cautiously, she crawled to the edge and peeked over. A sharp drop of a hill lead to a small, naturally occurring pool surrounded by greenery, flowers she didn’t recognize, and a tall and lithe figure wearing some sort of bawdy jumpsuit seemed to be herding…baby hippos as they frolicked among the purple lily pads.
“Hello!” the figure called, waving at Kayla, “you made it finally! Come! Come play with the babies!”
The way down was steep and looked rough, but Kayla was so glad to see a friendly face that she vaulted over the short ledge and tumbled her way down.
The stranger by the pond chuckled kindly and helped her to her feet.
“Are you alright?” they chuckled and brushed the twigs and dirt out of her hair.
…Was she alright?
She shoved the question aside, focusing instead on the pot-bellied-hippos tumbling around their feet.
“Are those actual baby hippos?”
They grinned, their sparkling gray-green eyes crinkling with well used laugh lines.
“No no,” they waved it off, “technically they’re as big as they’re going to get. Aren’t they just adorable?! Perfect little babies. Almost remind me of kittens.”
Kayla knelt down and scratched at one behind the ears and giggled at the way it’s eyes rolled in apparent bliss.
“Where’s Riley? I’ve been expecting you both for some time now!”
Tears filled Kayla’s eyes and she hugged herself without standing.
“I have no idea,” she confessed.
“Oh…oh dear! Well then dear, come with me. We’ll wait for her together!”
Before Kayla could respond however, a pair of hippos came tumbling down the hillside engaged in some sort of battle. They knocked Kayla off her feet and into the water.
The weight of a tiny anvil settled on her chest and pulled her down.
Just before the water closed over her head she heard, “Marcus Aurelius! That was very naughty of you.”
Kat
Riley's fear almost disappeared as the predator came into view. It looks like a very tiny bear?
But from her position on the giant sloth she she can amke out scars on its body. Gnarly scars litter the small bear who's fur looks like a black void.
She sees as another also small creature makes its way out in a blur and appears to be rolling?
The creature comes to a halt when it hits the sloth she has climbed onto, it's small stature but heavy weight actually causes the sloth that holds steady too shift a little. She leans over and sees that the small creature appears to be a panda bear.
“Really giant sloth? Really tiny bears that should be big? What is going on?” Riley mutters to herself out loud.
The loud noise she heard earlier sounds again of more creatures coming near. She looks around your phone fingers tightening in the sloths fur.
“Why do I get the feeling that those little bears are not what caused that noise originally?” Riley whispers to herself.
The noise gets louder, far louder than it had before. A slight glow nears casting from up the tunnel the bears came from.
“This has to be a dream, a hallucination from the water…”
Glory
From beyond the glow in the underbrush Reily heard slight rustling along with low guttural growling as several enormous dire wolves covered in fur that seemed to glow with a faint purplish hue slipped out into the clearing. The dire wolves quickly assessed the scene of Riley, the giant sloths and the miniature panda bears huddled together. The lead wolf suddenly stopped growling and began to yip while the rest of the wolves started yipping and half circling Riley's group while herding the group into the area of the underbrush where the wolves had come from. Riley tried to dismount off the giant sloth she was on but as she slid towards the ground the lead wolf took several steps closer to Riley’s lowest foot and growled at her. She immediately scrambled back up to the shoulder blades of the sloth and stayed there.
Reily trembled with a sudden surge of adrenaline and yelled up to the sky, “Kayla! Where are you? Help! Help! Can anyone hear me?”
The little pandas stayed close to the giant sloths as the sloths slowly lumbered forward but still covered a fair amount of ground because of their huge steps.
A while later, Reily perks up upon recognizing birds chattering and noticed their group approaching a new clearing that centers around a beautiful pool of crystal blue water and an ornate open air type of building with floors, ceilings and pillars but with hardly any walls. Once all the sloths and pandas made it into the clearing the wolf pack yips a short song in the direction of the building. From the depths of the building a very tall, willowy person with gentle eyes and pointed ears strode out and appeared to converse with the wolves for a moment. Meanwhile, Kayla followed out of the building from behind the person talking to the wolves.
“Reily?” Kayla asked as her eyes scanned the group of giant sloths and tiny pandas. Were the pandas actually tiny or were they normal sized pandas but they looked tiny sitting next to giant sloth, Kayla wondered.
“Kayla!” Reily exclaimed as slowly slid down her sloth's side while watching the wolves to see if they noticed. The women hugged and cried, then laughed in relief. After several long moments but what felt like no time at all, the willowy tall person said, “Hello and welcome, Brightlander. My name is Thanaduir. The undying cave has brought you to us here in The Shadowlands.” Thanaduir opened their arms wide and motioned to the expanse of land and animals.
Riley replied, “Thank you, Thanaduir.” Then she side eyed Kayla and said under her breath, “Brightlander?”
Thanaduir explained, “You and Kayla have come to us from the bright lands. Please come inside and have a meal. It’s been so long since we’ve had human guests.” Kayla stepped forward to follow Thanaduir but Kayla paused and looked back at her giant sloths who had already each found delicious trees and bushes to munch on.
Thanaduir noticed Reily’s hesitation and said, “Your friends are safe and already enjoying their meal. Please come join us.”
—
As the meal completed and the last dish was relished, Riley said to Thanaduir, “Thank you for this lovely meal. It was filled with foods and tastes I’ve never had before. It’s been a harrowing day or two and your home is like a dream come true after everything that’s happened to us.” Riley looked at Kayla who nodded emphatically in agreement.
“Is this your homeland or did you come through the cave, too?” Riley asked Thanaduir.
“My people came here a long time ago to escape war and live in peace. We care for the lost creatures that come in through the cave such as the wolves, sloths, hippopotamuses and pandas that you’ve encountered.”
Kayla commented, “Reiley there are even more animals that wander through here that you haven’t seen yet including amazing birds that look like mythical creatures and flying big cats!”
Riley asked with a hint of trepidation in her voice, “Are there other humans here? It’s not like you kill human intruders, right?”
Concerned crossed Thanaduir’s face and Riley asked her question and the concerned dissolved into mirth as they chuckled aloud. “There are very few humans here because most prefer to return to their homeland, Reily. We welcome those who the cave brings to us. Just as this land welcomed us when we were in need of a peaceful new land.”
Kayla and Riley looked to each other with hope and excitement.
“How do we get back home?” Reiley exclaimed.
“Can you take us there?” Kayla asked Thanaduir.
“We expected you both might want to return to your land. I have sent word to a friend who can take you to the portal. It’s an arduous journey and my dear friend won’t arrive here for a few days more. Until then, please enjoy my hospitality and explore our shadowlands. Should you ever desire, you are always welcome to find your ways back here.”
—
One day, a few weeks later as Riley and Kayla were frolicking with the baby hippos a new very tall, willowy person approached the women and said, “Greetings, Riley and Kayla. You may call me Klothlowin.”
Kayla replied with awe in her voice, “Hello Klothlowin. Has anyone ever told you that you bear a striking resemblance to a character from my world called Galadriel?”
Klothlowin smiled and they looked away as if remembering a memory from long ago as they said, “I thank you for the compliment. I haven’t been called that for a long time. Thanaduir has told me that you both wish to journey to the portal to return to your homeland.”
“Yes, that’s right, Klothlowin. Will you take us to the portal and show us how to return home?” Kayla asked.
“The brightland and the shadowland are loosely connected through the portal I can take you to but we are not able to control precisely where you will arrive in your home land and the journey to the portal can be strenuous. Do you both wish to proceed?”
Kayla and Riley both looked at each other and slowly nodded and then looked back at Klothlowin. Riley asked, “When can we leave?”