Delilah in the Dark

Delilah slipped into the small spaces between the rocks of the abandoned coal mine at the back of her families hundred acres.  She wasn’t supposed to be here, or even know about it, but much to her mother’s chagrin Delilah had a deep love for dark spaces.  The girl wiggled her way through a tight space between rocks before dropping into an open chamber that was littered with thick spider webs and the bones of birds who lost their way.

The girl flicked on the flashlight that she had stolen from under the sink of the old farmhouse. The old metal Maglite illuminated the mine, showing a bend just a few hundred yards away.  Delilah didn’t actually need the flashlight for this portion of her adventure, her feet new the twists of the passages by heart: twenty steps to the bend, one-hundred and three to the Y and another 500 on the left-hand path to find the collapse point that took the lives of one hundred men.  

Today she wasn’t interested in the well-worn paths.  Today she would explore the right-hand path.  Delilah would never admit to cowardice, but she had not exactly unconsciously avoided the other half of the underground labyrinth that had become a second home for her.   Her parents were not the superstitious type and had raised the young woman with their same sense of practicality, but none-the-less Delilah could never shake the sense of something watching her when she approached the right-hand of the Y.

Today she decided that she would ignore the hairs that raised on the back of her neck, and the goosebumps that graced her arms and started down a path she wasn’t sure she would be welcome on.  A cool breeze ruffled her hair as she walked further into the darkness; an odd sensation in a place where the air was always stagnant.  Curiosity about the source of the fresh air pulled her further down the path, far past where she had intended to turn around and far past the distance she thought the mine could go.  Hypnotized by darkness she let her feet carry her until her trusty Maglite began to flicker.  Still, something pulled her forward and when the light flickered out for the last time, she dropped it.  The metal clattering silently to the barren floor. The breeze pulled her onward as her hand traced the curved wall of the tunnel. 

Delilah lost track of time in the darkness until the sound of water pulled her from her trance.  She was surprised to find that her throat ached from dryness and her legs shook from exhaustion.  Having no other choice, she continued toward the source of the sound. 

She stumbled as she rounded a corner into a light-filled crystal cave.  The underground river that she had heard spilled from an emerald pool and cascaded down into the darkness.  As unexpected as the sudden light was, the creatures occupying the space around the pool were even more of a surprise.  Their small black eyes seemed oblivious to her presence, but one-by-one they lifted their star-shaped noses and turned their heads in her direction.

One such creature, its eyes opaque with age, beckoned Delilah towards them.  The girl approached slowly, she was ashamed that she felt so skittish around what she could only describe as mole people.  When she closed the distance the old, what Delilah thought was woman, took her hand in their own paddle like paws and led her to the stream.   

The clear water showed a reflection that Delilah almost didn’t recognize.  Her blond hair had taken on the gossamer quality of cobwebs and her skin was chalk white beneath the dirt of her journey.  Most disturbingly her sky-blue eyes had been lost as the blackness of her pupils extended to the whites.  Not being able to help herself, Delilah dipped her hands into the cool pond and took a deep drink.  The water tasted like cold mountains and summer heat.  She looked back to the Mole person they once again took her hand and led her another opening into the darkness and pointed.

“I should go that way,” asked Delilah.

The old mole nodded once and gently pushed her down the path.  Again, the young woman walked blindly into the darkness.

Just as abruptly as she had found the crystal cave, she heard bones crunching beneath her feet and knew she was back where she started.