Beach Day

52: Letters Plain And Tall

Something echoes deeper in the cave. This is definitely where it's more man-made. She can see it by the beam of her flashlight along the floor. The walls are more square— like the excavated caves in Lake Wonder, like the wizard tower under the high school.

She turns her head and squints into the dark. Her lenses are slick from the spiders' venom and her own sweat as a result of it. She takes them off and wipes them on the edge of her shirt. All it does is smear it across the scratched plastic. She frowns.

This is fine. She shoves them into her pocket before she uses the wall to stand. She has hunted monsters without them before. It isn't like she can't see at all. This is fine.

"Let's go," she says.

Matt, who is still sitting on the ground in front of her, gives her a look. "Are you serious? We should head back."

"We just went over this. I'm fine. What we need to do is keep going."

"Tiff, you just got—"

"I got bit by a lethal skeletal spider propelled by necromantic energy. Yes, I'm aware. But I'm good to keep going. In fact, I would prefer to keep going. That's the point of doing so-called mad science on the fly. Action science, if you will. It's so that I can keep going— or I can speak in Bigfoot or Saurex on instinct without thinking about it—"

Drew frowns. "Saurex?"

"Prehistoric lizard people. It's guttural. My point being, I can do things like tap into the normal world outside Dreaming or make myself more likable—"

"Don't do drugs to make yourself more likable," Drew interrupts again. He looks down on her, but not in the eye. "Do drugs because you want to do drugs."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Matt stands without pushing himself off the ground. "Don't do drugs at all."

"I don't buy into propaganda."

"Drew, you're insane."

"I'm a very rational guy and I'm objectively correct about this."

Tiff leaves them to their bickering. She has things to do— namely, a flashlight to collect, an odd sound to investigate, and a cave to get deeper in.

She knows, deep down, that this is the right way to go. Further in: that's where she'll find her mystery lady.

Priscilla. That's where she'll find Priscilla.

The cave echoes again, something like a wrench falling in an old dredge. She steps forward listens: a moan, the sound of something hard against stone, water dripping. She continues on and on, Drew and Matt still bickering about drugs far behind her. She can hear them clearly. The cave lets her, almost like it wants her to hear.

But hear what? The only thing she can think of is the sound of a family, fucked-up as it is. And they are. It's their heritage, isn't it?

More than that, what is she supposed to be seeing here? It takes a few more steps before she sees it: a sheer drop down into a wet abyss. She loves a good wet abyss. Immediately, Tiff's mind jumps to carabiners and rope, to jumping off and hoping the water will cushion her fall. This isn't Minecraft, though, and what's more is that there's a ladder. There's a normal, wooden ladder, wet and crumbling though it may be, on the way down into the inches of water below.

She shines her flashlight down into it. She can see the bottom. The allure of a wet abyss is gone, replaced by the very real and delightful ground through the water. It's probably only a few inches deep. That's manageable.