Page 105 of Evil Hearts

Three

T hey drove through a red, rocky desert that looked more like the surface of Mars than Earth, with no plants to be seen. Then the occasional scrubby bush appeared between the rocks, and Oriana thought it was almost like driving through outback Western Australia, the sort of desert surrounding the towns where she’d been teaching until she’d quit her job to head south to the city in order to marry Hunter. All this way to see the same desert just didn’t seem right.

Then the engine growled as the incline increased, and Oriana saw trees on either side of the road, which started to zigzag. That was when he pulled over on to the side of the road and stopped.

“You are looking for Dampier’s treasure, yes?” the driver asked. Before she could answer, he continued, “There is a cave down that path called Dampier’s Drip. Outside it, you can see the ruins of the first water supply for the island. All the treasure hunters want to start there, because Captain Dampier said he and his men found a water source in the mountains, and stayed in a cave nearby. I will wait for you. If you find the treasure, you will need a car to carry it back to town.” From his broad grin, she had no doubt that he didn’t expect her to find any treasure, just like all his other former passengers.

She wanted to snap at him, to tell him she wanted to see the volcano more than some damp cave, but rocks were rocks, damp or otherwise, and if she didn’t have a volcano calling her name, normally she would be interested in the cave. She would have preferred to see it on her way down the mountain, after she’d done the volcano, but her years in the classroom with obnoxious teenage boys who wouldn’t be deterred until they’d finished playing their stupid pranks had taught her to smile and keep her voice calm as she said, “Thank you. I just follow that trail over there for how long?”

“To the end. You can’t miss it. And then follow it right back here to the road.”

Oriana nodded and cracked open her car door. She slid her arms into the straps of her backpack. “And you’ll wait for me right here?”

“Of course.” He turned off the engine and pulled out his phone.

Oriana decided to follow his example, taking out her phone so she could take a photo of him, the car and the licence plate. Just in case.

The track was as easy walk, twisting through scrubby trees until it opened up into a sort of open ridge, with a cliff on one side and an abrupt drop on the other. Luckily, the path was wide enough to fit two or three people walking abreast, so Oriana had no difficulty hugging the cliff and keeping her distance from the edge.

The ridge continued sloping upward, until she reached a clearing with the promised ruins. Ruined walls with no roof, more like houses built into the cliffside than a water supply. Well, except for the corroded pipe on its concrete supports, looking for all the world like a miniature replica of the Goldfields Pipeline that carried water from Perth to Kalgoorlie

Oriana didn’t mind history, but she was more interested in geological history than buildings that were only a century or two old. Now, if there was a cave, that was more her style…

She prowled about the ruins, looking for gaps in the cliff that might signify a cave big enough for a shipload of men to take shelter in. She expected it to be like the caves back home – a limestone sinkhole that opened up where you least expected it, with steps leading down. This cave looked like a train tunnel, blackened by decades of train traffic…only there weren’t any rails here. Just the black, volcanic rock arching up high above, like the home of some monstrous worm.

Feverishly, she pulled out her phone and began to take pictures. This was what she’d come to see. This was exactly what she needed to forget about Hunter or the future, and just live in the moment.

She found the flashlight app on her phone and shone the light beam inside the tunnel, stomping hard to scare away any snakes. Then she laughed at herself, because she’d been told the most dangerous creatures on the island were crabs and birds, none of which compared to the mud crabs, magpies and other assorted wildlife she’d dealt with on a daily basis back home.

The temperature dropped as she stepped into the darkness, and she couldn’t suppress a shiver. Water dripped somewhere in the dark – Dampier’s Drip, for sure – but the sound echoed off those curved walls so she couldn’t pinpoint the source. The deeper she went into the cave, the clearer the walls became, as though her eyes were adjusting to the low light…or at least that’s what she thought, until she rounded another corner and the roof was gone, open up to the sky, and the steady drip…drip…drip like the tick of a clock, forming a puddle that reflected the sky above like a big, blue mirror. On the far side of the puddle, there was a shelf in the rock, like some sort of shrine, covered in broken tiles with writing on them. Oriana reached across to examine one. No, not tile, just thin pieces of clinker, scratched with names and dates. She put the stone back with the others. Well, it was better than them scratching their names on the walls.

Maybe she should do the same. Leave a little offering with her name on the altar of fate, and make a wish for her own future.

Oriana scanned the floor, and found a rock the size of her hand, beside a sharp pebble that would do for a stylus of sorts. She carved her name and the date onto the stone, wishing with all her might she’d be able to see her future clearly again, whatever it might hold. Then she placed the stone in the middle of the shrine and said the words aloud, to whatever force in the universe might be listening: “Help me find it. Please.” Then she closed her eyes.

She waited for a long moment, but she didn’t see anything. No happy visions of children, or any kind of future. Just the darkness, inside her eyelids and out.

“If you’re looking for the treasure, you won’t find it here,” an unfamiliar voice said, as rich and dark as the volcanic rock overhead.

Oriana jumped and nearly landed in the puddle. Well, her foot did, but she leaped right back out again before more than her shoe and sock got soaked. She waved her phone light in the direction of the voice. “Where are you?”

He stepped out of the shadows, but not quite into the sunlight. Tall and lean, he was built like a marathon runner. Like if she tried to run, he’d outdistance her for sure. Maybe she should have waited for the Musketeers to come up here with her. Then she wouldn’t be alone with this strange man.

“Is it your job to do jump scares for the tourists? Or do you just do it for fun? Because some of the cruise ship passengers are quite old and frail, and if you gave them a bad enough scare, you might give them a heart attack, too. Then you’d be up for murder.” Oriana snapped a photo of the little shrine beside the puddle, then turned on her heel to leave. “Scaring people is not funny.”

“I did not mean to scare you. I meant to warn you, that if you are searching for treasure, you will not find it here.”

That damn voice did bad things to her insides. Insides who did not like him at all, she scolded herself. Oriana shone her flashlight around the tunnel, forcing herself to focus on the rocks and not the stranger. “Of course not. This is a lava tube, made of solid rock. While it might have made a safe place to shelter and sleep, no one could have buried anything in here. Better to bury it under a load of loose rock outside, or under dry sand, which I imagine would preserve it better.”

“So you are a treasure hunter, then,” the man said.

She considered denying it, but what did she care what this man thought of her? He was a stranger, and she’d never see him again once she left this cave. Let him think what he liked.

“I have to go. Someone’s waiting for me at the road,” she said, hurrying away.

The sun caressed her shoulders as she stepped outside, like a warm blanket offering comfort she hadn’t even known she needed. There were dangers going places alone. Not that the stranger had done anything, or even approached close enough to touch her, but there had been something about him that felt…strange.

He was probably the driver’s friend, and his attempt to scare her was the juvenile prank the driver had stopped here to play on her, she fumed as she marched back to the road. If he wasn’t there when she reached it…

But the driver and his car were waiting for her, just like he’d promised. “So you didn’t find any treasure?” he teased as she buckled her seatbelt.

She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of mentioning the other man, or that he’d made her jump. “No, because I’m not looking for treasure,” Oriana said firmly. “I want to hike around the volcano, and see the best views of the island. Can you take me to where I can do that?”

“Of course,” he said, turning the key in the ignition. The engine roared to life, and they were soon zigzagging up the mountain again. She caught herself glancing in the mirrors a few times, to see if anyone was following them, but there wasn’t another vehicle in sight. Definitely no sign of the stranger in the cave.

Good, she told herself. She was here to sate her curiosity, not some stranger’s. The only treasure she wanted to take away from this place were memories and photographs of seeing something new and amazing she’d never seen before.