Page 87 of The Last Session

Finally, after what felt like forever, I was at the bottom. I swept my flashlight around; I was in a cavern the size of a small room. Mikki and Jonah were walking around the perimeter, their beams swirling like mini floodlights. The stone ground was bumpy but overall pretty flat.

“Hey!” Mikki glanced at me. She might be nervous, but she was also excited: her dark eyes flashed, taking everything in. She stopped in front of a huge squarish slab across from the stairs. It was like a weird parody of the lobby upstairs. I pictured Grace behind the stone desk, cheerful in devil horns:Checking in? Welcome to hell!

Beyond the slab was a six-foot-tall tunnel. Mikki and I shone our lights into it, but they were quickly swallowed up by darkness.

I gulped audibly. There was nothing on this earth I wanted more than to turn around.

“What do we think?” Mikki peered into the corridor.

“Do you have any idea what this is?” I needed to stop her, to pause for one freaking second. “You’ve been researching this place, I’m assuming? Wasn’t it supposed to be a resort?”

“Yeah.” Mikki turned to me and Jonah. “I actually tracked down one of the original investors; he’s now in Florida. He told me the management company had inflated their numbers and run out of money pretty early in the process. But instead of continuing investment rounds, they wanted to abandon the property, which he thought was strange. They ended up selling the land to one of the builders.” She paused for dramatic effect. “Steven’s father.”

“Steven’s father owns this place?” Jonah asked, clearly taken aback.

“He used to. He died seven years ago and left it to Steven, who started building the castle during early COVID. The guy I spoke withcouldn’t figure out where he’d gotten the money. Steven’s dad—his family—wasn’t rich.”

“Catherine,” I said. They both glanced at me. “She was withdrawing large amounts from her bank account during that time. Maybe she funded this place.”

Mikki nodded slowly. “That makes sense. But what seems weird to me is that no one mentionedthis. A cave system underneath the resort—I didn’t hear about that anywhere.”

I glanced up at the dim square of the doorway high above us. If someone shut and locked the door, we’d be trapped down here.

“Should we keep going?” Jonah nodded at the tunnel. He seemed on edge too.

“Let’s go.” Mikki walked ahead of him.

Steeling myself, I followed them. My jaw vibrated, from cold or fear, but I clamped my teeth together. I was going to do this.

The tunnel went about twenty feet and then opened into another space. We shone our lights, but the ceiling was too high for us to reach. This felt like a much larger cavern. And it was less smooth, rocks of all sizes scattered before us. The rough ground was wet, covered in small pools. There came the delicate, rushing sound of running water.

“Look.” Mikki pointed. “Can you see that? All the way back there?”

A small point of light flickered far off.

“Let’s check it out.” Mikki started picking her way across the bumpy terrain.

“Be careful,” Jonah called as her sneaker skidded into an ankle-deep puddle.

She stepped out of it. “Damn, it’s slippery.”

As they went ahead, I remained frozen, primal terror climbing up my spine. Being in this space, this cavern, was giving me déjà vu. The sound of the water, the damp mineral smell: it reminded me of the dreams.

But even if I told them—it wouldn’t change anything. Lots of people dreamed about caves. They were fucking Freudian.

I took a slow step, then another.That’s it. One foot after the other.I approached some larger rocks, used my free hand to climb over.Okay.I could do this.

The flickering light gradually grew bigger; it appeared to be a candlenear the far end of the cave. Squinting at it, I slipped, falling onto my knees with an “oof.”

“You okay?” Jonah called.

“Yeah.” I got gingerly to my feet, my knees aching.Focus.

The ground sloped downwards like we were in a giant amphitheater, moving towards the stage. The small pools turned into rivulets. I concentrated on each step. When I looked up again, Mikki and Jonah had reached the back wall and were shining their flashlights on something white and round that looked like a skull.

“Jesus,” I muttered, my heart thumping away in my chest.

Near the end and bottom of the cavern, the rivulets widened further into streams, cutting through the rocks and flowing downwards. The rushing sound was loudest here, white noise filling my ears. I paused to see Jonah’s flashlight shining on a space at the wall—or rather, lack of space. The streams converged, flowing as one into a hole that was about five feet across. It was like a giant drain, gurgling and sucking, shooting bubbles and spray. I thought ridiculously of the hot tub upstairs.