My friends and I were running in the field that overlooked the water when it happened. We were playing hide and seek, and I was looking for a place where no one would find me. Near the edge of the cliff, I could see the crashing waves below. Mother never let me get too close - none of our parents did. But they weren’t here, and my eyes could see the perfect hiding place in the sheer wall. Looks can be deceiving though.

I scurried down the steep ledge on the right, hugging the wall as I went, until I came upon what I had seen: a shallow cave the shape of a teardrop. I climbed inside and leaned against the back of the cave desperately trying to keep any part of myself from being seen.

That’s when it happened. I heard a crack, then I felt the wall behind me fall away, and I went with it. I landed on a slope not far below me and rolled for another while before the ground leveled out. I picked myself up and brushed off my shirt. It was dark wherever I was. The only light was a small beam coming from at thirty feet above me - the teardrop cave. I looked around for a good place to start climbing, but it all looked black and featureless to me. My eyes needed time to adjust.

I turned around to face the blackness behind me. My hands reached out and found nothing. There was no way to tell how deep the new cave went, but I didn’t want to find out. The heavy air carried a sulfuric stench and a foreboding of something evil. I looked back toward the light. I could see reflections along the sloping wall that looked like great places to climb.

Pebbles crushed and cascaded below me as I grew closer to the light. The echoing was loud and hollow, which could only mean this place was massive - large enough for someone to get lost and never be found again.

Then a different sound came echoing back toward me, and I stopped. After a moment, I heard it again. It was low and distant, and nothing like the bright clacking rocks. It was a moan, or a cry, like from a wounded animal. Only the sound grew closer and closer, and I knew whatever it was, it wasn’t wounded.

I climbed faster, my hands and feet slipping on the slimy rocks. Up, up, up, as the moan grew louder and louder, with more intensity at every iteration. The teardrop cave was just within reach - I stretched out my arm to grab hold of the ledge. It was wet, and my arms were tired and aching from the climb. But the moaning was right behind me now, and I hadn’t the courage to look below and see the source. I yelled as I pulled hard and brought my chest up to the cave and rolled onto my back. I was out.

I scrambled to my feet and backed away from the black hole. The light poured down the steep underground hill and onto the floor below. I watched with blinkless eyes as a creature stepped into the light. It’s flesh was as pale as the moon. It was hunched over with drooping arms, and it’s head tilted to one side as it looked up at me with solid black eyes. The creature’s jaw slacked open to reveal jagged teeth and a black tentacle that I think was it’s tongue. It shouted with a piercing cry that reverberated off the wall and went deep into the darkness beyond. As it released itself and took labored breaths, a low rumble came swiftly through the floor. My boots trembled as the rumble turned into a roar, and around the creature came a throng of pale monsters with their bald scalps and gaunt faces. They gathered together to stare at me.

I ran. I ran so fast and so far, I didn’t know where I was when I stopped. It was three days before i made it back home. My mother thought me dead, and she hugged me for too long when I walked through the door. She yelled at me, and then cried some more. She asked me where I’d been and what had happened, but I didn’t want to say. I didn’t want to believe what I had seen was real. Not that anyone would believe me anyways.