Warnings: Heavy spoilers for episode 10. Contains later in the story explicit adult material (like seriously, can't emphasize this too much, basically smut). 🔥🔥
Author notes: see the ending
After the End
The silence was hurting her ears, like it was almost deafening tone. The room was dark, sun had set ages ago and normally, she would have been sleeping for hours now. But not today. Only light in the room was coming from her phone, where she kept reading the last words of their conversation. Her hold on the phone was tight, as she was afraid of dropping it, losing connection with him.
I cannot go without telling you.
Without telling me what?
Something I’ve bene meaning to tell you for a long time.
What do you want to tell me?
MC
I love you.
I love you too, Jake
He loved her and she loved him. She had known it for a while now, but with everything going on, she had actively pushed her thoughts back. They had to find Hannah, and her friends had been in constant danger. It was so odd, how they had known with Jake for a such a short time, but she felt like she had known him all her life. How naturally they trusted and respected each other’s, and how her heart always skipped a beat when he messaged him.
When Richy had revealed himself as being the man without a face, the initial shock had changed to anger. He was supposed to be their friend and she had thought Richy was also her friend too. How could he have done all of this? What kind of person treats others this way? Hannah had told the group what happened in the mine, how Richy had set up the fire and never came out… They all had found out that their friend had betrayed them and then they lost him all in 30 minutes span. Jessy was a mess, and she had tried to call her many times, but Dan had let her know that she couldn’t stop crying and was no condition to speak. Lilly had called her parents to pick them up and they all were going into the hospital to see Hannah. She tried to feel relief for them, but when she knew that her most important person was still in the mines somewhere and FBI was there… The only thought she had, that she couldn’t breathe until she knew he was alright and safe.
I love you
I love you too, Jake
The minutes and hours felt like years. The first rays of the sun peeked behind the curtains, and she still hadn’t heard from him. When she heard her next-door neighbor leaving to work, she snapped out of her trance. Something had gone wrong; she just knew it. He would have texted her soon as he was out of the mine, he knew that she was waiting. Panic started swell on her again, rising in intolerable levels. She had to do something, but what?
What could she do? How could she help from her couch? He was somewhere deep in the mines, alone in the dark, without aid. All their friends and his sisters were in the hospital, and all he got was her. She jumped from the couch, confused, and saw herself on the mirror. Dark circles under her eyes revealed that it was 30 hours since she last slept, but that wasn’t important now. She realized that there was only one thing which she could do.
She would go to Duskwood.
When the taxi finally drove in her driveway, she hopped in and stuffed her backpack in the backseat with her. Quick glance on her phone told her that she had no new messages, and she had only an hour before her flight would leave.
“To the airport, please. Take the fastest route.”
They passed the suburbs way too slowly in her opinion, but soon they were in the highway, speeding up. Within fifteen minutes, they arrived in the airport. Because she was travelling lightly and had done the check in within her phone on her way, she got through the security just in time to see that her gate for the flight had opened. When she finally sat down on her seat and looked outside of the window, she allowed herself to let one tear slip.
I love you.
I love you too, Jake.
Six hours later, she arrived at the small train station of Duskwood. She had managed to get some sleep during the flight and connecting train, but she still felt like she had been hit by a car. She picked her phone again for the thousandth time for that day and saw that she still hadn’t got new messages and Jake was still offline. The conductor whistled, and the train started moving again, leaving her alone in the platform.
She still hadn’t a plan and couldn’t form one without getting information about the current situation. She knew that only person she could contact to get some, was someone who Jake would not approve, but she didn’t have a choice. She opened her contacts on the messaging app and typed slowly. She had to play her cards right and not cause any additional issues.
Alan,
I hope I have finally convinced you that I was not the person who you were looking for, and you can trust me.
She waited for a couple of minutes, when the familiar pen showed up, scribbling on the screen.
You haven’t been a suspect in this case in any point.
She contemplated her words. She couldn’t reveal too much, but Alan’s previous warning had indicated that he knew, that Jake was the one FBI was looking for. But he had given her a much-needed warning.
Oh, Alan. You and me both know, that is a lie. But I am not going to hold on a grudge. ps. Did FBI found what they were looking for?
She bit her lip, as always when she was nervous. She saw Alan typing something, deleting it and then he started typing again.
Duskwood police is grateful for FBI’s aid on this case and the gathering of the evidence is still ongoing and I am not going to give any additional information regarding this matter.
Shit, shit, shit. That had to mean that FBI was still in the mines, looking for Jake. She was relieved that he hadn’t been caught, but the task of saving him would be impossible task when FBI was still in the area. No, not impossible, she reminded herself, that’s why she had come her. There was a chance, but she just would have to take it.
She rented a car, not a too big, so it would not attract interest. They also gave her a map for the area, which she appreciated a lot. She trailed the route to the waterfall from the parking place with her finger but realized quickly that it was probably full of police and FBIs cars and staff. She covered her hair with the baseball cap and put sunglasses on her face, checking herself from the car sunscreen mirror. With a map on her hand, she looked just like a regular tourist. She doubted that anyone would recognize her, but better safe than sorry. She had booked a cabin during her way on the airport, and quick glance on the map revealed to her that it was in secluded are in farther south from Duskwood, where the mines were. Her hands trembled when she folded the map and put it in her pocket, she had never been this afraid in her life before. She took a long breath and held her head against the steering wheel.
I love you
I love you too, Jake.
She started the engine.
After 15 minutes of drive, she saw the parking place for the beginning of the trail. It was packed and she could spot the blue and red lights from afar. There was no way that she could pull the stupid tourist-impression with that crowd. Frustrated cry escaped from her lips, and she pressed the speed pedal. There had to be other way. She kept driving and glanced the policemen while passing them and soon she couldn’t see them anymore from her rear mirror. She tried to look up where to pull over, and finally spotted a place beside the main road, which looked like an abandoned bus stop. When she had turned off her engine, she looked at the map again.
According to Jake, the mines were 60 miles long, and he could be anywhere in those 60 miles. She googled the cave site archives, where Jake had retrieved his map from and looked at all the entrances. Jake had said that he didn’t know other exits than the main one and the one which Richy had used, and the latter one just had a fire. She knew that Jake wouldn’t go to the part of the tunnels he didn’t know of, that would just be guaranteed getting lost option. But if he had his map with him (which was very likely), he would have to choose one of the other exits. What would you do, what you would do in this situation, she kept asking herself and then she realized.
If there would be FBI waiting in all the exits, it wouldn’t make sense to try to get to them. They also couldn’t search all the 60 miles simultaneously, so they would have to look in sections. The mines were dark, maps weren’t reliable and offered multiple spots to take cover. It would make prefect sense to hide, until FBI would think that he had managed to escape before securing the exits. That she would do, trick them believing that she would have already left…
Suddenly, this realization caused her to get more anxious. How long could he hide in the dark? Did he have any food with him? Or water? Maybe that was the reason he didn’t answer her messages since he would have to turn his phone off to save battery. She zoomed in for the map again, trying to look out what kind of things mines had. She had seen a shaft from the picture, but she didn’t know what mines usually looked like. Was there more of shafts? Would he get deeper or closer towards the ground?
This was like looking for a needle in a haystack. He would have tried to get far as he could from where Richy had held Hannah, because that area would be the main focus for the police. The main entrance was also off limits, and that left only one route available. She followed the markings of the map, where the road would be halting into a crossroad and again later for another crossroad. How could she know which way he would choose? She looked farther from the map and saw that the rest of the exits would be along the long road in the end of the tunnels. It would make sense that he would keep in close of them if he would need quick way out.
She looked at her other map, where the landscape was drawn and looked where each exit was. It wouldn’t be reasonable to come out in area, where there was no possibility of hiding, so she could cross few of them over, like the one which was located near of the busy road. She managed to narrow the possible exits for two, both were in secluded place and there was lots of forest around of them, no traffic, or human habitats. The map from cave archives showed that the tunnels were collapsed around the first exit, but the second one appeared to be intact. It had to be this one, she thought. She didn’t want to consider the option she might be wrong in here, there was so much in stake here. She had to be right.
I love you
I love you too, Jake
The plan started to form in her head, but she would need one more thing before she could go.
A distraction.
Her sister answered her call with a groggy voice. The tone of her voice implied that there had been again sleepless nights for her too, but different reasons than hers. Her sister had a baby six months ago with her husband Doug, and her nephew wasn’t keen on sleeping. For a moment she felt sting of her conscious bugging her, but she pushed it away.
“Sarah, I need a favor from you.”
“No, you can’t borrow my car today, we have a doctor’s appointment –“, her sister started, but she quickly stopped her.
“I don’t need your car. I need you to listen to me very carefully now”, she told her, and something in her voice stopped her sister’s argument instantly. “Is Doug at home? Can you put him on the phone with me?”
“Are you in trouble? MC, what’s going on?” her sister sounded worried. “Why would you –“
“Sarah, please. This is very important, and I’ll explain everything to you later but now I really need to talk Doug”, she pleaded in a desperate tone. She knew that there was no way that she would actually explain her sister what was going on later, but that did calm her enough to put her husband on the phone.
Doug was engineer in multinational company and often reminisced his university years, where he and his roommate would do some hacking on local newspaper site, putting false news on the website and that kind of things. Nothing too serious which would have landed him in actual trouble, but he did have basic skills on hacking websites.
“MC? What’s up?” she heard him asking on the phone. She heard him being confused, she had never called directly on him.
“I need a huge favor from you, and I shouldn’t ask it for you. But I don’t have anyone else to ask and you’re my only hope”, she told him and couldn’t prevent the low sob.
“MC, everything is alright, don’t cry. What can I do for you?”
She then spent the next ten minutes convincing her sisters husband and ensuring that he would know how to do his task without getting in caught. He assured her that he had his ways and could protect himself, but she could hear that he was uncertain about this. It was literally poking a bear, she knew it, but it had to be a proper distraction, otherwise it wouldn’t work, and all this would be for nothing. When Doug finally agreed on her instructions, she started sobbing again on relief. She quickly said goodbyes and terminated the call, sending him the necessary files before switching her screen off.
She drove her car 15 kilometers in southbound and saw the gravel road she was supposed to turn. It wasn’t directly for the cave entrance (that would have risen suspicions too much), but close enough so she could hike there and keep her car hidden at the same time. When she was sure no one could see her, she turned to the gravel road and found a perfect spot for her car, where it wasn’t visible from the main road.
She pulled her hair on a bun and changed her t-shirt to a pullover. When she had gathered all her things and gotten off from the car, the fear set in her heart. This was it. If she would fail, her life would get harder, but not hard as near Jake's would get. She took a sip from her water and opened her phone. It was 7 pm, and the dark would set soon. She made sure that she knew which way she should go and played her plan again and again in her head.
In a half an hour, the sun had disappeared behind the trees, and she started her journey towards the entrance of the mine. She followed the blue spot which indicated her location on the map. When she was around 400 meters away in a creek, she opened her browser and saw that Doug had accomplished his task. There also was a text message from Alan.
I doubt this was a coincidence.
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Now she had to hope that her plan would be enough to get those FBI agents lured from the mines. She slowed her steps and could hear car door slamming further down the creek. She crept behind a tree and peeked towards the entrance. She saw the agents packing their things up in a hurry and disappearing in their cars, the fastest one was already on the road. Within minutes, the last one left the parking area, and she was alone. She waited for extra ten minutes just to make sure that there would not be anyone left in the forest, and when she was finally convinced that there were no others, she started to ascend lower to the entrance.
The entrance was old and the air coming down the tunnels smelled murky. It was so, so dark. She had joked that she was happy that she didn’t had to be the one to go there and now… She bit her lip again and looked down with her flashlight. The light showed only the first steps of the stairs. She stepped on the first step, and it creaked under her foot. The noise was so loud that only then she realized that she had been holding her breath. Oh, come on, get a grip of yourself now and just go. You know why you are here.
The self-given pep-talk helped, and she started to ascend the steps down. The trip down felt like a lifetime, and she kept looking at her back, where the soft light from the last daylight kept getting smaller and smaller, until finally she couldn’t see it anymore. There was darkness behind her and in front of her. Great.
She arrived in the first tunnel, and she knew from her previous map researching that she should turn left and then right, to get to the area where she should start look for Jake. She hoped that the map would be correct on this part of the tunnels, and she wouldn’t have to wander too much blind. She grabbed some stones and piled them up, so she would know which way she should go when she got back.
If I get lost in here, I just banished all the possible rescue to other side of the city.
The thought wasn’t comforting, and she had to try and think of something else. The tunnels were darker than in Jake’s picture and the camera hadn’t captivate the moisture of the air. The air was damp and heavy, and it felt like pushing her down. She pointed at her flashlight in the direction she was supposed to go and started walking. The ceiling was low, and she could hear water dripping farther down in the tunnel. Some halls were covered in large rocks and the passages had become narrow.
She thought about Jake. What if she was wrong and he had managed to get out of the mines? What if she was alone in here and the mines would collapse and bury her body. No one knew she was here, and this was the last place anyone would look out her. Her hands started shaking again and the light bounced on the walls. She thought she saw some shapes deeper in the tunnel and swore she could hear whispers. She would die here alone, and no one would know. The mine would claim human life again, first the cave workers and then Richy, and now her…
I love you
I love you too, Jake
She started to feel dizzy, her skin tingled, and she realized that her breathing had become troubled. Is this a panic attack? I’ve never had one before. She stopped and put her hand on the wall to support her. She focused on her breathing, trying to get air to her lungs which were screaming of need. She then remembered her first aid class from the school, which had been many years ago. The instructor had told them that if person is speaking, she is breathing normally. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Maybe she should try it.
“Hello?” Her voice sounded stranded and weird, not like her own at all. “Jake? Can you hear me? It’s me, MC. I’ve done something stupid which probably makes you very mad at me, but I have come here looking for you.”
The darkness didn’t respond, and she could hear her own voice echoing on the empty tunnel walls. She had walked maybe 15 minutes in the tunnels now and kept marking her way out during the way with the stone piles.
“I really hope that you’re here, I came up with this glorious plan and wouldn’t want it to go to waste. So, I would appreciate some kind of sign it you are and I’m not talking to the ghosts you mentioned. That kind of signs are not needed, thank you.”
She kept talking and when she formed the words with her mouth, her breathing got paced regular and it seemed to help, at least her breathing wasn’t sounding so… barking anymore.
“You’re probably wondering why on earth I’m talking aloud alone, but this was something Mrs. Blunt teach us in the first aid class when I was in college. I swear that I am not trying to worry you, but I’ve come to the realization that I don’t like darkness, I don’t like tight spaces and I sure don’t like underground tunnels deep in the ground. I didn’t know that I was claustrophobic. Not a great timing for this kind of realization, I know.”
There still wasn’t any sign of Jake. She felt wetness on her cheeks and realized that she was crying.
“This is bad. I shouldn’t be crying, but I am so, so afraid this moment and I shouldn’t be. Everything is alright, everything is alright, everything is alright”, she repeated this mantra and looked at her feet because her sight seemed to get worst within minutes. Her feet were trembling now too. The tunnel was spinning, or was she spinning? She didn’t know, all she could hear was her heartbeat in her ears, which drummed so hard that she was sure it would break out from her rib cage in any minute now.
Her mantra got slurred, something was wrong in her mouth. Why couldn’t she move her tongue?
This was mistake. She had failed.
I love you
I love you too, Jake
She felt her feet starting to give away. Her hands didn’t work, and she would soon hit the floor in her face first. She closed her eyes and waited for the impact, which never came. Instead, she felt pressure on her sides and her body standing up.
“MC?” her voice sounded so weird and low. Was that even her voice? Why was she saying her own name? She wasn’t, her mouth didn’t work, didn’t she remember? She opened her eyes and saw another pair of feet in front of her. The pressure on her sides was someone’s hands. She wasn’t alone.
She screamed.
XXXXX >> Part two.
Author notes:
Well this is odd, to be actually writing again. I want to thank every single one of you who have read my previous stories and stayed with me while waiting the last episode to arrive.
About this story; I think we deserved to know, what happened to Jake in the tunnels. I did cut some obstacles in this story, like I'm pretty sure that my distraction for FBI wouldn't work like that at all, but lets pretend it was a master plan.
I'm myself extremely claustrophobic especially if the closed spaces are underground and my worst nightmare would be cave exploring or cave diving (seriously, what the hell??), so therefore it was very logical to me write MC claustrophobic as well. I would have been super terrified to go down in some mines. :D
Again, English isn't my native language so there are mistakes, bear with me!
Enjoy!
I would appreciate a lot if you would like to leave me a comment. *3*
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