#this wasn't intentional at all but after finishing this i realized she basically got eaten by the buried + the lonely from tma

[tildeathiwillwrite]

Whumptober Day 11 + Day 12 + Day 26

Day 11: SEEING DOUBLE | Convenience Store | Loneliness | “Leave no trace behind, like you don't even exist.”

Day 12: STARVATION | Underground Caverns | Cannibalism | "Just a little more."

Day 26: NIGHTMARES | Breakfast Table | Parting Words of Regret | “I'm haunted by the lies that I have loved, the actions I have hated.”

Whumptober Prompts List | Masterpost

Fandom: Original Work

Words: 1200

Tag List: @fourwingedsnake @whumperofworlds @pigeonwhumps @mr-orion @scaewolf

@the-ellia-west

CW: missing person, found footage, lost, separated, darkness, parting words regret, mystery, supernatural occurrence, running, screaming, implied death

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The detective stared at the phone on his desk. It was unremarkable, with a light blue case, a crack in the lower left-hand corner, fingerprints highlighted by the dust from the cave where it had been found, abandoned, the battery dead. After bringing it back and taking fingerprints and dust samples, all that was left was to charge it.

It finished its start-up sequence, showing the lock screen, a photo of a field of flowers at sundown. The detective hesitantly swiped up on the lock screen, expecting a password or code. Instead, the phone opened, showing a home screen that was a selfie of a woman, perhaps in her mid-twenties, with a couple other people the same age. The phone’s owner, presumably, and some friends.

He tapped on the messaging app. All the recent messages were from three days ago. The phone wouldn’t have had any signal in the caves, it was likely the young woman had been using it for pictures or video. The most recent message was from a contact named “Hannah”.

---

You (1:54): I’m going to the intermediate cave it looks like.

You (1:54): It goes as deep as the hard caves, but it’s not as claustrophobic.

You (1:54): The guide seems to know what he’s doing, which is good at least.

Hannah (1:55): Cool.

Hannah (1:55): Call me when you get out?

You (1:55): Will do.

You (1:56): I’ll send some pics and video and stuff

Hannah (1:58): 👍

Hannah (4:17): Hey, you out yet?

Hannah (4:17): The intermediate cave is only an hour and a half

Hannah (4:18): I’d love to see those pics

Hannah (4:21): Hello?

—Missed call from Hannah at 4:25 p.m.—

Hannah (4:25): Jessi this isn’t funny

Hannah (8:52): I’m calling the police

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The detective frowned and jotted down Hannah’s phone number. If she’d known this young woman, Jessi, had gone to the caves, perhaps she’d filed a missing person’s report when she didn’t come back? Or perhaps Jessi had simply lost her phone during the spelunking trip. Still best to check the records.

The camera roll yielded more promising results. A few pictures of the cave formations lit by flashlights, some of Jessi and a few other spelunkers, nothing too out of the ordinary. But the most recent item in the camera roll was a fifteen-minute-long video that appeared to have been filmed in complete darkness.

The detective turned the volume up and pressed play.

Silence. No, not quite silence. Ragged breathing, coming from somewhere nearby.

“I… I got separated from the group.” Jessi’s voice shook, as if she was on the verge of tears. “I don’t know how… there was really only one way to go… and we were starting to head back. And then… and then they were all gone….

“It’s so dark. I didn’t have a flashlight. I don’t… I don’t wanna drain my phone battery any further, I’m already sapping it by taking this video.”

She chuckled derisively. “I don’t even know why I’m taking this video. Maybe just to talk, and have something listen, even if it’s just a microphone. Maybe if I… if I don’t make it out of here… this is so my friends and family can have something.

“Hannah… I’m sorry I never got to send those pictures. I’m sorry we had that fight, and I want you to know I don’t hate you for what you said in the heat of the moment.

“Mom, Dad, I love you so very, very, very much. I’m so sorry you had to lose your only daughter this way.

“I’m trying to be optimistic here. If I stay put, eventually the guide or someone else in the group will realize I’m missing and they’ll come back for me. I guess I could just make my way back up the cave… but I honestly don’t know which way is which. I might get farther and farther away.”

Jessi trailed off and stood in the darkness for a few minutes.

“I’m scared,” she said, “I never thought… I never thought this was how I’d die. I just… I feel so alone down here, so deep underground. Just the complete absence of other living things… only rock and water and darkness. And me.”

She blew out a long, slow breath. “Ugh… now that I say that, the hairs on the back of my neck are standing up. You ever get that feeling of being watched? It’s stupid. Maybe it’s just having the phone recording.”

Another few beats of silence.

“I want to get out of here. So badly. I can yell for help, but I don’t know how far my voice’ll carry. I can’t phone or text anyone, I don’t have any service. Maybe Hannah’ll notice? It’s a good thing I told her which cave. I just hope she’ll realize in time. I just need to wait a little bit more.”

More silence.

Then: “Hello? Is anyone there? I can hear your footsteps.”

Footsteps echoed as Jessi moved towards the sound she heard. The phone hadn’t picked up any audible noise, or it was so faint the detective missed it. “Hello?” she repeated. “Please, I got separated from the group. I need help.”

Jessi fumbled with her phone, and the flashlight suddenly turned on, revealing the stone floor. The camera whipped up to point down the corridor, illuminating only a few feet before the cave curved out of sight. She pointed it the other way, revealing an almost endless corridor in the other direction.

She gasped softly and stepped back. “Who are you?”

The detective squinted at the phone screen. No one else was there, but Jessi certainly acted otherwise. She backed up until she made it around the curve and whatever she supposedly saw was out of sight.

Then she turned and ran.

The video became a confusing blur of gleaming stone, darkness, and the occasional flash of blue jeans, the audio coming in and out. “Help!” she screamed, “—lease! Hel—me!”

Crack.

The phone clattered to the floor, the audio becoming pure static for a few precious seconds. It landed face-down, the camera only showing a blurry close-up of the floor. For a moment after, everything was still.

And Jessi screamed. It lasted for two long, agonizing seconds before it was suddenly cut off.

Silence.

The video ended.

The detective stared at the phone for a long time, trying and failing to come up with a logical conclusion. Had she encountered someone in the caves, someone who'd chased after and killed her? That would be the logical explanation. But the complete lack of another person in the camera frame, presumably in the direction she had been looking right before she fled….

It didn’t make sense. None of it did.

The detective’s eyes fell on Hannah’s phone number. Jessi’s friend and parents would want to see the video, even if it was of her last moments, even if it didn’t make sense. The video would need to get copied and downloaded to the database first as evidence, along with any other photos and files that might offer clues. Then check for the missing person report filed by Hannah. Then get in contact.

This was going to be a long afternoon.