Jackson kicked a stone and watched it fall, fall, fall until the dark abyss swallowed it up. He didn’t hear it hit an end. No matter how many times he did this, it never got easier. But the views kept coming in, and the money right after.
He had started his channel several years ago, doing what he was actually passionate about: his art. But it hadn’t grown until he hoped onto the cave diving trend. Viewers were fascinated watching people squeeze into smaller holes and crazier caves, and he lived near quite a cavernous area.
This particular cave was one he had yet to explore. It wasn’t on any of the provincial maps, nor were there any signs around, warning hikers of its existence. The mouth of the cave was smaller than usual, and more jagged, it reminded him of an open mouth full of teeth. Jackson wanted to turn back, he really did, but the rock test had proved it was promising, if he could only slip through … and he needed this month’s rent.
He tightened his knee and elbow pads and double-checked that the light on his helmet still worked. Then, he grabbed his phone and began the livestream. “Hey guys, Jackson here. I found a new cave, so you know what that means!”
Jackson’s legs just barely slipped through the hole, the jagged edges of the rock walls catching on and ripping at his pants. It took forever to move around them. To slip his torso down, he had to exhale all of his air, and the edges still reached out to grab him. When his feet reached a solid surface, he was out of breath.
“Do you see this, guys?” Jackson asked the viewers, pointing the light and camera around before his own eyes adjusted. As far as he could see, the cave was just one giant drop downwards with ledges, like the one he had landed on, here and there. Something unlike any other channel had explored; he smiled and turned the camera to face him. “This’ll be epic!”
The cave proved more difficult than he had thought. The ledges were not evenly spaced out and far more slippery than they looked. Jackson had to dig his fingernails into the crevices of the walls and grip his phone tightly as he moved. He would’ve preferred to move carefully, slowly, but the viewers were getting bored. So instead, he jumped from ledge to ledge, ignoring the rocks that crumbled under his feet.
At some point, the mouth of the cave had disappeared from sight, but he hardly noticed; the bottom was finally in sight, and the subscribers were rolling in. When his feet touched the cave floor, Jackson cheered. “Another successful exploration!” His voice echoed.
Only, the comments weren’t celebrating. They had spotted something before he had: another hole in the cave wall. A crevice just big enough he could probably crawl through easily. The livestream wasn’t over yet.
At first, Jackson was comfortable on his hands and knees as he made his way forward. It happened gradually, but the farther he went, the tighter the crevice became, and the hotter he got, it was almost unbearable. He flattened his body, his cheek scraping against the rocks, his phone was barely able to fit. “Maybe I should call it a day,” he told his viewers, “Go home,” while I still can, he thought.
Jackson tried to shuffle backwards to the exit. To his horror, he couldn’t. The rock above him felt like it was pushing down on him, squeezing the air out of his lungs. Below him, a sticky substance started to bubble up. When it touched his wrist first, it burned worse than anything he had felt before. Jackson let out an agonizing scream and dropped his phone. He could see through to the bone.
The park rangers found Jackson’s phone just off the designated hiking trail. It was dead and cracked and covered in a weird substance. There was no trace of the YouTuber, however, and one by one his subscribers exited the stream.
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