Where The Mind Breaks

Chapter 8: The Sound In The Caves

Time seemed to slow, each raindrop a crystal bead in the lamplight. The hooded figure took another step, its boots making no sound on the wet pavement. Nel’s mind screamed at him to run, but his feet were rooted to the spot, frozen by a terror so complete it felt like a physical paralysis.

He was going to die here, on this street, in the rain. Just like Golda.

The figure raised a hand, not in a threat, but a gesture. A beckoning. Then it turned and melted back into the alley it had emerged from.

It wasn’t an attack. It was an invitation. A command.

His heart was a wild, trapped bird beating against his ribs. Every instinct told him to run in the opposite direction. But the figure knew who he was. It had been at the cemetery. It had something to say, or something to show him. And in the suffocating grip of the Demmys’ power, any other player, even a hostile one, was a variable. A chance.

Gritting his teeth, his breath coming in ragged gasps, Nel followed.

He stepped into the alley’s darkness, the world shrinking to the faint outline of the figure ahead. They moved through a labyrinth of backstreets and service lanes, away from the town center, towards the lake. The air grew colder, heavy with the smell of wet stone and rotting fish. The sounds of the town faded, replaced by the lap of water and the sigh of the wind through the pines.

They were heading for the caves.

A network of sea caves riddled the bluffs beneath the Demmys property, a place strictly off-limits when they were kids. Hedge Demmys had called them unstable, death traps. Another lie, Nel was sure of it now.

The figure stopped at a crevice in the rock face, nearly invisible behind a curtain of hanging ivy. It turned one last time, the hood still shadowing its face, and then slipped inside.

Nel hesitated at the mouth of the cave. It was a black maw, exhaling a breath of damp, ancient air. This was it. The point of no return. He could still turn back, run to his car, and try to flee Everfell. Jason would probably hunt him down on the highway, but he could try.

But then he thought of the ledger. Of his father’s name. Of Vivi’s smile.

He stepped into the dark.

The inside was larger than he expected. A faint, phosphorescent glow from lichen on the walls provided just enough light to see they were in a chamber the size of a living room. The sound of dripping water was everywhere, echoing.

The figure stood in the center, its back to him. Slowly, it reached up and pushed back the hood.

Nel’s breath caught in his throat.

It was Alex, the developer from the city. The slick, ambitious man who’d been pressuring the Demmys to sell.

“You,” Nel whispered, the shock momentarily overriding his fear.

Alex turned. His usual polished arrogance was gone, replaced by a raw, jittery intensity. His eyes were wide, darting towards the cave entrance. “You’re a hard man to get alone, Tait. They’re watching you every second.”

“What do you want?” Nel demanded, his body still coiled tight, ready to fight or flee.

“The same thing you do,” Alex said, his voice low and urgent. “To burn the Demmys family to the ground.”

The statement was so blunt, so unexpected, it left Nel speechless.

“I’m not here for a resort,” Alex continued, a bitter smile twisting his lips. “That’s the cover story. I’m with a federal financial crimes task force. We’ve been trying to get a wire on Hedge for five years. He’s too careful. His books are clean. Too clean.”

Nel’s mind was reeling. A fed? “The ledger,” he breathed.

Alex’s eyes lit up with a fierce, hungry light. “Golda contacted me. She said she had it. Proof of off-book payments, bribes, everything. We were supposed to meet the night she died.” His jaw tightened. “Then Jason called it a suicide, and the ledger vanished.”

“I have it,” Nel said, the words out before he could consider the wisdom of trusting this man.

The relief on Alex’s face was palpable. “Thank God. That ledger is our key. With it, we can get warrants. We can flip the smaller fish...the doctor, the mayor. We can bring them down.”

It was everything Nel wanted to hear. A way out. A real weapon. An ally with power.

“But it’s not enough,” Alex said, his voice dropping to a whisper. “The financial crimes are just the surface. Golda knew it. I know it. That’s the real reason I’m here.” He stepped closer, his expression grim. “My sister. She vanished. Eight years ago. She was last seen on a hiking trip near here.”

The bottom dropped out of Nel’s stomach.

“It wasn’t in the news,” Alex said, answering the unspoken question. “My family has… influence. We kept it quiet. But the trail led here. To Everfell. To the Demmys.” He looked around the cave, his voice barely audible over the dripping water. “The Weeping never stopped, Tait. They just got better at hiding it. Golda thought the key was in these caves. She said they weren’t just caves. She called it the ‘cold storage.’”

A cold dread, deeper than any he had felt yet, seeped into Nel’s bones. He looked past Alex, deeper into the darkness of the cave system. The dripping water seemed to form words, a name, whispered over and over.

Vivi. Vivi. Vivi.

Alex followed his gaze. “We need that ledger to start the official process. But you and I… we need to find what’s in here. The proof of what they’ve really been doing.”

He was offering a partnership. A dangerous, illegal one. But he was also offering a shared pain, an understanding that went deeper than jurisdiction. He had lost a sister, too.

It was the perfect alliance. The answer to his prayers.

And yet, as he stood in the glowing half-light, listening to the secret, dripping sound of the caves, a single, treacherous thought echoed in the newly opened vault of his mind.

What if this is just another Demmys trap? What if Alex is the ‘Cleaner’ from the ledger?

The sound of the dripping water seemed to grow louder, taunting him.

He had found an ally. Or he had just walked into a second coffin, one he had opened himself.