Days went by, until days turned to weeks. Tellus' birthday cake remained on the table, almost as if forgotten. Autumn would stare at it from time to time, most often choosing to look at the spot where the tiny piece was missing. But the fork had been removed from the plate long ago, and one day Eve threw out the cake.

Adam could tell Autumn was distressed. "We never told Mom about the fork," she said when alone with her father.

Adam sighed. He knew Autumn wanted to do something positive about finding her sister. "All right, Sweetpea," he said. "Listen quick. This is what we'll do."

The two of them planned an evening in the cave, late at night and without Eve. It would be when the moon was full and bright, its glow spilling over Mt. Parnassus.

Before entering the cave, Adam made sure both their flashlights worked. "I've got extra batteries if we need them," he said.

Autumn nodded vigorously. She hadn't been allowed in the cave since Tellus had disappeared. Eve would never forgive either one of them if she found out what they were up to. To prepare Autumn for the serious nature of the search, Adam told her more about her grandfather. Her eyes grew big, and bright as the moon, with the stars sparkling in them.

"He did things I've never seen anyone do. He made time stop somehow. Then full grown trees came out of the ground, roots and all, and fell over."

Autumn knew where these stories led. "He wanted to steal Mom."

"And you too, Sweetpea, because you were in Mommy's tummy waiting to be born. He killed people who got in his way."

"With bats," Autumn added.

"That's right. And really big ones. He brought them with him when he came out of the ground to steal your mom."

Autumn peered into the mouth of the cave. She was closer to it than she'd ever been since the day her sister had disappeared. A shudder ran through her body, perhaps due to the chilly wind.

But perhaps not. "Why did he want Mommy so bad? Why did he kill to get her?"

This was a part of the story that Autumn would never know. How could Adam explain that her grandfather had thought Eve was going to give birth to the Antichrist? That the daughter standing before him was destined to unleash Hell, and destroy Heaven and Earth?

With a heavy heart, Adam lied. "I don"t know, 'Pea. He just did."

"But you stopped him, Daddy. Right?"

"Yes, I did. I stopped him from taking Mom."

"How?"

Adam ventured near the cave. It was easier to lie to Autumn when she was behind him. He had no intention of describing a firefight where a man had been shot so many times that his arm was completely blown off, yet still he was somehow able to drag a woman as big as Eve away by her face.

"It was really hard. But I had to do it. When your heart's in the right place, you can do amazing things."

Autumn trailed close behind as her father entered the cave; so close they almost touched. "He's not like you and me," she said, telling part of the story she knew.

"That's right. He probably knows we're here, and are looking for him."

"Do you think Tellus knows we're here?"

Adam turned to smile at Autumn, placing a hand on her elbow. "God willing, I sure do hope so."

The inside of the cave looked like it always did to Adam. He'd been in it so many times that he scarcely needed a flashlight. Here were some stray bits of junk professional searchers had left during the first few days after Tellus' disappearance. There was the gum wrapper he had dropped during one of the forays in by himself. Here was a mark he had made in chalk, to remind him that this corridor led to a sinkhole.

He wanted to shout at the walls of the cave, as he often did while searching alone, treating it as if it were alive. What did you do with my daughter?

Autumn's elbow grew sore, as her father held onto it tight. After several attempts, she was able to make him let go.

"Don't leave my sight," Adam said, sounding gruff. "Do you hear?"

Autumn walked stiff as a statue, and filled with dread. Still, she managed to sound normal when she spoke.

"I won't go. I'm not leaving."

She shone her flashlight all over the cave, until the circling light made Adam dizzy. He pressed a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't do that," he said. "It isn't helping."

"But where do you suppose she is? Do you think she's down one of these ways?"

"No. Most of them are dead ends, or circle back to here."

Autumn shone her light down one of the passages. "But I hear noises from them."

"Well, that's another thing about your mom's dad. He won't make a sound. What you hear is normal cave stuff."

Autumn thought hard about that. "So if we don't hear anything, then it may be him?"

"That's what I think. Yes."

After about an hour, Adam knew he'd searched the whole of the cave. Again, nothing was found. Autumn seemed ready to cry, being so late at night and past her bedtime. While Adam worked out a way to explain things to Eve, should the need arise, desperation took its toll. He couldn't go on searching forever. He had to try something new.

"Get away from me!" he shouted at Autumn, shoving her and making her shriek. "I have your other granddaughter!" he hollered into the cave. "This is the one you want!"

Autumn blubbered with terror. "D-dad! Wh-what are you doing?"

"She's the bastard I had out of wedlock! Come and take her away!"

"Dad!" Autumn repeated while screaming. "What are you doing?"

"Be quiet!" Adam said, knocking her down. To the cave, he continued. "I know you want this one more. She's the oldest! She's illegitimate. You came for her first!"

Autumn stopped using words, and took to crying and screaming. She shone her flashlight in her father's face, until he snatched it away. While she screamed incoherently, her father screamed using words.

"Come get her, you filthy beast! Take her away from me!"

A third scream filled the cave, loud enough to make Adam and Autumn quiet down. Coming from a place near the entrance, it sounded as if it were approaching.

It also sounded familiar.

Eve ran towards them in the darkness, bellowing at full throat. She she had no flashlight with her, so Adam shone his light on her as she neared.

What Eve had was a pitchfork. She brandished it in both hands.

Autumn cried out at the top of her lungs. "Mama! Hurry! Help me!"

Eve didn't come to help. She pinned Autumn's leg to the floor of the cave, the tines of the fork grazing and causing a wound.

"Mama!" Autumn screeched. "That hurt!"

Eve screamed into the cave like the way Adam had been doing. "You can't have my daughters! I'll kill them before you can take them!"

Autumn's screeches echoed anew, so loud that Adam held his hands to his ears. He screamed to his wife, overcoming Autumn's wails.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked.

Eve released her daughter to use the pitchfork on her husband. She knocked him to the ground by cracking him in the face with the handle.

"Shut up! This is all your fault! None of this would have happened if you had let him take me in the first place!"

As Adam got up from the floor, Eve again attacked Autumn. This time a tine of the pitchfork fully pierced her calf.

The screams from the girl were earth-shattering. The only noise that was louder came from the cave itself. It growled and groaned as if alive. The sound of ten thousand wings took over, and then ten thousand more, as every bat under Mt. Parnassus seemed to take flight at once. Autumn's screams became pitiful whimpers, as the bats screeched while drawing near.

The cave seethed with evil life, and Eve released Autumn from her pitchfork. Showing strength by using one arm, she scooped up the eight-year-old girl and threw her into the arms of her father.

"Run!" she screamed at him, over the bellowing cave. "Get her out of here!"

"Why did you do this?" Adam screamed back, concerned about Autumns wounds.

"It's him! He's coming! Now go!"

Adam was petrified with fear and confusion. He struggled with hanging onto his daughter as she writhed, blood dripping from her wounds.

"I don't understand. What's happening?"

Eve menaced her husband with her weapon. "I'm gonna kill him with this damn thing!"

With the bats in the cave converging, Adam had seen enough. Autumn was bleeding profusely, and all he could do was run. Experienced enough with the cave, from having searched it for Tellus many times, he found his way outside without using a light. Once at a point of relative safety, he lay Autumn down in the grass, then tore at his clothing to make bandages for her leg.

Autumn spoke between screams and sobs. "What's going on? Where's my mom? What did she do to me?"

"I don't know, Sweetpea. I just don't. I'm taking you to the hospital."

Though traumatized and seriously injured, Autumn's wounds were not life-threatening. Adam lifted her gingerly, and carried her towards the car.

Autumn cried a continuous wail. "Where's Mama?" she blubbered repeatedly. "Don't leave without her!"

Adam had also become traumatized. He didn't know what to make of the ordeal he found himself in.

"I don't know what's happening," he said. "She's fighting her father, I think."

Autumn calmed enough to speak clearly. "He's going to kill her, isn't he? Mama's gonna die!"

"I don't know, 'Pea. I hope not. But I just don"t know."

Adam realized that Eve had probably saved his life, and perhaps Autumn's too. With no weapon of his own, should Eve's father have appeared, he would have been able to do with them as he pleased.

And he no doubt would have taken great pleasure in killing Adam.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," he said, apologizing for his desperate ploy. "I didn't know what else to do."

Before he could reach the car while carrying Autumn, the sounds from the cave grew loud. A solid wall of of bats flew out, arriving with such force that Adam had to hunker down to protect his daughter from them. After a great while, they dispersed, but the cave still seethed and screeched.

A second wave of bats emerged, bigger than the first. In the midst of them, a lone figure appeared, running while among them. The person was burdened with a load, much like the way Adam was burdened with carrying Autumn. Also much like Adam, the person took care to protect what they were carrying from the bats.

The person running was Eve. And in her arms was Tellus.

"Let's go!" she said to her husband as she drew near. "Get us out of here!"

Together, the four of them piled into the car. Adam placed his injured daughter next to him, in the front passenger seat. He turned on the overhead light to better see his wife in the back. She was breathing too hard to speak, a look of grim determination mixed with fear on her face.

When he saw their daughter Tellus, sitting quiet and still by her side, tears of joy poured from his eyes with such force that he also was unable to speak.

"What is it, Daddy?" Autumn asked. She squirmed to look over the top of the seat, despite the pain of her bloodied leg. "Is it really her? Is it Tellus?"

Adam started the car. As he headed for the hospital, he patted his oldest daughter on the shoulder.

"It's really her, my Sweetpea. Mommy rescued Tellus."

After a quiet minute, when everybody had calmed down, Adam was better able to speak. "What happened in there, after I left? Are you two okay?"

Tellus remained silent, but Eve gasped out some words. "We agreed on things," she said, implying her father.

"What?"

"Let's just say we won't be seeing that pitchfork anytime soon."