Chants echo into the cave for several minutes. I repeat the words as much as I can until I’ve practically memorized them. I’m focused but I can feel the air around me like lightning is about to strike. The hair on my head seems to wiggle with the trembling ground. I can’t stop even as fireflies begin slipping out of cracks in the cave. They bathe the cave in a glow of blue and purple, going back as far as my eyes can see.

Mirana is knocked to the ground. She trembles on the ground until she’s airborne. the lights slam into each other with increasing speed until they’re one—

...

“—how long you’ve been coming down here? Just what the hell is going on?” I hear someone yelling with the most intense trembling on my body. Turns out he’s shaking me. I put my hands on his arms and we roll around in the dirt before he finally gets me on my stomach with my hands around my back. “Explain yourself, buddy!”

“I-I...can’t breathe,” I say in a squeaky voice. Mirana would be telling me “I told you to stop hiking in your binder” if she were here but I wouldn’t have listened anyway.

“Cuffs it is then,” he says. He slaps them on and yanks me to my feet. I look up at his tightened face. He’s still beautiful even if he’s the reason I end up with a jail sentence. I jerk around but we’re alone. It’s almost too much to bear. “Hey look at me.”

I meet his eyes for a second before focusing on any other part of his face. Eye contact is a tortuous concept Mirana always respected.

“Dude are you okay? You’re doing some weird shit and you look like you just lost your dog.”

“I wish it was just a dog,” I say with a bitter laugh. He widens his eyes at me and looks at the circle. Mirana’s urn lay completely empty.

“I didn’t even see that you were on the ground and I thought you were dead. I couldn’t have that do you know how much trouble I’d get in for not knowing this cave existed and someone killed himself in it? Wayyyy too much man...I’m very sorry for your loss. I’m Kikito,” he blurts in one go. His shift catches me off guard.

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“Oh. Kelvin,” I reply.

“What kind of name is Kelvin?”

“Kind I chose.”

He blushes in the low light and says, “It’s been a long morning.” I nod.

“How long did it take you to find me?”

“I lost your sneaky ass when you dove into this hole but luckily for me I work here and you don’t so I figured it out. After like an hour,” Kikito admits. It’s enough to make me crack a smile before reality settles.

“Thank you for doing your job. I don’t know how long I’d be down here otherwise,” I say. He looks toward the circle again.

“Now what exactly happened here? You’re not gonna get in trouble, maybe.” Kikito says. He’s removed one handcuff when the ground begins shaking. My teeth clash together and we both go down. I can smell the electric air, tinged with a fishy note. Metal coats my tongue. It tastes like chemistry labs in school.

Kikito yanks my arm. “We gotta get out of here,” he says with another pull. I look at Mirana’s urn but there’s no time. I can always come back. Her parents will never forgive me for this. They must be in hysterics over who would be so cruel to steal remains from someone’s loved one? I don’t have anything to show for it. Why’d I even do this?

I come back to my senses to see Kikito ahead of me, curls bouncing underneath his hat. None of the snagged roots slow him by a second. At the entrance I yank away and look back down. A sound emits from it, a low precise clicking that thuds against my skull.

“Did you hear that?” I ask him.

“What did you say?” He whispers.

I repeat the question. I try raising my voice more than I have to.

We both hear it now. Steady but with irregular rhythm: click click, click, click clickclick, too fast to count otherwise. The sunlight spilling into the entrance only reaches so far, swallowed by the clicking void. One big click sends chills through me.

Kikito shoves me through the entrance and I’m blinded by the sun. He rolls over me into the late morning forest. I come to a stop on my knees in front.

“Do you have any idea what that was?” I ask after catching my breath. Kikito is pale, staring at the unassuming hole with a sweat in his hair.

“Must have been bats from a connected cave system,” he says as his eyes dart back and forest. We still hear the forest screaming out their best pickup lines.

“I left her in there,” I say. Probably should have come back in secret but it’s all over anyway. “I took her from her home.”

“We’re boarding this up as soon as I get back to base...I’ll get her back,” Kikito says.

I look at him and say, “What about me?”

Kikito sighs and approaches. With a jostle of the keys he releases me. Then he turns his back to me, back to the cave. I take the hint.