Jen and Danny traversed the cave, both silent in thought about what they had found. They both knew what it was, but how it had got here was just another mystery.
After a couple of minutes, the cave opened up and they found themselves in a large cavern. It was still dark, but less so than the rest of the cave and it was Jen that noticed a small on the ceiling where light cut through the darkness just enough to render the lighter pointless. Jen flipped the top closed and its fire extinguished.
The room looked... made for a lack of a better word. It was still a cave, of course, but it was almost as if someone could live here. The walls seemed like they had been smoothed out, as did the floor. Danny noticed a high water line all around the cave. It seemed it was prone to flooding.
"Jen, do you see--" but was cut off by a gasp from the other side of the room. He ran over. Jen was kneeling down and had once again broke out her lighter.
Below her, on the ground, was a skeleton. A human skeleton. The remains of a corpse.
The last few months should have made him immune to such sights, but here it was unexpected and had taken him aback. Jen too.
"It's been here awhile" he said, leaning down. "Nothing but worn, dried bones"
"Not quite" Jen said and from behind the bones she carefully pulled free a moldy clump of cloth. It was a backpack, or it had been. Danny noticed more moldy cloth -- the remains of a pair of jeans, and pulled them away, causing a square piece of leather to fall out.
He picked it up. A wallet.
While Jen looked for an opening to get inside the backpack, Danny opened the wallet. If there had been any money inside, it had been turned into a thick paste stuck inside the crevasses, but he did find three pieces of plastic that has survived: A Mastercard, a Blockbuster video card and a Indiana state drivers license.
All of them had the same name on them: Joseph Kennedy Dickerson.
"Look, this guy was from Indiana, too" Danny said, marveling at the coincidence. "Holy shit--" he exclaimed, looking at the address. "He's from Terry Haute too!"
"What!? Let me see!" Jen said, dropping the moldy bag even though she had just gotten the zipper open. Terry Haute was where they grew up.
Jen looked at the I.D. and her eyes got bigger.
"Danny, jesus, this guy lived in Westwood Dr."
"So?"
"So that was like three blocks away from our house!"
"You've got to be shitting me?" Danny said, rubbing his temples.
"I shit you not."
She kept looking at the license and then begin shaking her head.
"I remember something like this--"
"Like what?"
"A family on Westwood. God, it must have been a few months before... well, before everything happened. But I remember mom talking about it. A husband and a father both mom and dad knew from the neighborhood had went on a trip for work and had just disappeared. After months of searching they had given up. People speculated that her just found another woman and ran out... but, yeah... YEAH. I remember that. It says right there the I.D. was issued in 1995. That would have been around the time. You don't think?--"
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"Jen, nothing shocks me anymore"
She nodded.
"But why would he be here?"
Jen and Danny both eyed the backpack, now open, and immediately begin to pull things out but all they pulled out was moldy, ruined items. They thought it was a total loss until Jen pulled out a small plastic bag. It was a zip lock bag and inside was a piece of paper. She opened it. Inside was an stamped envelope. It was addressed to Joseph and the address confirmed their suspicions even more, but the return address had been completely removed by water. Jen carefully opened it and they discovered the water had ran away most of the ink on the letter, but some remained:
> 2-23-95
>
> Dear Joey,
>
> This will be the hardest letter I ave ever written because a great and unfair responsibility has been placed upon yo nfair in every way but you doing this is life an
>
>
>
>
>
>
> That is the only way to make this evil go away. That place is special. It has magic from the Native tribes that used to live there. The demon has possessed that object and that is the only way to remove it and banish it from this world. You must destroy the entire thing by burning. None can remain or it will not work. Yo
> he shape is on the ground, plac enter.
>
> Your Friend,
>
> Ar e
"What the hell is it talking about?" Danny asked. Jen didn't answer and when he turned to her he saw that her eyes were glued to the ground, an outstretched hand pointing.
"That" she said.
Danny came over and saw that in the enter of the room were circular markings in the shape of a pentagram.
[ IMG] [https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcThZCzQEfVF3ZePUELZtS8BNZhXISY8aajhULs8NjNN0FdmSydA&usqp=CAU]
"Is that what the letter meant by shape?" she asked.
"That makes sense..."
Danny trailed off as another memory came to the service. This one more of a flash back. It had tried to worm its way forward when he'd seen the I.D. and heard the man's address, but here it finally was.
"Holy. Shit."
"What?" Jen turned to face him, concerned.
"That yard sale dad got that stuffed monster at... I think... I think it was the same house this guy lived at. I remember when we were there one of the people running it saying they had finally convinced their mother to get rid of all of 'his' things... Maybe... it was this guys things they were getting rid of after he disappeared..."
"But if that's true and the monster was also here how could it have made it back there after he disappeared" she said, as she motioned to the bones on the stone floor of the cave.
Danny shook his head, admitting she was right. That was the part of his theory that didn't add up.
Jen grabbed cards from the wallet and the letter and carefully put it away.
"What are you doing?" Danny asked in surprise.
"Come on" Jen ordered. "We're going to find Archie. We're going to figure out what the fuck is going on..."