air toward her, and her fear grew. She retreated to the top of the rock that only a few hours earlier had served as the table for Elizabeth’s manic party.
She had stayed there, huddled against the darkness, and had felt herself growing smaller. She imagined herself disappearing, and it was the least frightening of her imaginings, for if she disappeared she would at least be away. And she wanted to be away, desperately.
As the hours had worn on, her joints had become stiff from the inactivity, and from the dank chill that pervaded the cavern. Finally she had been forced to move, but she had not dared to leave the flat surface of the rock, afraid of what she might encounter in the darkness that surrounded her.
And now she heard a different noise, a scuffling noise from above. She felt a scream forming in her aching throat, but she held it back. The scuffling continued.
Kathy craned her neck, trying to find, somewhere in the darkness above, the shaft that led out of her prison. She thought she knew where it was, for there was the slightest draft, nothing more than a general disturbance of the air, and she was sure that the shaft lay directly above that tiny current of air that was the only real movement in the pit Earlier she had stood up and tried to reach the low ceiling of the cave, but it was just out of reach, and the inability to even locate the limitations of her confinement had only served to increase her fear. She lay on her back now, her face tipped upward into the draft of air she was sure came from the shaft.
And then she was blinded. She felt her face contract as the light struck her eyes, dazzlingly brilliant Like a doe trapped in the beam of an automobile’s headlight, she was frozen to the stone slab.
Above her, Elizabeth held the flashlight and peered down into Kathy’s terrified face. There was a wild look in Kathy’s eyes that somehow comforted Elizabeth, and she smiled to herself. Then she heard Kathy speak.
“Who is it?” Kathy managed, her voice sounding strange to her ears. “Please, who is it?”
“Be quiet,” Elizabeth hissed down at her. “You must be quiet here.”
“Elizabeth?” Kathy asked uncertainly. Then, when she heard no answer, she repeated the word.
“Elizabeth,” her voice rasped. “Please, Elizabeth, is that you?”
Above her Elizabeth continued to hold the flashlight steady with one hand, while the other hand pulled at the white paper that wrapped the bundle she had brought from the kitchen. When the paper was free, she spoke.
“Here,” she said, her voice almost as harsh as Kathy’s strained rasp. “Here’s your dinner.”
She flung something downward, and watched as the piece of raw and bloody meat slapped wetly into Kathy’s face.
Kathy didn’t see it coming, and when the slab of meat hit her she recoiled reflexively, and her voice found itself once more. A howling of fear mixed with revulsion at the unknown wet coldness that had hit her face roared out of her throat and filled the cavern with sound. The dull roar of the surf disappeared, and all the small noises were drowned in the sound of Kathy’s terror. And then Elizabeth’s voice, harsh and ugly, cut through the scream.
“God damn you!” Elizabeth shouted. “Shut your fucking mouth! Shut up!” she kept screaming, as Kathy’s voice slowly died away. “Shut up!” And then the silence closed over the cave again, until the murmur of the surf found its way in once more.
“Eat it,” Elizabeth commanded. “Eat your dinner.”
Below her, Kathy’s eyes began to adjust to the rent in the darkness. She looked down and saw the raw steak gleaming redly in the circle of light from the flashlight above. She stared at it and tried not to listen to Elizabeth’s voice commanding her from above.
“Pick it up,” Elizabeth was saying. “Pick it up, you little bitch, and eat it! Come on, pick it up and eat it. Pick it up. Pick it up. Pick it up.”
The voice from above took on a hypnotic quality, and suddenly Kathy found herself holding the limp and bloody object in her hands. And then the order from above changed.
“Eat it,” Elizabeth commanded. “Eat it. Eat it. Eat it!” Helplessly, Kathy moved the raw meat to her lips. The light clicked off.
Kathy sat for a long time, crouched on the slab of rock, the piece of meat clutched in her hands, listening to the scuffling sounds dying