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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/InformationRemote865 on 2024-11-08 02:11:58+00:00.

I used to think Mammoth Cave was just another adventure, a tick off our list. It was supposed to be fun, a weekend to explore the shadows with my best friends, to test our nerves in the endless dark. But somewhere down there, under miles of stone, something went wrong. Now, one of us is missing, and I swear… I can still hear him calling.

We’d been going for hours, our voices echoing through the tunnels, each one mocking the confidence we had when we started. There was me, Sam, and my friends Luke, Jared, and Ben. Ben was always the daring one, the first to wander ahead, the one who’d get us into trouble just to laugh it off. But when he didn’t come back, no one was laughing.

It’s strange. We retraced our steps, searched every crevice, calling his name until our voices scraped raw. Nothing. Just an endless silence, heavy and swallowing. And then… the faintest echo, like Ben’s voice, drifting from somewhere deep in the shadows.

Luke was the first to hear him calling. He stopped dead, his hand shooting up as we walked, telling us to listen. We froze, straining against the thick silence.

“Did you hear that?” he whispered, his voice barely louder than a breath. None of us had, but as we stood there, letting the silence settle around us, we heard it—a faint, distant call, almost swallowed by the stone around us.

It was Ben’s voice, unmistakably. He was calling out, the sound barely reaching us but bouncing off the cave walls in strange, warped echoes. The direction was wrong, though. The call wasn’t coming from where we’d last seen him—it was coming from one of the tunnels we hadn’t even traveled down. But maybe, somehow, the paths were connected. It wasn’t impossible for cave tunnels to intersect.

We were probably about two miles down at this point, so deep that the silence felt alive, closing in around us. The chill in the air seeped into our bones, and every breath echoed back like a reminder of how far we’d come. The walls felt tighter here, the space around us shrinking with each step.

Our lights cast shaky beams on the rough stone, cutting through just enough darkness to keep us moving. We’d packed extra batteries, sure, but even with the supplies, an uneasy feeling twisted in my gut. Still, leaving wasn’t an option. Ben was down there somewhere, and we couldn’t just abandon him in the dark.

We walked down a few hundred feet, calling out Ben’s name into the dark, then waiting in silence, hoping for any kind of response. The cave swallowed our voices, leaving only the faint drip of water somewhere far off. Then, after what felt like ages, we heard him.

It came from behind us.

“What the fuck?” Luke whispered, his voice tight and shaky, eyes darting back toward the path we’d just covered.

Jared, louder than any of us, shouted back, “Alright, Ben, you can stop messing with us now, man! This isn’t funny, bro!”

I wanted to believe it—that Ben was just messing with us, hiding in some shadowed nook and waiting to jump out. But as I stared into the empty tunnel behind us, a chill crept over me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow… it wasn’t really Ben.

We backtracked, our lights slicing through the shadows as we searched every inch of the area. We moved slowly, scouring every nook, every crack in the walls, but there wasn’t a single trace of Ben. Not a footprint, not even a scuff mark. He was just… gone.

Eventually, we returned to the central cavern, slumping down on the cold stone to catch our breath and regroup. I told the others what had been gnawing at me, the dread curling around my thoughts. But Luke was quick to brush it off.

“Oh, come on, man, you know Ben is just fucking with us,” he said, his tone forced, like he was trying to convince himself as much as me.

“Well, how did he end up back here, then, when he was down there before?” I shot back. “I’m telling you guys, something isn’t right.”

Before anyone could answer, Ben’s voice echoed again, faint but unmistakable. This time, it came from the tunnel we’d seen him go down first.

“C’mon, guys… this way,” his voice drifted down the rocky corridors, a lazy drawl that somehow felt… wrong.

Jared sprang to his feet, shouting down the tunnel, “Screw you, Ben! When I see you, I’m gonna beat the shit out of you!”

Then, we heard it—a low, chuckling laugh, the sound echoing, but from a completely different tunnel. Luke and Jared exchanged glances, the bravado draining from their faces. It was like the air had thickened, and now they felt it too. Something was off.

A chill crept over all of us, settling in our bones as Ben’s laughter faded into the shadows. We huddled together, whispering hurriedly about what to do. The idea of leaving came up quick, but Luke shut it down fast.

“We can’t just leave Ben down here, guys,” he insisted, voice firm but edged with unease.

Jared shook his head, glancing toward the distant exit. “I’m going. I’ll call the cops and tell them our friend’s missing. I’ll come back with a search party.”

It wasn’t a bad idea, honestly. Part of me felt relief at the thought of professionals with equipment and experience. But Luke wouldn’t budge, his jaw set, determination in his eyes. He wanted to keep looking, convinced that Ben was close, just around the next corner.

Jared didn’t wait for more argument. With a last look back, he took off down the path toward the exit, his flashlight bouncing along the walls until he was out of sight.

Luke and I stood there in silence, the weight of the decision hanging heavy between us. Eventually, we decided to search a little longer. Just a little longer, we told ourselves.

After Jared disappeared from sight, Luke and I ventured down the same tunnel Ben had vanished into. We called out, voices barely steady, and after a moment, Ben’s voice drifted back, faint and distorted, like it was caught in a slow echo. The sound seeped out of a dark, narrow crevice ahead, just wide enough for us to squeeze through.

We moved cautiously, each step slower than the last, feeling a prickling sensation on our necks, like unseen eyes were watching us from the shadows. The path bent sharply to the right, creating the illusion that it might loop back toward one of the other tunnels. Luke forced a chuckle. “See? He’s just messing with us…”

But as we rounded the corner, our lights caught something that made us stop dead. A jagged hole yawned open in the middle of the path, wide and deep, cutting off the tunnel. The space was too narrow to walk side by side, so I trailed behind Luke as he edged forward and aimed his flashlight down into the darkness below.

Luke went silent, his light fixed on something I couldn’t see. I waited, the quiet pressing in, until the tension grew unbearable. “What is it?” I whispered, trying to peer around him.

When he turned to me, his face was drained of color, eyes wide, lips parted like he couldn’t quite find the words. He swallowed, barely managing to get it out.

“He’s down there,” Luke said, his voice trembling.

My blood ran cold. “What do you mean?” I stammered, heart pounding against my ribs.

“He’s down there, Sam,” Luke whispered, voice cracking. “Dead…”

The words hit me like a punch. I stood there, numb with disbelief, until Luke grabbed my arm, his grip almost painful. “We have to get out of here,” he said, voice tight with terror.

Without another word, we turned and started back, moving fast but steady, our lights casting frantic beams along the rough stone walls. As we reached the tunnel that led back to the central cavern, another voice echoed through the darkness.

“Guys…”

Neither of us paused. We broke into a sprint, feet pounding against the ground, breaths ragged with panic. We didn’t care where it was coming from; we just wanted out.

In his haste, Luke stumbled over a jagged rock and fell hard, his flashlight skidding across the ground before shattering into pieces. I stopped, reaching down to pull him up, my light sweeping the walls as I moved. And that’s when I saw it—a figure, pale and naked, crouched at the far end of the tunnel, watching us with hollow, empty eyes. It looked almost human… but something was horribly, horribly wrong.

“Oh my god…” I muttered, my voice barely a whisper, trembling as I stared at the figure. Luke turned, catching sight of it, his face twisting in terror. He grabbed my arm, jolting me out of my daze.

“C’mon, Sam…” he urged, pulling me forward.

We didn’t look back, rushing through the darkness, desperate to put as much distance as possible between us and whatever that thing was. Every shadow felt like it was closing in on us, every echo stretching our nerves tighter.

As we reached the main tunnel that led out of the cave, we saw a figure lying on the ground ahead. Jared. He was sprawled face-down, motionless, his flashlight lying a few feet away, casting an eerie glow on the stone.

“Oh god…” I breathed, heart racing as we knelt beside him. He must’ve tripped, maybe knocked himself out in his rush to get out. But when we turned him over, the breath left my lungs.

His face was unrecognizable, crushed and bloody, as if something had beaten him down, over and over. The horror of it froze us in place, and I could barely think, only feel the cold grip of fear sinking deeper into my bones.

That’s when we heard it—a voice drifting from the shadows, but this time, it wasn’t Ben’s. It was Jared’s.

“C’mon, guys… this way…” the voice called, soft and taunting.

I swung my flashlight towar…

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