Host of Sheets (shyan)

Chp 1. Stone

Shane listened to Ryan mutter to himself as he checked the batteries. "Welcome to this episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved. I'm joined with my partner Shane and tonight we're exploring the Crestmourn mine in Arizona, reportedly haunted by the ghosts of a group of miners who were murdered by one of their own. Wait. In pursuit of the ghosts of Crestmourn...no, in search of... Fuck. Welcome to...."

Ryan always had to take a moment to warm up to the camera. Shane let him do his thing, making his way carefully around the pools of mud and water that trickled slowly through the pathways of the mine.

Ryan had picked a doozy this time. The mine was wet with silt and mildew, halls twisting and claustrophobic, chains hanging from the ceiling and swaying with the slightest breeze. The entrance was supported by dark metal struts bolted in place, dripping into the mouth of the cave like teeth. It would probably make a good episode, Shane figured. Ryan'd scream when he backed up into one of the chains. There were plenty of noises he could misinterpret- the wind rustling through the rocks, the trickling water, the creaking of the wooden supports.

But still, Shane was having trouble getting his enthusiasm up. He was tired. Too many dark, dank, dusty places. Too many roadtrips for a crappy paycheck. He was sure Ryan had to be flagging too, by this point. They hadn't talked about it yet; Shane didn't want to be the first one to bring it up, make it seem like he was ungrateful. He loved Unsolved, honestly, but he was starting to figure there was only so many times they could spend a sleepless night somewhere awful before it started taking its toll on them.

They had been given permission to sleep here, but neither of them had quite decided if they were willing to. They had both seemed to make a silent agreement to put it off until they explored the mine more thoroughly and hopefully find some of its better qualities.

As Shane walked, he could head the sound of water getting louder. Real, running water, but Shane couldn't tell from where. The ground underfoot was still mud and silt. He cocked his head and started to follow the sound, curious. He'd never seen an underground stream before. It was hard to track, bouncing off the rock walls and echoing strangely. The only illumination came from his flashlight, and that wasn't helping either, stones glistening as the beam passed over them. All he could hear was water and the sound of his own boots squishing through the mud- Ryan's voice had faded in the distance.

He knew he should go back before he got too deep into the cave and his mic stopped working, and he almost did, turning around, when the beam from his flashlight slid over something that glinted in the dark. It was a narrow side-tunnel they hadn't noticed in their first quick run-through, nearly obscured by a slab of rock jutting out of the walls. That was where the sound of water was coming from.

It wasn't even that tight of a squeeze, Shane turning sideways to shimmy into the the tight squeeze of the makeshift hideaway, until it turned into a hallway he could stand in again. For a moment he wasn't even sure what he was looking at, lifting the flashlight ahead of him to trace it over the marbled walls. It was a small carved room of sorts, sealed with a door made of wooden slats.

He shoved that open and it gave a groan of protest as he entered the chamber. The rushing water was actually underneath his feet, the floor was so thin Shane could see it, a burbling river under his boots. The water must have been wearing the marble thin over the decades- centuries? The room looked man-made though, so it couldn't have been that old. Someone had just carved themselves a little square chamber of sorts, chipped and polished smooth.

A stone table laid at the far end.

Shane tested the rock under his foot as he moved further into the room. It was pure, translucent marble, probably fine to hold his weight, but something about the way it almost seemed to glow from the river underneath made him feel strangely uneasy.