Read The Stranger for Free Online

in the wilderness. They panic. I must not panic. I am the only one here and—
    She was wrong.
    She was not the only one there.
    The cave filled with movement and smell and she was picked up, actually held in the air, by whatever else was in the cave with her.
    A creature from that other, lower, darker, world.
    Its skin rasped against hers like saw grass. Its stink was unbreathable. Its hair was dead leaves, crisping against each other and breaking off in her face. Warts of sand covered it, and the sand actually came off on her, as if the creature were half made out of the cave itself.
    She could not see any of the thing, only feel and smell it.
    It was holding her, as if in an embrace.
    Would it consume her? Did it have a mouth and jaws?
    Would it carry her down to wherever it lay?
    Would it line its nest with her, or feed her to its young?
    She was no longer screaming. Its terrible stench took too much from her lungs; she could not find the breath to scream, only to gag.
    And then it carried her up—not down.
    Out—not in.
    And spoke.
    English.
    Human English.
    “Never come back,” it said, its voice as deep and dark as the cave itself.
    She actually laughed, hysteria crawling out of her as the screams had moments before. “I won’t,” she said. I’m having a conversation with a monster, she thought.
    “It isn’t safe,” it said.
    “I could tell.”
    The walls became smooth and they glowed. The beautiful patterns of the shiny entrance surrounded them.
    She looked at what held her and screamed again in horror. She had never had such a nightmare, never been caught in such a hideously vivid dream. The features of the thing were humanoid, but the flesh dripped, like cave walls.
    Old sayings came true: There was literally light at the end of the tunnel.
    Real light. Sunlight. Daylight!
    She flung herself free of the thing’s terrible embrace. Falling, slipping, running all at the same instant, Nicoletta got out of the cave.
    Never had a gray sky been so lovely, so free, so perfect.
    Never had dark lakes and bleak woods been so appealing, so friendly.
    She held up her hands to the real world, incredibly grateful to be back. The sight of her bare hands reminded her she no longer held her schoolbooks.
    The thing stood slightly behind the mouth of the cave, so that its shadow but not itself was visible. The books sat neatly in a pile by the opening. Had Nicoletta set them down like that?
    “Don’t come back,” the thing said again, with a sadness so terrible that Nicoletta dissolved from fear into pity. Nicoletta knew what loneliness was, and she heard it in that awful voice.
    It lives down there, she thought. It’s caught forever in that terrible dark.
    How ridiculously petty to be fretting for a larger house and a separate room. She could be sentenced to this, whatever this was! She would never have gotten out without this creature’s help. She would have died down there.
    She felt a strange bond between them, the bond of rescuer and rescued. Her need to run and scream had ended with the sunlight. “Are you alone?” she asked.
    “No,” it said sadly. “Alone would be better.”
    What terrible company it must have, to think alone was better.
    “Don’t come back,” it whispered. “Not ever. Don’t even think about it. Not ever. Promise. Promise me that you will never even think about coming back here.”

Chapter 6
    A STRANGE AND DIFFICULT promise. Don’t even think about it.
    A promise not to go back would be easy to keep. Neither wild horses nor nuclear bombs could have made Nicoletta go back.
    But not even think about it?
    Not wonder who or what it was? What sort of life it led?
    Not wonder about its name, or gender, or species?
    It had saved her life. Who could forget such an event?
    A strange evening followed that weird and inexplicable afternoon.
    She walked through a house which only that morning she had hated. But how wonderful it was! For it had walls and warmth, lamps and pillows. It had love