Author: P. Molnar, Word Count: 4,343
Featured in Spooky Archaeological Story Moot: Live Stream – 2026
30 October 1894, Gemer region, southeast Slovakia
Marta and her husband Gideon, both warmly dressed, stood in front of the grave of their friend.
“May God rest his soul. Two years already…” she wiped away a tear. “I don’t think I can ever get used to losing friends in this manner…”
Instead of an answer, Gideon embraced her closer, putting his cheek next to her’s.
That fateful day still cast a long shadow. Not least the one in Gideon’s mind and soul.
—-
autumn 1892, newly-discovered cave near Silica, Gemer region
Daniel, one of the two spelunkers, slowly descended the rope into the depths of the narrow cavern.
It was always an exciting experience, but it never got easier. Especially with the darkness below, seemingly engulfing everything. Though the space belonged to the region’s famous karst area, it was more of a pit cave, shaft cave, not a magnificent dome of stalactites and underground streams. Though the cave lacked the grandeur of its bigger cousins, Gideon and Daniel still deemed it worthy of at least a minor exploratory visit.
“Not even that deep, but with all this dark, feels like a real abyss…” noted Daniel, nearing the floor of the cave.
“Oh, cheer up. Just because you’re a Daniel, entering a lion’s den, doesn’t mean there’s a feline waiting there.” laughed Gideon from above, trying to lighten the mood.
Their equipment was very rudimentary. Thick but simple hemp ropes, prone to sucking in moisture in these dry but cold pit caves, and all too vulnerable to extended wear and tear. Rapeseed oil lamps, barely modified from similar designs still in use by miners. Gideon had mentioned reading articles in a newspaper, about experiments abroad with so-called carbide lamps or acetylene lamps. Supposedly some coming revolution in the field of speleology, for professionals and amateurs alike.
Even for the two men being fairly experienced cave explorers, every single cave visit felt like an adventure. Based on their experience, they’ve learnt to pack light for first visits of not yet explored caves, to guarantee avoiding problems with weight and damaged equipment.
Soon, Dan’s feet touched the ground inside the narrow pit cave.
“I have to wonder whether we’re the first ones here. I read there’s been discoveries in the wider region, in caves just like this one. Artefacts and objects even thousands of years old.”
“Be right down. In the meantime, look around with your lamp,” called Gideon, slowly descending the rope.
You didn’t need to tell Dan twice. In the past few years, ever since they started their spelunking hobby, the two friends had occasionally found minor archaeological artefacts in some of the pit caves and other small caves they visited. They always carried a pouch for a few small artefacts, which they then presented to various professional archaeologists, near and far.
Before Gideon reached the floor of the cave, he already heard from a zestful-sounding Dan: “I have found something! Bronze artefacts, no less. Smaller ones, seems like jewellery. And one or two broken blades. A few examples of pottery, mostly potsherds from what seem like smaller pots or cups.”
“Sounds amazing, Daniel,” said Gideon, just placing his feet on the cave floor, checking his sense of balance. “I think archaeologists will no doubt consider exploring this cave in the future.”
“They should be ready to find less pleasant things as well,” replied Dan, his voice more serious than Gideon expected.
“Why? Did you find anything unpleasant?”
“Bones. Lots of them. Many broken.”
“Might just be animal bones. Maybe animals that fell down here, over the centuries,” pondered Gideon as he approached the crouched fellow spelunker.
“This might disappoint you, but it’s not just animal bones. In fact, most of the bones I see here… look human.”
“Really?!” Gideon raised his eyebrows.
“Yes,” nodded Dan, and lifted the lamp towards a darker corner, with some additional skeletal remains. “Human bones as well. But… They’re not only smashed, many seem… cut. And then there’s… well, that…” he gestured towards a larger bony object lying nearby.
Gideon took a closer look, and genuinely gasped. It was a human skull, weathered over thousands of years, like most of the bones around it. Smashed and cut apart by stone or metal tools. The front of the skull once part of some bizarre, gruesome, skeletal mask. A cave of human sacrifices…
—-
“They were people of their times, I suppose,” mused Dan. “As nauseating as this seems to us, they no doubt believed it could make a difference with whatever spirits or deities of nature they believed in. A difference in years of bad harvests, illnesses… Are we all that different nowadays?”
“What do you mean?” pondered Gideon.
“Our societies, even our Christian ones, still turn a blind eye to human sacrifice. Except in our age, it’s under the ‘more respectable’ guise of people in power sending us to die in wars they started.”
“Unfair to judge the ‘pagans’ of the Bronze Age, when many of us still behave horribly today,” nodded Gideon, a sad smile appearing on his face.
Minutes passed. Slowly but surely, they were getting ready for the return trip, back to the surface.
“Ready the pouch. We’ll bag one of the smaller ornaments.”
“Wait. We’re not exactly archaeologists. They should have a closer look at this,” opined Dan.
“If they dare,” replied Gideon in a mock-spooky voice and grinned. Dan let out a quiet chortle. “Don’t misunderstand me, Dan,” explained Gideon. “We’re not going to loot the cave. We’ll just take a single artefact, as proof we’ve found something down here. A gruesome place, I’ll grant you, but still fascinating for science. We’ll see to it this gets into the hands of a real archaeologist first.”
“More scientist than antiquarian, ey? I’m impressed by your attitude,” Dan smiled sourly and handed the canvas pouch to Gideon. “As long as we’re out of here as soon as possible, I’m all for it. Pick up the bronze trinket you want and let’s start climbing back.”
While Gideon crouched down to one of the small pieces of simple bronze jewellery, Dan checked the rope, their climbing gear and tools. After some twenty minutes of exploring the small cavern, part-cave and part-abyss, they decided it’s time to return to the surface. No point in using up the breathable air in the cavern with their light sources.
It didn’t escape Gideon that Daniel was really eager to leave the cave, more than he expected.
“What?” Gideon smiled at Dan, his friend and colleague in amateur science and spelunking. “You’re afraid that the… restless spirits of this cavern… are closing in on you?”
“Oh, get off it…” Daniel rolled his eyes. He briefly looked around. “It’s an interesting place, I’ll grant you… but I’ll feel much better once both of us are out of here, back in the forest.”
“You mind if I go first, Dan?”
“Eh, all right. Go, then. Personally, I’m looking forward to some refreshments at the local tavern, but let’s not make this a horse race.”
“Just remain patient, like your biblical namesake, and we’ll be up on the surface before you know it,” noted Gideon, rubbing his palms and grabbing the rope.
In about a minute, they were already ascending, Gideon already quite a distance up, Daniel a bit farther back. Suddenly, the rope rocked.
“Ah, bother!” shouted Dan, then murmured something.
“What?” asked Gideon.
“Eh, caught some dirt in my eye, or something… I’ll be fine.”
Mere moments after he said it, they felt a strange gust of cold air. Possibly a draft in the cave.
Then it happened. The rope rocked again, this time more violently… and its lower end started dangling.
Gideon heard a sliding, scraping sound, then a brief shout of fear… and a loud thud.
Silence. Some barely audible sounds were heard from the bottom of the pit cave, and even those were fading fast.
“Daaan !” yelled Gideon. Dan was lying down there, in near-darkness. Faint hints of moaning, but ones growing ever quieter. For a moment, Gideon looked upward. The opening was only a short distance up-rope. So close…
He felt a cold sweat. Not helped by the subtle cold draft in the cave. Looking back down, at a seemingly motionless Daniel, he weighed his options. Finally, with an uneasy exhale, he started climbing down the rope.
Even before his boots touched the cold earth at the bottom of the cave, he was already suspecting the worst. Him and Dan had always been warned about spelunking into inscrutable pit caves and climbing a single rope at the same time. On every occasion to date, they seemed to be in luck.
“Dan…” he knelt down to his fellow spelunker, careful not to move him. Dan’s neck seemed to be in a rather unnatural position and his body wasn’t showing any signs of movement, aside from faint, belaboured breathing. Neither the head nor other body parts seemed to be bleeding… at least, not on the outside. One thing was certain. He couldn’t help Dan on his own. Not with these, likely mortal wounds.
Gideon grabbed the rope and began climbing upward, as fast as he could, while trying to remain careful. Once he made it back up, in the light of day, he’ll have to hurry to the village for help. Though he knew there was a high likelihood of being unable to rescue Dan in time and get him out alive, he was determined he has to try it. In his entire life, he had never ran as fast as that day, once he climbed out of the pit cave.
—-
mid-October 1894, Gemer region, southeast Slovakia
“Something’s bothering you, dear,” Marta spoke up.
They were sitting in their horse buggy, travelling at an even speed down the main local road, after concluding some shopping in the nearby town. Gideon didn’t answer, or rather, just quietly sighed.
“It’s the cave, isn’t it, dear?” Martha posed the question as gently as possible. “It’s been some two years already and it’s still something that haunts you.”
“I won’t lie. I still keep asking myself whether I did all that I could.”
“Anyone whose friend would face such injury and danger would be asking many of the same questions. But dear, no matter how many times you blame yourself, it will not bring back our friend.”
“I know it won’t. Believe me, I’d like to move on from that sad memory. For your sake as well.”
“I appreciate your concern, but I feel it’s you who needs the most help. Dear, if I may…,” asked Marta, a hint of concern in her voice. “What exactly happened earlier today? I walked out of that public building at the square, you were a bit behind, and then I noticed you. Standing on the front stairs of that building, looking… startled. Looking sideways. Becoming pale in the face. But… there was no one there. I didn’t see anyone. I even stopped a passer-by and asked if they see anyone there. They didn’t. Gideon, dear… Who did you see at the stairs?”
“Call me a madman, my dear, but… I thought I saw Dan. He even spoke to me.”
She gave him a quizzical look, clearly uncertain what to make of such a confession.
“I was walking out of the building, already on the stairs, ready to catch up with you. Then I heard a familiar voice. He told me‚’Gideon, don’t you recognize an old friend?’. I was shocked. I whispered a question, asked him why he’s here, how is this possible.”
“And… this manifestation of Daniel… what did it reply?”
“He told me that he didn’t let go of the rope back then. It was an accident. I’m not keeping him hanging. I’m instead feeling ever more at the end of my rope. He told me it’s me who needs to let go.”
“And then?”
“I heard you call me, looked towards you, then back to Dan… and he was no longer there,” explained Gideon. For a short while, there was complete silence, interrupted only by the rhytmic clomping of hooves and horseshoes ahead of the buggy. “Marta, my love, I know rationally, with certainty, that poor Dan is no longer with us. I’m not superstitious. I know he wasn’t there at the square. Shouldn’t have been there. But it all felt… so vivid. As if he had never left us.”
Marta sighed.
“Strange as it may sound, Gideon, I think our late friend gave you worthwhile advice. You need to let go. Let go of your guilt for what happened in that cave. You didn’t kill Dan. Circumstances did.”
—-
30 October 1894, Silica, Gemer region
Marta was upstairs, getting ready for bed, while Gideon was tending to some minor duties in the hallway at the ground floor of their house. There was a knock at the door.
Odd, thought Gideon, we weren’t expecting any visits at this late an hour. He grabbed the lantern.
The door ajar, he saw a young-looking woman patiently standing there. Her skin tone seemed naturally tanned by sunlight. She wore some form of thin headband in her raven-black hair. Strangest of all was her clothing, of a simple and archaic cut, from material that resembled linen cloth, and a pair of simple shoes on her feet.
She addressed Gideon in a calm voice, speaking in an unknown language. It didn’t sound like anything he had ever heard.
“Who on earth are you? What do you want?” he asked, his voice almost sullen.
For a moment, she fell silent. And then spoke again… to Gideon’s silent shock, in a perfectly intelligible, contemporary manner.
“Sacrifice. We require a sacrifice. You need to carry out that sacrifice. You must. And you will be saved.”
“Get lost! I am not doing any sacrifices for you nor anyone else!” Gideon raised his voice, upset, and slammed the door shut.
He sat down on a nearby chair, attempted to regain composure, calm his breathing. Whether he liked it or not, curiosity got the better of him. He picked up his courage, slowly opened the door and looked around outside. The strange young woman was nowhere to be seen.
—-
31 October 1894, Silica, Gemer region
Nearly a whole day had passed since the night time encounter with the mysterious woman.
During the morning hours, Gideon had asked Marta whether she had seen anyone matching the appearance of the woman pestering their household. Marta, known for her dry wit, smiled at her husband, wondering whether the lass wasn’t some wandering Romani fortune-teller that had too much to drink, or whether he hadn’t inadvertently developed a harem of female suitors.
He maintained that he didn’t find anything funny about the whole experience. There were too many startling occasions like this one, increasingly all too many. This evening, on the eve of All Saints Day and the subsequent All Souls Day, he was hoping he wouldn’t experience anything out of the ordinary.
Alas, it seems that was too much to hope for. When Marta and Gideon were already in the bedroom that evening, he had realized his throat and mouth felt rather parched. Apologizing to Marta, he decided to fetch himself a glass of water from the kitchen. Should be a quick jaunt, there and back.
There had been a new moon three days ago. It was completely dark outside. At most, only the stars, not visible from the house, illuminated the darkness of the night. The deep and lovely dark. You’d never see the stars without it. As Gideon walked down the hallway leading to the kitchen, lantern in hand, he started feeling more and more… uncomfortable. At first, he couldn’t put his finger on it, but then he realized… there’s muffled human voices coming from the kitchen. He had a compulsion to turn around, walk back to the bedroom, dim the lantern and go to sleep. At the same time, he felt he needed to face whatever had found its way into the kitchen.
The palm of his free hand clasping the door handle, he suddenly heard a familiar voice breeze by through the corridor, as if through the air. A cheerful, laughing voice. His own voice!
“Just because you’re a Daniel, entering a lion’s den, doesn’t mean there’s a feline waiting there.”
He pulled the door open, and beyond the doorstep, there was a feline waiting. Not a lion, but a lynx.
Except… The crouching lynx had dead eyes. The dead eyes of an animal pelt worn as a cloak. And the crouching figure was no lynx, nor monster, but a human being. Same basic, archaic clothes as the unknown woman’s, but also various tattoos, face paint and unusual jewelry worn on the man’s clothing.
The man, some sort of shaman or magician no doubt, spoke dour-sounding words in an unknown tongue. Gideon was so astonished by the entire turn of events, he wasn’t sure what to say.
So he said: “I don’t understand.”
Then the shaman spoke, in perfectly intelligible contemporary language:
“There must be sacrifice. There is no other way. You must carry out the sacrifice.”
He stood aside and nodded towards the inside of the kitchen. The room was a bit of a mess, furniture and utensils put away towards the walls, and the room somehow overgrown with wild forest shrubs and trees. At the centre stood a familiar stone formation, and a narrow opening into the space beneath it. The entrance to the pit cave.
Two men, dressed like warriors, in simple linen and woven clothes, but with bronze swords and axes in scabbards on their belts, came forth from the farther corners of the kitchen. They were leading a third man, tied up in coarse hemp rope and leather rope.
The captive man was Daniel.
“Dan… No…” breathed Gideon quietly, and felt a tear forming in the corner of his eye.
“My friend,” Dan spoke up. “You must do this. There is no other way.”
The calm but grim-faced shaman in the lynx pelt cloak looked at Gideon. “Carry out the sacrifice.”
“No! All of you, leave me be! Begone!” cried Gideon in desperation and slammed the kitchen door shut. The sounds from inside immediately ceased.
And then Gideon saw a white female figure enter the hallway, accompanied by a small light. He tripped backward, startled, and dropped the lantern. It was no foul spirit, but Marta in her night gown, her finger wrapped around a small candle holder.
“For goodness’ sake dear, what’s going on? Why did you slam that door so loudly?” asked Marta, worried.
He quickly picked up the lantern and gestured to her to come closer. Carefully opening the door, they looked inside. The kitchen was perfectly all right, same as they had left it before going to bed.
“I really must be going mad,” sighed Gideon as he poured himself a glass of water. “Marta, would you accompany me all the way back to the bedroom? I’ve… had enough for one evening.”
“Of course, dear. She took the lantern, took him by the hand and led him to the bedroom. He drank his glass of water, went to bed and bid Marta a good night. Marta dimmed the lantern, went to bed. Soon, both of them fell asleep.
Gideon felt like he woke up in the middle of night. He was still in bed, but it was dark nearly everywhere. The cold air hinted that he wasn’t indoors. Marta wasn’t lying next to him in bed. The bed was completely alone in a deep forest. And just a few steps in front of the bed, a familiar small rock formation, and a narrow, gaping hole into the darkness beneath.
He felt compelled to get out of bed and walk to the pit cave entrance. Gazing down into its darkness, he hesitated whether to enter. Suddenly, there came strong gusts of cold wind, the wailing of the wind seemingly carrying bone-chilling sounds of eerily distorted human voices.
Like it or not, the gusts of wind blew him into the pit cave. He was in free fall… but somehow, not falling to his doom. Instead, it felt like a calm, gradual descent, into the darkness of the cave. Nonetheless, a dark descent.
To his astonishment, when his feet touched the ground, he realized the inside of the narrow cavern was somehow illuminated, by something that seemed like faint moonlight. That wouldn’t be the end to strange surprises.
The draft in the cave grew into stronger and stronger gusts of wind, almost small whirlwinds, and started to induce an odd rattling sound. Gideon noticed the origin of the sound.
In the gloom of the cavern, its deepest shadows, bits of the smashed and destroyed human skeletal remains were now raised from the ground by the gusts of wind. Defying all logic, the bones started to connect with each other again, forming a skeleton… and in the gloom, strange shapes, potentially from soil or plants, started to enmesh the skeleton, until it seemed covered by muscles, tissues, sinews, and finally… skin.
Then, a set of clothing appeared on the figure arriving from the gloom. The figure straightened its posture, slowly turned to face Gideon and made gradual steps out of the deepest shadows into the more illuminated part of the cave.
It was Daniel. His clothes were identical to those he had worn during their ill-fated visit to this pit cave.
“You…” Gideon exhaled quietly, part astonished, part horrified.
“It is me, old friend,” Dan nodded calmly.
“I’m sorry, I’m… so sorry… This abyss, this cave… It took your life. You didn’t deserve this.”
“You think the cave took me, Gideon. That I’m the latest sacrifice for this cave, after untold thousands of years. You think that this was no accident. That it could not have been an accident.”
“Yes…” he admitted, after a pause.
“No, my friend,“ answered the deceased spelunker. “I was not taken by either this cave, nor some imaginary demon of the underworld, nor the spirits of those who once did gruesome sacrifices here,“ he elaborated in a calm voice.
“Then…”
“Hard as it may be to admit, it was just an accident. Accidents happen, as you no doubt know. Plenty of people exploring caves or climbing mountains had died in sudden accidents. Tripping, falling, a rope going loose… Sad as it is, sometimes it happens. My case was no exception.”
“I wonder if I’ll ever shed the guilt I feel for your fall and your death,” sighed Gideon, his voice sad and exasperated. He felt he needed to speak sincerely about his frustration, his survivor guilt.
“It is never easy to move on from the sudden loss of a good friend. I won’t judge you, but please, if you can, don’t wallow in this forever. You’re just hurting yourself and you’re hurting Marta. Know one thing…”
“Yes?”
“You’ve successfully carried out your sacrifice. The sacrifice required of you. Not the superstitious sacrifice of flesh and blood from millennia ago. Instead, the personal sacrifice that can set you free.”
“Pardon?! I… I have? When?”
“You’ve already atoned enough over that horrid incident we had in this cave. If you were unsure up until now, then rest assured: I forgive you. You are forgiven. It was not your fault. Now… return.”
“Return?”
“To your life and to Marta.”
“I… I will. But… How do I leave this place?”
“Go.”
“Where?”
Instead of an answer, he lifted his hands upward.
An ever brighter light started to form in the ceiling of the cavern. Not a faint light from a thin crack, but a brightly glowing, wide fissure of sunlight. A fissure wide enough for one person.
“Give my regards to your dear Marta, she’s a good soul. Farewell, friend.”
Daniel turned around, taking several steps into the shadows at the walls of the cavern. Blending into the shadows, he slowly vanished. Suddenly, through the brightly lit fissure in the ceiling. the bottom end of a thick, sturdy climbing rope fell into the cavern. It dangled gently above the cold earth of the floor.
Gideon stood up, grabbed the rope tightly with both hands, readied his legs against the rope, and started climbing. He climbed patiently towards the blinding light. And he didn’t look back.
Eventually, his hand grabbed the rock on the outside of the fissure. Nearly there… He pulled himself up a bit, grabbed the adjacent side of the fissure with his other hand… and tried to pull himself outside with both hands, with all his strength.
Suddenly, he almost took a tumble from the bed in the darkened bedroom of his house. He was leaning downward from the edge of his bed, his hands stretched outward, towards the floor. He slowly regained his composure and rolled backwards and down, on his back.
Marta was already up, now sitting on her side of the bed, giving him a concerned look. She stretched her hand to his, grabbed it gently, and held it.
“Don’t worry, my love. I had a bad dream, but from now on, it’s going to be all right,” he said.
“What did you dream of, dear?” she asked patiently.
“Fears. And forgiveness,” he looked at her, relief in his eyes.
—-
2 November, All Souls Day, Silica, Gemer region
Marta’s arm wrapped around Gideon’s left arm, they stood in front of the friend’s grave. The past few days had been chilly, but the afternoon sunshine had returned today, on this holiday of remembering the departed. The cold autumn rays illuminated the cemetery, including the friend’s final resting place. The last autumn leaves were falling to the ground. It was the fall.
Having spent some time at the grave, they now took their leave. Marta felt the sun’s rays on her face. She pointed to the slowly setting sun and nodded at her husband, smiling. His face glowed in the autumn sunshine, he looked his wife in the eyes, with a faint but hopeful smile.
The End
Leave a Reply