The Van Til House: STRAF SABBAT
The Chapiter 19

Hendra pushed the ribs of one of the skeletons with his toes. "This place has been closed for a long time."

"Did they die here?" alexza whispered, his voice trembling.

"It can be" replied Hendra. "They must have caught this avalanche all the way to oxygen exhaustion."

Magisna's feather bristles remember the avalanche that almost buried it earlier.

"Where do you know?" ask Alexza.

"Those who say," Hendra joked.

Magisna and Alexza glared at him.

Hendra responded with a thin grin. "There are no rats around here" he explained. Then he knelt down near one of the skeletons. Scrutinize, check it. Magisna saw a faded glint of belt buckles in the middle of it. Shoe's ruined. All that was left was the right of his shoes.

"Cave wonder you can calm down" commented Magisna.

Hendra. "Kudu gua kudu jeerritan?"

Magisna. "Sori. The cave is just horrified."

"Don't you be horrified? They can't do anything" replied Hendra. "What do you think?"

"I think the cave knows what happened to them!" scream Alexza suddenly. "The red fog must have killed them."

Magisna stiffened at the thought that Dika and Novi might have been killed as well.

"It could be that this place is closed so that no one is fiddling with the brick wall. Maybe the brick wall was deliberately made to contain the creature," Alexza cerocos. "But we're liberating him. Now we too will be killed. It's the same Novi maybe..."

"Enough!" magisna shouted, unable to take it anymore. He could not imagine Dika and Novi being killed. That's what Alexza almost said. He really had no feelings, he thought. He doesn't have to say everything he thinks.

"Please, jan's on hysterical!" Hendra warned.

"You can kill people, why are they trapped here?" ask Magisna.

Hendra shrugged his shoulders.

"It could be how it works" sambar Alexza. "He's dragged around with Novi, inget? Maybe the same Novi is also held in one of the rooms somewhere in this tunnel."

"Shhh!" hiss Hendra interrupted Alexza's words. He held up one hand hinting Alexza to stop talking. While the other hand lifted his torch and looked at the wall around them.

Many FEESTEN LATENT graffiti are etched on the wall.

"Gua really did gedeg the same writing," murmured Alexza. "He's everywhere!"

Magisna saw a pile of bottles and cans in the corner, along with bags of potato chips and salted pastries, so old that they were almost white.

Strange, he realized. Elsewhere throughout the Doolhof the garbage is scattered and messy. But here…

"They were trapping the avalanche," Magisna said. "It's not because of the red mist."

"meaning?" Hendra asked unsure.

"Look at the trash. Stacked neatly in the corner. They must have been in this place long enough. The red fog never disturbed them. They're stuck."

Hendra knitted his pair of eyebrows. "They must have starved to death" he concluded.

"Or die of wear and tear" Magisna added.

"Continue the red fog?" ask Alexza. "They'll be with them until they die?"

Hendra and Magisna. Then they both shrugged their shoulders. "Who knows?" said Hendra.

Magisna scanned the wall again, something caught her eye.

"Look at this!" he said as he raised his torch higher.

Under one line of the larger FEESTEN LATEN script, one scratches the other words in red ink. An empty paint can was lying next to him on the ground, a paint brush sticking out from inside the can.

Magisna drew the torch to the wall, and read:

TRAPPED

Michael Isaac. Leo…

And...

Ten other names in blurry writing.

"Michael Isaac?" Magisna. Michael Isaac was the full name of their principal, Mr. Isa.

Hendra and Alexza simultaneously jumped up to the writing and ducked down to check it out. Then the two exchanged looks with tense faces.

And they were all convinced that they had not misread.

"That's the guest list" said Hendra.

"What guests?" Magisna.

"Last party at Doolhof," Hendra muttered.

They stared at the names in silence, as if they were letting it seep into their hearts.

"If one of the skeletons is Isa..." Magisna said slowly, almost whispering. "Who is our principal?"

"Well you're a cave, keep the cave name who?" Hendra.

Magisna's head suddenly dizzy. He could not imagine which was worse - being attacked by a strange red mist or starving to death and trapped in a cave.

That's the choice for the three of them-unless they find a way out.

"I think they're out of paint," Alexza pointed to another wall part of the room.

Magisna walked there to see him.

Someone left another message. The writing is smaller, etched into the wall with a stone:

PIN THE BILLION TO BE RESPONSIBLE!

Magisna did not understand.

"May Billion?" he asks. "That's Miss Pinkan?"

"Miss Pinkan?" Hendra. He knitted his brows and was silent for a moment.

Alexza.

"Why is his name on the wall?" Magisna.

"Somebody knows what's going on here" said Hendra.

"The cave can't think" Alexza looked at Hendra full of question marks.

Hendra rolled his eyeballs. "Ntar asked the man when he met."

"You mean our principal has something to do with this?" magisna asked hesitantly.

"We're talking about people who know they're going to die, right?" reply Hendra. "They write their names on the walls, keep them out of paint, and they still use the stone. What do you think that means?"

"They tried to tell everyone - anyone who would find this," Magisna finished Hendra's words.

Hendra flicked his finger right in front of Magisna's face with a satisfied expression.

"But what does it mean Mr Is must know what's going on here?" Magisna doesn't understand.

"The name is written here" Hendra points to the name of Michael Isaac. "She may be one of the ones who's late."

"But the number of skulls was thirteen," Magisna pointed to the pile of skulls. "Thirteen of these names don't exist!"

Hendra immediately fell silent and thought hard.

"Maybe Michael Isaac was different" Alexza concluded.

Through the corner of her eye, Magisna caught a strange twinkle-movement in the torchlight.

His heart stopped beating.

Alexza jerks.

Red mist flowed in through their narrow escape hole.

A foul smell filled their nostrils.

It stings more than ever, Magisna thought. He had to cover his nose and mouth.

Then he heard it. The fog is breathing. This time Magisna could hear it very clearly.

Heavy and steady breath.

The fog was spreading in front of them. Waving in torchlight. Float. The longer it takes up space.

The fog forced them to retreat....

Magisna hit the rough stone wall behind him.

There's nowhere to escape.

Now they're trapped!