They decided to start their expedition at the weekend.
On Sunday morning, Sally checked all the things that she was taking with her. She even checked that she had spare batteries for her torch then she popped a packet of sweet popcorn in her backpack. Satisfied that she had every thing ready for the adventure of a lifetime. She then locked the front door and headed towards Heather's house.
When she got there, Heather was already waiting with Wendy and Kathy.
"My mum needed to know when I'd be back," she said breathlessly. "I had to promise that I would be back by tea time. Come on lets get going!"
Flitwale park was a grassy area on the border of a sparse wood of beech trees. Underlying the woods was a layer of limestone. Once many years ago ground water had seeped through the limestone, scouring out caves and channels within.
"The cave is near the top of the hill." Kathy explained to Heather.
Twenty minutes later, the group stood at the narrow cave entrance. Sally shone her torch inside. "Has anybody ever gotten lost in there?" She asked nervously.
"No," Kathy assured her, "Spirit Cave doesn't go back that far. There are a couple of passages that lead off it, but I believe they're dead ends. If it's bats you're worried about, don't worry."
"Oh, come on you guys! We haven't got all day!" Wendy called. "I don't want to waste time out here. Lets see what we can find inside."
One by one, they all slipped inside the low, wide chamber. It was dim and cool inside, considering what a hot sunny day it was. Heather moved the slender beam of her torch across the sandy floor.
"From the footprints, it looks as if this place has been well explored, " she said disappointedly. "We won't find anything."
"Look!" Sally said with pride. "I've already made a discovery." She held a crushed can of coke in the glow of her torch.
" What is this?" Heather asked, ignoring Sally. She pointed her torch towards a smaller opening. "One of the passages," Kathy answered, heading off along the dark, damp, rocky tunnel. After a few moments she called back to warn them. "Watch where you're stepping," she yelled. "The ground's not very even down here!" But Kathy's warning arrived too late. Heather stumbled over a furrow in the path and dropped her torch. It rolled into the shadows at the far edge of the tunnel and was lodged in a crevice between two slabs of rock.
"I'll get it," Sally offered, trotting over to get it. But as she moved Heather's torch to pick it up, she noticed that the beam had lit up some thing beyond the passage wall. Two lighter coloured slabs of limestone with odd markings scratched into them covered most of the gap.
"Look guys, there's an opening here!" She said excitedly. "It looks as if somebody put these rocks here on purpose, but they're a little loose." She called out to her friends. "Come over here you guys. Help me."
"Wait a minute," Kathy cautioned. "Those look like some sort of ancient writing on the slabs. Maybe we shouldn't touch them until some one who knows what they mean sees them."
"We're just going to take a look," Sally said. "Come on that's why we came here, remember. If it looks dangerous, we'll put the rocks back over the opening and tell somebody about it, I promise."
With a hesitant shrug, Kathy agreed. Working together, the four of them were able to roll away the two limestone slabs, exposing a wide entrance big enough to crawl into.
Wendy knelt at the edge of the opening and leaned over. "Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, it is really cold in here," she said, turning her torch from one angle to another. "I can hear running water, lets check it out." "I don't know, about this you guys, maybe we should go back........." Kathy began, but Heather interrupted her. "Come on Kathy. This may be what we came here for. I don't want anybody to discover it first." "Heather's right, " Wendy agreed.
Squeezing through the entrance, the friends found themselves at the top of a wide rock ledge in a cavern wall. Almost like a steep ramp jutting out from the rock walls the ledge stopped steadily down about forty feet to the floor of a very large cavern. The moist, rocky walls all around them had a greenish glow that was just bright enough to enable the friends to see around them.
"I've heard about this stuff that glows in caves," Kathy whispered, as they made their way carefully down the steep ledge to the floor of the cavern. "It's some kind of fungus or something".
Wendy held up her hands. "Listen. Did you hear that? I heard some scraping noise. I'll bet there are bats in here." She turned her flashlight to the cavern roof, but only saw bare rock.
"Look!" Heather cried out, pointing the beam of her torch towards a large boulder near the opposite wall. The huge rock was covered with some sort of primitive writings. A small, swift stream of water ran in a channel beside it.
"There's your running water, Wendy. It must be an underground stream. It seems to be coming from an opening about halfway up the wall. Then it disappears into that tunnel. It probably goes back underground. And look....." She shone the beam of her torch across the entrance to several passage ways that led off from the main cavern.
"This place must be covered with tunnels and caverns that no one knows about. Just think because of a silly accident with my torch, we'll be the first to explore them!"
Slowly creeping across the cavern floor, Heather examined the wall beside the big rock. The cold, damp, glistening surface was inscribed with the same strange writings as the boulder. All at once she gasped and backed away, bumping into Kathy. Both of the girls fell to the soft earth right at the foot of a statue carved into the rock wall.
It's evil face stared directly down at them, and it's hideous eyes shone with the reflected gleam of Heather's torch. Heather gasped. "It's.........it's a statue of a witch," she said with a shudder.
"It's like the old witch in the legend," Kathy said, staring at it horrified. The body appeared to be clothed in black, a pair of hands rose behind it and its long fingers were tipped with hooked long nails. The scowling mouth of the stone witch was open, and crystal clear water bubbled out over her sharp stone teeth, then trickled down its body, forming a pool at the statues feet before flowing away into the darkness beyond.
"Wow!" Sally looked up at the witch statue in amazement. "It's incredible! Somebody must have thought this place was really important to go to all the trouble of carving this," she reached out her cupped hand and let it fill with water.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Kathy cautioned. "My guess is that the Shaman used his powers to imprison the witch in stone to protect us all. It looks like a warning about something. Maybe the waters poisonous."
"Oh, don't be silly!" She answered. "The streams around here are ok to drink." She lifted her hand to her lips and took a sip. "It's good." Her voice echoed slightly.
"Listen to that," Heather said, smiling. "There's an echo." She raised her head and called out, "Helloooo!" The sound vibrated eerily through the chamber.
"Don't do that," Kathy begged. She fought a sudden urge to race out of the cave. "I have a bad feeling about this place. Look, now that we know what's down here, lets just....."
But before she could finish, Sally cupped both hands around her mouth, threw back her head and called out even louder, "Helloooooooo!"
All at once the cavern filled with a whirling sound, and then the air seemed to fill with beating of hundreds of small unseen hands.
"What's happening?" Wendy cried out. Something invisible struck her cheek, leaving a long scratch. A droplet of blood welled up below her eye and trickled down to her mouth.
Sally fell to the floor and covered her face, while Heather crouched in a corner. Pinned against the slimy wall, Kathy felt pokes and jabs coming at her from every side of the screaming noise rose all around her to a frenzied pitch. It was happening so fast. All she could do was lash out at the invisible creatures racing back and fourth, casting horrific shadows across the walls of the cavern.
"What was that?" Wendy moaned as she dabbed cool water from the stream on to injured cheek. Then she jumped back with a shriek. "There's something in this water!"

For the final part of fear we have decided to let you make it up! So please let us know, by e-mail, your endings. The best one will be used!