Then they arrived at a vertical shaft. On one side was the elevator shaft, with the cables still dangling, but no sign of an elevator. On the other side was the manway, a series of ladders leading down into impenetrable darkness.
Matt told his camera they were going to head down those ladders, and that was the first time Sarah spoke up, interrupting him. “Are you crazy? That wood could be rotted through. We step on it and we go crashing down to our deaths!”
“Relax, Sarah,” Beth said from behind her. “The wood will hold. We’ll be fine. Besides, you know you want to see what’s down there.”
Matt turned to face her, getting Sarah’s face fully on camera. She flinched away from the bright light coming off his hat and camera, lifting a hand to block it from shining in her face. “My friends have already checked out this mine shaft. The ladders are solid.”
“Please, Sarah,” Beth said, giving her a dusty hug from behind. “Pretty please with sugar on top. Go down there with us.”
Sarah kept her hand up, blocking her face from the camera as she stepped a bit closer to the shaft. She leaned just enough to peer over the edge, seeing the ladders descending beyond where her light could penetrate. “This is madness, you guys. It’s not safe. There’s a reason we aren’t supposed to be here.”
“That’s because this shaft leads into a secret government facility,” Matt said, speaking for the benefit of his audience, clearly, since he was dropping a line of total bullshit.
Sarah shook her head, swiping her sweating palms on her dirty shirt. “There’s enough to be scared of just in the threat of collapsing rock walls. I don’t think you need to add government conspiracies into it, Matt.”
“Come on, Sarah,” Beth hissed in a low voice behind her. “Play it up! This is for the camera. Try to look scared.”
“I am scared, dammit,” Sarah said out of the corner of her mouth, taking a step back from the vertical shaft. “I think you’re both crazy, and I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”
Beth clasped her hands together in a prayer pose, her eyes pleading, her fake eyelashes fluttering in what she probably hoped was a winsome way.
Sarah sighed, then lowered her hand so the camera could capture her expression. She made sure to widen her eyes and flare her nostrils, Blair Witch movie style. “I-I’m so afraid there might be ghosties and goblins down below.”
Matt smirked. “I’ll keep you safe, Sare Bear.”
Sarah made a face, turning away in the hopes that the camera didn’t catch it. Not that Matt couldn’t edit it out later.
Was he calling her a bear because she had a thick, stocky build? Or was it her plain brown hair and unplucked brows that might be just a little overgrown that made him think of a hairy animal? And why did he make it sound flirtatious? Like it was an endearment?
She gagged a little, turning completely away from them both to face the shaft again. “All right, who goes first?”
“I’ll go first,” Matt said, flashing her a look she supposed he intended to be sultry. She thought he just looked sleepy—or high. “I’ll keep you all safe by fighting any monsters down there.” He climbed onto the first ladder, then leaned precariously towards Sarah. “Can I get a kiss for good luck?” He puckered his lips.
Sarah crossed her arms over her chest, shaking her head. “I really hope you aren’t serious.”
Matt grinned, but there was something mean in the smile as he opened his eyes wide in a falsely innocent expression. “Look at you, Sarah. You think a guy like me can resist you?”
“Matt,” Beth snapped, censure in her tone. “Cut it out, now, or we quit filming and head back to the Jeep.”
Matt’s smile dropped away and he shrugged. “Fine. I was just trying to make her feel better about herself. Isn’t that what you’re always doing. Tiptoeing around her feelings because she’s so touchy about her appearance?” Before Beth could respond with anything more than a gasp, Matt started down the ladder, once again narrating for the benefit of the camera.
They heard a crunch as he stopped on the first tier. “There’s a lot of animal bones down here. I’ll take some footage for the video, then you can head down.”
“I’m sorry, Sarah,” Beth whispered as Sarah turned her back on the descending figure of Matt, debating just leaving the asshole in that shaft to head back to the Jeep on her own. Maybe she could convince Beth to come too.
“Why do you even hang out with that douchebag?” For Beth’s sake, Sarah kept her voice at a whisper, so the jerk couldn’t hear the question.
Beth shook her head, glancing towards the shaft, where they could hear the sound of Matt’s voice fading as he climbed further downwards. “He’s got a ton of followers, Sarah! Networking is everything for my career. He can promote my videos to his subscribers and make me famous a lot faster than if I try to grow my audience on my own.”
Sarah regarded Beth with concern. “You’re so much better than this, Bethie. Sometimes, I don’t even recognize you anymore.”
Beth’s lips tightened, flattening out a bit, though not much because of the fillers. “You can get off your high horse, Sarah. You think you’re so much better than me because you work with computer software and you’re using your precious brain. I know that’s how you see it, but you have no idea how hard I work at editing my videos and coming up with new content. I work my brain just as much, if not more, than you do. I don’t need you judging me all the time.”
Sarah was shocked by Beth’s words. She’d never considered that Beth might take her comments the way that she had. Then she had to admit to herself that she was condescending towards Beth’s “career.” She still had a difficult time taking it seriously, even though she could see Beth’s point. No doubt her friend worked hard on content creation, but she’d also grown so shallow in pursuit of internet fame.
She put her hand on Beth’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound—”
Beth brushed her hand off impatiently, then tossed her head so the low ponytail she’d put her hair into on the way to the cave bounced against her shirt. “I sacrificed my teen years looking after you, because you couldn’t keep your legs closed when the first boy came sniffing around you. You needed me, and I was there for you. The lies I told, the things I did, to keep your secrets, kept me from living my own life. And now, you can’t even do this one thing for me and play along so I can get some goddamned video footage to create a spooky mine exploration video.” Beth held up one finger in front of her face. “One damned thing is all I’ve ever asked of you, Sarah!”
Stung from Beth’s biting words, Sarah faced the shaft again, blinking back the sudden tears that rose to her eyes. She couldn’t see Matt’s lights anymore. It was time for her to start heading down. “I didn’t realize I was such a burden to you, Beth.”
“Shit,” Beth muttered under her breath, but Sarah still heard her in the stifling silence of the mine. Louder, she said, “Look, I’m… I didn’t mean that. I mean, not in that way. That was pretty harsh. It’s just that you’re always so fucking condescending to me when it comes to my work. It pisses me off, because I feel like I did everything to help you out when we were in high school, and you still think you’re better than me.”