October 29th

He held up the lantern and pierced the black pit of darkness. The tunnel leading into the cave went forward a dozen yards then sloped down into the underground depths.

"Charlie," he called out. "Come here, boy."

He listened for his dog, but all he heard was a chattering sound.

Bats, he thought. Damn.

He walked cautiously into the cavern, the sliver of moonlight providing such a small amount of light that it might as well not have been there at all. Several tiny bats the size of hummingbirds darted over his head. He instinctively ducked.

"Charlie," he called out, walking into the cave. As he descended the slope, he found a shocking discovery — a jack-o'-lantern rested in the cave, a fresh candle inside burning and flickering.

"Who's here?" he shouted. "Have you seen my dog?" There was no response, but he knew something strange was going on. "Hello? Charlie."

Some bats hanging along the cave wall screeched in response to his intrusion. They were the size of crows except their skin was leathery as opposed to covered in feathers. The cave tunnel opened up to a huge room with bats either hanging on the walls or flying near the huge ceiling.

"Are they getting bigger?" he said aloud.  They looked like dark eagles. He grew scared. If these things decided to turn on him, he'd be dead. He looked around at the room, and knew he was in trouble. There were four exits. Charlie could have gone down any of them. He picked one at random and followed it. He could hear bats screeching farther along. Some smaller ones flew over his head, one of them snagging his hair as it passed.

"Charlie," he called out. The tunnel curved to the left, and opened into another larger room, this one filled with huge bat-like creatures the size of grown men. The saw him and ran in his direction. Some of them had fully developed wings and took to flight, while others crawled on the ground or on the ceiling. He turned to run, but stumbled and dropped his lantern. Just before it went dark, he saw his dog against the wall, gutted and torn to pieces.

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