When the shadows finally stopped moving, I relaxed and turned to Brie. She had her arms crossed and was looking at me with exasperation.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what's going on either! All I know is, I don't like it." I harshly whispered back, frowning. Brie looked towards the cave uncomfortably.

"Are they coming back?" She asked quietly. I shrugged.

"And the heat?" Brie raised her eyebrow. I shrugged again, making her purse her lips at me. I gave her a half grin and she shook her head, obviously dissatisfied with my answers. I shrugged again and resolutely turned to face the proceedings, ignoring Brie's angry glare.

The preacher had been replaced by another speaker, a woman this time, who was heavily sniffing as she spoke. It grated on my very fried nerves. Almost immediately, Brie started shaking my arm. Irritated, I turned to face her, clenching my teeth while trying to hold my temper. Alarmed murmurs started to flow through the seated guests, distracting me for an instant, as I looked to see what the hubbub was about. Surely somebody wasn't drunk already?

Several of the guests were staring with open mouths and fear at the cave mouth. Some pointed, trying to direct the others towards what they were seeing. Others were shaking their heads like they didn't know what all the fuss was about. I could feel the hair on my neck rise as a burst of wind shifted, coming up the hill, and with it came the oppressive feeling of danger. With dread, I faced into the wind, looking down towards the cave. Without warning, I was in movement, not even conscious of what I was seeing yet.

"Stay here!" I yelled at Brie over the wind, not even sure if she could hear me, or would listen. With no idea of what I was going to do, my mind finally caught up like a lagging computer, feeding me information about my surroundings, and trying to explain what the Hell I was actually looking at.

The cave mouth was full, or more accurately, overflowing with the shadowy creatures. I was instantly hyper-aware of my surroundings, my mind spooling through exits, movements of guests around me, chair placement, Brie's position behind me, the THINGS down below. The guests were very distracting. Several were standing, a few ran for their cars, a mother dragged her terrified children down the other side of the hill. In this state, my subconscious mind was working overtime, quickly sorting and storing information, and feeding me back calculations, predictions on patterns of behavior, movements of the crowd. The ease of anticipating a guest stumbling over the chair next to me, allowed me to steady them without thinking. Fight or flight mode was on full blast now, and I wasn't about to try to stop it. I was suddenly grateful I hadn't actually brought those extra pills. They tended to dull my senses and reactions a bit, which was normally welcome, but not today.

Looking over the crowd, I spotted another man looking in my direction. He nodded at me as if reading my thoughts, which would be a terrific feat, because even I didn't know what I was thinking. I could hear him yelling at other guests, as if attempting to rally some and urging the rest to leave. However, the nightmare creatures spilling out of the cave once again stole my attention. Every fiber in my body was screaming at me that these things were DANGEROUS. Their appearance looked like something that would scare children from a closet or from under a bed. My mind was working over time, trying to process what I was looking at.

The flesh on the creatures seemed to be made of shadows, unstable and constantly in flux. Yet the further away from the cave mouth they got, the more solid they appeared. I couldn't count their number as it continued to grow. The ones furthest from the cave mouth began to stabilize, their movements becoming more fluid, loose flesh hanging from them in disturbing folds. They glared at us from below, with what looked like malice. And the hostility only increased as their number grew.

Once again, my body was in motion before I could figure out what I was going to do. Gravity pulled me down the hill and I let it, making small adjustments as I sped up to avoid tombstones and other obstructions. The logical side of my brain screamed that I was insane, and a checklist formed of all the things that could go wrong. Wryly, I agreed, but I was more concerned about slipping in this wet grass than anything at present, so I told it to shut up. I stopped short of the creatures by a few feet. I heard panting behind me and with a quick glance over my shoulder, saw that I had been joined by about ten other people. I recognized the man behind me, as the one from before, and nodded my thanks to him. I guess I knew what he was doing now. Turning my attention back to the shadows, I glared as a hissing sound emanated from within the malevolent hoard.

"What do they want?" Someone to my left asked.  There was no response for several moments except the hissing.

"Well, answer the question!" Yelled the man behind me. I made a mental note to ask him how he ran so quickly in a suit. The hissing sound increased along with the agitation among the shadows, and I didn't think that it could mean anything good. I instinctively stepped forward a bit, bracing myself for impact.

"We mean you no harm, if you mean us none." A soft voiced woman spoke. An ominous chuckle rolled out from the cave mouth, silencing the shadows. A tall dark shape shifted forwards out of the darkness. This really could not mean anything good I groaned to myself internally.