“Where?” Aly asked.

I pointed with my finger to a dark opening in the side of a small ledge. “That thing down there. It looks like some sort of cave or something.”

“Let’s find out,” Jordyn insisted.

“Are you sure about that?” Taylor asked. “What if Marcie finds out we’ve gone down there? She’ll get mad at us.”

I sneered. “Oh, don’t worry about Marcie. She won’t even know.”

With that said, the seven of us wandered down to the opening in the ledge and realized that it was indeed a cave of some sort.

“Oh, my God, it really is a cave, you guys,” I declared. “Are we going to go inside it?”

Jordyn immediately jumped back a few steps. “I’m not going in there. Are you crazy?”

“Yeah, it’s real dark and scary in there,” Taylor said with a nervous look on her face.

“Come off it, you guys, what’s so scary about a little cave?” Aly asked us, shaking her head. “Come on, let’s check it out.”

“No way, I’m not going in there,” Taylor shot back.

“Me neither,” Jordyn added.

“I’ll go with you, Aly,” Brianna declared, sounding more brave than anyone.

I shoved her with my arm. “Are you nuts, Brianna? You’re actually going to wander inside some dark cave with no idea what might be in there?”

“Yeah, really, Brianna, what if there are snakes or wild boars in there?” Taylor barked.

“Or better yet, how about a big, mean bear?” Katie suggested. “If you wake him up from his hibernation, he won’t be too happy with you.”

Aly busted out laughing. “Give me a break, Katie. It’s not like we’re in Colorado or someplace like that. This is Connecticut, remember?”

“So, there are bears here in Connecticut,” I shot back.

Aly pasted her hands to her hips. “Look, me and Brianna are going inside the cave. Are you girls too scared to join us or are you going to act your age?”

“I’ll stand guard right here and watch if someone comes,” Katie stated.

“Yeah, me too,” I added.

“Fine, then we’ll be the heroes if we find some old booze bottles in there,” Aly barked, sounding very disappointed with us.

“Yeah, we’ll be the heroes, not you,” Brianna remarked in a sassy tone.

In seconds, they had ventured through the opening of the cave and were gone from sight. It was very dark and dreary in there, and I couldn’t imagine why anyone in their right state of mind would wander inside a dark cave. It was just like a scene out of a horror movie.

“Do you think they’ll really find something?” Jordyn asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Who knows, but I’m definitely not going inside there. You couldn’t pay me to do that.”

“What could they possibly find inside some dumb cave, anyway?” Nanina asked. “It’s probably just the home of some wild animals.”

“I’ll bet if the boys were here, they’d all go inside,” Taylor remarked.

Nanina giggled. “Yeah, especially my brothers since they’re so stupid. They’re not afraid of anything.”

Suddenly, a blood-curdling scream sounded from deep inside the cave, and we recognized it immediately as Aly’s.

“Aly, what happened?” I yelled with all my might. The scream sounded once more, only this time it was Brianna.

“You guys, get out of there,” Jordyn shouted.

“Oh, my God, what are we going to do, Jess?” Nanina asked in a frantic tone.

“I don’t know,” I answered, sounding very nervous myself.

We barely had time to get out of the way before Aly and Brianna nearly trampled us as they ran full steam ahead out of the cave.

“Run, you guys, run,” Aly screamed as she zipped past us. “The bats are coming.”

Almost immediately, a flock of bats came flying out of the cave and flapped all around us, making all sorts of screeching sounds. As if on cue, the seven of us screamed as loud as we could while trying to run away from the cave. While running and screaming at the same time, a big black bat flopped its wings near my head and tried to bite my ear.

“Help me, somebody, help me,” I screamed as loud as I could.