The road

The crumbling road ran up into the hills, finally coming to the entrance to a cave that some long-gone hands had carved into the mouth of a leering skull. A sheer cliff ran upwards to the right and downwards to the left, far too steep to climb, and Sue stood for a moment, unwilling to enter the darkness. Her decision was made when she glanced down the slope to see Kraven coming up behind her. She stepped into the cave.

Sue’s eyes adjusted to the gloom. Faint traces of phosphorescent fungus kept the cave from total darkness and allowed her to stumble forward. Suddenly, she stopped. Had she heard some faint sound from below?

Sue turned invisible and stood as still as possible, listening. No more sound came from below, but from above, she could heard a faint echo of a footstep in the cave mouth. "Kraven," the thought, and moved deeper into the cave.

Rounding a corner, she was surprised by a half-dozen powerfully-built, hunched figures in grey, hooded robes. She froze, and the figures did too, but only for a moment. They sprang on her, two of them grabbing her arms with and iron grip. In the struggle their hoods fell back, and Sue could see they were Neanderthals, but albinos, and with blank white eyes. Sue’s thoughts flashed “they’re blind, they don’t even know I’m invisible” as strong hands lifted her from the ground and tore away her tattered clothing before carrying her further down into the cave, chanting in low voices in a strange, inhuman language.

They passed through a curtain of cobwebs into a large chamber, where more of the blind Neanderthals took up the chant. Sue found herself thrown against a stalagmite, her wrists bound behind her, her legs spread and her knees drawn up as they were secured to her wrists, her torso bound with a x of what she realized were silk ropes, silk that felt as smooth as the snakeskin had felt against her naked flesh, silk like the grey silk robes of the Neanderthals. As her eyes adjusted further to the dark she could see the walls of the cave were lined with spiderwebs, and Sue guessed what was coming.

She guessed wrong. The chanting was answered by a louder, growling chant from the darkness, and into Sue’s sight emerged a giant mutant albino ape, eight feet tall, with the same blank eyes as the others. As it stalked forward it answered the chant with a chant of its own, just as incomprehensible but still an obvious sign of intelligence. It paused, sniffed the air, and turned its attention to Sue, who could see its monstrous cock was growing erect…