Here's my entry for @Jamriot 's latest writing jam! I haven't done any creative writing in a while so it was nice to get back into that headspace for a day or two. The keyword I chose was "SIREN". While I was brainstorming, the line of thought I kept coming back to was exploring the difference between an alarm and a siren - it was kind of funny, for almost everything I could think of, there was *one* exception (i.e. most alarms are manual, except for things like smoke alarms... Or alarms are indoors while sirens are outdoors, but there are exceptions there as well...) By and large though, I settled on alarms being for localized/specific areas, while sirens are broader and more far-reaching. I wanted to explore that with a surreal story. Hope you enjoy!

He twisted the key in the ignition once more, but he was only met with an indifferent sputter. There was little he could do, with dozens of barren miles ahead and a bleak town far behind. He craned his neck as he looked up, seeing the snowy tops of the mountains brushed in magenta as the sun set. The cliff faces in the valley were so steep and shrouded, it would’ve been like midnight if not for that stroke of color. 

He looked in the backseat, and threw another blanket over the shivering bundle. “I’ll be back soon,” he muttered, patting her gently before getting out of the car. 

The winter nipped at his skin. The howling wind carried snow down from the mountaintops, finding shelter in the warmth of his body… and the mouth of the cave before him. 

It wasn’t far from where he had broken down. The path was powdered with frost, but only for its first few feet. He looked inside, finding no danger just yet.

As he took those careful steps downward, he fished around in his pocket, soon finding a small piece of chalk. Keeping his other hand against the opposite wall, he dragged the chalk along the rugged surface, leaving a thin, scraggly line as he wandered into the depths. The stony sound echoed in the winding tunnels, meeting his footsteps and ragged breaths. 

The narrow passage opened into a great maw of stalagmite and stone. Little light punctured the space, seeping in from fractures in the mountainside. Before taking another step inside, he drew a small circle near the mouth of the tunnel he entered through. 

The subterranean chill settled into his bones, freezing the sweat that clung to him. He sighed, resting his head against a wall for just a moment as his stomach came to terms with the mildew in the air.

“Pavel?”

He looked about - only when he saw a crag shift did he notice her. The stone grumbled, stretching a statue’s tendons. The flesh began and ended in mineral, peppered in sickly coral. Her words came as forcefully as her motions, struggling against the earth, and gravel rolled down her lips as she spoke from the side of her mouth. “Wh-what are you doing here?” 

He winced, putting his hands in his pockets shortly before forcing them to his sides. “Hey, wasn't expecting to run into you... Lexi, look, I need to find a doctor. I was on the way to the hospital, but my car broke down.” He pointed back towards the winding tunnels he came through. “Do you know anyone?”

“Oh my God, is it for Courtney? Is Courtney okay? What’s wrong with her?” She quivered, and sediment rolled down her cheeks.  

“Relax. It’s not for her. It’s for me.”

“Is it urgent? What’s wrong?”

“It’s… Yes, it’s urgent. I just need help. I’d rather just tell a doctor, do you know any around here?”

“No, there aren’t any around here! I don’t know why you didn’t stay home, it would’ve been safer, like I always told you!”

“It would’ve been - wait, hang on… What is that?”

A low hum began to fill the cavern. It rose like a violin giving way to a feminine note, held with a spider’s grace. It struck them both to sheer stillness.

Before he could ask her about the guilt he caught on her face, he found the sound’s source behind her: a calcified bouquet, blended so perfectly into the stone, it was hard to tell if it ever lived or if it was simply carved in. 

Pavel stepped closer, looking down into the bouquet. The center of every slate flower burrowed into the rock, leading down into the darkness. The sound drew him closer, whispering about how to find the heart of the mountain. 

“Don’t!” Lexi wailed. “Don’t go. She’s no good to no one!” Cracks started to form along her throat and shoulders, splitting her surface, causing pieces of coral to fall and shatter. 

“Yeah, right,” he muttered, dismissing her with a wave of his hand. He followed the winding tubes along the walls, leaving behind Lexi’s shrieks, though their echoes followed him through the rocky chambers. 

Squeezing through narrow crevices and winding passages, he found other tubes branching out from dozens of other tunnels, some so small that his finger would hardly fit, and others, large enough to hide in. 

They finally converged at the mouth of a theater of bedrock. A crown of scales hung high in the ceiling, glimmering in jade and gold in the low light. Beneath them, a woman stood upon a small platform, clad in a dress of those same scales. 

Pavel brushed some of the dust from his clothes, chewing on his lip until she spoke first. 

“You’re looking for a doctor?” she asked. 

“I am, yeah. But it’s not for me, it’s for my daughter.”

“For Courtney.”

“Yes. She’s sick, I don’t know what’s wrong with her. I was on the way to a hospital, but I got stranded in the valley.”

“Where is she now?”

“Right at the entrance to the mountain. I bundled her up the best I could, but the shivering’s not stopping. She’s sweating through everything. Clothes, blankets, everything.”

“The entrance to the mountain? What entrance?”

He held his tongue between his teeth. Straightening in place, he searched for the words in the cracks on the floor, but didn’t find them. 

She asked, “Do you want to help Courtney?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then help her. Tell me how you got into the mountain. I’ve been here for as long as I can remember, and I never knew there was a way out.”

“Have you ever left this room?”

“I didn’t have a reason to until now.”

“So you’ll help me?”

“What do you think I am, cruel? That I’ll hear about a little girl who needs a doctor, and I won’t do anything?” She let the question hang in the dusty air. “Why did you lie to her?”

“To Lexi? It’s… she would just make things worse. It’s complicated.”

“Well, I wouldn’t.”

“...Fine. If you go straight up the way I came, past the bouquet, I left a trail of chalk on the wall on my way in. Follow it, and it’ll lead you right to the road.”

There was a flicker of opportunity in her eye. That familiar hum rose in her throat, pressing closely to the cavern walls, wrapping around pebble and boulder alike as it flowed outward. The note fell, then swung back up in a slow arpeggio, soon giving way to a declaration. Though her lips didn’t move, her voice rang out loudly, sending a message through every crevice in the mountain.

“Pavel’s not fit to be a father. His girl’s being raised by a liar, putting his own ego above her needs. What else is he keeping from her? Food? Shelter? Worst of all, she’s sick - maybe even dying - and he’s doing the bare minimum to help. She needs a doctor! Isn’t there someone who can help when Pavel won’t?”

His cheeks reddened, and he gnashed his teeth. The enamel broke down, crumbling into minerals that fell back into his throat. “What the hell are you doing?!” he snarled. “I’m gonna lose my kid if you tell people that! You told me you could help me!”

“No. I told you that I heard you needed a doctor. I’m not helping you, I’m helping her.”

A violent rumbling shook the cavern. He was nearly thrown off his feet, and his eyes widened as he watched her change shape. Bubbles formed beneath the surface of her skin, gnarling the bone and tissue into translucent fabric. The ribbons rose to the scales high above, deftly weaving around the stones that fell from the ceiling as the mountain quaked. 

A stone hit his shoulder, and he let out a sharp cry. He turned back towards the chamber’s entrance, but uncertainty twisted his muscles into knots, rooting him to the spot. He cast one last look in her direction, but she had already melted into the light crowning the theater. Finally, he found the will to run.

As he rushed back through the tunnels, he raised his arms over his head, shielding himself from more of the falling debris. He tripped over the countless falling stones, clinging to the walls as he retraced his steps, barely able to find the way back in his panic. 

As he returned to the first chamber, a maze of rocky columns clouded in dust, the mountain’s shaking started to slow. He dragged his feet as he wandered, losing track of where he was until he felt the crunch of broken coral at his feet, and he nearly ran into Lexi.

Fragments of stone laid at her base. Hairline fractures covered her body, deepening as her teeth ground down. “You lied! You told me Courtney was fine!” 

He threw his hands up, blindly fumbling about as the dust started to settle. “Of course I lied, do you know what it’s like to live with you?” He let out an exhausted laugh, touched by neither humor nor relief. “I don’t have a choice. I can’t have you getting involved. You’re a train wreck.”

“She’s my daughter too!”

“That’s what scares me. You were already screwing her up, I had to get her out of there. You know what your problem is? You make your stress everybody else’s. I can handle it, but Courtney shouldn’t have to.”

“Wait, come back!”

Despite her wails as her stone split further, he pushed onwards. Through the dust, he saw that he was close to where he had first entered the chamber. The echoes of her shouts collided with his head, dizzying him as he trekked on. He stumbled, careening into wall after wall as he wandered. The deep grays and blues all blended, and he squinted in the low light, struggling to find the chalk marking.

When he finally saw it, his heart seized, clenching on itself for a single, agonizing beat. It was right there - a lopsided target, scrawled with a line leading directly to an impenetrable slab. 

He pressed his palms to it, as if the illusion would give way. He curled his fingers into every crevice, unable to get a grip. His hand slipped, and he sliced his palm on a jagged rock. 

“Ah!” He hissed, shaking his hand to rid the sting, spattering droplets of blood across the moist floor. His breaths turned shallow as he rubbed the wound.

He rushed back to Lexi’s chamber. “Hey, where did the-” 

He lost his footing. A few loose grains of sand sent him flying, arms and legs splayed as he crashed to the uneven ground. He howled as his skin was pierced in a dozen places. 

The muscles were set aflame as he curled up, writhing in the the sharp ache. He rolled onto his side, blinking away the stars in his eyes. He looked up at Lexi, still and fragmented as ever. “Where did she go?”

“She’s gone! Gone! You would’ve known if you listened!”

As her cries rattled the rocky walls, one of the fissures in the ceiling was blotted out. The light was replaced by a steady stream of powder, making an hourglass of their cavern. 

Pavel struggled to prop himself up, watching the chalk fall to the ground. The particles took shape as they flowed freely, spelling out a message on the cold floor. 

“I found a doctor who answered the call. He’s treating her now. She’ll be fine, but we’re taking her somewhere safe.”

The spout opened into a flood. One by one, every faint crack of light was drowned by a rush of chalk. It wrapped itself around the scent of mildew, and he coughed, breaths deepening as the last light disappeared.  

“There has to be another way out of here,” he huffed, patting around on the floor, looking for any leverage to stand, but finding only the powder. He tried to stand, but a muscle in his back pulled, yanking hard, dragging him back to the chalky drifts. “I’ve got to see Courtney. I need to see if she’s okay.”

“You saw the note. Apparently, Courtney’s going to be fine. Your friend made sure of it, didn’t you see? The doctor’s with her.”

“Yeah, but how do I know she’s not lying?”

A shriek of impotent vindication filled the rapidly-shrinking cavern, padded by the powder.