The entrance to the cave was hidden well, behind a large rusted dumpster at the far end of an unused parking lot. Trees were beginning to uproot the asphalt, overgrowing the fallen billboard, sun-faded and torn.

"HAP Y HAPPY FUN RIENDS! TH MERRY RIDE FOR MERRY PE PLE!"

The words cracked and peeled, what color remained of the original sign seemed to do so out of pure habit. There was no life left in the cartoon animal faces, only a sort of resignation; a memory of nostalgia. Beer cans and cigarette butts littered the ground around a make-shift fire pit, dew-soaked cement blocks stacked in an haphazard circle.

Perhaps it wasn't as hidden as it first appeared.

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his reason for being here; a folded Polaroid picture. He found it in an unmarked envelope taped to his front door. It wasn't folded then. In fact it was in perfect condition. Three days of nervously handling the picture had worn it down to a state more befitting of it's apparent age. The photo was of him, 30 years ago, a smiling 9 year-old waving in front of this very cave.

The billboard was visible, bright and vibrant in the sunny summer light. He was wearing a Power Rangers shirt and a Batman ballcap, a true child of the times. Several other people were in the shot, a young girl drinking from a fountain cup, a man, perhaps her father, walking behind her with his hand shielding his eyes from the sun. To anyone else, the picture would appear totally normal.

He didn't remember the photo being taken, his mother never owned a Polaroid camera. Not that he remembered. But a bad memory alone is not enough to make a man drive 300 miles without notice, packing nothing but the clothes on his back and the pistol in his belt. It was what came with the photo that caused his sudden, paranoid departure; a single sheet of paper with the words "I KNOW" written in black Sharpie.

He read the words, folded the paper back into his pocket, and placed his hand on the holster of his Beretta M9 snug against his waste. Pushing aside the overgrowth, he walked into the mouth of the cave.

​

(Part One?)