All characters are fictional and over 18.
*****
"I can't believe you talked me into this," Cindy chided her roommate after she'd tripped for what had to have been the eleventh time. Both girls were soaking wet and Cindy had lost her sandals circumnavigating the waterfall.
"Didn't I tell you there was something behind the falls?" Rachel grinned from behind drenched black tresses.
"Yeah, a big smelly cave. What a discovery!" Cindy chided.
She'd never considered just how much force the seemingly serene Butterhill Falls waters had, but after being battered and pushed into the water, Cindy wouldn't soon forget. Rachel, of course, had somehow managed to finesse her way through the falls without suffering any indignities.
Rachel was already charging up her crank-powered LED flashlight. "How do you know this isn't some ancient Native American burial ground or something? This could be a great discovery!"
"What tribe buried their dead behind a waterfall, Rachel? How would they even get the bodies through that?" Cindy rung out the bottom of her tanktop.
"Oh, then who do you think made that?" Rachel nodded down the cavern, shining the light in that direction.
Cindy gasped at the site of what appeared to be a roughly hewn gargoyle carved into a relief within the wall.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Both girls approached the statue. Water had worn away many of its features, but Cindy could make out the shape of some kind of winged, clawed monster.
"OK, really creeped out now," Cindy protested.
"What? Really? Come on, Cind, this is fucking incredible! We need to go in!"
"Uhm, no! Whatever someone did in here, they wanted it to be secret. This could be some pervert's secret kidde porn dungeon!"
Rachel snickered. "Now who's being ridiculous?"
Cindy grimaced. "I can't, Rachel. I didn't have the shoes for this before and I definitely don't now. I'm cold, wet, and cranky.
Rachel pouted. "Can you at least wait here for a few minutes while I go have a look?"
"Why?" Cindy sighed. "Fine. Go. I'll wait here. Just be careful!"
Rachel bounded off in one of her trademark fits of hyperactivity while Cindy shook her head.
Cindy leaned up angle the wall of the cave, listening the torrent outside. She'd always been calmed by the sound of falling water, but it just wasn't doing the trick here, maybe because she knew she'd have to go back out the same way she'd come in. She tried to put herself in Rachel's frame of mind - that this was a totally awesome discovery - but she just couldn't. This place was dark and wrong somehow.
She'd left her phone back on the shore, so she had no way of gauging how much time was passing. After what had to have been 20 minutes, she called down the hallway for Rachel. No reply.
A strange, stale breeze wafted up from the depths, oddly spicy and pungent. She backed away, accidentally stumbling into the small, demonic statue. From a distance she hadn't realized just how flimsy it was, but it easily shattered under her weight.
She'd barely had time to curse before she felt something powerful grab at her from behind, pulling her through the wall as though it wasn't even there. It dragged her over 20 feet before roughly depositing her on the ground.
Cindy choked on a scream, looking around wildly. Whatever had grabbed her had disappeared from sight. The room she found herself in was dark except for a strange biolumiscence coming from the fleshy floor on which she now stood. The pale green grow did little to illuminate the shadows, however. Whatever had attacked her was probably still in here.
She did see the "break" in the wall through which she'd been dragged, however and could still hear the waterfall.
Cindy scrambled to her feet, ignoring the disturbing nature of the floor, and made a break for the corridor. She got no more than five feet before she felt something grab her around the waist and lift her off her feet. She struggled against its grip, pushing against the arm that held her. To her horror, it felt scaly, with numerous small spiky protrusions.
Cindy screamed as loudly as she could and screamed even louder when she saw Rachel come into view beyond the break in the wall. Her friend was looking around confused, her calling her name.
"She can't hear you," a deep, bestial voice rumbled from behind her. "Those who built this place saw to that." Cindy screamed again anyway.
"No, Rachel, don't leave, please, I'M IN HERE!" Cindy protested as her friend stepped out of view.
The thing holding her smelled musky and pungent; the scent was almost making her dizzy. It again deposited her on the ground and she flipped around to view her antagonist.
She quickly wished she hadn't.
The creature - the thing that attacked her couldn't possibly be considered a man - stood nearly seven feet tall and was muscled like an Olympic bodybuilder. Every inch of him was covered in greenish scales and bony spikes at the joints. The creature's brutal claws looked as though they could strip the flesh off a bear. A barbed, reptilian tale swished behind it. Its face was oddly more mamalian and, although it too was scaled, it appeared to be somewhat lupine. Two large horns crowned its head, and it looked at her with burning yellow, slitted eyes.
Cindy stared wide-eyed, afraid to move.
"Cindy, is it?" It sniffed the air around her noisily, kneeling down in front of her.
"I ... didn't mean to ... disturb ... your home, I just want ... to ... go. Please let me go!"
"My home?" it snorted. It slowly grabbed her ankles, sliding her closer.
"Please, I have money. I'll help you get whatever you want. Please!" Cindy whimpered.
The creature's laugh was a cacophony of tormented screams. "Oh, you'll do more than help me, my little beast. You'll serve me. You'll crave me. You will be my bride."