Why do the carved eyes follow visitors through the shadowed passages? Which meditation chambers remain sealed after the monks fled in terror? What whispers echo from statues that should be silent stone? And why does the count of Buddha figures change each time someone tries to number them?
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The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
― Joseph Campbell
The archaeological team had been working in the cave complex for three weeks when Dr. Sarah Chen first noticed the discrepancy. According to their surveys, there should have been exactly one thousand Buddha statues carved into the limestone walls. Yet every count came up short by seven.
“Perhaps they were destroyed,” suggested her colleague, Marcus, wiping dust from his glasses. “Vandalism, natural erosion, the usual suspects.” But Sarah had walked every mapped tunnel, examined every alcove. There were no signs of destruction, no debris, no empty niches. It was as if seven Buddhas had simply… never existed.
The breakthrough came when they discovered the unmarked passage behind a false wall. Their lights revealed a narrow corridor that descended deeper into the earth than any of their maps indicated. The walls here were different---older, rougher, as if carved by different hands entirely. And there, in seven perfect alcoves, sat the missing Buddhas.
But these statues were wrong. Where the others sat in peaceful meditation, these seven were carved in positions of terror. Their eyes were wide, mouths agape in silent screams. Each faced inward toward the corridor’s end, as if watching something that should not be seen. Worse still, the stone around them was warm to the touch, and Sarah could swear she heard the faintest sound of breathing.
When Marcus disappeared during the night shift, they found him the next morning in the hidden chamber. He knelt before the eighth alcove---one they hadn’t noticed before. His body had turned to stone, his face frozen in the same expression of absolute horror as the Buddha statues around him. The only difference was that his eyes still moved, following anyone who dared to look.
Sarah sealed the passage before leaving, but she knew the truth. The Thousand Buddhas weren’t guardians of the sacred---they were wardens of the damned. And somewhere in those depths, something was still carving.
