The Cave

It was dark and deadly silent aside from the drip drip drip of water from the stalagmites stretching off the ceiling, trying to pierce the floor with their mortally sharp points.

How could you have let us get here? The voice inside her head spat.

This is all your fault. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you. I should have listened to my mother and done what she and I both knew was right. She thought back furiously. She’d known from the beginning that voice would be her demise. And she had been right. Here she sat; in the heart of the frigid blackness, surrounded on all sides by solid walls able to stop any attempts of escaping this horrid fate.

You know that’s not at all what you were thinking at the time. You wanted me. You wanted me there to guide you through what you were unable to do alone. You were weak.

She didn’t think a reply, or say one either. She merely sat there. She tried to find a defense to the voices awful accusation, but she could think of none. But she would never admit that. Oh well. She did not want to respond to her mind anyway, so why would she waste her time thinking something up. She wouldn’t and that was that.

But the words seemed to stay there. Permanently etched into the side of her skull repeating themselves over and over again so she could here of her weakness and how she had betrayed not only herself, but the ones she loved. She started to cry. Her sobs echoed of the insulated walls of stone changing the environment completely; from deadly silence to surround-sound sobs.

She had no idea how long she’d been sitting there curled up and bawling when she heard fate calling her name, or not calling. Her ears had grown sensitive enough in her days of lonely silence to hear the difference. That one small detail that could save her life. The sound.

The sound, she realized was not the same all around her as it had been for so long before the sobs had come. The sound, she thought is not echoing from all sides. The sound, she realized, was not surround-sound sobbing after all.

And she stopped. This could save my life.

Our life.

No. My life. Not ours or yours. Mine.

You really think it will be that easy?

She ignored the question and set to work. How to do this… she asked herself. Not that infernal voice, but her own brain. Ordering her brain to think. Ordering the wheels to turn and belts to glide pushing away the cobwebs and dust that collects after a long life of dormancy, feeding her information more efficiently than ever before.

She let out a small yelp and strained her ears, listening for the change of sound in any direction. She caught it. Coming from what she thought was behind her. She turned slowly, squeaking again into the blackness. Her throat hurt. She had not used it in so long, even before this all happened. She noticed the difference yet again, stopping her turn quite abruptly when it became distinct. She walked forward, again, very slowly stumbling on her steps. She got steadier as she moved on. She stopped after taking about eight steps. She was very surprised she had not run into anything yet. She leaned forward and yelped, pulling back quickly after the sound escaped her mouth. The sound in front of her obviously had less substance than when she was eight steps back and turned around. She wanted to turn now and test it from her current position, but did not move a muscle in fear that she would never find this awesome stance again. Instead of turning she walked forward more. She walked and walked, she had to have taken ten steps when something marvelous happened. She hit the wall. But it was not a full on hit that would bring disappointment and fear. No. It was a miraculous half body hit that told her she was meant to step to the side and move forward, hopefully out of this pit of doom she was landed in. So she did want she was told she was meant to do. She took that step to the side, she did not know which side, she had forgotten such inconsequential things while working through life or death, and then started to put one foot in front of another. She ran into stone obstacles the same as the first and with each one she did the same as she did that first time. As she got further and further away from her starting point she learned to make the sideways adjustments on her own, before she smacked into walls.

It felt like it had been hours when she finally stopped to catch her breath. She was tired and sore and wanted very badly to sit and rest and sleep, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t stop now. She had to keep going while she still had somewhere to go. She could not let as small of a thing as sleep deprivation stop her now. So she kept moving through the darkness. It didn’t seem so cold anymore, she noticed after another very long time when she stopped to breath. That had to be a good sign. That had to be some sort of signal that she was getting closer to the end of this, or maybe just a sign that she was getting more exercise now than she had in a very long time. She hoped it was number one of the two choices. She started again. On and on she went. Until… until she saw light! Or something she thought was light. It had to be light. She sped up her pace and lengthened her strides. Soon enough she was running. She sprinted towards that piece of hope that kept getting bigger at the end of this tunnel.

And it was light.