Following Kaytlinn, we went down, deeper into the tunnel, with my instincts screaming at me that there was something inherently wrong with this place. Moving forward was an uncertainty, now even more than ever. And yet, behind us would’ve surely awaited a life in captivity as slaves of war, if not certain death. It felt as if my life until this point—or at least, after my memories got erased—had been nothing but mystery piled atop another mystery, and instead of finding clues, I was just finding even more questions. What was my vision about? Was that a memory, or perhaps something yet to happen?

  Alas, our decision was made. Turning back now would’ve been a greater risk than to continue further. I would rather have to deal with whatever bandits or looters could be hiding inside these mines than trying to sneak around an entire enemy army. That is, with any hope that bandits were all that expected us down here.

  Minutes, hours seem to pass, but the way out is still nowhere to be seen.

  “How much until we, uh, reach the exit?” I asked Kaytlinn, as we limped our way past a corner, my voice barely above a whisper. The lingering smell of something rotten was permeating in the air.

  She turned around to face me, the slight shaking of her lantern flickering the shadows it cast, occasionally hitting the small sapphire chips and dust along the walls.

  “I don’t know.” She answered in an annoyed, yet apologetic tone.

  As she said those words, a hint of something else plagued her expression, although I was unsure of what.

  “In all honesty, it kind of feels like we should’ve been there by now.”

  “What?” My voice shook, unable to contain the anxiety and stress of the situation. Unarmed, injured, deep inside an abandoned enemy mine. The more I thought about it, the more thoughts raced their way to fog my concentration. Kate, thankfully, managed to reply quickly enough to keep them from spiraling, albeit only for a short time.

  “The structure, the architecture of the outpost itself… I don’t exactly know how to explain it. From what I saw outside the fortress—from the entrance I saw at a glance on the other side of the sandstone mountain; it feels like we’ve walked double the distance it would’ve taken us to reach it from one side to the other.” She elaborated, her fingers gripping the lamp tighter in unease.

  “Maybe it’s just because I’m really eager to get out of here.”

  She let out a forced laugh, trying her best to shift the tone in something less daunting. The echoing sound followed by the immediate, absolute silence, though, only served to have the opposite effect. It could’ve been called almost tranquil, if not for the reek of a decomposing corpse following us wherever we went.

  It’s then, in the creepy quietude, that I notice a glimmer in the distance, something reflecting off our light, likely metallic. Kaytlinn’s step grows slower, but doesn't entirely stop, as our curiosity takes the better of us.

  We walk closer to the shimmer, hearts stuck in our throats, preparing ourselves to react at the first sign of movement, aware of the fact that given our wounds, we’d have a better chance at fighting than running away.

  Shapes slowly get more and more distinct, its material now fully enveloped by the dim light of the burning oil.

  “Jesus.” I murmur, letting out a sigh of genuine relief. Before us is just another one of those old pickaxes, laying on the cold stone ground. I put a hand on Kate’s shoulder from behind her, as a sort of encouraging gesture. She, however, just stands there, motionless, only semblance of reaction being a small flinch when my fingers make contact with the fabric of her dress.

  “Ansel.” She says, firmly, but also questioningly, as though she’s looking for my attention, or waiting for a reply.

  “Y-Yes?” I ask, unnerved at her behavior.

  She takes a few more seconds to look at the seemingly mundane tool, only making the suspense and my already immense wariness grow with each passing moment.

  Her head ever so slightly turns to its left, not to look me in the eyes, as she’s clearly still concentrated on whatever it is that’s puzzling her; it’s just a simple signal for me to acknowledge she’s actually speaking to me.

  “I might be going mad. But.” She abruptly interrupts the silence. “Haven’t we been here before?”

  Just like that, she shatters the last bit of composure I have left. Hers might be a simple mistake, but the guttural feeling that had been creeping up inside of me until this point had already warned me of something unnatural.

  My mind goes wild, like a forest being engulfed with the wildfire of possible meanings behind her question.

  At this point, my eyes are locked to Kaytlinn.

  I fear even just looking around at my surroundings, as if trying to protect myself from the truth of the matter.

  My eyelids flutter. My head twitches. Likely mechanisms of my brain preparing itself to process whatever answer would come out of her mouth next.

  “...Why do you say that?”

  Yet, as the words I had exhausted so much of my courage just to utter echo throughout the tunnel, repeating back, drilling themselves into my mind, increasing the overwhelmingly stressful expectations, she doesn’t answer.

  All that talk about being mysterious, now she gives me this shite?

  “Kate.” I say rigidly, trying to draw a reply out of her, angered by the lack of one.

  She slowly raises her arm in front of her, causing the clicking of old metal parts in the lamp. Then, she wobbles to the side, allowing me a view of what had been bothering her this entire time.

  My heart stops. My lungs cease to function. My vision goes blurry once more.

  It’s not another corpse. Not another person who’s life had been taken in these mines, but something with far worse implications: the same body we saw before. Markus’ body. His pale, contorted face, with the same river of dried, sticky blood flowing from his neck wound.

  “But how is—”

  My voice manages to produce. The groan of a man trying to explain the unexplainable.

  “It’s not. It can’t be, therefore it’s not.” She interjects, full of confidence.

  “We’re both tired. I… I think we should rest for today. Maybe continue later, or tomorrow.”

  “Maybe.” I reply, devoid of conviction, a chill running down my spine. “Maybe you’re right. We should go back, find a spot behind that—” I say, as I turn around. But the end of that sentence doesn’t manage to escape me.

  Behind us is an impossibility becoming reality. The entrance to the tunnels, just a few steps away. We had walked for hours, and yet here it was, just a few seconds away from me.

  As if this wasn’t enough, night had already set outside.

  We entered the mines when it was still morning daylight, perhaps barely noon if you wanted to stretch it, and yet the moon and stars were creeping up on the horizon, almost mockingly, at my lack of understanding.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Not a single noise or soul inhabits the outpost.

  Panic completely sets in, digging its claws into my very flesh, goosebumps hitting me in waves and stiffening my limbs.

  I turn back around, ready to scream for Kaytlinn, but she’s no longer there. In fact, there’s nothing in front of me anymore; the lack of simple light had made the corridors engulfed in eerie, imposing darkness.

  I quickly turn again, but even the entrance has now disappeared. I’m in the middle of the mines once more.

  My head spins. The thoughts grow louder. The silence becomes deafening.

  Is this a nightmare? Of course, it has to be. I pray it is, for the alternative would be far, far worse.

  I clutch my hanging head, the unwashed hair dropping down like a weeping willow betwixt my fingers as I close my eyes.

  The world around me whirls in blood-curling confusion as my brain fails to understand the horrifying notion that the laws of everything I knew and understood were beginning to fall apart.

  I feel petrified. Alone.

  Tears begin to form at the corners of my eye, collecting into bunches before their weight breaks the tension, as they begin to flow down my face unrestricted.

  I scream.

  I scream as loud as humanly possible.

  When I’m out of breath, my lungs unlock, letting me inhale in bursts, the oxygen flowing into my chest feeling like unchewed food, a large knot trying to forcefully make its way down.

  I scream again, but the urge to sob interrupts me.

  After a short pause, I scream again.

  I scream, I wail and I groan.

  As I shake my skull around, my body instinctively tries to balance me by moving my foot behind, but I accidentally step onto my wounded leg, which sends an unexpected shockwave of pain, making me stagger and ultimately fall backwards.

  Something, however, catches my fall.

  My eyes jolt back open, and I jump sideways.

  “Ans!” I hear yelling. It’s Kaytlinn.

  “Ans– what the hell is going on?”

  I look at her, eyes red from crying. The small relief of no longer being alone rushes through me.

  “Ans, snap out of it. We need to move.”

  She looks down, grabs my hand, and yanks it towards her like an impatient mother with her kid, as she starts sprinting through the tunnel, ignoring the pain of her ankle. Surprised at the sudden pull, I start skipping, trying to put pressure on my healthy leg as much as physically possible. The light of the lantern illuminates the path ahead, if only barely. It’s just dirt, sand and rocks.

  “W-Where are we going?” I manage to ask, the soreness of my throat vibrating with each word from the stress it had endured earlier.

  “I don’t bloody know! Away from this place. Anywhere that isn’t here.” She proclaims between breaths while running.

  “Kate, stop!”

  “Are you out of your mind?! We need to get out of here!”

  “But you don’t even know where you’re—”

  “I don’t care!” She interrupts me. “We’ll have to get out of here eventually! We’ll have to. We’ll have to.”

  “Kate for Christ’s sake, stop—”

  But before I can finish, she trips, falling to the ground, bringing me down with her.

  “—Ahk!” I whimper, my knee hitting one of the rocks on the floor dead centre.

  The lantern smashes against the stone pavement. Luckily, it doesn’t break.

  Kaytlinn looks down, defeated.

  A few seconds of quiet nothingness go by, the only sound being the shuffling of our clothes, as we shift around and sit to recover our stamina.

  The silence is broken by the sound of Kaytlinn’s fists hitting the ground in frustration. After a short while, she hits it again. Soon enough, she starts punching it repeatedly, making her knuckles bleed as they get scratched and bruised.

  I crawl on my hands and knees to try and stop her, reaching towards her, but she slaps my arm off.

  “Don’t you fucking touch me!” She yells.

  Her voice squeals loudly, echoing all around us, as she looks at me with an expression full of hate and fear.

  I quickly back away, shocked. Her brows shift upwards, from a frown to deeply apologetic. She opens her mouth, but it takes her a few moments before she can speak.

  “I– I’m sorry. Don’t touch me.” She continues, her words being softer, but still demanding in tone.

  “I, uh, didn’t mean to.” I apologize, unsure of what I had done wrong.

  She looks away and crosses her arms, closing herself in as tight a space as she can, as if cold, or protecting herself from something. I want to talk to her, say something else, but before I manage to, we hear something in the distance, sounding like the moan of a weak, wounded man.

  Our heads turn towards the sound, almost in unison. However, it’s dark, and we’re unable to see where it originates from.

  Kaytlinn grabs the lantern off the ground and jumps back up. I follow her lead.

  The light reveals his figure: that of a skinny, bearded miner, covered in dirt and soot, sitting next to the wall with a hand on his stomach. His face, although cleaner than the rest of him, is of a strange, almost brownish color. It’s not grime—it looks as if the very color of his skin is darker than ours. His clothes are dirty, with strange colors and patterns woven into them.

  We hobble closer, hearing his voice. He rambles incoherently in a foreign language.

  “Min– Min 'anta? Kayf wasalat 'iilaa huna?”

  Me and Kaytlinn look at each other.

  “Do you know what he’s saying?” I ask.

  “No.” She replies, looking back at him, kneeling to his level.

  The man wobbles his head around, swallowing. I then notice how dry his lips are. How long has he been here?

  “Ma’. Ma’? Water?”

  He has a weird accent, one that is definitely unfamiliar to me, as listening to it does not remind me of anything or anyone.

  “Sorry, no, we don’t have any water with us.” Kaytlinn replies.

  “Bialtabe lays ladayk 'aaay. What do here? How get here? You Raspelian?” The man angrily questions us.

  “W-We are from Andonia.” Kate tries to answer him, having some difficulty understanding what he’s actually saying.

  “Are you… from Al’Saava by any chance? Were you a Koshak miner?”

  “Eh.” The man exclaims in what I can only describe as an affirmative tone of voice.

  “I miner of village. Raspelian come, kill all. I hide in mine. Mine dark, can hide in mine, nobody come.”

  He points with his shaky hand at the lantern, then drops his arm back down.

  “Light. Light mine.”

  Kaytlinn takes a quick glance at me for reassurance, before continuing.

  “We found this lamp at the entrance, near a body. Were you the one to kill him?”

  The man hangs his head down, whispering some things to himself.

  “Markus. Markus good man. Markus feed me food. He find me and come with food often.” He then says out loud.

  Kaytlinn grips the lantern tighter.

  “You knew Markus? Was he the one to bring you bread? So you lived here all this time?” She asked, forgetting her own previous question.

  “Eh. I do. He feed me, bring me water, bread.”

  “Why did you never try to escape?” Kate continued.

  “Escape where? Raspelian village? Raspelian kill me! Like Raspelian kill Rabbia, Uzza, everyone.” He says, visibly agitated.

  “Escape from the other side of the tunnel outside the camp.”

  “Other side? No, only one side. Cave outside young, very short. Tunnel outside no bring here.”

  Me and Kaytlinn froze in place. The mutual understanding of what those words meant for us, the implications of what we’d have to do next, it honestly scared me. The unnatural silence of the tunnels crept its way back between the three of us.

  “What are these mines?” Kate continued, partly to distract herself from having to think about the situation we were currently in.

  “What is going on down here? Why is everything… weird?”

  “Mine. Mine is cursed.” The miner said, matter-of-factly.

  “T’Salla curse me. T’Salla curse mine. T’Salla saw me coward, punish me for hiding.”

  “Cursed the tunnels? Who’s T’Salla?” She asked, concerned.

  “T’Salla is T’Salla. He is not man, not woman. I angered T’Salla. This is my punishment.”