Part II

Slamming the flashlight against my free hand, I work to get the thing working again, but to no avail. The darkness has consumed us, leaving us blind, and even if we decided to turn back, we had turned down several passages to get where we are. We would not be able to find our way back in the darkness.

“Can´t you get that damned thing working?” Aicha exclaims, clutching to my arm, her fingers slowly digging into the bare skin. She’s just as afraid as I am, but I´m certainly not the strongest mentally. I am afraid of my own fear; afraid of the feeling I am getting now caused by the surge of sudden adrenaline. I am afraid of what lurks in the darkness about us.

“*No, not afraid…terrified!*”

“The damn thing won’t work!” I return, continuing to slam the flashlight against my hand, then against the stone wall beside me to my right. “*We should have brought that other one back at the store with us.*” I think to myself, hitting myself mentally for not thinking ahead this time, which is not like me.

We can´t go forward, we can´t go back – we are stuck where we are. And as we stand together, two women who thought they could find a legendary thing, we belittle ourselves, thinking that we should not have attempted this adventure. No, not adventure – stupidity! This is utter stupidity!

With a deep sigh of frustration, anger and fear, I look through the darkness ahead of us, then behind us, the way we came.

“We can either go back the way we came, or we keep moving. Maybe we will can one of the old lanterns or candles used by the miners here somewhere?”

I feel Aicha shudder against me at the thought of searching through the darkness for anything to make a fire. She doesn’t like the idea, I can feel it, but what else can we do?

“Sure, ok.” I hear her answer, squeezing my arm under her hand as if to comfort me, or herself. Aicha slowly moves away from my side, but I hear her move through the water beside me. “You look on that side while I look on this side.”

“Alright, but be careful.” I warn, placing my hand along the rugged rocky surface of the wall to my right, feeling along the wall up and down, then into the water for anything that could be used. Aicha does the same, the water splashing softly in her search. Together, we search up and down with our hands, continuing down the tunnel as we go, listening for one another so that we don´t get ahead of each other.

Suddenly my hand hits something, along with a nasty cobweb, causing me to gasp aloud and instantly recoil my hand in reflex. But just as I am about to grab for whatever my hand brushed against, I hear a far sound deeper along the tunnel.

“Aicha!” I exclaim, calling her back to me to keep us together, grasping to one another. And together, we listen. The sound is low and deep, and I can feel its rumble deep inside my chest, and it is constant.

The loose stray hairs about my head begins to move about me, and the chill air of the tunnel begins to move faster. And as the current gradually picks up, I hear the low deep sound grow louder, and soon the ground under our feet begins to tremble as if the mountain itself is afraid of what is happening.

Dust particles and larger pieces of things fly passed us, causing us to press against the wall of the tunnel. Soon the air whistles in our ears, and the deep sound begins to change – from a rumble to a great roar. It is almost as if we have awoken a great demon that had been sleeping, roaring aloud in anger and throwing its breath at us.

Things become a great storm, forcing Aicha and I to turn into one another, huddling together low against the rocky wall behind me, using our backpacks to protect ourselves from the wind and the debris it brings.

“Oh God, oh God, oh god…”

I cannot help the cry of fear and the tears that slip from my eyes. I am terrified, but I am not alone. Aicha murmurs a sutra under her breath, wiping the tears from her eyes the best as she is able.

The storm rages harder, the roar grows powerfully louder, making the ground and the walls of the tunnel to shake violently.

“STOP!” I finally can´t take any more, my fear in some odd way turning into anger.

The storm vanishes. There is nothing but silence…and the darkness

I cannot help the laugh at the irony. It was as if something or someone heard my cry and ceased its attack upon us. Maybe it had something to do with the sutra Aicha had prayed. There is no real answer except that we are both alive.

“Dawn?”

“Yeah?”

“What was that?”

“I have no freakin idea…”

Something is wrong, I can feel it in the air. The darkness feels thicker, seeming to caress my body as if it were physical matter. It is all too quiet – not even the trickling water can be heard. Nothing except our own hard breathing. And, there is no trace of the soft current of air moving through the tunnel.

We remain huddled together, almost kneeling in the water, leaning against the hard rough surface of the mineshaft, daring not to move in fear that the storm inside the mountain will happen again.

In the time in what seems forever, we hold to each other, our bodies still trembling and our breaths come in deep fast breaths. And then, I break the silence.

“Aicha?”

“Yeah?”

“You alright?”

“I guess so. You?”

“I don´t know, guess I´m alright too.”

With a soft chuckle, not out of humor, but out of fear and slightest of relief, we slowly rise to our shaky feet, looking behind us, then forward again. And for the faintest of moments…I thought I had seen something…before I turn back to Aicha.

Slowly, not quite sure what I had seen, not quite believing what I thought I had seen, I look back down the tunnel, deeper into the mouth of darkness…only to see the faintest glimmerings of…light!

Quickly I get Aicha’s attention, shaking her arm as I point down the tunnel toward the light, forgetting that Aicha probably can´t see me nor my arm. But I hear her gasp aloud with surprise.

“Light!” We announce as one, in disbelief. And together, we move along the tunnel way, as if being drawn to the light like moths to the flame. But we are weary, moving slowly toward the light, unsure what lies beyond.

It doesn’t make any difference.

“Who are you?”

With a loud gasp, I feel as if my heart stops in my chest and my throat instantly constricts. The darkness consumes me once more, but this time…I´m out cold – fainted.