Drip. Drip. Drip. The cave was silent, the rhythmic dripping of water echoing through the caverns, echoing through my mind. Five years stuck in these hollows, five long and dragging years spent searching for something that might not even exist. No one dared enter this cursed maze, and those who did… they were no more than entertainment for the king, sent to wander these caves to find the ancient relic that, according to tales of old, lay hidden beneath the walls of cold, emotionless stone.
They say you don’t go crazy if you’re talking to walls… only if they start responding. First it was the piles of bones, then the stones, and then the walls, all speaking, all having something to say. As I move through the halls, each looking exactly like the last, the walls point me forward… through the empty, abandoned rooms I walk, my memories as my only true companions. It’s funny, isn’t it, and quite ironic… I walked into here for them, for her… and ended up with none of them…
Five years of walking, five years of thinking… I still remember that day I walked into these twisted, winding corridors, confident I would walk out with the relic, confident I would be able to give them a good life by winning this cruel game. Perhaps there never was a relic in the first place, and I gambled my life away for nothing, nothing at all… but the whispering and mumbling of the walls guide me on, promising a way out of here, promising a way to return to the life that was once mine…
And the memories, the bittersweet memories, they walk with me, and remind me of what once was. It’s all just pain now, stinging me relentlessly, hovering over me and driving its sharp, ugly teeth into me. Oh how I long for just one word, one word from anyone else, anyone other than my own hoarse voice calling for a sign, a sign if there is anyone else walking along these halls. How I haven’t yet died of hunger, I will never know, but the voices, the voices, getting more twisted and horrid with every moment that passes, they hurt me more than thirst or hunger ever could…
But finally… I see a light shining from the top, a barren, slanted path leading up to it. It can’t be… but it must! The way I walked into here, the path that led me down to five years of pain… it will finally become the way that I leave. No more shall I be confined by those dark walls, no more shall I wander these corridors without any hope of escape, no more shall I spend hours talking with my own thoughts! Freedom, sweet freedom, how I have longed for you! I will get to see the light of day again… I will get to see her again…
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
And the king, the cruel king using us as if we were his playthings, he shall pay, I will make sure of it, even if it will be the last thing I do with my life. No one shall have to go through that pain of isolation that I went through, no one shall be tricked as cruelly as I was… except for the king, he will be forced to enter this draining labyrinth and the entrance shall be barricaded, as it had been for years before. I wonder… what kind soul rolled the stone away from the entrance, who has set me free? No matter, I shall find them and give my thanks to them, but first, I must escape!
The exit inches closer and closer with my every step, I can hear my loved ones call out to me… for the first time in five years, I hear her voice… what if this is yet another horrid trick of the mind? No, no, it cannot be, not with the way out so near! Just a few steps more… at last, I am back where I belong, back in the outside world, above ground once more!
But… where are the rolling green plains, the ones that I knew so well, where have they gone to? The sun, it shines, yes, but its blinding rays shine down on an empty gray land, no sign of life or death anywhere. Nothing more than a small stream of water running by me, nothing more… what will I see if I look into that stream? A reflection of the past, perhaps? Perhaps some explanation of where it all disappeared to?
A while passes, and I dare look into the water. A pair of squinting eyes looks back at me, eyes resting on a wrinkled face with a messy beard. A wrinkled face on a crooked body… is this what I have become in those cursed five years? No, not five years, that too must have been a lie, a lie I made for myself in my loneliness… it was an eternity spent in those damned caves, an eternity that stole everything I had from me. I stand above the water, no one by my side, and I feel the tears drop down my face and into the stream… drip… drip… drip…