Money Changes Everything
“Unless you don’t want to see.”
With another thump of bones on the wall, my lantern went out, and I knew the darkness that has seen no light. I was engulfed by the blackness of hell. A total blindness, born without eyes. I waved my hands in front of my face and felt the air rush over my skin, but I couldn’t see a thing. It was a suffocating pitch that made me gasp for breath. Even though there was plenty of oxygen, the walls of my crypt-like cocoon closed in. I pawed at my unseeing eyes and screamed, thinking sound alone might illumine my surroundings.
My echo retreated, and I was left with his bone-scraping melody along the wall. “Won’t do no good to go and lose your mind, you know. You’ll still die down here in the end. Like me.”
“Maybe insanity will make it bearable.” I rasped it through clenched teeth and tasted my own salty blood.
Another flick of his unseen white fingers, and my lantern was alight. It pulsed through the center of his skull and lit up his socket eyes. “It won’t.” He whispered it. “Follow me.”
We wound through a series of underground canyons. Chasms that bored into the earth forever. Sheer rock walls that led into the abyss. As I crawled along a foot-wide ledge behind him, I muttered, “Is this hell?”
“No.” His voice shimmered in the dimness. “It is your salvation.”
“Why does salvation seem like I’m damned?”
“Because,” the Old Man replied, “you are too blind to see.”
A fiction series to explore a place. Who knows where I will go, but it will NOT be Wonderland. Read the first installment here and the second installment here.
anything i say, would not measure up to your art.. so i’ll just shut up..
Elena, I haven’t seen a post from you in a while. Are you still in Moscow? Or have you moved on?
back in lA. Now will be writing about the past months on the road…it will take me another several months to write all down ) just posted something yesterday )
I loved that post. The combination of your photography and words is breathtaking.
Skeeered….
Have you ever been caving, Lou?
Yes, we had some decent caves in Southeast Ohio and we visited those on occasion. Nothing like the video posted here, but, enough to be kinda exciting for a teenager…you know, the kind where the girl holds on to one’s arm even harder.
Hahaha. Why is it not hard for me to see that?
See no reason, yet, to stop shuddering. However, there is always hope: http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20118461,00.html
The most striking thing about that article is how much magazine writing has changed with the internet. What an awesome story, though. I am glad they survived.
In the dark, with a spectre, crawling on a ledge above an abyss. Not. where. I. want. to. be. Get me out of here! When I come to places like this in stories, I have such a hard time telling myself, “this is fiction.” And so this is a rather strange accolade, because this feels too real…
For me, the parts of stories that are the scariest are the ones that can really happen. While I do not believe crawling around behind a skeleton could happen in real life, being trapped in a cave or someplace dark and not being able to get out is a very real possibility, even without entering a cave. So, I hear you. Maybe it feels real because it is something of which I am deathly afraid.
That’s it. I’m never going spelunking again. Ever.
I did it last year, to face a fear. We went from Nashville to Mammoth Cave. Not a far drive for you, you know.
Was blind but now I see…. seems like your skeletal character may know a bit of hymns. Amazing Grace.
Those dark, closed in, no-air-moving spaces really freak some people out. They trigger the claustrophobia in many. For some reason, I find them comforting.
Amazing Grace is one of my faves.
I have raging claustrophobia in places like that. Always have. I feel like I am suffocating, and no amount of telling myself I am not alters that reaction. If I had been trapped for three days in total darkness like the folks in Karen’s article, I would’ve been either dead or insane when they found me. I even had an unreasonable bout of fear when I went to get a facial a couple of weeks ago, and the person put something over my eyes to make everything really dark. I didn’t lose it there on the table, but I almost had to ask her to take that off. Because I was able to open my eyes and see a little sliver of light coming in, I calmed down.
When we went to Mammoth Cave last year, I picked a long trip on purpose. We were underground for almost 5 hours, and part of it included turning out the lights. Even though I spent most of the time telling myself I would be fine leading up to it, I had the same unreasonable, instantaneous reaction to the dark.
I’ve always wondered where this fear came from. I have suspicions about it. Maybe I will write a story about that next, because it’s a doozy.
I would love to hear that story. I bet it is a mighty one.
Nancy has this same fear. She can not stand it. She was once in a cave like that when they turned the light off and she completely freaked out. The dungeons in the British castles didn’t do much for her either.
The only time I have had anything close to that feeling was while in an MRI machine. It was just so cramped and close.
On the other hand, my unreasonable fear is heights. Your pictures of standing on mountain ledges and precipices just kill me. Yes, I can even get queasy and dizzy looking at plain old pictures. I have to close my eyes and talk myself down.
I’m with Carnell. Caves don’t particularly frighten me, and those I’ve visited have been interesting experiences: 1) http://www.rubyfalls.com/pages/Cave-Falls-Photo-Gallery/ and 2) http://www.spherovision.net/html5/US117LS/US117_007_J4/p01b_m.html Yes, they turned the lights out, briefly, at Ruby Falls; I struggled with that just a little bit (my equilibrium gets skewed pretty easily). The sea caves at Florence are incredibly “stinky” because of, for lack of a better description, all that sea lion poop!
When it comes to me and heights, though, we are definitely discussing a horse of an entirely different color!
It will not fit with this story, but maybe I will use it to inspire my next one.
Wonderful – I’m in there with them – sleeping with the light on AGAIN tonight.
I hope this message does not find you sleeping with the light on, Jim. Perhaps the turn of events today will assuage your fears.
I hope so!
I saw your comment about how it’s not possible to “crawl around after a skeleton,” but you’ve tapped into how the mind is such a powerful tool, and under extreme pressure or fear the imagination is more powerful than reality. That’s why this feels possible. I find the setting for this character both believable and intensely frightening, so this is a page-turner. Are you going to leave us hanging again?
I don’t know. I write these until I don’t feel inspired anymore. I do have a conclusion for this one, but it may take me several more days to get there.
Very scary.
It is to me, too, Roger.
“Is this hell?” = amazing
I love reading this story because with each installment I go, sunuvabitch! I wish I was writing this.
Good cliffhangeish final line.
you write real good.
Thank you. The whole point of this blog is to exercise.
Well done! I would not want to be in a cave without a light . . . with or without a skeleton for company.
If I didn’t have a light, the presence of the skeleton would not matter.
This just gets more and more interesting! I’m loving this one.
Thanks. It has been fun to write.