He opened his eyes, feeling like he’d heard someone’s voice.
It was dark. Nighttime, maybe? But not pitch black. There were lights. Fire. Above him. Some kind of lighting. Candles, it looked like. Small ones affixed to the wall. Not just one, but many, spaced evenly, continuing as far as he could see.
Where was this place?
It was kind of hard to breathe.
When he tried touching the wall, it was hard and rocky. This was no wall. It was just bare rock. Little wonder his back was sore after lying against it. His butt hurt, too.
Maybe he was in a cave... A cave? Why would he be in a cave...?
Those candles were pretty high up. He might be able to reach one if he stood; that was how high they were. Moreover, they didn’t even give off enough light for him to see his hands and feet.
But he sensed the presence of others nearby. When he listened closely, there was a faint noise that sounded like breathing.
Humans? What if they weren’t? He might be in trouble. But they sounded human, somehow.
“Is anyone there?” he asked hesitantly.
“Uh, yeah,” a man’s voice shot back.
“I’m here...” came another response, likely that of a woman.
Another man’s voice gave a short, “Yeah.”
“I figured as much,” another person added.
“How many of us are there?”
“Should we count?”
“And... where are we, anyway?”
“Dunno...”
“What? Doesn’t anyone know where we are?”
“What’s going on?”
“What is this?”
Seriously. What the hell was this? What was he doing in a place like this? And why? How long had he been here?
He clutched at his chest tightly, as if trying to claw something off of it.
He had no clue what was going on. How long had he been here? Why was he here?
When he began to consider his situation, something began to tug at the back of his mind. But it suddenly vanished before he could latch on to it.
He didn’t know. He didn’t know anything. He was at a complete loss.
“Sitting here won’t solve anything,” said one man in a low, husky voice.
There was a sound, like someone stepping on pebbles. It sounded like the man had stood up.
“Going somewhere...?” a woman’s voice asked.
“Following the wall,” the man answered. “Going to try heading towards the light.” The man’s tone was surprisingly calm.
Wasn’t he scared? Why wasn’t he shaken up by this?
The man was now beneath the second candle from him, and he seemed very tall.
He could make out a bit of the man’s head in the candlelight. The man’s hair wasn’t black. Was it... silver?
“I’m going, too,” the woman said.
“Me too, I guess,” a man’s voice said.
“H-Hold on, guys! I’m coming, too, then!” called another man.
“There’s the other direction, too,” said yet another person. The voice sounded slightly high-pitched, but it was probably another male. “We can probably go that way. There’s no candles, though.”
The silver-haired man said, “If you want to go that way, be my guest,” and started walking.
It looked like everyone would be following the silver-haired man. I had better go, too, then, he thought. He stood up hurriedly, not wanting to be left alone.
He nervously stepped forward, keeping a hand on the rock wall. The ground wasn’t smooth. It was uneven, but easy enough to walk on.
There was someone in front of him, and someone behind. He didn’t know who, though.
Judging by their voices, nobody here was all that old. I don’t know any of these people... at least, I don’t think so, he thought.
Who were the people he knew? Acquaintances. Friends. But just exactly who were they?
Strange. He couldn’t think of anyone. No, it was more like whenever he tried to work backwards from the faces that did come to mind, they would suddenly vanish.
He didn’t know.
It didn’t just happen with just friends. Family, too. It wasn’t that he didn’t know them at all. It was more that he ought to have known them, but he was forgetting.
“Maybe it’s best not to think about it,” he said out loud.
“Did you...” asked a voice from behind. Definitely a young girl’s voice. “Did you say something?”
“No, it was nothing—”
He stopped.
Nothing important? Really? Nothing important? How was it not important?
He shook his head to clear it.
At some point, he seemed to have stopped walking. I should continue on, he thought.
He needed to keep walking. It was better not to think about it. The more he tried to remember, the less he felt like he knew.
The row of candles continued. There was no end in sight.
How long had he been walking? Had he walked a long way, or not? He couldn’t say which. His sense of time and space had become dulled.
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