the cave

As I look back, I hear a cave crashing and crumbling behind me. I run towards a light that appears in the far distance. A deep dark roar urges me forwards. A boulder falls from the depth and ferocity of the sound. I find myself literally stuck between a rock and a hard place and fall to my knees, screaming. My screams echo, despair urging me to continue my quest.

As my left arms reach upwards, trying to find a hole in the boulder to grab onto, my feet do the same! Slowly, and carefully, I reach the topmost point of the massive chunk of fallen rock. Victorious, I wonder how to descend the rock that I have painstakingly climbed.

Deciding it the quickest route, I jump onto the jagged cave floor, a loud crack filling the air. I look at my arm, a piece of bone sticking out of my skin. As, what can only be described to be a monster’s roar sounds from the other side of the boulder, I carefully carry my arm and once again am moving forwards.

The farther I run, the more ground I put between myself and the ‘monster’ who is chasing me. The light, growing bigger with every step I take, is the all-important incentive. Suddenly, I hear a crunch behind me, the sheer thought that it might have been the boulder crumbling under the violent monster’s strength creeps into my head! I look behind me and see two illuminous red eyes approaching me with speed. I fall. I can hear the struggling breath of a massive creature growing ever closer and stumble to my feet, my broken arm waving freely in the air.

As I carry my arm once more, the pain searing through me like a hot poker, I know there is no time to stop and make a sling! I breeze through the cave like the wind, the light growing ever closer and just as I reach the opening, I find myself on the edge of the cliff, my body teetering at the top, I feel sharp, unmanicured nails on my shoulder. I turn around. The sight of sharp yellowing teeth coming at me, makes me stumble. I fall.

As my limbs are flailing in the air, I pray that I will survive the landing. I feel my body hit, what feels like a brick wall, followed closely by the ability to move freely. I realise that I am under water. I scream, expelling the air I so desperately need to be able to survive in order to break through the surface once more. The current in my favour, I reach my good arm upwards, pushing it down again with force and take in a glorious deep, fresh breath! I begin to cough, expelling the foreign water from my lungs, brightness all around.

After I make it to shore, I fashion a sling out of my sweaty, ripped jumper and rest my broken arm in it. I find myself with two options. As I look to my left, I see a dense dark forest, and to my right a beautifully blooming meadow. I see what an unmistakably a dark path meandering through the tree trunks and decide that going left is my best option! I begin to follow the path.

As I look around, I can see all kinds of wildlife, even things that didn’t belong. There were monkeys and birds of all species, but what really lifts my spirits are the butterflies. I love them, love everything about them! I can recall a time where they were considered a good luck charm. As one lands on my dusky blueish finger, the circulation in my arm failing due to the protruding bone, I spend ages looking at it and talking to it as if a person, unable to feel its wings swat against the rest of my hand as it flies away.

It becomes apparent that my arm is beginning to go numb, which in one way was good, because I could not feel the pain of it anymore, whereas I knew from remembering things I had seen on TV shows, prior to my time in the cave, that it was, indeed, the opposite! I had an inkling I was going to lose the arm!

With my senses on alert, I see smoke in the distance, and this can mean only one thing…people! I begin to run towards it and indeed there, in the middle of a forest, is a log cabin with a truck outside! Relief washes over me as a something growls, revealing my presence. As I watch the door open, I pass out.

The next thing I see is, what I believed to be, a man with a surgical mask on.

‘My arm!’ I manage to say, with what I presume to be an oxygen mask on my face not paying any heed to the man in the mask.

I look down and can see an empty space where my arm once was. I look up at the man and all I can see are a pair of illuminous red eyes staring back at me! I scream as he picks me up, my bare legs able to feel fur in the place of skin. Long, unmanicured nails obvious.

I start to hyperventilate as he carries me from where I woke, to a dark, damp cage, locking me in there with a key. I recognise the dampness of the walls and the moss creeping up them. Spiderwebs are all around and when he takes off his mask, he says in a loud rumbling voice, ‘I’ve been looking for you!’ followed by a roar that echoes into the darkness! I realise I’m back in the cave once more, my decision to turn left into the dense dark forest, obviously a bad one!