GlitchyReal

a wall

Added 2018-12-31 11:59:32 +0000 UTC

I'm in a long tunnel.

It's cold. Brick walls line the sides. The lights have long since gone out. It was daylight when I entered, but it's been so long it must be night at the end.
The ground is hard. Dry. I know it's been ages since I started this journey. It's at this point, now, that I question. Wouldn't it be easier to go back?
No one went with me. Some followed hours after I started. Or has it been days?

...Years...

I could wait for them. Unless they've turned back before me.
My grueling gait comes to a crippling crawl. Each lift of the leg a worse pain than the last. I hear voices from behind but they never near.
I reach out my hand, trembling.

A wall.

I hadn't expected this here, at least, not yet.
The lights are gone because I'm at the end. I'm not supposed to be this deep. I was warned, Nick, don't go down this path. It's dark, dangerous. No one has gone before.
But I had to try, hadn't I?
I slide my hand down the cold, brick wall. I collapse.
I lie here for months. Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I feel nothing but the cold of the floor.

But nothing is taking this wall away.

I'm alone. The support I had and the support I have is so very far away. I am on my own.
I kick the wall. A burst of energy, I spend it on anger.
And what do I find but a door. A door that had always been there.
I stand, unbelievably.
If I open it, will I even want to pass through it?
Wrapping my hand around the knob, I twist and pull. Twist and push...

But the door is locked.

I need the key, it seems. I thought I had it. I may have dropped it. Or I may have left it somewhere before I began this journey.
I may need to go back. Or a friend may bring it for me.

Or perhaps the wall will fall right down.