I stared blankly at the spirals before me, trying to register that I had spoken to another version of myself. Keeping my gaze set on the cave wall, I thought aloud. "What is this place?"
"It's not Hell," Blamore assured. "But it'll lead us to where we belong."
My eyes remained fixed on the oddly shaped stone in the center of the spiraled carving. "How are you so sure?"
"Because I saw it." He turned to me, demanding my attention. The solitary light shined from the crack in the roof and lit up his stunning blue eyes. "Just like I saw you."
I rubbed my temple, thinking back to our first encounter in the tarot shop. "You saw me in a vision?"
He shook his head, slowly stepping forward, lessening the space between us. "I saw you in my memories. You see the future—"
"—and you see the past." I was fully aware that we hadn't known each other long enough to have established a past, let alone share a distant memory, but I was willing to listen. "What did you see in your memories?"
"You and I." He shifted and his arm gently brushed my shoulder. "We were preparing for something. Something big. I felt it in my gut how huge the moment was. We held hands and encouraged one another before starting our journey, leaving behind the shaded, blue place."
Frustrated, I huffed. "I don't understand."
His head bowed bashfully. "I know. I don't fully understand it either. All I know is I was with you and with you is where I was meant to be. And even though that part isn't clear, everything else in life seems like a dream. My home, my wife, everything I left outside of these walls ... they're artificial. Where we're headed is of true importance."
"The blue place?" I searched my memory for the vision I had when initially meeting Blamore. "Do you mean the place where it was twilight?"
"Yes." His gaze dropped, and he refused to look up as he spoke, as if he was ashamed or embarrassed. "Your friends were talking about the ancient drawing at the start of the cave, the Green Children of Woolpit. I think your friends were on the right track only they got a few things wrong."
I narrowed my eyes with interest. "So, you're aware of the folktale?"
"No, I'm only aware of the truth." He finally looked up, displaying a lost sadness in his unblemished face. "What I remember is a place more advanced than anything we've experienced. Where the entire land is forever cast in blue twilight. The people who inhabit this land honor the sacred wolf for its symbolism of mystery, solitude, survival, self-confidence, and pride."
"Yes," I encouraged, remembering the overcast blue scenery from my early vision. "I've heard the howl of a wolf in some of my visions. And I felt the presence of an animal near me in the tunnel."
His eyes widened with my confession. "Wolves are important in the twilight place. There are so many the entire place is like a pit of wolves. So, the story of the Green Children of Woolpit, should be called the Blue People of Wolf Pit."
I thought about his explanation and couldn't argue against it, knowing all the crazy and unexplainable happenings we've experienced so far. Hell, at this point anything was possible. "While practicing tarot and studying it's symbolism, I've come to learn the representation of a lone wolf in the wilderness. It symbolizes freedom. When this animal is in a pack, it represents community. Is that why we're here?"
He nodded. "Like you said earlier, we are like the fingers of a hand. In order to function properly we have to work together."
Too bad my friends no longer wanted to work with me. But if Fate brought us here, there was purpose behind that action. And I intended to find what that purpose is. Like the Justice card representing balance, stability, and karma, both sides must be even and center in order to achieve something solid. Yin and yang, cause and effect, balance.
Were the experiences during our excursion through the cave meant to teach us how to find our freedom and release the things that were stunting our growth?
"I've learned so much being trapped here." I gulped at the realization. "Jace taught me about forgiveness, Samuel about acceptance, Arturo about communication, Cecil about community, and you..." I swallowed the lump in my throat as I stepped closer, lifting my chin to stare directly into his eyes. "You taught me about letting go, releasing, leaving behind what no longer serves me. And that's why we're here. That's our purpose, isn't it? To learn, to grow, to end a fruitless cycle instead of allowing it to go on and on with no advancement."
It was odd, but the more I thought about my own past the more blurred the details became, like waking from a weird dream.
Finally, a flash of bright teeth peeked through Blamore's nervous grin. "We stay alert and we'll get out of this place. Together."
"Exactly." For all the things I didn't know or understand about our experience I was fully prepared to put all my trust into Blamore. "The more I get to know you, the less strange this all seems to me. It's like the further we go into the cave, the closer we become."
"True." He nodded. "The deeper into the cave we go, the more we become our true selves," he said with certainty. "And to think, we formed a trust through action and very little verbal communication."
The more I thought about it the more it made sense. "You're speaking has become a lot clearer and your appearance has . . . changed."
He stared, letting his eyes linger on mine a beat too long. "Yours too."
"How so?" I lifted my hands to examine them, regretting that I left a mirror behind in my backpack.
"You're even more ... beautiful." As the word left his lips, he sheepishly turned his gaze away.
I smiled for the first time since entering the cave and it felt good. "Thank you." I could tell he fought embarrassment, and the urge to do something to lighten the mood and change the subject overcame me. "What kind of name is Blamore, anyway?"
"A name I chose that fits who I am." He kept his face down. "Theodore was never who I was. That's just a name I was given. Like this life." He peeked through his thick eyelashes. "What kind of name is Maxine?"
I chuckled. "Well, it is the name I was given."
"You can shed it, you know?" His shyness reminded me of an innocent child. "Leave it behind with all the other things we didn't choose."
"Yeah, but, I kinda like it."
"Me too."
We laughed, feeling a brief bit of respite and relief.
While basking in the warm light of the sun, the odd shaped stone took my attention. "Doesn't that stone seem out of place to you?"
"Hmm." Blamore glanced at the protruding rock.
I walked over to stand before it. "Doesn't it look like we could just push it aside?" I placed my hand on the hard surface. "Like it's asking me to do just that." With both hands I pressed the stone, expecting it to move or shift.
Nothing.
Blamore cocked his head, staring. "It definitely appears to be out of place."
"Exactly." With more force, I pressed the center of the spiral carving. This time something shifted beneath me. I backed up as the walls surrounding us quaked and rumbled. "That wasn't me, right? I mean, I'm not strong enough to cause that, right?"
Blamore pulled me closer to him protectively. "It's gonna collapse. We have to leave."
The thought of moving through one of the surrounding unexplored tunnels in the dark shook me to the core. We wouldn't make it through safely without light.
As the trembling amplified, I took the flashlight in hand and clicked it on, but the bulb didn't function. Repeatedly, I hit the handle with my palm and randomly aimed it toward a dark tunnel. No matter what I did it wouldn't work. I smacked it again and again, lifting and pointing it at the darkness to encourage the light to shine.
The quaking around us became more violent, threatening to throw us off our feet. I turned and the beam flashed, lighting the entrance to one of the tunnels. "Where do we go?" I aimed the light down a different tunnel, but the light went off again.
"Can I try?" Crouching and shielding himself from the falling dirt, Blamore took the flashlight and pointed toward each tunnel after giving it a good pounding. The light refused to shine for all the tunnels but one. "Coincidence?"
"I don't believe in coincidences." I grabbed his wrist. "I believe in synchronicity and this must be a sign."
As the quake shook debris and crumbling rocks from the walls surrounding us, I pulled Blamore down the only tunnel the light shined for. Quickly, we moved down the wide, tube shaped crevice until the quaking slowed and eventually stopped.
I paused, bending to place my hands on my knees as I tried desperately to catch my breath. "This is getting far too dangerous. We're not safe as long as we're here."
"True," Blamore agreed through heavy breaths. "That's why we need to keep going."
When I stood and directed the light further down the tunnel, a glimmer on the floor captured my attention. I made my way over to what reflected the beam of light. "My flashlight batteries." I palmed the hefty batteries, remembering how I removed them from the flashlight and threw them aside so I wouldn't mix them with the good ones in my pack. However, I left those batteries and my pack in one of the other tunnels. "I don't understand."
Blamore shook his head. "That doesn't make any sense. We were never here."
More confused than ever, I gripped the batteries, trying to understand it all. This tunnel was definitely unexplored, so how did my batteries get here? I turned to see my broken yellow helmet we had passed in our hast. Was the backpack near?
Hearing a shuffle ahead of us I quickly turned and lifted the light, illuminating the large dark figure that stood in the center of its beam. I gasped before recognizing who it was. "Oh, my god. Samuel?" His wet clothes, mocha complexation, and the coarse stubble on his chin captured my eye. I let out a long sigh of relief. "I'm so glad to see you. So happy you're safe."
"How did you—?" He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. I immediately searched for the swollen injury that has blemished his face the last time we'd seen him.
It was now gone.
"Wait. Samuel?" I quickly glanced to Blamore in confusion. Did he see what I saw?
Blamore took in a deep breath, his chest rising as his back lengthened in fear. "Max," he whispered. "That's not Samuel."
Panic surged through me at the thought of seeing what resembled my good friend but was not. "Stay back!" I screamed at the man. Immediately I imagine him doing to me what Samuel had done to Blamore earlier.
"Max?" The man crept closer. "What are you doing?"
I gripped the batteries in my hand so tight the skin on my fingers stung. "Stay back." Without a second thought, I threw them in the man's direction. One of the batteries hit his temple and he flinched, pressing his hand to the side of his face. When he removed his palm, a stream of bright red blood oozed from the wound and down his chin.
I stood, frozen in fear as we watched him pivot on his heels and scurry back into the darkness.