The brooding image of Blamore stood motionless in the center of our path. The eerie blue light behind him showcased a menacing silhouette of his form. We were mere feet from the mouth of the cave, where the blue shone as if highlighting our exit. By turning the corner we could be free of this nightmare.
In a clear, all too familiar tone, what resembled Blamore's deep voice resounded throughout the passageway. "This is my home. Not yours." The figure stood motionless in our path as if taunting us, daring us to try and get past him.
"You don't belong here." The words hadn't fully escaped Blamore's lips as he rushed toward the figure, leaving me nearly blinded in his trail. "You're not taking what is mine."
"Wait," I called, trying desperately to keep up and prevent him from causing any harm.
In less than a split second, Blamore tackled the figure with great force, ramming the large man into the wall at the end of the space. "You're not me," he cried as he dropped the flashlight in favor of using his fists to throw blow after blow, connecting with its gut and ribs.
"Stop!" My voice tore from my throat with force, unaware of what to do or say to make the nightmare end. "Please, stop."
The flashlight rolled back and forth on the uneven ground, casting long, inhuman shadows upon the walls. It provided just enough light for me to visualize the utter blackness of the figure's eyes, its matted coarse hair and its incredibly unkempt eyebrows. "My home," it grunted as they tussled.
"No, I fought for this." Blamore growled through clenched teeth.
The figure defended itself with well-timed blocks and dodges, only grunting and panting through every jab. My mind quickly compared the similarities and differences between the men. With every throw of the fist, I became more convinced that Blamore had indeed changed.
As Blamore wrestled with his double, the earth violently shook beneath us, tossing me off my feet. I hit the ground with a heavy thud as rocks and sand rained down on us from the large cracks in the ceiling of the cave, surrounding us in dust.
The crunch of dislodged boulders falling and settling into their final resting place caught my attention as the sound came from the cave's opening. All I could envision is another collapse trapping us inside and taking away our only chance of escape.
I crawled on my hands and knees to peer around the corner at the dimming blue light, only to see the opening rapidly reducing in size due to the settling stones that collected there.
"It's closing!" I looked over my shoulder at Blamore who had escaped the clutches of his double and attempted to balance on his feet.
"Go, go, go." He shielded his eyes from the falling dirt and took one step before the stocky figure tackled him again, knocking him down. "Go, Max," he ordered while the figure tangled its hands inside the collar of Blamore's shirt. They wrestled under the falling debris, barely avoiding being crushed by dropping stone. "You have to end the cycle."
End the cycle? Was making it out of the cave our only way to stop the repeated loops and doubles? If the interconnected spirals and the labyrinth taught us anything, it was that we had to travel backwards to the beginning to set things right.
However, I hesitated to leave Blamore behind. Finding the truth about his home was what brought us here and without his help I wouldn't have made it this far through this terrifying nightmare.
Instead of leaving, I staggered toward the determined figure. The double had Blamore helplessly pinned to the cave floor. Without a second thought, I swung my fists at the figure, thrashing its shoulders with all my might, trying desperately to free Blamore from its clutches.
Just as my fist went up again, a pair of hands grabbed my shoulders and tossed me aside like a rag doll. I rolled over the jagged rocks and came to a stop on my back. I placed my forearms up as a shield and peeked through the slit to see . . . me.
My eyes went wide, and I gasped at seeing the wretched figure towering over me. For a split second, her eyes weren't as bright brown as mine, but appeared hollow and black like empty sockets, and her shoulder length dark hair seemed to warp around her head in a way that defied gravity. She resembled the warped image I encountered while peering into the jade crystal at the tarot shop. However, as my sight adjusted to the dim light, her appearance looked more like the sad and lonely girl I usually see in my reflection.
A heavy dread came over me, filling me with a paralyzing fear while coming to terms with being confronted by my double. It was obvious what this encounter meant.
One of us had to go.
As the cave seemed to slowly disintegrate around us, I rose to my feet. I glared into her eyes as if peering at my own reflection and daring it to make an unwanted move.
Blamore and his double continued to tussle in an equally matched showdown, before the figure took the advantage and refused to allow Blamore on his feet, further preventing him from getting near the exit. "Max, this is our only chance. You have to—" he grunted as the huge figure maneuvered on top of him.
If one of us didn't make it, what would that mean to our survival? Will we be stuck in this cave forever? Will we be doomed to repeat the nightmarish experiences until we finally became free?
With an eerie stare, my double mimicked my stance. "You would leave him here? Of course, you would, it's a running theme in your life."
"I never left anyone. They all left me." I glared, infuriated by her accusations. "I tried."
"You closed yourself off." She sneered, embodying the physical appearance of the angry emotions I kept caged inside. "You gave them no choice. You didn't try. You gave up."
I glanced to the exit, sensing the opening become narrower with more debris. "I can't keep getting hurt by people."
"You set yourself up for pain and then blamed everyone else." She mirrored my movements, shaking her head in disapproval. As we stared at one another, she swiftly morphed from the girl with the familiar features to a hallow-eyed, angry creature and back again. "Where's your accountability?"
Blamore shoved his double aside, stealing my attention just as a chunk of stone crashed into the ground beside him. "Max, you're so close. Run." A hazy cloud of crushed rock showered over him as he put his arms up as a shield but to no avail. The startling crack from the roof of the cave splitting and collapsing boosted my adrenaline.
As reluctant as I was, I knew there was only one thing to do.
I turned to run but immediately my double latched onto my back. Her fingernails sank into my flesh, disregarding the fresh wounds on my shoulder blades while sending searing hot pain through my nerves. "Wherever you go, I go too."
"No," I growled through clenched teeth and jammed my elbow into her side until she lost her grip and collapsed to the ground at my feet. I took a step but immediately her hands clenched my ankle, and the break in momentum caused me to hit the floor beside her.
She straddled me, trying to pin my arms above my head. "Face it. You're nothing without me." Her uncanny glare made my adrenaline triple as terror raged through me.
If she was my double, she had to inhabit my traits. I could use that to my advantage. I forced myself to look past her familiar brown eyes and see the hollow darkness that lied beneath. "You can't hurt me ..." I struggled against her weight. "... because I would never hurt anyone."
"I'm not just anyone. I'm you." A haunting look took over her expression and as she lifted her hands from my wrists, a heaviness took over, rendering me motionless. Her claws went to the center of my chest and immediately a dormant, suppressed pain radiated from my beating heart and throughout my body, coercing hot tears from my eyes.
The pain was unbearable. "Please stop." I squirmed under her weight. "No more."
The agony that encompassed me and my heart felt like many, many lifetimes of stored, unrelenting torment that I wasn't ready to face. Should I give in, lie there and accept my fate? Or like Blamore, should I fight?
The memories of my friends, my loved ones, and their warm smiles and laughter flashed through my mind, drowning out the roaring rumble of stone impacting stone around me.
I peered into the eyes of an unrecognizable face with semblance to mine. "No more!" I shouted and used those loving memories as fuel to engage every muscle and push her aside. With all my strength, I ignored the crashing rocks surrounding me and the quaking earth to get on my feet.
As the ground shook, I refused to glance behind me as I quickly staggered toward the small opening of the cave until blue light bathed me in its cool radiance. Without faltering, I climbed up and over the boulders, blinded by blue.