Light at the End of the Tunnel

     Darkness.

     That was all Claire had ever known. 

     She had been born into darkness, raised in darkness, and, like everyone else, she would die in darkness.

     But Claire didn’t want that. She didn’t want to live in a world where black was the only thing her eyes could see. Where she didn’t know what she looked like, what her friends and family looked like, or even what the house she had grown up in looked like!

     Claire was determined to change all that.

     She ran along the worn stone steps of a stairwell that had never been used before. Chipped away at by streams of water dripping down the fragile sandstone, creating smooth, rounded gaps in some of the steps. Which inevitably made Claire’s climb much harder.

     “Stop! Stop that traitor!” The sound of the soldiers pursuing Claire sounded not far behind. She could hear their footsteps, the echoing click-clack of metal boots slamming against gritty rock. 

     How did this all come to be? …it was a very long story.

     It all started when Claire had discovered what would be known as a river.

     Claire had already memorized everything in her village from past experiences(AKA running into walls), but she had never gone past the corner store. Then one day, she took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere in the darkness that no one had ever gone to before. She had been wandering blindly and helplessly in the dark, until she stepped on something wet.

     It wasn’t just a still puddle of water, either; it was flowing steadily. Claire had bent down to touch the water with her fingers. The river water has trickled past her fingers, continuing to run to somewhere else. 

     Later that day, when Claire found her way back home, she told her experiences with the body of water that she would later know to call a ‘river’ to her parents and sister. Nobody believed such a thing existed. What would propel the water, anyways?

     For the next few days, Claire had begun tentatively mapping out the area beyond the grocery store, a few steps at a time. Until one day, a couple dozen meters from the store, her left foot stepped into the river again.

     That time, Claire took off her shoes and socks, and followed the river upstream. The stone in which the river ran on was not flat, wet stones, but smooth pebbles coated in some weird clinging stuff. It felt like wet fur.

     After following the river for a while, Claire saw the first spark of light.

     It was the color orange, she would later come to know. Flickering and dancing in the distance, for once, it wasn’t the color of black. 

     Entranced, Claire had wandered towards the flame, forgetting about following the river and how to get back to her village. Only when she was closer did she hear the shuffle of metal boots and the low mumbles of people.

     That’s right. People. In the middle of the darkness! And from the sound of it, there were two men in heavy metal armor standing by the light.

     Claire watched from afar, tuning in on their conversation. The glow of the light could barely reach her this far from the source, but if she held her hand in front of the flame, Claire could faintly see the outline of her fingers.

     “…exit out of the Darkness.” One of the men grumbled, shuffling in his metal armor, causing the plates to grind against each other and cause a cringeworthy screech. “I mean, it’s not like anyone’s going to even find this place! What’s it worth guarding?”

     “Bah. If you ask me, it’s a waste of time.” The second man replied grumpily. “Where does it lead, anyways?”

     “Into a world that’s not made of darkness, I suppose.” The first man shrugged. “Dunno what it would look like, though. Hey, do you think we should try going up there?”

     “Maybe that’s why all the previous guards never returned!” The second guard exclaimed, excitement lacing his voice. “We should go up there too!”

     Claire let out a soundless gasp. An exit out of the darkness? Where? She quietly shuffled around the two men, looking for any signs of light and feeling for any strange rock structures.

     But unfortunately, luck wasn’t exactly in her favor, as she stepped on a loose pebble and nearly tripped. Although Claire managed to catch herself in time, the pebble had bounced away, skittering a few feet away from the men. Their attention immediately darted to the rock, then to the darkness. Claire gulped.

     “Stop the traitor!” One of the men roared after a few seconds. Holding the light, he ran towards the source of where the pebble came from, holding a weird stick thing with a pointy metal end.

     Claire let out a small whimper, alerting the men to her position. She then ran in the direction in which she thought the river was. If she could just get back to the village, she could be safe. Nobody would question anything.

     But before that could occur, Claire tripped on a set of stairs.

     Claire blinked, feeling the rough surface of the brick with her hands. There was another stair above the initial one. And another. A set of stairs, leading where?

     So Claire darted up the stairwell, her soft footsteps followed by the metal clanking of the men’s boots. Her heart was racing, her hair flying, her eyes darting wildly around the darkness. Where would the stairwell lead to?

     And so that was how she ended up here. Running up a mysterious set of stairs, being pursued by two soldiers.

     Claire stopped for a moment to catch her breath, glancing back down. The light from the men was barely visible from here; they must have either gotten tired, or gave up. But when she turned her gaze up to the stairwell, something occurred to her.

     There was another light at the end of the stairwell.

     Claire let out a ragged breath of excitement, adrenaline pumping through her veins as she sped up the stairs again. This was it. A light in the dark. It was growing bigger with each passing step. What would it be—

     A blinding light filled her vision. Claire squinted her eyes, adjusting to the brightness that she had never ever seen before. It took a good minute or so, but when her eyes finally focused, she was staring out at a world more beautiful than she could have ever imagined.

     So many new colors. So many new shapes! New life. And in the bright, colored sky, was a brilliant glowing yellow orb.

     Claire had discovered a whole new world.