Second Life: A Second Chance

Fallen Star (I)

The bell's dreary tolls can be heard from afar as I take the path alongside the clouded sun. Slowly reaching closer and closer to the town square, using the same tunnel I have always used, I continue walking, albeit contemptuously. The two-mile trek and a half to the square has been slowly torturing my spirit, the same spirit that has already been crushed by loss. Usually, I would not mind a walk to and from The Cabin, as long as David would accompany me via his other persona "Steve," but today, the overpowering lack of his comforting presence has begun to create a sort of crippling loneliness that adds on to the weakening that has already overtaken me, giving me a one-two punch that stains my entire soul with pure depressing blood. The emptiness of my inner self slowly starts consuming my outer being as I think.

I look up above and notice the changing positions of the sky. The grey clouds darken the sky's shine from above, signaling the coming of rain and strong winds. The clouds, once unmoved from their positions, now slowly bunch up, growing an ever so strong clouded influence over the mountain-valley sky. I continue walking, underneath the changing light given off by the darkened sky, underneath the numerous holes that patch the roof of the mountain tunnel, observing them and the sky only faintly as I pass by. The wet murky dark puddles of water splash among the contact made by the movements of my feet hitting the wet ground floor. The wind whistles strongly the oh so familiar tune of dread alongside the whoosh of frosty air as the temperature drops from slightly inviting to unbearable. 

Soon enough, I reach the end of the tunnel path, at last. After walking inside the broken tunnel for so long, my legs finally give way to exhaustion, forcing me stop and kneel with both legs on top of the wet tunnel floor. I shift my eyes downwards and look to my knees, watching the water slowly wet the clothed surface of my pants, rising slowly in moisture to my thighs from the outside. I stare closer and closer at the puddle beneath with my now unmoved eyes, watching the puddle slowly lose mass and fully absorb itself onto me, losing quickly whatever murky reflection of myself that was left. Looking ahead towards the end of the tunnel pathway, I spot the dark area that shades the entire corner of the tunnel path. 

Staying still and in tune with the empty puddle, now gone from beneath me, I continue looking at the dark shaded corner. I give it my all and with one burst of motion, I stand up, now headed toward the corner end. I walk, now feeling well rested, I slowly make my way to the end wall of the tunnel path. Soon enough, I reach the shaded corner. I can barely make out what is attached to the wall but I move in anyway, adjusting my sight to the enveloping darkness. I pull my hands out and approach the wall, feeling around the surface for it. I reach it and grip the metallic bars of the hidden wall ladder. I thrust myself up on one of the bars and begin climbing up the short ladder carefully, make my way up to complete darkness. 

I stop a few bars up and extend one arm out facing the sky, reaching above the dark ceiling to feel around for the round hatch handle. I grasp it and hold on to it while I let go of the ladder with my other hand and grab the handle with both hands. I turn it around from above carefully, making sure I don't fall off the ladder all the while, pushing open the hatch right above me after several wide turning twists. I reattach my hands immediately to the ladder after pushing the hatch, climbing carefully upwards. I reach the cold ground floor yet am still blinded by the pitch black darkness from this upper floor. I pick up my hands and move them around, reaching and now touching the colder sides of the wall on the second floor above the tunnel, using the wall's surface as reference points in order to allow myself to crawl carefully around the hatch hole. I feel around the hatch hole's outer edges that lead down to the ladder and move myself a bit further away, feeling around for the hatch hole door through the cold dark walls. I finally reach a large object after feeling around for some time, and assuming it's the hatch, pull on it strongly, allowing myself to also stand up by the thin area that exists before the hole. Feeling the hatch, I push the entire hatch down toward the hole beneath me, giving a push so hard I almost fall downwards into the hole. I close the hatch from below and find myself in the same, but colder, darkness. I walk past the floor hatch carefully with my hands feeling the same dark walls for stability. Still moving with my hands pressed on the walled surface, I reach for a long rectangular frame. I reach it and grab tightly its entire frame, giving myself a moment to move and feel around for the handle. I feel the handle and grab it, opening it with one push, moving the door outwards, allowing myself onto the grey outside. I soon find myself courted by the immense bright light of the outer sky, causing me to squint in reaction. Adjusting my vision, I stop squinting and walk forward, out a few more feet from the door before turning around soon after, closing the brown door shut. Walking a bit forward with a clarifying view of the valley, I turn left at the end of the rocky hillside followed by the right, finding myself through a walled path with stone padding reaching a building high, unguided from my usual path downward to the valley floor.