A Burden to Bear

Prologue: A Light to step into

It was… a usual day, you know, just like any other. Nothing special. Cars drove by Mapple avenue and past the little statue of…something, that was now in the park. I just can’t appreciate art nowadays. Sometimes is just look plain… wrong, you know. But, anyway, this is story not about art. So, where I was.. oh, yeah. Peaceful, quiet, autumn day.
No school, no problems. Figures, huh? And the thought that school has ended something like three or four years ago doesn’t even matter. Really, it don’t , just like many things around us.
What does make sense in our lives? Money? Fame? Career? Boring happy life?
Does life even have sense? I, for myself, answered that question long ago. Yes, and no.
No, it isn’t, if you don’t believe in Creator of some kind or something like that, but…
Yes, it is. Life have exactly as much sense as we gave to it.
Well, how should I put it? Damn, never was I good at that kind of thing… at beginning something, I mean. Only at fucking ending. Or, rather, ending being fucked up. But, I guess, this is how my story begun. And about the ending, well… it was rather… interesting. Still, first things first…

The well was deep. Not just, you know, “really deep”, rather something along the lines of “I got fucking tired how deep” it was. Not the pleasant fact to know. Walls were slippery, too slippery for my taste(not that I really taste them)all way down, and so, I didn’t even know how, or, even, if, I can manage to get out. Silly me. Okay, very silly me. You can ask me about how I even get there to begin with? Well(goddamn you, well!), the tale is short and simple. I was stalking. Not like, you know, following someone, just… searching for something. Something interesting, maybe. And there were those ruins. Something like an abandoned factory, or, maybe, just some kind of school. Building had suffered so bad, it was hard to say. Walls were gray, just like the floor, and sky above. Definitely not school. Good. Didn’t like them anyway, and who does?
Most parts of building had just collapsed onto itself, and there were nothing interesting, seriously, not even anything to loot. Not even some kind of abandoned mechanism, as you can find in such… territories. Nothing. Plain, dull, gray walls. Not even a sign of graffiti, and that alone should’ve bothered me, but no. I didn’t even hesitate, as if my stubbornness was a virtue, I found myself below, going down, from the second floor to first, and then, into the basement.
You’ve seen one basement? You’ve seen them all. If you don’t believe, then check out yourself, if you dare to tread in such places. They’re not… safe. I warned you. There were dangers, sure, not those as someone can see in a second class movie, lesser ones. Like twisting an ankle or falling down from something, or, you know, landing on broken shards of glass. That kind of danger. Trivial, pathetic, but danger nonetheless. City type. Same danger, twice boring.
Anyway, down with the basement. Once again, nothing. Dusty concrete floor, walls, stained with something brown, or, maybe, rust-black kind of color, and dead-for-sure large industrial fan. Uh-huh, right, ventilation systems. Not now, maybe later. And, yes, there, in the middle of the basement, there were the well. Just a normal well, if someone can call it such. Rusty grate, rusty ladder, and a couple of coins on the floor. And that was interesting all right. Those were… old. Ancient, maybe. And strange. And made of gold. I’d be glad to say something, anything more specific about them, but at the very same moment I touched them, there was a blackout.
I regained my consciousness while lying in shallow stinky water, on the floor of the well, if I can call this floor. If I can call this well. But, more importantly, how did I even get there? The grate… it was up now. So, does this mean, that someone, somehow took my unconscious body and just left here? How? How this even possible? And that… blackout. I’ve never… maybe some kind of gas? Sleeping gas? But, once again, how? Why? And, more importantly, why this happening to me? The answer to the last question was simple – curiosity killed the cat… if so, where’s my satisfaction? What should I do now? Ladder broke when I merely touched lower step, painting my fingers red with rust, and one higher was none the better. And this, as I presumed, gone all the way up. Another ‘how?’? Yes. Another question without answer? Definitely yes.
What should I do now? Cry for help? Nope. Useless, and even if someone’s going to hear me here, maybe, just maybe, it’ll be not the help that I want. What do I need now? I just need my phone call. Cellphones! Human’s best friend! Not in my case. He wasn’t even broke, not even scratch on screen or something, but deep down there were no signal. I should’ve expected that, but still…
Silent sigh escaped my lips, as I tried to slowly think of something, of anything I can do now. Screaming? Useless, that’d just waste my time and strength. Trying to get out by myself? Useless, rusted ladder told me that very clearly. Try to take a better view of surroundings? And that’s sound like a plan. Finally, something. Picture wasn’t bright. In the dim light of my cellphone I could see that the well was something like five feet in diameter, walls were slippery and covered with some kind of… moss, maybe? But there was a bright side. As if someone did hear my prayers, there were another grate, not so rusty, sure, but this was the way out. And it was locked. Great. Nothing can go according to the plan, right? I was cold, wet, and got a major chance to catch a cold, or something far worse, if I stay here any longer. And I just couldn’t do anything about it. Walls of my small prison felt just like they’re trying to crush me, not physically, but mentally, by their sheer presence. It was more than enough now, like a one hundred percent more, than I needed to. And thus, darkness came once again upon my mind.
In the last moment before I drifted to sleep, there were a… a prayer, maybe.
Please, just let me get out of here… somehow.

I awoke to the sound of loud screeching noise. Not the best way of waking up, if you ask me. Then, the loud BANG came. Door came down swiftly, almost if someone did try to kill me with this rusted piece of scrap metal. Well, whoever it was, he or she was out of luck for today. Where the door were standing, now was path to something. Exit, maybe. I did not dare to hope. I shouldn’t… but I did. Once again, silly me. Cellphone was already dead, so I got to lit my lighter, like character in some kind of horror game, and that very thought did not get me any comfort. Behind the door was a labyrinth, a real maze. Twists and turns, twists and turns, just like in the show when discord showed up. My Little Pony, huh. I’m not the fan, mind you, but my girlfriend, or, rather, ex-girlfriend really liked it and made me watch it too. It wasn’t so bad, if you ask me. Not after four or five episodes and a couple of songs… I think I already was here. Maybe I’m going in circles, just like my thoughts now?
…or maybe not. Or… I don’t even know what. I mean, there was a really strange feeling. As if someone was watching me with intent or curiosity. Both, maybe? All right, one more paranoid version from my paranoid mind. Let’s say that I’m a laboratory mice going through ever-changing labyrinth, and I need something to get out and get my prize. And what would help me in situation like that? Lighter was already too hot, so I let the fire die and just listened.
You know, if human try to do something all the time, they just keep getting better, even without teacher. Practice makes perfect and such… some skills come easy, some not. Ability to listen to your surroundings is a rather good thing, help focus, help being prepared to some unexpected turn of events. Mind you, I'm not a paranoid most of the time, it’s I just picked this up in my life earlier and kept practicing from time to time. After all, you reap what you saw, right?
Listen… my silent breathing echoed from metal walls.
Listen… almost nonexistent sound of water under my boots.
Listen… rusty metal screech and bang from the tunnel I came from.
Listen… a chord. Huh? A what now?
It was a chord, I’m sure of it. Not the sound you may expect in an industrial dungeon. Well, I could thought about some kind of dungeon party, maybe, punks, rockers, some shit or another, but it wasn’t it. Not lyre’s chord. Not here, and not now. Record of some kind, maybe? Guess there’s only one way to know it. If it will repeat himself, at least…
And it had. Once again, I lift my lighter and gone ahead, slowly, carefully, trying to pinpoint the origins of sound. A cassette player, maybe? VCR? Something else? Slowly, walls began to change. I didn’t notice it at first. Just a subtle change under my water wrinkled fingers, change in texture, maybe. Then, there were no rust. Stone doesn’t rust, as far as I know, but the sight of natural stone block in the middle of rusted metal tunnel wall… well, it almost drove me mad. I started to giggle. Slowly, at first, and a little more hysterical, later. I don’t know just how much time had passed, when I returned to my senses, snapped myself out of sudden burst of unhealthy laughs, I was standing on my knees on the floor, as if ready for prayer. Not another one… at least, not today. Slowly, I got up, and, thus, my path had continued.
And there were light. I didn’t notice it at first, as if it was some kind of illusion, or my mind started to play tricks on me. But now… I stood before light, bright white light, clearly warm and, I was sure of it, not artificial. While my eyes adjusted to it, I slowly turned and nodded. From metal to strange stone tunnel in something like hour or two? Can’t believe… but I had to. Now, though, I got another problem. Even when eyes gave me an A-OK on light, I still couldn’t see a thing, though lyre’s chords I heard and they came from behind it. It was something like a choice, a rather metaphysical one. To dwell in darkness, or to step into… something. Was it Heaven? Maybe there are angels out there? There was only one way to know it for sure.
So, I made my choice and stepped into the light.