"Awaken."
I opened my eyes, feeling like I'd heard someone's voice. It was dark. Nighttime, maybe? But not pitch black. There were lights. Fire. Above him. Some kind of lightning. Candles, it looked like. Small ones fixed to the wall. Not just one, but many, spaced evenly, continuing as far as I could see.
Where was this place?
It was kind of hard to breathe.
I tried touching the wall, it was hard and rocky. This was no wall. It was just bare rock. No wonder my back was sore after lying against it. My butt hurt, too.
Maybe I was in a cave.. A cave? Why would I be in a cave...? Those candles were pretty high up. I might be able to reach one if I just stood; that was how high they were. Moreover, they didn't even give off enough light for me to see my own hands and feet. But I sensed the presence of others nearby. Listening closely, there was a faint noise that sounded like breathing. Humans? What if they weren't? I might be in trouble. But they sounded human, somehow.
"Is anyone there?" I asked hesitantly.
"Uh, yeah," a man's voice shot back.
"I'm here called another response, likely that of a woman.
"Another mans voice gave a short, "Yeah."
"I figured as much," another person added.
How many of us are there?
"Should we count?"
"And...where are we anyway?"
"Dunno..."
"What? Doesn't anyone know where we are?"
"What's going on?"
"What is this?
Seriously. What the hell was this? What was I doing in a place like this? And why? How long had I been here? I clutched my chest tightly as if trying to claw something off of it. I had no clue what was going on. Why was I here? When I began to consider the situation, something began to tug at the back of my mind. But it suddenly vanished before I could latch onto it. I didn't know. I didn't know anything. I was a complete loss.
"Sitting here won't solve anything," said one man in a low, husky voice.
There was a sound, like someone stepping on pebbles. It sounded like the man had stood up.
"Going somewhere...?" a woman's voice asked.
"Following the wall," the man answered. "Going to try heading towards the light." The man's tone was surprisingly calm.
Wasn't he scared? Why wasn't he shaken up by this? The man was now beneath the second candle from him and he seemed very tall. How could make out a bit of the man's head in the candlelight. The men's hair wasn't black. Was it...silver?
"I'm going, too," the woman said.
"Me too, I guess," a man's voice said.
"H-hold on, guys! I'm coming, too, then!" called another man.
"There's the other direction too," said yet another person.
The voice sounded slightly high-pitched, but it was probably another male.
"We can probably go that way. There's no candles though." The silver-haired man said, "If you want to go that way, be my guest," and started walking.
It looked like everyone would be following the silver-haired man. I had better go too, then, I thought. I stoop up hurriedly, not wanting to be left alone. I nervously stepped forward, keeping a hand on the rock wall. The ground wasn't smooth. It was uneven but easy enough to walk on. There was someone in front of me and someone behind. I didn't know who, though. Judging by their voices, nobody here was all that old. I don't any of these people...at least, I don't think so, I thought. Who were the people I knew? Acquaintances. Friends. But just exactly who were they? Strange. I couldn't think of anyone. No, it was more like whenever I tried to work backwards from the faces that did some to mind, they would suddenly vanish. I didn't know. It didn't just happen with friends. Family, too. It wasn't that I didn't know them at all. It was more that I ought to have known them, but I was forgetting.
"Maybe it's best to think about it," I said out loud.
"Did you..." asked a voice from behind. Definitely a girl's voice. "Did you say something?"
"No, it was nothing-"
I stopped. Nothing important? Really? Nothing important? How was it not important? I shook my head to clear it. At some point, I seemed to have stopped walking. I should continue on, I thought. I needed to keep walking. It was better not to think about it. The more I tried to remember, the less I felt like I knew. The row of candles continued. There was no end in sight. How long had I been walking? Had I walked a long way or not? I couldn't say which. My sense of time and become dulled.
"There's something here," said someone up ahead. "It's bright. There are...lamps?" The silver man said, "It's an iron grate."
"D-do you think it's the exit?!" exclaimed a different man, his voice shrill and excited.
The sound of the heavy footfalls lightened. Even in the dark, I could tell that everyone was hurrying ahead. I could see the light sources now. They were much brighter then the candles have been. Those were definitely lamps. Were they hanging on the wall? The lamps were illuminating what looked like an iron grate. The silver-haired man grabbed the iron grate. Not only was his hair silver, the man was dressed like a gangster. He shook the iron grate violently-like a gangster would-and it began to move.
"I'm opening it," the gangster called, pulling the grate inwards.
With a creaking noise, the iron grate door opened.