Grime coated my fingers and the horrible sounds of rocks hitting each other filled my ears until finally, they stopped.
The silence was deafening. Complete and utter darkness surrounded me on all sides. Even the cold, bitter wind had disappeared.
“Sebastian?” I called out.
Terrible, eerie silence was my only reply.
I called for him again.
No response.
My heart thundered, and panic threatened to overtake me. It was far too dark. Every part of me wanted to shut down and stop. But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t let the fear take hold of me.
Shutting my eyes, I forced myself to breathe despite the ache in my lungs. To push the fear and panic away.
Still, there was still no sound.
“Just pretend like it’s a game,” I whispered to myself, opening my eyes once more. “It’s not darkness. It’s just… the absence of light.”
Although I knew technically they were the same thing, something about that calmed me.
I took a step forward, calling out Sebastian’s name. There came no reply, but he couldn’t have been far. The Tether was quiet.
Dropping to my hands and knees, I sifted through the rubble with care. Every time panic threatened to descend upon me, I thought about another property of light. The scholarly approach kept me calm, giving me the strength to push through the panic.
The earth shook again. I froze, my hands outstretched until the trembling ceased. There was no question in my mind—something about this quaking was distinctly unnatural.
Then I saw it. The flicker of a single purple orb. It was covered in dust, but it cast the faintest glow on the ground.
An agony-filled moan broke through the silence.
“Sebastian!” I yelled, my hands clutching the grime as I knelt in the rubble.
He moaned again. Sebastian’s face flashed before my eyes and urgency pushed me forward. I needed to find him. Nothing else mattered.
“I’m coming for you,” I said, crawling towards him.
“Don’t.” His voice sounded strange. Weak. “Don’t come any closer… it’s not safe.”
What did he want me to do? Sit on my laurels in the middle of a dark, partially collapsed tunnel while he was hurt? The entire idea was preposterous. Even if I wanted to get help, I couldn’t. The Tether might have been quiet right now, but it would make its presence known the moment I went too far.
“Stay there,” I instructed, staring into the darkness as though that might help me see better.
It did not.
“I’m coming, Sebastian.”
There was no reply.