John felt a stinging through his leg as he lifted his head and screamed. The echoes of his voice traveled for what felt to be hours. This startled John and he slowly began to open his eyes, but when he did there was nothing to be found, no ground, no sky, no ceiling, and no world. So again, John tried to open his eyes, and the results were still the same, this convinced John his eyes were sewn shut so he felt to his eyes, and upon feeling the reaction of his eyelashes he realized that his eyes were open and that he truly was nowhere.
John tried to stand, but a sudden pain sparked through his legs and again he was screaming on his back, again the echoes haunted the darkness. He reached for his legs, they were warm and wet, and the John smelled it. Blood was running through his leg and everywhere he felt was as sticky as syrup, and the smell soon overpowered him and again he fell asleep.


“Hello John,” John shot up to a sit, “What are you doing in such a dank place?”
“Who are you?” replied John.

“I am but a figment of your mind, you may choose to see me if you wish, but it would be all you’d see.”
“Who are you!?” replied John.

“I’ve told you once before” answered the voice.
“For my sake please tell me!”
“I have.”
When John heard these words he arose in frenzy, opening his eyes he saw an image of a man standing before him. His hair slicked to the side, the clothes he wore spoke executive and his muscle tone was of the same athleticism as John. Swiftly John hurled into him, throwing his arms in a matter of helter-skelter, soon the body lay limp before John. The beaten battered body which John himself had killed had begun to slung over in the world of shadows. John lifted the body that he might see the face of whom he had killed, and there came a sudden shock when he looked upon his own blank face.
“No!” John shot up from the ground, again surrounded in darkness. He had been dreaming and again had to deal with the nothingness. The pain in his leg had begun to make itself noticed again and John fell back to the ground. He felt around his body to find the bleeding had ceased.
He arose again in an attempt to limp around, Feeling out with his hands to search for any kind of rock or structure. Each step he took was filled with agonizing pain, as he listened to his own echoing moans running through the cavern. His feet finally fell from under him as he soon became drench in a pond. John clawed at the water in desperation. Finally afloat at the top he felt once again for rocks that he might at least be able to lie down and drink from his new found source of nourishment. Alas he felt the cold, heartless, and saving surface of his new home; and soon he was sprawled along the rock, slurping away at the near body of water. Lying on his back, he soon fell again to slumber.

5:30, the clock was ringing and John arose from his bed, he hopped in the shower and allowed the water to rinse him while he lathered soap upon his body. After this ritual he dressed himself for the adventure that lay ahead. 8:45, John met James, the two had met in college and have found bond in their desires for adventure. Today they were going to transverse through a cave which had the year before been closed off to tourism.

10:30, they had finally made it to the entrance of the cave, John bringing along wire-cutters had cut a hole in the chain-linked fence which separated them from the natural landmark they wished to rediscover. James and John armed themselves with flashlights as they made their way into the cave. They looked in awe at the magnificent sights that surrounded them. There were cave paintings, and as they continued further and further they had managed to find some gold veins in the mountain as well, and soon they were in a field of fossil skeletons.

*click* a wire struck John across the face, James ahead of him dropped as the discs flew up to the level of Johns waist. John attempted to turn and dive but shrapnel still tore through his legs. James attempted to run back but when he was ahead of John, no more than seven feet the cave collapsed on top of him. John hopped to his feet and limped his way forward, all around him were the sounds and debris of explosions. Feeling heavily weighed down by his gear he through off his backpack and in the process dropped his light, he was soon running in utter darkness hitting into rocks and feeling his way around them in quick succession.

The sound of explosions soon became distant, and though he feared that he was just becoming use to this deafening noise for it still echoed greatly, he decided to rest, leaning against a rock. It gave way under him and with a jerk to his leg and a quick second to his head he passed out, or blacked out, in utter darkness there is no way to be sure.

John awoke, he leaned over his pond and let the tears stream from his eyes. His moans echoed all around him to the point where anyone around to listen would have that they had stumbled upon an ancient, and haunted, burial ground. After a while of this he started to chuckle. First it was to distract him from the pain, then it was that he might not feel so alone, for it felt like he just said a funny joke that amused an entire auditorium. John was accompanied by voices and they would call back any word he said, so he laughed because he could, and the shadows laughed with him.
Laughing hysterically and sprawled all about the unseen floor, started feeling all around him, and then a bulge in his coat pocket caught his attention. It was a flashlight, he pulled from his pocket and hit the switch, a great beam showed through the darkness and twelve feet away from him was a wall of stone upon which John could lift himself out of the cavern. The light then sputtered out of life, but John’s decision was already made.

John walked slowly and surely along the wall, meanwhile he had his hands in his pockets and was feeling for what he had in his possessions, he felt what appeared to be a knife, a lighter, and a bar of some sort, upon opening the package and eating the bar he found it was a granola bar, a fitting last meal for an adventurer. He began feeling once again for the wall, and upon touching it, began feeling along the crevices, knowing full well that his life depended on the feel of the rocks.

John started up the wall, first placing his left hand far above him, hoisting himself until he felt both of his feet landed upon another crevice. Hoisting himself up again as his legs fit itself into another rift in the rock. He continued this process for quite some time and soon his hand felt a rush of air as he came to the top of the cliff, as John began to hoist himself up however the cool air against John’s face gave him a stun and lost his grasp on the wall as he fell back to the ground below him.

John felt a sharp sting across his back as he hit the ground once again. He tried to lift himself to feel his legs but he couldn’t move inspite of all his might. His legs wouldn’t move either, however his hands were still flinging around and therefore John knew he still had a little bit of control. He attempted to lift himself with his arms, but as he began to push himself up there was an intense pain all along his back. The screams that John heard at that moment as they came off the cavern walls were dreadful, and John could no longer hear these screams. His mind went into a panic, and then it cleared, and John knew then what he had to do.

John reached into his pockets and grabbed the knife and lighter. He fumbled around the ignitor and as sudden to John, as it came to men in caves millenniums ago, he had fire. He then lifted his knife along the fire, the blade had broken during the falls, but it could still complete the task John needed it for. He kept waving knife and lighter alongside each other until the knife glowed orange. Then taking one last look around, the faint light from the lighter making a the cavern floor and his own limp body visible, he aimed the blade against his throat, and then grabbing a nearby rock, struck the knife into his lungs. He felt the burning, sharp, jagged blade tear through his insides, he felt the warm drool of blood coming from his mouth, and even as the fire grew faint it appeared brighter, until all he saw was white and then a sudden black. John took his last breath, upon which he started choking on, as he began to rest himself within his tomb.












The Last Breath

When life gives you nothing but fight

and you haven’t the strength to carry on

There is no need to do what is right

Because to yourself or to God it’s still wrong

To accept things for what they are

To know what life has in store

To do things without a care

To see life’s end in peace or war

There really isn’t anything to be said

When things in life seem grim

Either way we all will be dead

Might as well face it with a grin

After all when it’s said and done

What right do you have to say?

You can’t go pleasing everyone

So I’ll just continue in my own way

Then when you have hit the bottom

Lying in despair

you feel like the abandoned Sodom

or Abraham and his many heirs

But to think it wasn’t man who led them

To think it was a God on high

To know to everything there is a season

From birth till we say goodbye

So when we face sweet death

Face him with a grin

For we know every subtle breath

is bound to have it’s end.

-VII