Everything hurt, it hurt in places I didn't even know existed. A twinge in the right shoulder blade, an ache in the spine, a dull throbbing in my hip… I guess I did know where it hurt.
Wait. Where was I?
Unless I was going senile —which I most certainly wasn't— I didn't go to sleep in the middle of… a flower bed? it certainly wasn't very comfortable. I was laying on my back, facing the light streaming from a hole a sizable distance above where I was lying down.
The last thing I remember was exploring the mountain that the caretakers told stories about; a cursed mountain sealing an unspeakable evil, there were legends that those who climbed the mountain never returned… the whole nine yards. But adults always make up stories about everything, like how the nice colorful truck that all the kids gathered around only played music. Lies. The truck literally had a giant ice cream cone on it!
So I was just exploring the mountain and saw this humongous hole in the ground and went a little closer to see what was at the bottom— ah, things were starting to make more sense.
"Hello?..." I cried out to the cold stuffy cavern... I received no reply besides my own lackluster greeting echoing off the walls.
I decided to stand up and take inventory of my surroundings. I appeared to be in a cave. The sole patch of greenery around me was crinkling beneath my feet, feeding off of the bright sunlight streaming from the ceiling: the rest of the ground was composed of some sort of smooth grey rock and so were the walls.
I took a second glance at the bed of flowers I had landed on, five-petaled yellow flowers, each one about as large as my hand. The ones you could find anywhere you went, grown by a florist, sprouting from the cement, hitchhiking on anyone that happened to brush the edge of the flower to spread its roots into every nook and cranny of the world. As the adults would say, 'Where it can grow, it will overflow'.
There was lots of time for me to think about golden flowers later, I was now stuck in a hole. Think about your priorities, me! Get out of the hole before thinking about flowers!
Looking around, there was only one path I could take. There was enough light for me to see the walls in all directions except for one. A dark and ominous hallway that stretched out to… somewhere.
I walked forwards with my arms stretched out despite the hamster in my mind going, 'What a smart idea, going down the spooky hallway, what a genius you are Bea.'
Quite a rude hamster considering it was also the one that decided to go down the hallway in the first place. I walked forth with great valor. With nothing but the shirt on my back and jeans on my legs. Perfect for an expedition into the unknown. The hallway quickly came to an end, there was a door!
"Woohoo! A door!" I exclaimed as I reached what was most certainly not a door.
Two bone-white pillars holding up an arch with a strange symbol on it. An orb with two wings on either side and three triangles pointing away from the orb below it.
Passing under the arch, I entered a room with nothing interesting but a patch of grass illuminated by sunlight streaming from the ceiling… which was also the ground because I was underground? Quite a confusing sentence, certainly not one many people had ever said before.
Walking past the boring patch of grass sitting at the center of the room. Another arch stood in front of me, with the same mysterious pillars that you would find in a Greek temple on either side and the same winged circle symbol on the arch.
This wasn't going to end well… I felt like I was about to intrude on some sort of ancient Indian burial ground and be cursed by vengeful spirits to die from some horrific means.
But with no other way to get out of the hole I had dug myself into, pushing onwards was the only way. Passing under the arch, I immediately noticed the color of the room.
Pink.
Glaringly vivid shades of pink and purple bombarded me from all sides. Directly in front of me was a pile of crimson red leaves, a staircase to the left and right. Both intersecting twenty steps in and leading up to yet another room. Everything appeared to be falling apart by the seams, the walls had cracks dotting every inch, vines were growing here and there.
This was an entrance to something, I knew that for sure. And this... something… was hidden away in some godforsaken cursed mountain, in some remote cave, below a death-defying drop… What was down here? Or more specifically… who?