Golden thorns chapter 52
Once the string of lights ended there was no longer anything to keep the darkness at bay and Coran and Marie were submerged in an inky blackness so dense they could not see their hands in front of their faces. Coran reached into his pack and drew out his high powered torch. Flicking it on, he revealed a rough-cut tunnel, three meters in diameter that went on beyond the reach of the torchlight, descending into the earth at a shallow angle. They had split up from Devlyn and Jo at a fork in the caves a little while back, saying a brief goodbye and good luck.
Since then there had been no deviation in the tunnel, no junctions, and no intersections. Just the implacable and seemingly unending descent. The cave walls, although rough, were quite clearly man made. Marks from the blades of pickaxes were still visible and some very decayed mine cart tracks still lay at their feet.
The cave began to narrow slightly as a slow but persistent drip fell from the roof, periodically striking one of them on the head or shoulders. Every time this happened, Coran could hear Marie give a quiet hiss of discomfort, which he could understand. The drip was incessant, and very, very cold. Eventually it became too much for the girl and she let out a groan of frustration.
"Why? Why is it so dark and wet? How can the water be so cold when the air is so hot!?" she said, surprising him with the aggression in her voice.
"Well the drip will be because we're below the water table. It's exposed here because there is a fault in the surrounding rock that was infilled by the iron ore as it was deposited by flowing water that was superheated by a rising chamber of magma. As for the air. Well, that's because there isn't as much Oxygen down here. Gasses like Carbon Dioxide are much denser than-" but he was stopped mid-sentence by Marie, glaring at him in the torchlight.
"I did not ask for a science lecture, Coran. Why do you always try to make yourself seem more intelligent like that?" Her tone made it seem like she was angry, but he saw the perspiration on her forehead, heard her laboured breathing and he realised that she must be having some sort of panic attack and was lashing out at him because of it.
"Okay, Marie. I'm sorry, just… just calm down." He said as she slumped against the cave wall. He went over to her as she slid down the rough wall and hugged her knees, her hair falling in front of her face. She started muttering rapidly, her every muscle tensed.
"Non, non, non. Je ne peux pas respire. Il n'y a pas d'air. Les murs sont si proches, Je dois sortir!" Coran recognised it as the language that she used whenever she spoke to her parents on the computers back at Beacon and, although he didn't understand a word of it, he got the gist.
"Marie, Marie listen to me. It's okay. You're safe. Hey, hey." he crouched in front of her and tried to find her eyes. The bright green orbs were wide and bloodshot. She was biting down on her sleeve, stifling sobs as she kept repeating that same phrase.
"Je dois sortir! Je dois sortir!"
Coran spoke slowly, modulating his voice so that it was very level. "Close your eyes. We are not in the cave anymore. We are back at beacon, on the lawn outside our dorm room. Can you remember that?" she held off a sob and nodded. Coran continued. "It's sunny. There is a slight breeze. It's okay. You're safe." He sat next to her and put a protective arm around her. She buried her tear-streaked face into his chest and her shaking subsided slightly.
He had never known her to cry over anything. Not when she was ill, not when she was upset, not when he was being an idiot and hurting himself. Not even when a Beowolf tore a gash in her side and she was an inch from death did she even shed a tear. She had always been so strong. So what the hell had happened to her to make her this afraid of being underground?
"We can stay here as long as you need, okay?" he said, "Take all the time you want." she nodded and wept into his chest as they held each other, alone in the darkness.