Coil of Worlds

Somehow Lara knew she’d find herself in the tunnels. She glanced around the room. For the first time, she was alone.

She sighed and searched the floor for the least filthy spot. If she had to be here—in her dream, no less, she’d do it sitting down. She found a clear section against the opposite wall, though the spot wasn’t much better than any other.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor with her back against the wall, Lara racked her brain for a possible reason for her recurring dreams. Slowly, so slowly, the mounting silence in the tunnel grew until it invaded her thoughts. The silence was absolute, reminding her of the underground tombs she’d read about when she was younger. Feeling its weighty presence, Lara wrapped her arms around her legs and hugged them to her chest.

With no air circulating where she sat, it was altogether too still. Like the lull before the storm, it was too quiet. She felt her composure crack. She realized it was the first time in her life she couldn’t hear at least some whisper of noise. Normally, there was a car driving by, a dog barking, people chatting. Here, every breath she took echoed around her.

Lara forced herself to calm down, to slow her galloping heart. For now, she was safe. Her fingers twitched from the rising tension. Curling herself into a tighter ball, she stared down at her clothes. Lara applauded herself for choosing the black t-shirt and navy-blue shorts. They blended in far better than her usual, colorful pajamas.

More than an hour passed as she fidgeted, her ears straining to hear something in either direction. When nothing moved as the minutes ticked by, it finally sank in. She was truly alone. And completely lost.

Shaking her head, Lara mumbled, “I’m driving myself insane.” Her lips twisted at the irony. She was stressing out for no reason. It was a dream. With that, she dropped her eyes down to her bare toes. Wriggling them in the dirt, she chuckled and said at a normal volume, “At least the dirt is all in my imagination. Otherwise, I’d be scrubbing my feet for hours every time I woke up.”

Another ten minutes crawled by and boredom set in. On impulse, she scrambled up and approached a doorway a short distance away. After taking a quick peek through the door, looking in both directions, she took a small step out of the hall.

The doorway led to another corridor. Lara again looked right and then left. She sighed in resignation. Neither direction looked better than the other. So which direction should she go? After a second of indecision, she chose the corridor to the right. The intersecting hallways were like a maze. She recalled reading that mazes were often created so that once people understood the trick, they could never lose their way. The problem? There were no signs, arrows, or color coding anywhere she looked.

In the pervasive silence, she crept down the hall, afraid of crossing paths with a warrior from last night’s battle. After several yards, Lara came across a pile of debris from a crumbling wall covering the entire path. She grimaced in distaste as she climbed over it, careful to step down so no sharp edges cut her feet. Looking back in the direction she’d come, she realized she needn’t worry about coming across anyone. The single set of footprints was proof no one else had passed this way in weeks.

Her spirits lifted for the first time since entering the tunnel system, and Lara began exploring the tunnels in earnest, fear no longer holding her hostage. Approximately a hundred yards past the large mound, she hit a cross section. Three tunnels branched off from the one she’d exited. Discerning no difference in the three options, Lara again chose the tunnel on the far right. Lara didn’t know how long she’d been walking before she realized the floor steadily sloped upward.

After what felt like several miles, the floor leveled out, and another doorway came into view. Reaching it, Lara stuck her head into a small room. Seeing it empty except for the mismatched objects littering the floor, she stepped inside, relieved at getting out of the tunnel system. She wandered through the room, drifting her hands over the various items left behind. Some she recognized as eating utensils and common, day-to-day tools. For many of the items, however, she had no idea what they were for.

All at once, as if a switch was flipped, Lara felt pinpricks of pain shooting up from the soles of her feet. They’d hurt for some time; she’d simply dismissed the feeling, lost in the excitement of discovering a new place. What had she been thinking, walking barefoot through the tunnels?

Lara bent her knee and lifted her left foot backward as she teetered on the opposite leg. Craning her head around, she peered at the damage. Needless to say, walking barefoot was not one of her better ideas. She clenched her teeth together. It didn’t matter if it was a dream or not. Her feet hurt, throbbing more with each second.

She limped over to a decrepit chair, wincing a little with every step she took. Praying the chair wouldn’t collapse from her weight, Lara sank down to the sounds of creaks and groans. She lifted her left foot again, checking the extent of the cuts. Three large cuts crossed the soles, and blood oozed from the wounds. How had she not felt it when the cuts first happened?

She looked down at her shirt with a kernel of an idea. Lara’s first attempt at tearing the shirt left her giggling and snorting. She was an idiot. A short sword hung on the wall not three yards from where she perched. Even if it had a dull edge, the blade would work far better than her bare hands.

Stripping, Lara yanked the sword off the wall and made short work of the bottom of the t-shirt. She cut several thin strips for bindings. After putting her ripped shirt back on, she wrapped the bindings around both her feet.

She took a few, small steps. Though it pained her to walk, the bindings would hold for at least a while. Taking the weapon with her, Lara hobbled out of the room and down another tunnel corridor. A large yawn caught her by surprise. With no way to measure the passage of time, she realized she had no idea how long she’d been exploring.

The tunnel system was more vast and complex than she originally thought. A second yawn cracked her jaw far enough open that her eyes almost crossed. She should have woken up long before now. Huh. She halted her in her tracks, staring unseeingly down the empty corridor. The dream was beginning to feel less like a dream and more real the longer she lingered in the tunnels.

Lara picked up the pace and searched for a place she could lie down. She’d almost given up hope when she discovered another room. Unlike the last one, this room included an untidy pile of rugs in the far, right corner. Her lips curled up in grim satisfaction. She could sleep here, giving her feet a chance to recover.

Looking around the room, she noticed the room had been occupied in the not-so-distant past. Dust didn’t cling to the surfaces, and the floor wasn’t as filthy. With a brief thought for the missing inhabitant, she prayed he or she didn’t return while she was here. Lara sighed in relief once she was prostrate on the makeshift bedding. She fell asleep hugging the short sword to her chest.