Dark Places || ONC 2023

Red Light

The light goes out and Janelle knows Adam's dead. He has to be dead. She felt his muscles spasm the second before the floor dropped out. Things she never thought she would think about flash through her mind. How alone she is. How much easier it would be to climb back up without him. Whether or not she is going to die alone.

"Janelle?"

Janelle's arms stings with goosebumps. Fear and shock and

"Adam?" How did he survive? Janelle scrambles around looking for their rope. He had disconnected. He wouldn't still be held by it so how is he still alive?

"I'm fine," he says. "I'm okay. I'm-"

She realizes she didn't hear him hit the ground. There was no definitive crash or thunk.

"Floating," Adam finishes. He sounds confused. "It's like I hit zero gravity. I'm okay." Janelle can tell he's not so sure about the recent development.

Floating? Janelle whispers to herself. She needs to get down there. She has nothing to worry about, but herself. Which is a lot to worry about. Should she follow?

"How far down, do you think?" She asks, not that it matters. If she's going to jump down after him anything more than about 20feet is going to kill her.

Unless Adam's magic gravity pillow saves her. 

And there's another thought, maybe it's not even Adam. Maybe it's a trick. There are already monsters down here, why wouldn't there be creatures that could mimic Adam's voice.

She hears a soft thump and boots creaking against stone.

"It's okay," Adam calls up. It definitely sounds like him. "I'm fine. I'm down."

"What the hell Adam? How!?" He sounds far away, but not too far. The red light had been deep in the earth. Maybe he's down with it. If he is, does that mean the monster might soon be back to track down the red flash of light. Is it going to kill him?

"Are you safe?" she asks.

"Yeah," Adam says uncertainly, "Yeah, so far."

So far. How apt. Both of them are on the same page then, that they could both die at any moment. Janelle breathes in, and then out, and in again. Her legs hurt. Her body hurts and however good she felt a minute ago with Adam pressed up against her, it's gone now.

What should she do? There's a chance she can climb down, though her mobility is seriously decreased with the layers of t-shirt wrapped around her bleeding wounds.

Or she could jump.

"Why aren't you dead?" Janelle calls down. She knows Adam already gave her an answer, but she wants to hear it again.

For a while, all she hears is Adam's feet shuffling around, then,

"I don't know" There's a long hum of uncertainty, then, "I think it's a falling fail safe? It was like landing on air."

"And you're definitely alive?" Janelle asks. Adam huffs a laugh, and she guesses there's something inherently funny in a suicidal man falling into a hole and surviving despite himself.

"I'm coming down," Janelle says. She decides not to jump. At least not yet. She's mostly out of rope to keep repelling, but she's got at least sixty feet of rope left, and she's going to make use of it.

Nothing happens while she hooks in more anchors, and connects her repeller. It hurts to get over the edge, and moving gracefully is far outside of her ability right then, but she gets down to another ledge.

"Adam?" She calls again.

"Janelle?" he calls back, "How's it going?"

Janelle grits her teeth. Adam sounds about as far away from her now as he did when she was on the previous ledge.