green eyes in the dark

Chapter 2

The heat and the smell of something edible wakes me up. I look around me to see who lit the fire even though I know the answer. The green eyes are back. They are so far from me.

- I brought you food.

It says it with the same robot voice. I see the food right in front of me. I realize I'm not standing up anymore. The food is laying on a plate that seems very expensive to be in an abandoned tunnel. It's rice with vegetables and what looks like chicken.

- Where did you find this?

I say this pointing at the food. I ask a question, but I already know its answer.

- I brought you food.

There's a long pause and then the robot voice says something.

- Water too. Seventy percent of the human body is made of water. You need water if you want to stay alive.

- I know that.

My voice is hoarse. I'm too hungry and thirsty to even think about the expensive plate. Just eating makes me want to cry. It makes me nostalgic of what I had not long but so long ago, even though most of all was wrong and made me sick all the time.

- You know, I used to eat this back there.

I point outside and see that I got moved. I couldn't figure out if I moved all by myself or if the green eyes moved me. The ground under me is dry. I don't really care if I'm talking alone, I just want to hear my voice, so I keep speaking.

- I shouldn't miss it. I was dying inside out there. It's calmer here. I miss everything though.

I see the green eyes moving. It's listening to me. I go on with my mouth full of the food it brought me.

- I was captain of my school's soccer team. I've always loved running. It was a way to erase what was going on in my mind. I didn't laugh. I smiled. I told myself it would say to others that I was okay. That I was happy. I was reading all the time. The stories were more fascinating than my own life.

I talk like that until the fire goes out. The moment the last flame stops producing light, I stop talking. I'm in the middle of a sentence, but it doesn't matter. Fear slowly grows inside of me. I can see the green eyes leaving. Right before I can't see them anymore, I almost yell my request.

- Can you stay with me? I don't want to be alone.

I can see the green eyes closing for what seems like hours to me. It has to be somewhat of a " yes " because it comes closer to me. Silence reigns between us until it's the morning. I know it has to leave at some point, so when it's gone, I try to sleep to forget the fact that I'm alone in this tunnel.
I dream of knights. I can't see under the armies. I notice the green eyes. Every single one of them. They run to fight something, but I don't see what. I'm focused on their eyes. I don't need to see to know what it is. It's the only thing that occupies my thoughts. I want to wake up from this nightmare. I don't, I stay asleep. The more it goes, the more I doubt it's a nightmare: the green eyes are winning. They shouldn't be fighting. I should, but it takes off some of the weight on my shoulders. The tension that lives in every single of my muscles since I left stays. It hurts every time I move. It won't leave anytime soon.
The cold wakes me. I don't remember the dream, but I feel it. I realize I haven't moved in a really long time. I want to find something more than the writing I discovered the other day. I still have the flashlight with me. I turn it on to see something. People are still sleeping outside.
In their bed.
To the heat of their home.
With their friends, their family.
While I'm here, in a tunnel. Almost freezing to death. I'm trying to think about anything else. I try to find a reason for writing a date so far in an old tunnel.
Nothing comes to me while I go deeper in the tunnel, but maybe the green eyes will know. I wonder if it has a name.
I try to find a good name for them when I see the inscription on the wall. I use the flashlight to see if there could be other things written on the wall that could help me understand the meaning of this date.

- It was the day they discovered me.

I don't hear it coming. It doesn't scare me. The voice is so monotonous I feel like I can't be scared. It calms me instead, but I'm intrigued by it's words.

- What do you mean? How old are you?

- It was the day they found what was scaring everyone who put a foot inside the tunnel.

- But why did they write it here?

- They found the first person to die in the tunnel right here.

I don't need to see it to know exactly where it is. The green eyes still haven't answered my second question so I repeated now scared a little.

- How old are you...

If it wasn't from the way I say the words, I don't think anyone could know it's question. I don't want to know the answer to that question.

- I don't know. I didn't come into this universe like you.

The monotonous voice seems to have left its corpse. I can hear the regret in its voice. I know I have to be scared now.
I want to run away.
I want to escape.
I want to ask what this creature is.
I ask it.

- What are you?

I come closer to it. I look at its eyes.

- I'm nothing, I'm everything. I'm the cold, I'm the heat. I'm the darkness, I'm the light. I'm the day, I'm the night. I'm a god, I'm a human being. I'm death, I'm life.

- And what are you in one word?

- I don't know. I can choose, but it's too hard to choose so I don't know. I can also choose to have emotions. It's like a switch. I haven't turned it on in a while.

- How long?

- I haven't turned it on in a while.

I know it turns it off. The monotonous voice is back. I know I won't have an answer to my question, but I still ask it.

- Why did you turn it on?

I don't even finish what I'm saying that it's gone. I need to know the reason why it turned it on. I can't just go on and tell me it's not a big deal. It turned it off just to keep itself from answering my question. I can't be the reason. I need to find it now.
I start to run deeper in the tunnel. I know the green eyes didn't go outside of the tunnel so I'm sure it went in the other direction. I realize I'm not even holding the flashlight anymore. I try to think of when it fell from my hands, but I can't find the moment. I can see though. I know it's not that my eyes got used to the darkness. There's light coming from somewhere.