I rose to my feet, standing in eep snow, cold to my knees. Skirt and hair billowing. Darkness, abyss, neverending and yet finite. We are free and yet trapped. One step, then two. A slow walk is better than a crawl. Another set of footsteps behind me. No third. Two footsteps, crunch crunch, no third.
I turned around. Mercury was watching the cavern.
“ What are you waiting for?”
I asked,“ You’ ll freeze.”“ I don’ t feel right.”“ It’ s the cold. You need to warm up. Come on.”“ No, it’ s just …”“ What?”“ My dad’ s still down there.”“ It won’ t be long.” A hiccup. I looked away. I’ m not good with words like that.“ I know. I know.” Wolfram beat me to it.“ We’ ll come back tomorrow. We’ ll bring stones to leave here. He’ d like that.”
I turned away.“ There’ s flowers at the village.”“ Flowers?” Wolfram asked.“ You know what a flower is, yes?”“ No. I’ ll find out!”“ Come along. I looked back. Wolfram held Mercury’ s hands. Cold metal in Wolfram’ s flesh. The company’ s fault.
“ He won’ t be alone, ok? He knows you’ re safe. He’ s proud of you.”
He kissed him on the cheek. I started walking. One footstep, then two, then three. Mercury and Wolfram drummed behind me.
The wind howled. Cold to the bone. The light now was much more than a pinhole, but it bored all the same. Bright enough to flay you alive. Maybe they were here, waiting for me. Maybe they weren’ t. I hoped not. If they saw those two, they’ d kill us all. I didn’ t
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