Little, white dot.

I don't know how much time has passed since I collapsed on the rails of this abandoned tunnel. I lay here motionless as my only functional muscles keep my eyelids open just enough to set my focus on the flickering, white dot that shimmers in the great distance. It feels like even my heart has stopped beating long ago. If I could I would shape my feelings as a bitter smile on my lips. Isn't it ironic? Days seem to have passed me by as scattered ghosts, wandering chaotically in my peripheral vision, while I kept on walking forward this ominous path, stepping on consecutively spread-out planks as my sole guide in this lightless tube and just when a shimmer of hope strook the sensitive iris of my eye, a missing plank was enough to demolish me. Pathetic.

My mind starts to wander. I have no recollection of how I got here, but this all seems too damn familiar. Maybe I'm dying again and this is an interdimensional tunnel where the light leads to salvation, be it waking up as a cripple to the current life after a long comma or getting reincarnated as a helpless baby again to another. Or a maggot. I'm not sure whether I like this scenario or not, but what choice do I have anyways. Really, what happens if I don't reach that light? Will I get transported to yet another nightmarish scenery or will I cease to exist once and for all? Well, all I have to do is wait anyways. I could do that. On a second thought, I'm not even sure if I'm alive or dead yet, so what if this microscopic white dot is but a mirage? What if all of this is merely a creation of my devious mind? An unimaginative, parabolic purgatory in which I'm the sole architect as well as the sole sufferer. Most probably it's a vivid dream and I'm stuck here whether I like it, or not. All I know for sure is that I'm paralyzed and from the looks of it, I'll be for a while, if not forever.

Isn't it silly that I'm still curious though? This might be the end of the road for me, but just out of pure curiosity I'd have liked to be able to have reached at least near the exit and have a peak outside. As long as my awareness exists, I would like to know, even if it were inevitable to disappear right after that revelation. At least I'd know now. The paradoxical nature of a souls journey to extinction. Yes, I'd be laughing like a mad man if I could.

Time passes and my eyes feel like wet glass. I regain some sense of my limbs. I'm cold beyond the point of pain as my pores have been sucking on this humid atmosphere for days. I extend my trembling hands forth, I grab onto the next wooden plank and I pull my weight with all my might as my legs push the ground beneath me. I can only crawl slowly, like a snail, but at least that's something. The war might be lost, but since I'm still stand... crawling, there's still a possibility I'll get to see what lies outside. Suddenly, I hear a sound for the first time. It's getting louder and louder by the second. It's a perpetual noise that echoes as it bounces on the walls and scatters in the length of the tunnel. It's footsteps! Somebody is running towards my direction and it's coming from the exit. The footsteps halt. I try to make a sound; scream for help, but my throat is so dry that I can only whisper with great difficulty. With my palms I scan the ground in the darkness, until I find a small rock. I pick it up and start beating it on the iron rail as hard as I can. Soon after the first metallic "bang" echoes in the tunnel, the footsteps pick up running again, this time faster. I hear my name. Someone is screaming my name! It's a man's voice. I can't figure out to whom this voice belongs to, because it gets heavily distorted from all the echoes until it reaches my ears, but he sounds desperate, while all I can shoot as an emergency flare is the banging noise of the rock on the rail.

He's getting closer and closer and I get a sense of familiarity as his voice becomes clearer, but yet I can't tell who he is. Many things are taking place in the present happenings as in my mind as well and I simply don't afford the headspace to remember. I'll recognise him once I see him. I'm certain of that, but first I need him to find me and help me out. I start crawling again, faster than before since this plot-twist refueled my determination, while banging the rock with every chance I find on the rail. I even attempt to stand up to my feet, but I'm still numb so I make it 'till my knees support me for a split second before I fall down kissing the ground, again and again. Then something entirely unforeseen to the point of being considered unfair happens. I feel a subtle tremor on the rails and soon after, the previous setting surrounding me, secluding me, starts to gain visual form as light starts to scatter through it and the light source comes from behind me. For the first time in this god forsaken place, I can see the planks extruding from the ground and my hands that are dragging up from them. I can hear another sound that's closing by with greater speed and to my surprise, it's the sound of a train. I turn my head back and see a light source accelerating towards me. It's a motherfucking train. After so long! It runs so fast that I don't have the time to crawl to the side. If I try, it'll split me in the middle for sure. I turn my head and look in front of me again. The figure of the man is running frantically, stumbling and tumbling on the way as his screams become unearthly. I still can't get a clear image of him, apart that he is young and slim. Sorry mate. After all this trouble and struggle, I will let you down as well.

As a last resort I lie down like a plank myself, between and parallel to the rails and cover my head tightly with my arms, like they could protect it from getting crashed by the train. Who knows? Maybe it'll pass over me and I'll be fine. I feel the train reaching my feet. The noise is excruciating. I'm terrified.

I wake up floating heads up in a pond. Even before my eyes can settle on the present scenery, the previous traumatic experience comes to my awareness and reflexively, I try to avoid what isn't there anymore. All of my muscles get stressed and spasm and I sink underneath the surface, drowning in this hazy, warm water. I feel a sting at the top of my head and a great force dragging me upward. My head is over the surface again. I'm throwing out water as I'm desperately trying to put some oxygen in my lungs as well. When my breathing somewhat settles I feel so exhausted that I can barely open up my eyes. A blurry image is all my brain can produce right now and as it clears up in intervals, I realise that what's in front of me is a smiling face of a woman. I can't make up the details yet apart that she has curly brown hair and a wide smile. She's kneeling at the edge of the pier, her fingers tightly wrapped around my hair as she keeps my head from sinking back into the water.

"Hello there grumpy. I finally got a hold of you and no, I'm not letting you go any time soon", she says in a joyful manner. I can sense a tinge of irony in her lovingness.

"What?" I manage to sputter out weakly before I pass out.