Part 1: Blindfolded

I pull the blindfold from my eyes and blink the dust away.  How long was that thing on? My eyes seem to take forever to focus, unaccustomed to being used.  Luckily the light here is dim allowing my eyes to adjust easily. First I take a quick inventory of myself, looking down.  My clothes are ripped and shredded, tears in my shirt reveal festering wounds. Along my arms and chest are several scars, no doubt a result of stumbling around blindfolded for so long. Every inch of skin not covered by what remains of my tattered clothing is crusted in black dirt. I try scrapping some of it off with a fingernail but after removing the substantial outer layer it looks like the grime has soaked into my skin. Next I take in my surroundings, trying to figure out how I got here.  I am in a long corridor with a T-split directly in front of me.  I look behind me, the way I presumably came. There is nothing to see there but darkness stretching into an unfathomable distance.  As I turn to face the path ahead I catch something out of my peripheral vision I hadn’t noticed before, the number 27 written in chalk on the charcoal floor beneath me. I stare at it quizzically, not sure what to make of it. Somehow I am certain that it refers more to a timeline rather than distance, but there’s no way to know for certain. There’s obviously no going back into that darkness and being uncertain of where I am now, coupled with the burning of those infected wounds leave me but one choice: to move forward.  A few short steps bring me to the T and I receive yet another surprise. The path to my right is littered with people. Tons of them actually.  There are people of every shape, size, age, race, and religion. They are all facing away from me, shuffling slowly down the path. The path is on a slight downhill grade, seemingly made of solid stone. It looks to be quite a bit wider than the path I just came from and seems to get wider the further down it goes. Not that it appeared to matter, it looked insanely crowded as far as I could see, people elbowing and jostling to gain position.  A reddish light shone up the path from some far distant source, but it wasn’t steady, almost seeming to flicker and flare like a flame.  Where could all those people be going? It must be pretty decent if all those people were struggling to get there, some even seeming to be in a hurry as they pushed and shoved their way ahead.  Before I even realized it my feet had turned that way and shuffled a couple steps down the path. 

“Travis”

What was that? Did I hear that right? It sounded like my name, but I couldn’t be certain with the loud sound of shuffling feet. It sounded like it came from behind me, curiosity begging me to turn my head. I was surprised the effort it took to pull my eyes away from down the path ahead to look back.  Finally looking over my shoulder I saw where the voice came from, if indeed it was a voice. It was the path that would have been to the left of the T.  Compared to this current path the left path is very narrow, high walls hemming it in on both sides to where it looked like you could only walk single file.  There were no people on this path, not that they could have gone far; it looked like the roof had caved in, a huge jumble of rocks ranging in size from softball size up to a few huge boulders blocked the path.  From the top of that pile came a faint yet piercing white light.  Unlike the red light, this was steady, yet dim from the obstruction blocking the path.  Oh well, looks like there’s no going that way, must have imagined it. As I was about to turn my head back around, I heard it again, unmistakable.

“Travis”

It was a womans voice, and something about it reached down through my ears and into my heart. I felt a small flutter and had to stifle a gasp. I stopped dead in my tracks, sucking in a few short breaths through gritted teeth. How could a voice do that to me? The simple sound of my name from that voice roused such a powerful feeling. I realized then the sharpness of that feeling was magnified because I hadn’t felt much of anything that I could remember.  Now I was compelled and knew I had to turn around. As hard as turning my head was, changing direction with my whole body seemed to be an even greater task yet. Only with the feeling in my heart from hearing that mysterious voice saying my name gave me enough strength and will to do a 180 and start moving back towards the left path.

_________________________________________________________________________________

This is a story I have envisioned in my head, but as I began writing it out I realized it was rather lengthy so in an attempt to not bore you and lose you before the finish(and to maybe generate some good old fashioned anticipation) I have given you the first chunk, and will write the next part(or possibly parts) in the next day or 2. So I hope you enjoy and hope you'll be interested to hear the rest of the story. And of course, feedback and comments are always appreciated!