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hole. Moving closer, I strained my hearing towards the empty space, hoping that the sound was coming closer to me, that Daniel was on his way out.
    The longer I listened, the fainter the sound became. I sat back on my knees, brushed the sand and small rocks from my palms, and took a deep breath that, when it finally escaped, left me deflated and feeling shaky. My eyes closed. If I didn’t think about it, that would be the best way. Just do it quickly, keep moving, and don’t think about it.    
    I really didn’t want to go in there.

    Back on my hands and knees, I crawled into the dark and tiny tunnel. My arms, limp from fear, didn’t feel like they were capable of carrying me very far. By the time I was in up to my waist, the faint moonlight that had illuminated the entrance was completely blocked out. I stopped and tried again. “Daniel, please,” my voice came out in a whisper. Shaking all over now, I fought the urge to go back by forcing one of my hands a few inches further. Then a knee. Every part of me shifted forward while my mounting terror begged me to run back into the open and arid desert.  
    I pushed myself faster, listening as best I could beyond the shuffling of my own body for any sign that Daniel might be near. Unable to turn even my head in the narrow confines, there was no way to tell how far I had come. The blackness all around blinded me to how far I still had left to go. I suddenly wished I had thought to get a better look at the cactus cluster before entering it—who knew how deep the spiny creature went.
    A sharp sting sliced my cheek. I paused while my fingers explored the tender flesh and came away wet with blood. I dried my cheek on my shirt and kept moving. The cacti spines began at first to catch bits of my shirt and then my hair. Their pulling and tearing became more insistent, more violent, pulling out strands of loose hair, ripping holes in the fabric the further I progressed.  
    The hole was getting smaller all around me.  
    But, in the distance, I thought I saw light. I lowered myself to the ground until my belly slithered across the dirt and my elbows now experienced the hard edged bite from the tiny rocks as I continued to drag myself forward. After my initial joy, finally the end , I began to worry that the light wasn’t real, that it was only a illusion generated by my brain. The dark seemed to swallow it back up so that only when I stopped and strained my eyes towards it was I able to focus on the watery features of less dark.  
    Not a beacon of light, only brighter darkness which meant the promise of the open night and escape from this shrinking tunnel of dirt and thorns. Ahead of me, the way out was there. I knew it and the idea of suffering the dark and the tight for the time it would take to journey back the direction I had come only increased the tide of hysteria urging my body to stand and run. I needed out.  
    My elbows dug harder into the earth as I held down the desperate panic rising in my chest. I ignored the cuts and stings cutting me with every inch, they were nothing compared to getting out. Forward and out.  
    The brightness held, a dark blue promise I fixed my eyes on until it was only twenty feet away, fifteen, ten. The pain radiating from the shredded skin on my elbows and knees was excruciating. With five feet left, the panic cut loose and a desperate sob escaped from me as I shoved myself, finally, out of the tunnel and into the night air.  
    I rolled onto my back and stared up into the star littered night. Tears streamed down past my temples while my chest struggled between taking great deep breaths and the heaving sobs that erupted out of me. The cool relief of the night air washed over me, calmed me, made me believe I would be alright, everything would be fine now, until a singular realization eclipsed it all.
    I would need to go back through the tunnel in order to get home.  
    And where had home gone? Where was I? Where was Daniel? How had I seen