Into White

INTO WHITE

I

Ruben opened his eyes. He thought he might have heard something. A heavy sleep weighed on him. He struggled feebly to hold it at bay.

Who was there? Was it Anne?

He drew a slow breath. He waited for Anne to come into view. She never did.

Maybe he had only been hearing things, deceiving murmurs of the wind. He had a strange feeling then, a feeling that Anne hadn’t returned coupled with the feeling that he might never see her again.

He hoped she was all right. He had no way of knowing.

Ruben’s thoughts meandered, and he stared into white.

II

The passing of time was impossible for Anne to gauge in the darkness of the hole. She waited there at its bottom, alone with her thoughts in the surrounding blackness. She could hardly bear it. She had to get out of this place. Anne searched for some sense of direction through the dark pit, and almost lost her footing several times on the bones covering the ground.

The flashlight flickered on and off. She shook it until th