A Very Deep Game ~ 6/23/2018

I dreamed I was conscripted into a strange game. I was placed in a team with a friend, a cousin, Eric Northman, the vampire, and a handful of strangers. We were supposed to retrieve a secret from the depths of a cavern beneath the town I was staying in. No one said what would happen if we failed, but there were some pretty dire hints.

We were going to have to enter the cavern after tour hours, so we needed to carry our own light sources. I combed through the shelves of an antique store that was also a bar looking for candle holders and old lanterns. We only had four hours to complete the task, so we each carried four candles that burned for exactly an hour, so that if we hadn't found the secret by the time we'd burned half our candles, we'd have to start back.

We waited near the back door of the bar/antique shop, because the entrance to the cavern was down some stairs in a shed out back. We watched the final tour groups come up out of the shed as the lights began glowing golden in the gathering dusk. Finally the last park ranger came up to tell us everyone was out, and it was time for us to start.

We clambered down the stairs to a smooth stone path that sloped into darkness. We lit our candles, and left the golden glow of the electric lights behind. The ranger had whispered to me that we needed to go right at the first tunnel that direction, then, after the railing ran out, go down the path to the left.

Our shadows jolted and jumped across the dusty stone walls around us as we descended deeper and deeper into the cavern. Finally we'd passed the last of the metal railing, then the last of the rope railing. We went left into a dark tunnel and dropped down over a series of boulders. My first candle went out.

We all stopped to light out second candles. Mine wouldn't light, and the team went on ahead as I struck matches against the darkness that gathered around me. Eric stayed with me, but I was pretty wary about his motivations. I didn't think it was for my company, or out of kindness.

We got to talking about what the secret might be. Maybe it would be a message in a bottle, or a fabulous gem. Maybe we'd find an ancient grave or cave art. Or maybe a nuclear bunker, or a tunnel to Fort Knox. But when I got my candle lit and we started to follow the rest of the group, I woke up.