If I was to be completely honest with myself, I still wouldn’t believe what happened. All I remembered was the explosion setting off, but pain and death hadn’t taken me. No, darkness did. A feeling of gushing winds for a split second, and a thud on my head that followed. That is all I felt, my vision rattled by darkness.

Panting heavily, Oscar’s throat managed to break the silence with a shallow tone. “Is… Everyone… alright?”

Coughs and moans replied back to him. Coughs and moans that weren’t my own. I felt a solid surface below me, and I leaned against another to my left. I tried to stand, but as I propped my hand upward, it touched something soft and furry.

A yelp barked back at me as I shifted my hand. “Sorry,” I realized it was Mooks, alive and breathing. My eyes adjusted to the darkness around me, and his white fur appeared before me.

Slowly, sliding and shifting ruffled all around; the others were alive, fairly safe too. They were clearly dazed and confused more than me, so I let them adjust to their senses.

“How are we alive?” I asked Oscar, unaware of his Gift.

Still panting, Oscar swallowed a big chunk of dry air, replying in a beaten voice. “Speed. I grabbed… ya’ll at the last second… and threw ya’lls to da left…”

Unfortunately, he didn’t manage to grab any torches, but our lives were more important than some frail light. Therefore, I didn’t question him. “Thank you for helping.”

“Ya’ll dragged me down here,” His breathing was starting to regain control, “Might as well get dragged till da end. If I’ma die… It outta be cuz’ I’m too drunk ina ditch.”

“Oww…” Paris let out a painful moan again. “My head…”

Oscar coughed another desperate chunk of dust from his throat, “Yer welcome.”

Next, Rina and Kalvin managed to comprehend what happened, saving another pointless explanation. I only assumed they were comfortable with Oscar doing this in the past, so I kept my mouth shut for the time being.

Kalvin coughed a few times, then took out a small box of matches from his pocket and gave us enough light to notice our surroundings, which weren’t any different than our previous.

With the flash of flame sparking to life, we were surrounded by walls on all sides, and a narrow passageway leading forward. Rocks and boulders blocked our way back, so forward was the only option for traversing in this narrow tunnel.

“We need to get out of here, fast.” I said, my voice as stern as their faces. “We were followed, used to find the entrance.” I got up, slowly marching into the darkness. “If you can stand, then don’t hesitate. We have no time to lounge around.” I suddenly felt like a leader about to commence a plan. It felt odd. I didn’t like it.

Kalvin tossed me the box of matches, and I failed to catch it. The lack of light was already troublesome enough, but guessing where a tiny box would land was nearly impossible. I sighed, picking it up and sparking another flame as Kalvin’s died out.

Stepping forward, a hand rested on my shoulder, stopping me. As I turned around, Rina hopped beside me, giving me a quick glare and grabbing a match. “After you,” She gave a quick smile, and I followed her lead.

Traversing through the narrow path, my steps became more fragile the further we traveled. It’s as if I was stepping on glass of some sort, as every step seemed like I was destined to fall through the floor. It was odd, for the floor was made of pure stone and dirt, and yet I couldn’t help but feel like I was standing on the edge of an iceberg. Rina felt it too, even Mooks took caution with his paws.

“Anyone else feel like we’re about to fall through? Or am I going crazy?” Paris stomped the ground, urgently trying to break through it.

“You’re not alone,” I answered, lighting another match.

Soon enough, we reached the end of the tunnel—my match dropped to the ground—and my eyes fell open like never before.

In front of me was a monstrous underground cave of crystals and gold. An artificial blue light hazed through the atmosphere, flickering across all the beautiful crystals like sunlight against a clear lake. My steps stopped short of a cliffside, with hundreds of feet of empty space sinking below me into darkness. On the edge of the cliff hung a tiny wooden bridge of rope and string, barely holding it together. Spikes of caved and rotted limestone stalagmites blanketed the arched ceilings, each one as sharp as the next.

Once my eyes darted across the bridge, I didn’t believe what I was seeing. Atop a massive pile of skeletons, armor, and lost lives, a golden necklace bearing a red ruby presented itself like the fountain of youth. Light shined down upon it out of cracks and wedges from the ceiling, and my match died out on the ground.

“No way!” Paris gazed in awe, her mind unable to process the realism in front of her.

“It’s real…” Kalvin whispered. “I can’t believe it… It’s actually real…”

The bridge in front of us looked as if it could barely hold a single soul. Planks were broken, ropes were dangling, and the nails holding it up were rusted past recognition. The gentle underground breeze rattled it left and right, flowing through the wooden boards.

“That wish is mine!” Paris yelled excitedly, dashing towards the bridge without a second thought.

However, I stopped her. Pulling her back with my hand, but before she could bark at me, she realized why I did.

On the other side of the bridge, a man circled around the massive pile of bones, cutting the bridge into the darkness below us. The same man who cut off my first escape from the Gulag. The same man who tortured me. The same man who had failed to kill me more than once, and yet continued to try every day of his miserable, privileged life. Leonidas, the son of King Richard II, stood tall with smite, rage and excitement across his clean-shaven face.

“Greetings!” He shouted across the space between us. “I thank you dearly for leading me straight to the jewel” He bowed, galloping onto the pile and taking the jewel off its rightful spot atop of broken bones. As soon as he snatched it off, the air seemed to thicken, and the stalagmites of molten rock above us gave a gentle tremble throughout the atmosphere.

“How you keep escaping death is beyond my wild imagination!” He smiled, laughing. “But luck isn’t enough to stop a wish. Nothing will stop fate that’s destined to be!”

I stayed silent for a moment, as did all the others. What would I say to him? He used me, Mooks, Rina, everyone. He used us like tools to get what he wants, just like he always did.

Surprisingly, Rina stepped forward, her expression gritted with grimace. “Leonidas!” She shouted, her voice strong and durable. “Why are you doing this! Does it give you that much pleasure to be the man you are? Would your father—”

“I have no father!” He shouted back, anger and hatred sprouting through his polished teeth. “My father is nothing but a coward and a worthless weakling I don’t associate with any longer. The throne will belong to me, and I will rule this country how it's supposed to be ruled!” He raised the jewel into the air, showing us it's brilliant glow. “With this jewel, I can finally rid the world of you Gifted pigs!”

“Is this what gives you pleasure?” I asked him, Mooks growling beside me. “Killing innocent people for your own selfish greed?”

“You have no right to talk!” He barked back at me, placing the jewel across his neck. “What have you done that I haven’t? I killed because I needed to survive under my blasted father’s rule. I ran away, and I hid under a new persona. Ring a bell? I am no different than you are!”

I felt my fists clench for a moment, but after a long breath, they relaxed. Like a burden has been lifted from me. I didn’t know what it was, but it felt good. It calmed me, like a bed of clouds, or Rina’s voice with a side of Fo. “You are nothing like me, Leonidas. You killed for pleasure. You tortured out of your own decisions. You stole and ran away from fear and regret... I ran away to get away from my past, but I think I finally understand why I was running from it.” I gave Rina a sharp glance, then Mooks, then Kalvin. “I was running from myself. I was afraid, lonely, broken. And on my desperate attempt of running away, I found others. Others who helped me, no matter how many evil acts I’ve come across in my life. And maybe I shouldn’t be alive for all the lives I’ve taken. But I am. And I’ll live my life correcting my mistakes, up until the day that I die.”

Mooks wheeped, patting me on my leg. I sighed again, “I’m tired of running. My past is just another scar, a part of me, and a piece of my soul.”

Leonidas dove into a sea of laughter, clenching his stomach in agony trying to settle himself. “You’re a joke!” He whooped, shoving his finger at me. “All of you are jokes and a pile of trash that has yet to be taken out! I’m quite relieved that all of you managed to survive the explosion! Because now, I get the fabulous honor of watching all of you die down here. And I’ll kill all of the remaining Gifted that dare walk my soil!”

Kalvin pulled Paris back, his mind racing in shock. “He’s insane, we need to leave.”

“None of you are leaving anywhere!” Leonidas gripped the jewel within his hand, looking down on us like a pile of ants. “I wish for a life of power, rule, and for every damn Gulag prisoner to rot in this damn abyss like the trash they are!” He howled excitingly. Immediately, the jewel began releasing a shallow red glow, and the cave began trembling ferociously.

“NOOOOO!” I yelled, loosening my gravity and arching my legs to leap over the edge between us. Just as my foot began to lift off the ground, I felt a sudden twist in my arm, and as my head flicked back, I realized it was Rina. Her screams filled the noise of rocks trembling, and her fingers unraveled the tiny tip of the bandages around my arm. However, it wasn’t enough to stop my motion. My body took off from the ground across the cliff, and my bandages fell off into the abyss as she set them loose.

In that split moment, the cage surrounding my beating heart seemed to break, and the bars bent freely in my will. With my scars exposed under the artificial light, Rina’s eyes began to sparkle brighter than all the crystals around us ever could. The dam blocking her tears had broken, and her delinquent cheeks began to flood with a never ending river of tears.

I felt as if there were an elastic band between us. Somehow, it snapped, letting us loose from it’s infinite torment. My soul lifted from the burdens placed upon it, and hers did too, following mine. My heart told me so, and I wasn’t arguing with it.

Mooks galloped after me, crying, but Kalvin grabbed him at the last second, bringing him down. I thanked him, mentally, letting my body tumble and roll across the cliffside where Leonidas made the wish.

However, as I bounced myself up, Leonidas wasn’t laughing or screaming. In fact, he wasn’t doing anything. He just stood there, dropping to his knees as the jewel quaked around his chest.

I heard screams shouting back at me, but I ignored them. My mind was more focused on Leonidas, and the spikes beginning to rain from the ceiling atop of us. Slowly, Leonidas’s throat began to clog in a red mist, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head like wheels on a wagon. His lungs tried to breath, but his body began to shrivel and frail into a skinny corpse onto the ground.

My mind raced, looking for a conclusion. I—

“Cairo!” Rina yelled, crying and trying to break free from Kalvin’s vicious grasp. “The Jewel! It’s—Opposite!”

Opposite? The jewel of Mynotna… Mynotna… My mouth fell open, my knees falling onto the black stone beneath me. Mynotna was an antonym… an opposite...

That’s why there were piles of bones below it. That’s why Leonidas’s body rejected the wish’s command. That’s why no one has ever returned with the jewel alive. A wish will pass, but only one. Don’t wish for much, or you’ll get none. Everything tied together so perfectly, and I was too careless to understand.

A large crumble of rocks fell from the concave ceiling, sending a piece of the cliffside into the abyss below, along with Leonidas atop it. I looked back, my life dimming with every rock and spike that fell.

After all these years, looking back at Rina and Mooks, I think my heart settled onto something much greater than a wish. With Rina’s cries lingering through my ears, and Kalvin and Mooks doing their best to hold her back, I began to feel a different sensation stirring inside me. Not a single knot remained tied, and not a single weight carried me down. I was free. Free from constant despair.

All those times inside the tavern, I realized it wasn’t the Fo that I enjoyed. But rather the voice that calmed me, and my fluffy companion waiting for me outside. No, not my companion. My friend.

My eyes dipped down at the 281 scars across my arms, then the missing spot between my elbow—the only spot that remained. Suddenly, my vision became blurry, my eyes tingling with a weird feeling inside them. Was I going blind? Was I losing consciousness? No, It couldn't be… I was crying. Tears. I was crying tears… Tears I didn’t know the meaning of…

These tears, rushing past my lids and onto my cheeks, they felt wonderful. Why did it feel so good to cry? Why was it pleasing? I smiled… Smiled with tears edging against the edges of my lips. Whether this was happiness or not, I didn’t care. For I had found something much greater than happiness could ever offer.

Rina’s eyes locked onto mine, and her weeps begged for me to come closer. Rocks kept falling, and the pile of bones behind me rolled off into the abyss. Noises echoing through my ears seemed to faint, and all I could hear was my pounding heart.

Gazing at Rina now, I realized that we were both searching for the same thing. No matter how different our states of being were, we were both searching for a cage to escape from. An elastic band to pull far enough apart until it snaps. A person to share your feelings with. A loneliness to break.

I’m sorry, for I only wish we could spend another night together, inside the tavern, where the Fo is piping hot. Where my furry friend is howling a melodic tune against the lantern lights. Where your words lifted my soul. Where I listened and talked to you more. Where you introduced me to your friends, and joined whatever adventured you planned on taking. Just one more night. That’s all I wanted...

My tears splashed against my scars, “Thank you, Rina.” I whispered, but I knew she couldn’t hear me. Kalvin had dragged her far enough back to save her from the collapsing cave, along with my final words to her.

As my knees gripped onto the stone, I reached for a small rock beside me. I picked out a jagged edge, and dipped it inside the last part of open skin on my arm. The final scar belonged to me; my collection of lives had finally been completed.

It soothed me for Mooks to see me smile. I could only imagine what was racing through his clever brain. But moments like this don’t last forever. Kalvin and Oscar pushed everyone back into an open tunnel, all while Rina echoed her cries with the falling darkness. “CAIRO!” Even her cries brought joy to me, “PLEASE! DON’T LEAVE ME!”

And with that, the final spike landed on the cliffside, sinking me into the bottomless hole of dark and black.

Please… Forgive me…