One Way

It had been a while since we had any visitors. Cut off from the outside world for too long, each new arrival helped us gain knowledge of what was going on outside. But then, that was it. Once they got in, they became trapped like the rest of us.

Then one day or was it a night, who could tell; we heard a scream. A middle-aged man landed in front of us, coming through the long tunnel.

“Where am I?” He asked.

We didn’t respond.

“Who are all of you?” he tried again.

“Listen, sir, you need to stay calm or else…” I began to say.

“Calm? How could I? I asked my son to follow me if I did not return. I told him to get a string that can lead us back. We can all get out of here.” He interrupted.

We laughed in disbelief. A string? What could that do? All of us had taken the route, knowing the risks. Our greed led us here. We had all seen the website talking about a treasure in the exact place we were. No other details. Not even what the treasure was.

Over time we realized the treasure was a dream, but what wasn’t a dream was that we were all stuck in here forever.

An hour later, we heard another scream—the boy with the string. As he landed, we saw the string fly by us.

“Hi.” was all he could muster.

Then, the nightmare we dreaded happened.

The string was our undoing. From deep inside, we heard a rumble and saw the approaching fire. We knew it was over.

As I took my last breath, I realized the treasure was the dragon itself. After all, no one had seen one around here.