[ WP ] `` I have been sitting . Waiting on the edge of the world . Waiting for you to tell the truth to me . ''

Sasha felt the force of the knockback roll through her arm, the sudden impact knocking her hand back and the deafening crack of the gunshot, amplified a thousand times by the echoing walls of the subway tunnel, making her flinch. She stood disoriented for a moment, fully expecting a set of razor sharp teeth to tear out her throat at any moment. Only after several heartbeats, she allowed herself to open her eyes again. The creature's snout was only inches away from her face, its mouth a bloody mess, where the bullet had struck it, the silvery rows of teeth glittering even here in the perpetual darkness of the tunnels, illuminated only by one of the small plastic tubes, filled with a fluorescent solution, she carried with her. She backed away in shock, only after a moment realising, that the creature was dead, frozen in the unusual posthumous stasis that the creatures fell into when their hearts stopped beating. Assuming the creatures even had hearts. There was little, Sasha, or anyone she had met, knew about the creatures. Even killing them was a game of chance, you never knew, if a hit would actually do damage to the beasts or simply enrage them and the vulnerable points seemed to differ from creature to creature. 
 
 Sasha shook her head, stepping out of her own stasis. She had been in similar situations and had faced them with courage. She had gone into a whole building full of the armed men to rescue a small child, fought against a cult of murderous zealots and faced one of the creatures with only a knife, why was she now getting scared? What had broken her? The eyes of the creature still lingered on her. Their lifelessness was not a result of the creature's demise, she knew. There seemed to be nothing but death behind them, even when the creatures were still alive. If the eyes were windows to the soul, then what kind of god could have created a creature with a soul as twisted as what lingered behind these eyes? A man she had once loved had told her, that the creatures had no souls because they were unholy. Godless. Sasha felt godless herself right now. She wondered if the same spark of death was in her eyes as well. She shook her head again. There was no time for theology now. The gunshot would have drawn the attention of more creatures. She had to move, get to safety. She picked up her light, decided on a direction and headed down the dark tunnel. 
 
 She had n't walked for more than a minute when she noticed her light growing dim. Sasha frowned. The tubes were meant to last for just over two hours and she had picked this one not more than twenty minutes ago. It should have about an hour left before starting to go dim. She must have picked a faulty one, she thought, hurrying down the increasingly darkening corridor a bit faster, but the light of the tube seemed to vanish exceedingly fast now. After another minute or so, it was almost completely dark, the walls of the tunnel almost completely out of sight. Silently cursing, she checked her backpack for a new tube, setting the faulty one on the floor next to her. There were only three more tubes left. She cursed again, picking one and cracking the small seal, that released the chemicals, that mixed to form the solution. The new tube remained completely dark, not even emitting as much light as the one she had discarded on the floor next to her. She looked around. she could n't see the walls at all now and even her own hands were starting to vanish in the darkness, that was slowly creeping up on her. Two faulty tubes at once, that was just her luck. She picked up the second tube, cracking the seal, just as the last light of the first tube vanished and paused. Nothing happened. The tunnels remained dark. Sasha felt her heartbeat increase. She felt for her backpack, sticking her hand in the pocket that held the tubes and... nothing. The tube was gone. Frantically she searched the backpack, throwing out its contents on the cold floor. The creatures could hunt in the dark, if one of them caught her without a light, she would have no way of defending herself. She used both hands now to shovel the contents out of the pack now, panic rising in her throat. She grabbed the pack, turned it around and emptied it's contents on the floor, feeling for the small tube. If she did n't find it, she would never get out of here. Lost in the Subway tunnels until one of the beasts found her or she starved. Where was the damn light? She *had* to find it! Just as she was about to give up, her fingers closed around something long and cylindrical. The tube! Triumphantly she held it up, cracking the seal and... nothing. The Tunnel remained completely dark. Sasha started to cry. 
 
 Sasha lay on the floor, tears running down her face. How long had she spent like that? Minutes? Hours? Days? She could n't remember. She was hungry, but she could n't find the food she had brought between her belongings scattered on the floor. She was gong to die. She had always known that. First, as an abstract thought, something that happened in the future, later as something that could happen every time, a threat, that was always right around the corner. But there had always been a chance of survival. A way out. She could fight, she could run, she could live. This time there was no way out. She was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it. Die, like Klava, who lay rotting in some tunnel south of here. Like Demyan and Egor, dead after an attack on their old base. Their corpses unburied. Like Diana, tortured and raped by a man they had called holy. And the others would follow. Masha, Lyosha, Yesfir, they'd all be dead. And Felix too. Felix, whom she had searched for almost a year now. Whom she would now never see again in this live. Would she see him again, in another live? The light at the end of the tunnel grew dim. Just a few hours ago ( or had it been days already? ) she had proclaimed herself godless. How could a godless one ever enter the afterlife? No, she would not see Felix again, her whole quest had been a failure. She would not go to some heaven, where she would see them all again, she would even be denied hell. She would simply fade away. Go to sleep and never wake up. Vanish, like the light. They all would. None could escape the darkness, so what did it matter. Why bother? Why cling to life, to that tiny bit of light in the middle of the dark? It was going to vanish anyway. She watched the light defiantly float in the distance, pulsing, refusing to vanish. 
 
 She stopped. The light? Where was the light coming from? How had she not noticed it before? She scrambled to her feet, looking at the light in the distance. It was slowly vanishing, but there was definitely a faint light coming from in front of her. She stumbled forwards, breaking into a jog, then a sprint, unwilling to let go of the light. She could make out a shape now. The light was rectangular, with a rounded top. Like a doorway she realised, running faster. The doorway started to glow stronger and stronger until it seemed like it was made of light. She stopped right in front of it. The light from the door was blinding, in the eternal darkness. She paused. Was this heaven? Was she dead? How could this be heaven, if she was godless? She shook her head. She could n't go back to the darkness now, so she took a deep breath and stepped forward into the blinding light. 
 
 She found herself on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the ocean. A red sunrise illuminated the cliff face, its reflection wavering in the obsidian water, and down below she could make out black waves, slowly chipping away at the silvery grey rocks. Behind her, the green plains sloped downwards, ending in a mixed forest with no sign of the door of light. To her left, a man in a white robe sat on the cliff, feet dangling down, eyes fixed on the sunrise. His skin was smooth and his short brown hair only beginning to grey but there was a feeling of age to him, like no man she had ever seen. He smiled amicably, eyes still fixed on the rising sun and spoke. 
 
 `` You can call me Pavel'', his soft voice barely audible over the crashing of the waves down below. 
 
 `` What? ``, Sasha stuttered. 
 
 `` We have met before, but you will not remember'' 
 
 `` What is this place?'' 
 
 `` The edge of the world.'' 
 
 Sasha fell silent. She did not understand. The man did n't look like God. 
 
 `` You ask yourself, why you are here. ``, Pavel said. 
 
 `` Why *am* I here? ``, Sasha replied, feeling lost. 
 
 `` An age-old question. ``, Pavel replied, `` You are here because I want you too.'' 
 
 `` So you will not answer me? ``, Sasha said, suddenly annoyed. 
 
 `` No, but you will answer. ``, was his reply. 
 
 `` What?'' 
 
 `` I have been sitting, waiting on the edge of the world, waiting for you to tell the truth to me.'' 
 
 Sasha stopped. The truth? What did the man want? She had no idea, what was happening. It seemed to her, she never knew the truth of anything. All she knew was that... 
 
 `` I do n't want to die. ``, she said. The man smiled again. 
 
 `` You need n't. Look behind you.'' 
 
 She turned, looking at the forest. The light was growing stronger and she could make out a deer, looking at her at the edge of the forest. 
 
 `` I do n't...'', she began, turning around, but the man was gone. She stared at the place, where he had been sitting, for a moment, then she closed her mouth and turned around. The deer still stood at the edge of the forest, regarding her. She began walking towards it. 

