‘Can she actually hear us?’

There were certain objects that belonged to the natural exhibition of a musky ancient cave. Rock and brown dirt blended in perfectly with the environment. A CB radio, however, did not. Ellie opened her eyes and looked at the radio with intense curiosity. Was she still dreaming or did she actually hear Beth’s voice coming from it? There was a short silence.

‘No one knows for sure but we do know that the hearing is usually the last to go.’

Ellie recognised that voice somewhere. It was the nurse who had been talking to Beth in her previous dream. What was her name? Claudia … Ellie stared at the radio in wonder. Claudia’s voice was coming from it too. Did that mean …?

‘She just looks so vulnerable lying there ...,’ Beth’s soft voice continued.

Ellie’s heart almost missed a beat as she scrambled excitedly for the radio. If she could just get their attention, maybe she can work out what was happening to her and get out of here. With shaking hands, she activated the radio and spoke into it, hopefully.

‘Beth? 'That you?’

The voices did continued but they were no longer coming from the radio, instead resonating around the echoing cave.

‘There is some good news,’ Claudia continued. ‘Her pulse is still strong so there's a very high chance she can still hear you. The best thing you can do for her now is talk to her.’

Good news for whom? Ellie slowly put down the radio and looked around the cave, listening intently. The whole thing was getting a little too weird for her liking and she longed to just get out of there in one piece.

‘Do we know what happened? I mean, how she ended up like this?’ Beth asked, curiously.

Ellie had had enough. After all, there wasn’t anything stopping her from leaving, was there? She got up and ran to the month of the cave. There was something odd about the mouth. Normally, the mouth of a cave led out to a path or clearing of some description but this one didn’t. Ellie stopped at the mouth and looked down, realising nearly too late that there was no ground following the cave mouth but a mountain’s cliff edge. If her heart wasn’t beating as fast as a drum before, it certainly was now. Saying she hated heights was an understatement and she was on the verge of hyperventilating. She slowly stepped back in terror with the sudden realisation that she was trapped.

‘Just get me out! Please!’ She screamed, hoping that someone – anyone – would hear her.

‘We found some toxins in her body. Do you know what she ate before she collapsed?’ was Claudia’s query.

Now, that got her and she needed a moment to think what they were talking about. What did Claudia mean by “collapsed”?

Toxins? What toxins?’

There was a short pause before Beth responded.

‘I made her some spaghetti before going out to hang the washing,’ she said then continued in haste. ‘But I made it the way I always have.’

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