when i woke up my body was,, stiff ? sore ? cold. it was cold and it stung. the surface on which i lay wrapped around my sides and i couldnt feel its end. i sat up, almost peeling my back off of my resting place, and opened my eyes. i was met with a bright light. my eyes adjusted to the illumination, and revealed a white, almost glowing wall in front of me. a glitening wall. a wet wall. a wall made out of snow. a wall which wrapped around the place of my rest in a strangely perfect me-shape. i stood up, having more trouble lifting my legs than i did my back. even from standing my eyes were met only snow. as such, i rose to my toes and pressed my hands into the scorching ice to pull myself out of my hole. no matter how much i pushed against the walls the tightly packed snow did not let up, making my escape smooth, yet slippery.

i stood up and straightened out the creases in my clothes, and brushes any snow off of the layers of my dress and my hair. i forced my stiff neck up. a bright blue sky. i couldnt see the sun from where i was but was near-blindingly bright anyway. behind me was a wall, maybe 2 meters across, and by sides another 2 walls, but these stretching far, far longer. the confines of this corridor reached high into the sky, such that any guess at their height would be laughable. they were perfectly smooth and very cold to the touch. attempts at knocking on them or pushing them over wielded me the conclusion that they must be quite thick and solid, as they didnt even acknowledge my being there.

i looked towards the end of the corridor. there seemed to be another wall at its end, but it was so far away that it could well enough just be my imagination. either way, there was nothing more noteworthy at this end, so i headed away from my cartoonishly body shaped hole in the snow. the snow was slippier than i expected. it was very tightly packed, meaning my feet didnt sink in very deep. i ran my reddened hands along one side of the large black walls, then the other, as i walked. the one i wasnt touching i was looking at instead. i wanted to make sure i didnt miss anything possibly important.

the sun didnt seem to move as i walked, being seemingly always right above me. despite this, the level of snow showed no decrease, it was seemingly not melting. i was definitely making progress however. while the distance infront of me didnt seem to shrink, the distance behind me was definitely lengthening. it was quite discouraging though. i felt no closer to my goal than when i began. i sat down for a moment, back pressed against one wall, eyes still on the other, my legs taking up just over half of the distance between them, my thick skirt keeping my away from the cold snow. looking at the wall in front of me, i think it must be made out of some kind of stone, smoothed out to the point its nearly a mirror. i can see my seated reflection in it. the light colour of the dress contrasting heavily against the dark wall behind me.

i leaned my head back and looked into the sky. still as bright as it was when i woke up. i look to my right, the direction i came from. it was so far now that i would not have been able to tell thats what it was if not for my light foot prints. i look to the left, the end of the corridor that is seemingly no closer than when i started. each side looked about the same. i must have been half way through. i looked down then. down at my frilly dress, my long socks, my shiny shoes, my gloved hands, and the snow below me. the snow under my hands. that was when i had an idea. i looked upward again before standing up, then back down at where i just sat. i got down on my knees, the reality of how cold the snow is hitting me once more now that my bare skin is touching it, and pressed my hands into the snow. it was certainly tough, and me sitting on it didnt help. i pushed away at it regardless, moving what i can to either side. i kept at this until i could no longer feel my fingers, rendering me unable to dig further. i didnt get very deep however, only 15 cm or so, and the hole was very small in diameter. i needed a tool. my first thought was my shoes, however i decided to search my person first. i had previously not examined what i was wearing, and figured itd be better to check than to not check. as i was doing so i noticed the sun has infact moved. some time had passed. a lot more than indicated by the sun however. it felt very slow. also while i was searching, i noticed a line. a small trail ran along the snow on the other side of the corridor to the one where i was digging. it was thin enough that the fact i didnt notice it was believable, however it didnt sit right with me. i was almost certain the snow was perfectly smooth before i turned my back to dig, and now there is a line running from the left to the right with no end in sight. had something passed by behind me while i wasnt looking ? did i not hear it over my own crunching of the snow ? which direction did it come from ? or was this line just here all along ? maybe i didnt notice it until the sun moved a bit, revealing the small shadow within it ? i stood up and looked down both ways, straining to see as far as i can. i could however not see anything that wasnt there before. i considered going either direction to see if i could find the source of this track, but as the thought crossed my mind a small object fell out from the layers of my skirt, seemingly dislodged during my attempts to see down the corridor.

it fit comfortably in my palm, and was made of a smooth cold metal, and upon examining its edges i seen that it is a pocket knife. i unveild the sharp edge, which sprung up faster than i would have liked it to, and took a closer look at it. it was seemingly brand new, and very sharp. i turned back towards my shallow hole. i laid down flat on the ground this time. i was significantly colder, however this allowed me to occupy the whole width of the corridor, ensuring nothing would sneak past me, if that was what happened the first time. i got to cutting out the snow. progress moved a lot faster this time. the whole widened and deepened at speeds previously unimaginable.

i was definitely at this for hours, as even the slow moving sun began to set over the tops of the black walls. the hole was deep enough that i had to climb out to lift more snow, and could no longer simply step out. i made an effort to make it take up the width of the corridor, to obstruct the progress of any line leaving things, however none came. i was begining to lose hope that i would find the bottom of the wall. why would they be so tall, and then reach so little into the ground i could dig out ? it was getting dark, and i felt that digging into a slippery surface with a sharp knife would do me no good, however i didnt like the thought of staying the night here. cursing myself for not continuing to walk, i picked up the pace. hacking and slashing at the snow, throwing it out of the way, carelessly hitting the knife against the wall as i dug. the darkness seemed to move a lot faster than the sun did. visability was getting worse and worse. my ability to hear however, was not. a loud clang and a snap. a piece of metal slicing my face. another my arm. another few getting caught in my dress. my blade broke. its sharp edge was completely gone, leaving behind maybe a third of its original size. i tried to dig this into the snow, but the already weakened metal compeltely broke off in the thick snow. it was getting darker. a little blood trickeled into my eye, further making it hard to see. i was running out of time. i dug my hands into the snow. i violently dug all that i could. i was stopped whenever my nails suffered the same fate as the blade. the cold gracefully nullified most of what pain i was feeling. i hit something hard.

i brushed the snow aside as gently as i could, watching as with each passing second my white gloves turned red, and the red was being over taken by a shadow.