The Descent into Darkness
When everything collapses around you, when love ends or loss takes something from you, you find yourself in the dark tunnel. It is not a place you choose, but one you fall into when life has taken too much. The tunnel is cold, silent, and unfamiliar. It is the moment when light no longer reaches you and every sound feels distant. The air is heavy, the ground uncertain. You walk without knowing where forward is, only that going back is impossible.
The Nature of the Tunnel
The tunnel is not your enemy. It appears hostile because it hides everything you once trusted. Yet, within its silence, there is protection. The darkness shields you from more harm. It gives you space to breathe, even when breathing feels mechanical. In that emptiness, you are not being punished. You are being given time to endure. The tunnel does not rush you. It simply waits for you to regain strength.
The Struggle to Escape
At some point, the stillness becomes unbearable. You start clawing at the walls, desperate for a faster way out. You dig through the earth, convinced that any exit must be better than this endless dark. But the soil is thick, the air vanishes quickly, and your hands come out covered in dust. You manage to break through, yet you are not free. The dirt follows you, clinging to your skin and mind. You have escaped in fragments, not in wholeness. The shortcuts out of pain only scatter it. The tunnel was never meant to bury you, only to guide you until your steps can carry you without breaking.
The Path Forward
Every tunnel has an end, though it cannot be seen from within. You keep walking, not because you believe, but because something in you refuses to stop. The air begins to shift. It smells less of stone and more of life. Somewhere ahead, faint light touches the edges of the dark. It grows stronger, softer, warmer. You start to see the shape of the world again, and for the first time, you trust that the end exists, even if you do not yet see it.
The Meaning of the Light
Reaching the light does not erase the tunnel. The darkness stays with you, but it no longer defines you. The tunnel becomes proof that you endured what was meant to end you. The light is not triumph; it is continuity. It is the moment you realize that healing was never about forgetting the tunnel, but about walking through it without losing yourself inside.
When the Tunnel Stays
Some tunnels stretch longer than others. The walls remain visible for years, but even then, they change. Light begins to leak inside, softening everything it touches. You find moments of laughter, glimpses of color, the faint echo of who you were before. You begin to exist again, even within the shadow. The tunnel is no longer a void, but a passage lined with the quiet truth that darkness does not mean danger.
The Passage Beyond
Eventually, the tunnel opens into open air. You emerge slower than you expected, but more whole than you thought possible. You see the sky, and it feels both distant and familiar. You realize that the darkness has taught you to see light in places others overlook. And if another tunnel ever appears, you will enter it without fear, knowing that even in the deepest dark, there is always a way through.
File name: dark-tunnel.html, place this file in the same folder as metaphors.html and index.html for the link to work.