Ran Pleasing

The Metataxi

6/24/2026 11:56pm

"Hear that?" the captain asked.

"More... silence?" I asked.

The darkness around us was impenetrable. Even when we sunk our crampons and picks into the solid hunk of darkness we were beached on, the sound was swallowed up. How did the captain even know where we were going?

"No. The howling."

I still couldn't hear a thing. Except my ears ringing from the silence.

"Listen closer," said the captain.

The ringing in my ears was getting louder. Higher. More defined.

"Awoooooooooooooooo!"

And the darkness seemed to close in even more.

The Metataxi

7/1/2025 11:56pm

"Ooof!"

"Sorry Captain," I said, "but I really can't see a thing."

"That's quite all right," said the captain. "Understandable in the circumstances."

We were making our way down what felt like a steep mountain face, smooth as obsidian, but our crampons and picks could shatter their way into it and give us traction.

"Forgive, me captain," I said, "but remind me again why we couldn't bring a torch?"

The captain was making it down the incline faster than me.

"Because they woudn't do any good. All of their light gets absorbed, and there's nothing out here but more darkness anyway. You'd never even know you had it."

We both continued down the slope, our spikes shattering the darkness, which then tinkled down below us.

"It sounds like you've had experience with this level of darkness before," I ventured.

There was no response. Not even the tinkling of broken silence.

"It sounds like you've had experience with this level of darkness before, I said."

I stood perfectly still in the darkness.

"Captain?"