Being in a dark hole or pit on one's own is a challenge and opportunity for transcendent growth in the strength of will and patience in being subdued in punishment for past wrongs. Being in a dark hole with another, a partner perhaps, is an image of hell, of being lost and lost forever, the most depressing, the darkest, and the most deeply tragic state to the point of going beyond tragedy to utter oblivion in black abyss, not punishment and beyond abandonment.