I would say C. “was”. It’s definitely not “am”, because that just sounds completely wrong. It’s not “are” because that sounds a bit wrong, too. It can’t be “were” because it’s only referring to one group, not many groups. The only answer it could be is C.
The lines from this excerpt from Leo Tolstoy’s, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" that use symbolism to indicate that death is approaching are:
"There was light and now there is darkness. I was here and now I'm going there!"
Here, the author uses the symbols of light and dark to represent life and death. Where there is light there is life, whereas darkness means to close his eyes forever and fall into an eternal slumber.
Tolstoy also uses the references "here" and "there" to refer to life on earth and the afterlife. Ivan feels like his time in this side is ending, and that he is finally going "there," to the afterworld.
Are you talking about the book?
