Darkness… Darkness everywhere. My cheeks are damp with freshly wept tears, a result of my incessant bleating minutes prior. Is anyone there? Is anyone still here? Lost and so very remote, I assume the same, tired pose before my captor, my legs crossed and hands clasped in such a manner that was burnt into my sub conscious as a child, being now applied as a means of numbing restraint.
My head throbs as my auditory senses are hijacked, continuing to be bombarded by an ear-splitting static. A new scent seems to waft into the room of my confinement. I recognize it instantly.
I open my mouth to carp against the others, but the voice catches in my throat. They can't hear me. They're weathering the same storm I am. We're just four individuals… Together in isolation.
Then it hits me.
Someone has pulled the handle. Someone has betrayed their own humanity to bypass the sentence laid before them. Thoughts of tearing the inhibitors from my head swarm my mind. However, the ramifications of such actions spawn relinquishment to any elective movement I had formulated.
Not long now.
Not long until our malevolent sentinel cuts the loose ends… The conceded of his diversion. I feel my entire body begin to quake, a peculiarity made animate during times of abashment, or in this case utter dread.
My body tenses and a sickness plagues my stomach. I timidly wince.
Nothing.
I feel my breathing begin to hasten. I scream as I bring a hand to meet the device fixed to my head. My valor immediately falters and I drop madly to the ground, assuming the fetal position, my legs pressed tightly against my chest. Tears start to well up in my eyes. I feel more vulnerable now than I have ever felt in my life. The hairs on the back of my neck stand upright, and in this moment, the abhorrent notion that I'd much prefer to die over loitering through this prodigious suspense crosses my mind.
And yet still nothing happens.