LOCATION: CLASSIFIED. 08:43PM. INTERROGATION.

"Do you know how drowning feels like?"

Something cold streaks through my spine. A sudden, unnerving chill that races down my back and I could feel myself begin to shudder. Her eyes are wide as they look at me intently. Wide, as if daring me to answer her question. And I cannot help but wonder.

"Do you want me to tell you how it feels like?"

The corners of her mouth twitch upward slightly, and then she smiles. Beams. At me. And I see no pretense in the gesture. No hesitance, not even the slightest, but a thousand wordless questions form in my head. What the hell is this woman doing?

"It feels like—"

She tips her head to the right slowly, casts her gaze away from me. I feel myself exhale. She did not seem to notice.

"—dreaming."

For a second. I saw that. There was a flash in her eyes, it was there. For a second.

"Yes, it feels like dreaming."

I am not sure. The room seems just as bright as it had been when I entered, just as empty. Just me and her, chairs and a table. Yet, she became clearer somehow. Under the fluorescent lamps, it's as if the shadows on her face had faded away. Shadows that… were there… but were not, and she just… appeared. I could see her more clearly. Her eyes. That smile. I could see her. I could feel her mocking me.

"There is pain, of course. Panic, fear, helplessness. And pain. Physical pain… you would feel it just before the dream starts."

I use the throbbing in my hand as an excuse to look away from her. I need a second.

A scribble hangs abruptly ended at the bottom of my pad and the space between my thumb and index finger is dented from the clip on my pen. I didn't think my grip had been too hard.

"Like a fire, spreading across your chest, burning through you from the inside. It… blazes… within your lungs… and it feels as if you are being consumed inside out. And you can't do anything but feel it. Feel yourself burning. Alive."

She places her fingers on the edge of the table, just as I lift my eyes back to her face. She is still looking at me intently. Still mocking me with that smile.

"You would think seconds feel like eternity."

I felt a heavy breath escape from me and I lean back on my chair a little bit. I could sense her watching my every move. The room suddenly feels so crowded.

"Then, just when you think you can't handle anymore, the pain just… fades away. And the dream starts."

She casts her eyes down and purses her lips. Like she was taking a discreet bow from the monologue I never asked from her. I still think twice before breathing.

"So, you've drowned in water before. What does that have to do with my question?"

"I never said that."

"Then, what was the point of describing the entire process to me?"

"I never said I drowned in water."

"Answer my question."

"I have drowned, yes—,"

A beat.

"I drowned in blood."

She locks her eyes on me.

"My blood."

I cannot look away from her.

"But she woke me from the dream. Dragged me back to the surface with her. Not to live, but to suffer. Again. To suffer more."

She smiles again. Wider than before.

"Do you know the Autumn Lotus?"