Darkness.
Echoing footsteps through an empty hallway. My footsteps.
No sight… no vision. Oppressive blackness all around.
I was carrying something. Something important. Something. I couldn't lose it. Life depended on it. Not my life. Theirs. His.
I panted. Breathing faster. Had to deliver this. Had to get it to the right hands. Couldn't afford to lose it. Not when… when…
…
So close… no. Had so much farther to go. So much.
Darkness pressed upon me. I felt it. Cold. Something was coming. I knew. But couldn't remember.
I began walking faster. Something was about to happen. No. Not if I could stop it. Heard my own heart beat.
Beat.
Beat.
Beat.
Something was about to happen. The darkness. Saw nothing. The lights… where were the lights?
Something. Happen. About to. Couldn't remember. Had to stop it. Had to. Life. Needed to save it. That life. So important.
I stopped. Heard a noise. That noise. I knew that sound. I began panting. Panicking. This couldn't happen again. I couldn't fail again. Not again. I needed to succeed.
My legs wouldn't move. Paralyzed. It was happening again. All over again. Trapped. So trapped.
Blurred images. Attack. Tried to defend myself. Again. But even now I knew it was useless. It would happen again. Just like last time.
It was knocked from my hand. The key to success. To ending this.
Crunching. Breaking. It was gone. It was gone.
I tried to cry out. I knew what was coming next. I tried to scramble away. But. But. No. Please.
No.
Blinding pain. Torture. All over again. Searing down the right side of my body. No way to stop it. The pain. It kept going and going and going and going…
Crunching. Breaking. This time, it was me. Want to die. Too much pain. Too much.
I tried screaming into the darkness, but my voice wouldn't work. The pain. I couldn't. No thoughts but the pain.
Let it end. Please. Let it end.
My own heartbeat. I could hear it.
Beat.
Beat.
Beat.
Darkness.