Prologue

Drip!

Drop!

Drip!

The annoying sound of the droplets of water leaking from above filled my ears. I wanted to make it stop but then I couldn't find where it was coming from because I couldn't see anything.

Everything was pitch black when I opened my eyes, I couldn't even see my hands and to think also, I didn't know where I was!.

"How did I get here?" The question arose in my thoughts, "Where am I?" I asked myself again but only the echoing reverberations in my mind answered my fleeting questions.

I was alone as only the sound of my breathing could be heard. My eyes were darting by the second, my ears on high alert to catch any distant or soft sound that may pass but it was to no avail.

Now crouching from my previous position on the floor, I began to use my hands to search the floors for anything; a clue, a missing piece, salvation!

The ground was covered in damp dirt as I suspected. The leaking roof and my damp clothes had implied that some time ago rain had fallen. I searched further but I could only grasp dirts, stones and grass roots.

"Urgh!" I shrieked, coughing slightly while bringing my arm to cover my face right away, just as a pungent stench filled the room and then, I wondered why I hadn't noticed that before.

It smelled almost like death in here and almost instantly a slowly rising burn of fear engulfed me as my heart pace increased.

"Did someone leave me here to die?" Another question popped not helping my now phobic state. My urgency in finding something heightened as I began crawling forward at an increased but cautious speed, looking for a way out.

I had reached something, a wall, a dead end but it wasnt made of bricks or solid surfaces, it was a metal hold. I brought forth my hands, tapping lightly at first and a faint knocking sound rang off in the hollow space, indicating there was an opening on the other side. This little discovery hadn't doused my fear but at least a little hope soared inside me.

I had started to put back the memories and the pieces together, to figure out what had happened. It came in single hurtling flashes, moving swiftly and a little blurred.

In one of the flashes, I could make out myself descending from a car and when I took the next step a hand reached out. The memory flowed to me picking up a piece of fabric on the floor while looking devastated at it. I couldn't understand any of them at all and my mind was in great turmoil and ruckus, as perspiration began to drip down my spine.

My thoughts were brought to an abrupt halt when something very faint was heard. It was rising by the minute, ever since I had detected it to be footsteps coming forth from the otherside.

My heart rate had pitched again and I could hear the hard beats rapidly in my ears, should I call out? What would await me once I do so?

Even though I wanted to call out, I couldn't find the words, deep down I was empty and drained. It was as though I wasn't capable of speech but inside me, I was screaming the exact opposite.

"Help," the sound barrelled through my mind but nothing came forth on the outside. In reality everything was still faint and quiet and then it dawned on me, I must have been here a long time but for how long; days? Weeks? Years?

And now the pace of the footsteps had increased too and so as my anticipation. The thought of calling for help was now abandoned, as I waited in deafening and sickening lapses of silence to see what it was.

Lo and behold the footsteps stopped directly in front of the metal barrier and on instinct, I fell backwards to a sitting position while retreating to the opposite end.

I heard next the sound of locks and bolts being upturned and loosened. A subtle count down had begun involuntarily in my head –– the whispers of the numbers seemed to be the only thing keeping me sane from myself as the lock finally clicked.

"3"

"2"

"1"

I closed my eyes at the final countdown when the metal barrier was pushed open.

I felt it, the blinding light. Even from my close lids, it still penetrated like toxic mercury to my human eyes. I didn't hear the footsteps again but now the sound of two breaths could be heard around the space.

My rapid ones, coming in frantic gulps and the calm ones of the newly introduced person. In remembrance of the former tenacity and courage that once flowed through these veins, I began to ease open my closed lids.

But then, surprisingly, it was almost as though I had further entered a trance in the wake of my actions. Muddled and hazy, I could only make out the black silhouette through the white light but that was before a familiar hand had reached out and grabbed something...but...what?

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