We are not Afraid of the Dark

We are afraid of the dark, not of the dark itself but of the things that come along with it, and as though our captors have sensed this fear, the room is as black and icy as a winter night, and it wreaks of death and decay. Our bodies are splattered in a non-smelling liquid that causes the soft carpet were on to cling to our skin, moaning and weeping have slowed until almost inaudible. The first day the room was filled with screaming and begging, but now 5 days later it’s nearly quiet except for the agony of the people that have struggled and slowly are bleeding out.

I feel my body going to dust in my own feces, and I know the others must be the same. When we have to make a bowel movement we excrete in whatever we are wearing, because we cannot help ourselves due to our hands and feet being bound with thick barbed wire, which digs deeper into our skin when we struggle, not that we could feel any pain though. Our hands and feet are numb, either due to the wire digging and cutting the nerves too deep or the lack of blood flow. We are filthy too, my hair lays across my face greasy and covered in dust and that strange liquid, and it is clinging to my fowl skin, thick with oil and sweat. My eyes are swollen, I can feel it. I look back upon the night they took me, and realize they must have hurt me worse than I had imagined, I recall slightly being punched in the face. Everything so hard to remember though...

I walked down the sidewalk, I was late to get home because Josie-my friend- was supposed to drive me home after soccer practice but she had ditched me. I looked at my phone reading 8:54 and I watched it change over to 8:55. I sighed, my feet were getting so sore, and my jersey was covered in blood where the ball had hit me in th...

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...sion” he laughs, “You will be kept in the dark, you are not allowed to sleep, at all. No matter how hard it is, remember your very life depends on you staying awake. Starting with your first meal, no sleep will be permitted. That is all, god bless”.

I look at mom, “Is that possible, can we stay awake for 14 days?” My mother looks down at me defeated.

“I don’t know, but we have to try” the second body that laid next to my mothers, a boy, stood up.

“No we can’t. It’s impossible I read about this, it’s been performed before, and the people that done it went crazy and died.” He crossed his arms, but was weary of his hands, which too were bleeding.

“We can if we focus, what choice do we have?” there was a silence “what’s your name?” I looked up at him, his hair was dark and matted down, and dirt covered his clothes from the struggle more than likely.

“My names Boer,