Everything was black, everything was silent. It was the sound of approaching death. It was the inhalation before a scream.

The darkness stretched infinitely around me. It was everywhere. It was inside of me, thick and cloying, choking me. It was me. I could no longer separate myself from the black void that surrounded me. Time ceased to exist here. Nothing could exist here, not even me.

My soul constricted with fear. I tried to blink but my eyes were blinded by the impenetrable shadows. Shrill silence rang in my ears. I couldn’t feel my own body, all I knew was darkness. I teetered on the brink of insanity. I was lost and alone.

“You are not alone.”

The man’s voice came from nowhere and everywhere at once. His words slithered through the darkness, his smooth, oily tones sliding into my ears, poisoning my mind. I wanted to scream but there was no air to breathe. “You are never alone. We are always here in the shadows, waiting… watching... We are coming for you.”

I felt something in the darkness move, the shadows around me stirred. His hatred and contempt echoed in my ears, demanding a response.

“I don’t understand.” The words came out of me as I thought them, my mind’s voice small and afraid. “Where am I? Who are you?”

There was a pause. A heavy tension hung in the air as the darkness seemed to thicken. I blinked and my eyes refocused. I could sense my body again, I was aware of myself. I was no longer floating away in this never-ending nothingness. My relief was short-lived. The darkness moved and separated, slowly swirling all around me, trapping me in tendrils of icy black mist. I shivered.

“Who are you?” he whispered right in my ear, throwing the question back at me. My heart began to hammer in my chest, my throat tightened.

“I… I’m…”

Fear griped me, threatened to overwhelm all my senses. A desperate panic set in as I realized I didn’t know who I was! I had a name, I knew I did but what was it? Who was I?

The shadows moved, something flashed past me in a rush of sudden blistering heat. I gasped, staring in bewilderment at the painful, throbbing gash that had appeared in the shadow’s wake. The smooth, fair skin across my arm was torn open and dark, sticky blood trickled steadily down to my hand, dripping from my fingertips. My shivers accelerated to a violent trembling, I was losing all control. I hugged myself tightly with my uninjured arm, my hand reaching to my chest, my fingers automatically searching, grasping desperately for reassurance but there was nothing there but my cold, clammy skin with my hammering heart beneath.

“Please, stop! I don’t know-”