Noelle rolled away from the sudden burst of light, clenching her eyes more tightly shut and letting out a pained gasp. She sat up, holding her hand in front of herself defensively as she scooted back as far as possible, her spine hitting the bars of her enclosure. Through squinted lids, she saw alien-like moving shapes. She heard a grunt and then some clanging. Someone was, or a couple of someones were, in the room with her. “Hello?” Her heart raced, breath bursting harshly from her lips as she tried desperately to open her eyes all the way. But she’d been in the pitch black for so long that her eyes would not yet cooperate. “Please? Hello? Let me out. Please,” she begged, hope giving her the courage to pull herself to her knees and crawl forward to the front of her cage. More clanking, some type of door closing to her right, and then footsteps as whoever had been in the room with her walked toward what looked like an open door on the wall to her left. “Please, no!” she screamed. “Don’t go! Please! Let me out!”
The door slid shut, and the room went dark once more, the gaps where the door was not even emitting a small trickle of light. The soft sounds of footsteps moved away, and Noelle fell backward, tears coursing down her cheeks as she gave in to hopelessness.
There had been two people in the room, and they’d ignored her pleas. Her shoulders shook with her sobs, the ones she couldn’t afford as they were depleting her body of moisture. And who knew when the next drink of water would come. Maybe there wouldn’t be another.
Maybe that would be better.
Stop it, Noelle. You’re stronger than that, aren’t you?
She’d thought she was. At least . . . she’d hoped she could be. But how did anyone prepare themselves to be captured and caged in the dark for no discernible reason? And the biggest question she’d agonized over? Why? Why had she been taken? Why me?
Noelle startled, letting out a squeak when she heard a small groan from her right. She froze; her ears perked up as she listened. Another groan. Movement. Terror ripped down her spine. Oh God. Something was in here with her. An irrational vision filled her head: a scaly lizard-like being with jagged teeth that would tear her apart. She remained still, suddenly grateful for the protection of the bars surrounding her, the ones she’d gone over with her fingertips, every inch.
“Help.” The word was barely whispered, more like the release of breath than an actual pronunciation. Noelle remained frozen, every cell in her body, every tiny hair on her skin, focused on the direction of the sounds coming from her right. A slide, another groan, what sounded like the slap of skin on metal. “Help.” A definite word this time, stronger, clearer, and in a man’s voice. Not an alien, then.
Probably.
Noelle remained still.
More movement, a louder grunt as though the . . . man might be pulling himself upright from a lying-down position.
“Is anyone here? Help.”
Noelle’s shoulders lowered infinitesimally, her hand releasing the death grip she’d had on the bar of her cage as she’d held herself completely rigid. “Y-yes. I’m here,” she whispered.
There was a beat of silence, and then, “Who are you? Where are we?” He still sounded pained, but there was panic in his voice too. Fear.
“My name is Noelle. I don’t know where we are. I don’t know what day it is. The last thing I remember is leaving my job. I think . . . I think someone put a cloth over my mouth.” A taste came back to her. Sharp. Medicinal. She thought she remembered flailing, being lifted . . . but nothing more. “I woke up here. In the darkness.”
Other than a harsh exhale, the man was quiet.
“Who are you?” she finally asked.
“Evan. My name’s Evan. I think something similar happened to me.” He let out a sigh, a slight groan. “Someone attacked me from behind as I was leaving the gym. I’ve been kept in darkness somewhere else. I’m not sure what day it is.”
Her mind spun. She didn’t know what was happening, or why, and terror still sat heavy on her chest, but she almost wept with the sudden relief of having another human with her. Of no longer being alone.
“Are you hurt?” she asked when again she heard the sounds of movement, and he let out another soft, pained groan.
“A little. I fought whoever came for me earlier. They obviously had the upper hand. I think the person was wearing goggles to see in the dark.”
She’d turned in his direction, though it was too dark in the room to even make out his outline, and she wrapped both hands around the bars, her face pressed between them as they spoke. Goggles to see in the dark. What the hell was going on? “Who? Who brought us here? And why?”