Overdue for a date with Death...

The darkness.....it's everywhere. Why won't it go away?! she thought frantically. How terrified she was...even her thoughts were no more than a mere whisper, so scared was she that they might come back...

I didn't mean to do it...I swear! I don't remember doing anything....I don't remember...anything... A noise above her...in the ceiling... Which one is it? she wonders in inevitable curiosity, not factoring in that curiosity killed the cat... More scraping noises...like big heavy boots being dragged across the floor by a monstrous mountain man's feet.

Is he the one? Is he coming back for me? Oh, God....Please no... The first time he'd come to her, she'd been barely conscious, laying on the damp concrete floor, the only light coming from the open doorway. It was...neon? Flourescent? It was hard to tell when she was half delirious...come to think of it...she still might be...

The man, enormous in his height, had shoved the door open and stomped into the dark room. He looked down at her, his marble black eyes too wide and unblinking. She just stared back through the eye whose lid was at half mast. The other one was sealed completely shut from ooze that had seeped out of the cuts above her eyebrow. Though she could see very little, certain aspects about this man stood out to her...just like every other man that'd come to see her for various reasons, none of which she knew.

This one's eyes were of of the blackest coal from the smokiest coal mine. For a moment, her vision zoomed in on his irises and she saw....nothing....nothing but.....but... Stars...millions and billions of stars...an endless sea....where a person could drown...down...into an even larger sea of pitch black....lonliness..

He kept looking at her, and she looked back...until her eyelid became too heavy... It slowly dropped into its rightful place and she was left blind...listening to the sounds of his ragged breathing and her fluttering heartbeats.

She remembered thinking, What does he want? Why am I here? What's going to happen to me.... That seemed to be the most important thing. What going to happen to her? Before her mind could paint a picture of the worst, she was suddenly moving.

At first, small frightened sounds escaped her mouth, but they were hardly audible due to her busted and swollen lips. Had she the strength, she would've thrashed and clawed at the strong arms that pulled her across the floor, but all she could to was whimper and twitch her numb limbs.

It seemed like hours that she was dragged over the rough cement that nibbled at her bare legs, making them even more red and raw. For a brief moment, she thought that soon, she would only be so much meat. Not the most pleasant thought...

Finally, he dropped her hard on the floor. She'd thought her arms were numbed, but an instant before she moved them, she felt her hands automatically splay out in front of her in an attempt to break her fall as her face neared the ground. When they made contact, there was an abrupt popping and stretching sound. Immediately, her mouth gaped open and pain seared through her entire body. She rolled onto her side and cradled her wrist against her chest. Something had happened to it, but she couldn't be sure just how serious it was.

She tasted copper... the skin on her lips had stretched torn, allowing little streams of blood to flow down her chin and drip onto her tongue. Blood...she remembered the taste well...they'd fed it to her before.... It was the first time she recalled this disturbing little fact. It made her want to vomit, but she didn't have the heart to follow through with it.

Salt....now she tasted salt.... Tears?... Am I...? Crying? I am...of course I am.... It's all I can do to make myself feel better...

She had to fight with her lungs in order to draw in a cold breath...and then she noticed something.... The man was gone. How she knew, she'll never be quite sure, but she knew he had left her, and her body relaxed a little...as much as it could.

Now, she lay on her back with her injured wrist on her abdomen and her hand smoothing light and gentle circles on her knuckles. She felt nothing anymore but the fear...the fear that one of them would come to break her fragile body even farther beyond recognition.

Death? Ha! She laughed in the face of Death. Let HIM come to her. She would welcome him with open arms and allow him to comfort her in all the ways she'd never known.

Eyes closed, she sighed and winced only mildly as her ribs screamed with the painful effort. They would come back, she was sure, but Death would not reward her until the very end.... And who knows how long that might be...?