𝑯𝑬𝑹𝑩𝑶𝑫𝒀𝑺𝑳𝑨𝑴𝑴𝑬𝑫 hard into smooth, polished concrete. She hissed, feeling pain flare up through her arms and legs, rolling onto her side. Slowly, massaging her wrists, Emis got to her feet.
The darkness had melted away, replaced by a world of white. Void of any colour. There were huge, bright industrial lights overhead that cast glittering reflections across the polished floor beneath her. She was stood at the end of a long, narrow hallway. The walls and floor completely blank, the ceiling too, apart from the blocks of crackling, surging light energy.
Emis could feel her whole body aching, itching to move. She tried to take a step forwards, but found that she couldn't. As if her feet had been glued to the floor.
The air was cold, so cold that as she breathed out her breath turned to mist in front of her. It carried with it the scent of antiseptic and clean metal and oil. It was too clean, Emis thought. And too bright. Like lasers were shooting directly into her eyes.
In the corners of her vision she caught a shadow of movement, suddenly. Her eyes narrowed.
A figure had appeared at the end of the hallway. Stood, mirroring her, but with shadows cast across its face so that she couldn't see who it was. On the wall behind it a door had appeared, gleaming bright metal with chains and padlocks drawn across it, catching the light and dispelling more sparkly reflections against the floor.
The figure took a step towards, and as it did one of the lights overhead flared off, dousing it entirely in shadow. Emis swallowed.
It took another step towards, there was a huge thudding sound as the next light went out, going cold. Emis could feel her skin beginning to crawl, a sweat breaking out on her forehead. She was stuck, trapped, at the end of the hallway with nowhere to go.
Suddenly, there came the patronising sound of someone's tongue clicking against the roof of their mouth. She felt the blood in her veins turn to liquid nitrogen. That sound was all—too familiar. The figure took another step forwards, the next light flaring off.
With each step the lights overhead would flare off, until only the light above Emis stayed on, buzzing and hissing with electricity, flooding her with fluorescent light. She couldn't move, could hardly breathe. Her tongue had glued to the top of her mouth, she could feel her airways tightening, suffocating. She glanced down, and felt her stomach lurch.
