The Vale

C1

Gasoline. 

The distinctive odor hit my nose. I try to keep my eyes open but the raging ache in my head and drowsiness is making it hard to stay focused.

The buzzing sound of mosquitoes makes my skin crawl because there's nothing I hate more than that sound. I hug my legs to myself and dig my back into the wall. It's dark and I hate being alone in the dark. My head turns to the side to try and find any reflection of light but nothing comes to view not even the reflection from the moon.

Here I am, sitting in the corner of a room I have no memory of entering, which begs the question: how did I get in here?

I want nothing more than to close my eyes and just sleep, but I can't do that. I need to remember that I'm alone. I'm in the dark. 

My body alerts when someone begins to whistle outside. My head shoot up and the words tears out of me before I can stop myself. "Hello! Who is out there?"

I don't know who's at the other side of the door, a part of me is screaming I shouldn't have talked, while the other part applaud me for making my presence known. What if the person is here to hurt me? What if the person is here to save me? 

Knowing I shouldn't waste my time pondering on what ifs. The person already knows I'm here because the moment I opened my mouth to ask, the whistling stopped. I just have to see what goes on from here.

There's no movement for some moment and then the metal door begins to sound as the person unlocks it. I brace myself.

The door opens and I expect light from the hallway or outside to fill the room but nothing happens, just remains pitch black. I can't make out the figure walking towards me but I know someone's coming, they don't try to conceal themselves as the footsteps becomes more loud with each step. 

I try to keep a brave face even though the person can't see me but something changes inside me or maybe dies. The courage I had to stay alone in the dark is gone, leaving me with nothing but fear.

“Please... Please don’t hurt me,” I whimper and grip my shirt as if my life depends on it, and in a way, it does. I don't know who it is coming to me but my instinct tells me the person isn't here to help me.

I shiver, the vibration runs deep to my core as goosebumps erupt from my arms. This is becoming serious. "Help me. Help me please." The words comes out fast and that's how I know I'm losing touch with myself.

My palm rubs on my arm aggressively to keep the goosebumps buried but it's not work. I close my eyes, shutting it tight until I begin to see sheen of lights. Phosphenes. That doesn't working either.

My eyes jerks open and I stare ahead as if I can see anything. The footsteps is still coming and I wonder how far is it from the door to where I am. 

“I will do anything you want... Please just let me go,” I beg, not sure why I'm begging. I'm just following my mind's lead, it's like they are two different things: my mind and head. I don't care about that though, I just want to leave this place.

While having a mental battle with myself, I notice the person stops walking all of a sudden. "He–hel–hello, is any–is anyone here?" I ask the empty space.

I get no response.

It can't be. It's impossible. I heard someone whistle. I heard footsteps. No. No, no, no, I wasn't imagining it. I wasn't. 

My hands covers my ears and try to recollect what happened. I'm sure someone was here with me, I can't stand up to go check because I'm scare. Fear of the dark is real for me and I'd rather not go looking–