Where Am I?
January 5th, #5/366. Prompt: Your main character cannot see
When I wake, I see nothing. I put my hand out in front of me, touch my face. Shut my eyes. Open them. No difference.
Panic builds. Is it dark, or is there something wrong with my eyes?
Is it night, or day? Where am I? Am I underground?
"H-H-Hello?"
Silence.
How long have I been here?
...Am I dea-
I cut that thought off, shove it away and cast about for some life-buoy to fix on. Something verifiable. The surface under my bottom is hard and smooth. I can't imagine it brightly-coloured, but I'd like it to be grey or white. Anything but black.
I've awoken in a black, black world. My breath coming in snatches, threatening to sobs, I feel around for a wall, some way to orient myself. A shelter, a shield. Certainly not a surface to huddle against in despair.
At first: nothing. This gives me a sudden swooping sense of vertigo; perhaps I'm in an enormous room. Worse: I'll never again find the spot I just moved from, my only anchor of relative familiarity in an alien world of blank, empty pitch.
The wall feels exactly like the floor. Floor. Not ground. This tiny clue swells to significance in my mind. It whispers of made.
Someone made this room and more, they put me in it. This brings on twin emotions of fear and hope. Fear because, why have they put me here? and Hope because that means there is someone else in all this. Else I could be entirely alone in a bare, lightless universe. Already, Stockholm Syndrome is curling warm tendrils around me; good feelings towards my captor. They thrust me into this world of sightless dread, but perhaps they can fish me out.
I stand tentatively, reach up - nothing. The ceiling could be high above me. I could be at the bottom of a shaft, with no ceiling at all. I try a step - does it feel like walking in a cathedral?
No. It feels like nothing, except vulnerability.
Time sloped by, unticked, untocked.
Measured footsteps approach, hinting at lanyards and clipboards.
The rope is frayed, but it's all I have. I'm ready to seize it.
++++++++++++
Word count: 366 words
Submitted on: 5th January at 4.05 PM
(Vocal going down spooked me good and proper, and I've had a piece submitted to Beat for 18 hours, so that is going to be a thing now!)
* * * Author's Note * * *
As always, thank you for reading! I value your engagement. I do my best to reciprocate all reads, so please leave a comment to make that easier for me. (Please don't comment with a link unless you're taking part.)
The story behind the story: I'm writing a microfiction story every day in 2024. The prompt I used today was "A story where your main character can't see". This was meant to be yesterday's but it wasn't ready. It was trickier than I thought!
If you're joining me in the "story every day" lark: please do comment with a link to your story! If you have a go with this "can't see" idea, please link to that. I'd love to see what you come up with.
Here are my previous "story every day" stories so far:
1st January - A New Beginning
2nd January - The Other Guy
3rd January - One Day, I just Disappeared
4th January - The Wages of Sin
Please consider reading these pieces from Rachel and Hannah on the same theme:
About the Creator
Keep reading
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Vale Perficientur
"My tears need a minute to find the edges of my face. If you'll please excuse me." The sarcasm stabbed into Juliana’s heart. Antonia glared at her from the pit of the Lyceum as her student fought to hold back tears that had nothing to do with the pain in her fingers. “You’re better than this, again.”
By Matthew Fromm4 days ago in Fiction
Comments (11)
That was so unsettling and scary! My worst fear is not being able to see. This was so well done!
You're Schrodinger's cat, to whoever put you there, both dead & alive at the same time. The footsteps you hear are simply to alleviate their uncertainty, not your situation. (Unless they're not the footsteps of your captor--though you did mention lanyards & clipboards. Yeah, I don't think it's looking good for you.)
I sorry it took so long for this to get published. I just submitted a story today. I guess it might get published tomorrow. Great imagery. It’s I was in her darkness.
Wow, LC! This was awesome! I loved the panic you managed to evoke in this short piece. That and the desperate hope that someone is going to be able to help the MC. Though knowing you, I'm thinking there are darker things yet to come in their future
Beautifully done!
You truly have a gift. Hope that frayed rope holds
Feelings of fear and anxiety evoked...check
Better late than never! I got the creeps reading this. But love that you left us with a sense of hope.
Ooph, it's rare I get physiologically scared reading...
interesting concept
Hi L.C. ~ We "know" you ~ Bop over to the 'Humor' Dept sometime and say hello. Can't imagine (1) Schtick a day - it takes me a month to percolate on new topics - you're fun! *Ooh, Thanks for shooing away that interloper re; That Daft "Twunt"..a 'Fool' whichever side of the pond you're on. J.K. Jay Kantor, Chatsworth, California 'Senior' Vocal Author - Vocal Village Community -