Darkness.

Endless darkness everywhere. What was happening?

My eyes were open, so why couldn't I see anything? It was just darkness... and pain…

Wait, Pain?

Ah! It hurts. It hurts everywhere.

Why am I in pain?

Did I hurt myself? How? And when?

The last thing I remember was sitting in my classroom after school, with other kids. And that too for detention.

So then, how did I end up blind and hurt? But, more importantly, where was I?

I tried to move around but nothing happened. I couldn't even lift my finger and it scared the hell out of me.

What happened to me?

I tried to feel my body and locate the source of the pain, but I realized it wasn't hurting anymore.

'Huh? Was that only my imagination? Or did I lose my sense of pain?'

Though I was unable to move, I could feel something heavy was holding me. It was an odd feeling as if all my limbs were wrapped up in thick glue, rendering me completely immobile.

Even if I tried long and hard, there was no response from my body. It was an extremely unnerving feeling.

The space I was in was filled with a comforting warmth, but the surrounding darkness made me feel suffocated and it was scary to me.

What was happening to me? Where was I? What was this place?

So many questions but no answers.

What was that feeling of pain earlier?

It was a searing pain like I was jabbed with a burning hot poker right in the middle of my back. Too vivid a feeling to be something I imagined.

My body seemed stuck to something and wrapped up like I was a package. The material substance around my body was also weird in the sense that I knew it was there, despite me not able to see it or touch it.

That strange feeling was that of a confined space, dark yet warm, condensed, and malleable yet delicate. It had to be a container of some sort, albeit one with an unnatural stillness.

If I could move, I would've tried to grab the container's walls to find out what sort of material it was.

It behaved intangibly, like a delicate membranous substance that was slippery in nature. It seemed to be in plain sight yet evaded the perception like a ruse.

But strangely enough, I could feel that If I could move, I could easily tear it apart like a wisp of smoke.

I began to wonder.

What sort of restraint rendered you so completely immobile that you could not even feel your own body?

If I was on the floor, I should've been able to feel the hardness or the cold of the ground. Any sensation would do.

But I felt nothing. I could hear nothing, nor could I speak.

I began to feel anxious and uneasy. This was definitely unnatural.

The only thing I could think of was a scene in a sci-fi movie where someone was put in a large tank of water to simulate death and preserve the body condition at the same time.

Was this sensory deprivation? Was I in a vat of liquid somewhere, being poked and prodded? Or was I asleep in suspended animation, floating through midair?

That would be cool though…

But the one thing that surprised me more was that despite the loss of my senses, my mind was extremely calm and clear.

There was no way I could be so calm under my current circumstances and maintain it. Something else was manipulating my mental state and keeping me from going insane.

I was terrified at that revelation.

'Damn. I should stop scaring myself and think of a way to get out of my predicament first.'

I calmed myself and evaluated my body condition again. The more I observed, the more I started to realise all of my senses had been 'turned off'.

It dawned on me that the mysterious feeling I'd been having only made sense in the absence of a body. It felt like only my consciousness was left floating in this space.

But how was that possible? If my body was destroyed, I would be dead. But what was this neither dead nor alive state. How did I end up like this?

The last thing I remember, I was in my classroom and the next, I was here. What had happened in between?

Either I was in the lab of some scary scientists, submerged in some chemical liquid.

Or my body was in a comatose state.

Or maybe I was just dead, and my soul was waiting here to reincarnate.

Damn. What kind of scary situation was I in!

I refused to believe I was dead. I can't be dead. I don't want to die.

Stop. Just calm down.

There had to be a logical explanation for this. I shouldn't let my mind run wild, imagining the plots of B-Grade horror films.

It was certain I had been kidnapped and not dead, since I essentially 'woke up' in this weird place, and not in my bed.

Now that begs the question of who and why?

I had no money nor a prominent family background. Why would anyone want to kidnap a penniless girl like me? And more importantly, who would they ask for ransom? I didn't have any parents or great benefactor.

So then, that means it wasn't a kidnapping. Any kidnapper would lose their monetary incentive when they found out I was worthless. Then I'd either be released or promptly disposed of.

Uhh... let's go with the release option. Or better yet I should escape before they find that out but with my current condition, that wasn't possible!

Even if I was to be 'disposed', I still hoped I was kidnapped. It was better than any other scenarios lingering at the back of my mind.

That I was on the ground somewhere, bleeding out on the street from a stab wound. Or hooked up to a hospital bed in a coma I'd never wake up from.

Both options were inconvenient with unsatisfactory results! Kidnapping would be so much better, yeah.

That's what I thought, until the memory of two small children came to my mind. And in an instant, all my thoughts came to a halt.