2020-06-24 - Gone Girl

Drip.

drip.

d r i p.

It always landed on the same spot, these uniform drops of water cascading from a crack in the ceiling that she couldn't see. Lashes flickered, before green-and-gold eyes slowly opened to stare at the yawning darkness that had half-enveloped her form.

She was still in her pajamas; a tank top that did nothing to shield her from the cold, damp dark, and her pajama bottoms and socks. Her hair was a mess, but that was more the rule than the exception, a lock of hair tangled in a cheek. As the strange silhouettes slowly came into focus, the first thing she saw were bars, illuminated by faint light.

She was behind bars.

Isabella shot up from the ground with a start, pain clawing through her mind like talons and forcing her to grit her teeth. She didn't know where she was. The last thing she remembered was...

Alexander. I was putting Alexander to bed. I was getting him the painkillers...

She could certainly use them now. Pushing herself off the floor, she took a quick clip towards the barricades of her prison, curling her fingers around cold metal in an effort to shake it. The disconcertingly dark passage yawned endlessly before her, silence clipped by the occasional disembodied cough, and distant footsteps.

"Hey..." Her voice sounded like a croak, and her skull felt like it was split by an axe. She rattled the bars some more. "HEY!" That was better, mustering up whatever fury and temper she could, slamming both palms on the bars. "Let me out! You can't keep me in here!"

Silence greeted her demand.

Goosebumps rose on her flesh, mottling skin. She felt Them, somewhere in the dark, somewhere past the endless corridor and its spectral noises. Fear propelled her to jerk back from the door, her heart in her throat. But it was impossible, she couldn't sense anyone, save for the sounds and the maddening drip of water down the...

...drain?

She took a breath in an attempt to focus, but the persistent headache left her discombobulated. She followed the drip of water, pulling on her knees onto the cold floor. She squinted at the drain, and looked into the dark. There was nothing there, too. Nothing but water.

It looked like a cell, but there were no beds. No chairs, not even a toilet; nothing but a single fluorescent light that flickered now and then, from an indeterminable source. There was no way to turn it off, no way to reach it. There wasn't even a telltale generator hum, nothing that would suggest electricity.

Where the hell was she?

The flickering lights drew her attention to something in her periphery. She turned her head to fix her stare on the wall. That was empty too, but not wholly. Whenever darkness parted by the fitful illumination surrounding her, she saw letters - at least half a foot high, scrawled in black marker:

M E G A N W A S H E R E

Her throat tightened at her swallow. Gritting her teeth, she spun back around to head for the jail cell door, attempting to rattle it by the hinges and letting out another shout. She inspected the bolts and screws holding the bars in place, attempted to use her gifts. But nothing moved. She ground her teeth together and attempted to tear the ether apart, to will a door into being - she didn't care where it took her, but she had to leave.

Nothing.

Ultimately, she found herself against the wall, beads of perspiration motling her skin from all of her exertions. Shoulders hunched as she took several ragged breaths. The few hours of pacing, battering and hollering were useless in the end, but it delayed the weighty press of the terrible reality of her circumstances.

There was no way out.

And she was alone.