I enter the room.

Involuntarily, of course. I have allowed my captor to snare me once more. You’d think I’d have learned by now, which holes to avoid, yet I still fall into them all the same.

The room is dark. Not the cozy, warm kind of darkness you feel just before succumbing to sleep, but the deadly kind. The kind that snatches you from you bed the moonlight, wiry fingers reaching out as they clasp around your helpless body and yank you from your sleep. It’s terrifying.

This room is a special kind of torture. It’s ancient, has been used for centuries evil beings as they prey on innocent minds. You wonder, what did I do to deserve this? As their teeth clench onto your throat, cutting of air and drowning you in their murky cloaks. But the evil, evil creature, the captors, don’t care. They just enjoy turning mind on body in a battle of Who Can Survive Longer.

Another odd thing about the room, it’s nearly impossible to escape. To do so, one would have to first find a light source to guide them through the dark. Without one, escape is even less likely. Next, you’d have to claw your way up the slippery walls, and one misstep means falling back to the bottom. Even if you can make it to the top and open the door, then you are still only half way. You still need to not fall back in.

But perhaps to hardest part about the room is having to watch what it does to those outside of it. They know you are locked in the room, but are powerless to help you escape. The only key can be found from within its dark depths.

So that is the room. The oldest form of torture. The real question here is: can you, and I, survive?