A chilling air swept through my hair. As I brushed off what seemed like soot from my face I tried to open my eyes. Pulling and ripping at my eyelids, I eventually managed to rip them apart leaving a gooey substance on my fingers. “Alison…. Alison!” I screamed. Snapping my neck from side to side I searched for my beloved wife, but only found darkness.

I started to search my body however I could feel no clothes on me, only bare skin leaking sweat. Or at least I thought it was sweat.

Clambering up, I stumbled sideways into the darkness searching for a wall. Pressing my hands forward I felt them hit cold stone, the same stone that was underneath my bare feet. Searching and searching for a light switch I felt something aggressively yank at my ankles and I fell hard to the ground hitting my jaw. A mist started to swirl around me, embracing me.

“What the…how where…WHAT?” After what felt like a good two hours I leaned up caressing my fractured jaw. As I crawled I felt another tug at my ankles and reached down to feel 2 thick iron chains binding my feet together from the opposite wall.

The light hadn’t returned. I was still shrouded in darkness. Bleeding from the mouth. My claustrophobia was playing on me now. “Who the hell has done this to me? I will kill you, I swear I will kill you!”

Breathing more heavily now, I began to feel more aware of my being. Panting hard I continued to desperately pat the walls in search of a new space while avoiding tripping on the chains. Doing this I felt my hands slip across a smooth surface.

However this wasn’t a wall. It was a window.

Pressing my face hard against the cool glass I savoured the slightly different shade of black that met my eyes. “I can break this. I can! This is my ticket” Saying this I got ready to throw my fists into the black glass, but before I could attack I saw a dark silhouette emerge on the other side, a figure. I banged and banged as hard as I could, and the figure approached. Closer.

And closer.

As the figure got nearer I made out a tall thin bodied male, curly hair, and carrying a notepad. “You’re doing the world a great favour my subject” The voice was cold.
“I’m James….. What subject? I am James!”

He simply stared at me, his icy blue eyes glaring through the mist. He reached for his pocket and pulled out what appeared to be A4 photos. He held them up and flicked on a torch over them. The light blinded me.

I squinted through the glass and saw the pictures. As I saw them my face twisted in terror. Men, women, children, all naked and chained to the floor. But their faces were so green it looked like a sci-fi movie.

It looked like James after he had a claustrophobic attack. After this the tall man walked off briskly, his body turning back into a silhouette, then to blackness.

“No! No! Come back! You can’t do this to me, I’m not a lab rat, I’m not a machine, I am human!” As these words left my mouth I felt the sweat start to pour again and I started to run around the black void in desperation. As I did this, I felt my last moment of sanity slip away, and felt the eyes watching me.