Where Am I?

Waking up in a cold sweat, I was trying to catch my breath and come to after having the most terrifying dream when I couldn't remember where I actually was. "Where am I?" I called out into the darkness that surrounded me. It was a good ten seconds, or so it felt, before my own echo responded. I'm sure I was in the comfort of my own bed when I fell asleep last night.

I tried to get up, but my legs felt as if they were tied to the bed or whatever piece of furniture or apparatus I was lying on. The more I moved, the more my legs were more tightly secured in place. I tried to sit up and reach for whatever was securing my legs and felt a great weight pressing down on my chest, which stopped me from sitting up properly.

My natural defense mechanism had always been to panic and as I felt my blood pressure rise and heartrate rise, I desperately tried to control my nerves. I knew it would not make a blind bit of difference and I was not about to give whoever or whatever was holding me captive the benefit of seeing me afraid. But, of course, I was incredibly afraid. The unknown, as exciting and intriguing as it can be, is pertrifying too and this didn't feel like one of those exciting and intriguing times. Everything felt uncertain.

In addition to the inability to move and the complete darkness, there was a horrible stench. It smelled like a large sea beast had died two weeks ago. I had to fight back the urge to be sick. Whoever was holding me, was definitely the type of individual not to be trifled with. That much was clear.

"Hello?" I tried calling into the dark. I had no sense of direction, thanks to the darkness, but I wanted to give them the chance to response. Just silence was the response.

"This is less fun than it looks in the movies, I gotta admit" as I continued to try and engage with my captors, fear was slowly being replaced by a real growing annoyance.

There was no response. That made me even more annoyed. I can't stand rudeness. I could not tell if time was moving very slowly or very quickly, but I tried to keep count.

"One elephant, two elephant, three elephant, four elephant...hello?...thought I heard something"

Well, I tried to keep count.

After several attempts, some strange happened.

"One elephant, two elephant, three elephant, four elephant, five...what was that?" I gasped as I heard a mechanism spring to action. At first it made no difference to my current predicament, other than increasing my annoyance, fear and anxiety.

Then as I attempted to count again, the piece of furniture, I think it was a table of some kind, started to shake and then I felt as if I was falling through the air.

Falling and falling.

One elephant.

Falling and falling.

Two elephant, three elephant.

As I was still attached, my body kept banging against the metallic table I was bound to...

Four elephant

Then I stopped falling with a CRASH!

Five elephant.

"What the..." I did not have time to finish, as there was a flash of light that almost blinded me. My breathing was erratic and I could feel my pulse vibrating through my skin as my heart raced.

Then there was a camp and annoyingly over-the-top voice...

"Give him a big round of applause...didn't he do well?" The voice said and an audience cheered.

I still couldn't focus in on anything, after spending so long in complete darkness. Soon, the cheers and applause turned to feet stomping and jeers.

"Well...it's my favourite part of the show, folks. Time to die!"

I heard another mechanism spring to life and then looked up to see a large piece of metal falling towards me.

*

Thanks for reading!

Author's Note: This little piece was for Mother Combs' Twisted Endings challenge, which you can find out more about here:

Basically...

"So, what I want to see from my fellow writers is some stories with an ending that ends with a twist. I would like to see Vocal flooded with these stories. I want to be so surprised by the endings that the dopamine gets to flow, activating my noradrenaline to attack my brain. I want to be overflowed with emotion."

Hope it was an enjoyable ride!

All feedback, comments and interactions are greatly appreciated and reciprocated!

If you have time and inclination, please stop by some of these other pieces and give them a read:

You can also take a look at the rest of my work here.