One
Consciousness returned to Shaun Daniels in unsteady waves. First came a heavy flutter of the eyelids, quickly followed by a desperate, gasping breath. The little air that he managed to breathe in felt musty, leaden, with an odd mixture of smells he couldn’t quite identify. He swallowed the few drops of saliva that his glands were able to produce, but as he did he felt his throat scrape and burn, as if he had gulped at a bowl of crushed chili, garnished with broken glass. The pain made him wince and hold his breath for a couple of seconds. His eyes, lost and out of focus, instinctively moved left then right.
Nothing.
Shaun could see nothing other than darkness.
‘What the hell?’ The words dripped out of his dried lips in a slumber, his eyelids feeling too tired to blink fully open.Have I passed out again after another heavy night of drinking?
The thought didn’t surprise him and the headache that had just exploded inside his skull surely did feel like the mother of all hangovers.
‘Urgh,’ he grunted, as he took another lungful of stale air. He tried to swallow some more saliva, but instead he ended up coughing, which triggered the burning pain in his throat to join forces with his headache, making his whole face throb.
‘Fuck,’ Shaun whispered, as he exhaled another drowsy breath. ‘What the hell did I drink last night… gasoline?’
It was then that he realized he was lying flat on his back, against some not-very-comfortable surface. This certainly wasn’t his bed.
Where the fuck am I? The kitchen floor?The thought came with another tired breath.I guess I better get up. I don’t even know what time it is.
But as Shaun tried to move, nothing happened.
‘What the fuck?’
He tried moving again.
Absolutely nothing – his toes, his feet, his legs, his arms, his hands, his fingers, his neck… nothing moved.
‘What the hell is going on?’
That was when Shaun heard an odd sound coming from somewhere to his right. It sounded like someone shifting their weight on a chair.
Shaun’s eyes immediately moved in that direction, but there was nothing for him to see.
‘Hello? Who’s there?’ he tried calling out, but his throat was too dry… his vocal cords too weak to produce any sounds louder than a whisper. Still, he carried on. ‘Please, can you help me? I can’t move.’
Shaun got no reply.
‘Hello?’ he tried again. ‘Is anyone there?’
Silence.
What the fuck is happening? Is this a dream? Why can’t I move?
Shaun squeezed his eyes shut as tight as he could before blinking them open again. It didn’t feel like a dream. Everything was still there – the darkness, the throbbing headache, the burning throat, the stale air… and he still couldn’t move. He felt desperation quickly settling in.
‘Good. You’re awake.’
The flat and smoky male voice Shaun heard came from his right.
He tried as hard as he could to turn his head in that direction,but his neck muscles simply didn’t respond. His eyes, on the other hand, moved as far right as they possibly could.
‘Who’s there?’ Shaun asked, his words sounding strangled. ‘Can you help me, please? I’m not sure what happened, but I can’t move.’
‘Yes. I know,’ the man calmly replied, as he flicked on the light switch.
Directly above Shaun, a light bulb inside a heavy-duty metal mesh box flickered a couple of times before engaging, bathing the room in so much brightness, it burned at Shaun’s retinas. Instinctively, he once again squeezed his eyes shut, but since the back of his head was flat against whatever uncomfortable surface he was lying on and he couldn’t move his neck, he had no real way of escaping the bright glare that hit him like a sucker punch. Despite having his eyes shut, the light was still strong enough to travel past his eyelids and through the optical nerve to collide with his already unbearable headache. Right then, his brain felt as if it were about to melt.
‘Urgh,’ he moaned, his breath catching on his throat. ‘That’s so goddamn bright.’
