At the moment of closing that fucking basement door with the speed of light (because that's how she remembered, of course, from nowhere - praise a decent general education) it occurred to her that she was rather screwed. The lights will be off in thirty seconds and this fucking door could jam any minute.
- Fuck! She muttered under her breath.
She had no idea yet how great a shadow of fear and paranoia would cast this expected, yet inevitable, impenetrable darkness on her mental spine. She rushed for the closed door, meeting familiar resistance (they always worked heavily). She cursed in her mind at her husband, who wasn't kind enough to replace the light bulb or clean the damn door. She cursed herself for leaving her cell phone upstairs. Why? Whore! Why didn't she put it in her pocket? Because it's only a moment and only a few meters back. She pushed harder but the previously familiar resistance was becoming more and more strange.
The lights went out of course, that's the only thing that went as expected so far, and not only that fucking door seems to be FUCKING stuck!
Stay "calm" she said to herself or rather whispered, or maybe it was just a voice in her head. She continued to push against the door, calmer now, maybe the appeal had worked, or maybe she was just gathering strength for the final attack. She was thrown back, rubbing painfully against something as she fell. She didn't know the location of the stuff in the basement at all, because her husband always arranged every such visit, and he just left here, and she just wanted a damn bike. She got up clumsily, swinging her arms low and touching god knows what. She felt the steering wheel and clutched it as if it were a shield. Inevitably, there were other emotions, apart from anger at her husband, who just had to leave. Fear and uncertainty seized her, slowly but relentlessly, as all of a sudden she found herself locked in a dark cellar. She didn't know how to get out of this already stuffy prison, because she felt the air thickening with every moment. The next breath was like a precious morsel of air that she carefully stored in her lungs. She tried to touch the wall but on every side piles of stuff blocked her path. Her movements were meticulously careful not to expose herself to anything that lurked in the darkness. And the feeling of helplessness was slowly becoming more and more overwhelming.
She felt as if in the darkness of the basement, her senses developed a bit of madness. Despite everything, so far she did not scream, although in place of the expected and obvious silence, the first unexpected noises suddenly appeared. A strange sound, coming from the surroundings, as if someone was whispering into her mind. Just not rats! Oh God, not rats!
Oh no! Calm, calm, calm calm! After all, the rats are squealing and it's just some kind of murmur, or maybe just a buzzing in her ears? Could it be water in the pipes? Yes, it sounds like a soothing summer stream. She sighed in relief as she visualized the emotions flowing through her and suddenly felt quite downright considering the conditions she was comfortably stuck in. After all, this has to end soon.
- Hello! Can anyone hear me? Hello!
- Help!
- HEEEEELP!
Her scream cut through the dark silence. But there was no answer, not even an echo bouncing off the cool basement walls. In the depths of stuffy space, her own hopelessness took over. The darkness seemed to both speed up and shorten time at the same time, and inevitably drive away reason. Her own thoughts tried to turn against her, fueling images of nightmares that could take reality here at any moment. But not here...
Once again:
- HEEEEELP!
- HEEEEELP!
The nearest two apartments on the ground floor had been empty, one of them for several months now, but she had hope for those damn few minutes. Unfortunately the thick ceilings and two pairs of closed doors effectively blocked any attempts to call for help. Only someone going directly down to the basement would have heard her, but she had to hear him first, she thought. She still had enough determination left to make some plans. It must be quiet and listen to outside sounds while ignoring all others, real or not.
The passage of time was another potential source of suffering in her situation, and what the hell, sensory deprivation. Reportedly, some alpha males survived in such conditions for several days. But it's not that bad. She was reassured by the thought that at any moment she might shuffle something, or drop something, make a noise anyway. And a gun, she thought. Like finding a weapon here.
Where did she get such ideas, luckily she won't find any weapons. Well, she'd rather hurt herself. She mentally scolded herself and tried to calm down. In theory, she shouldn't have heard anything but water in the pipes, but sources of other sounds seemed to surround her: humming, scraping, splashing, tapping, and something like smacking. The darkness no longer seemed so dim to her eyes with their pupils wide open. But those eyes suddenly began to play tricks. She saw vague figures, perhaps from the past, that seemed to fail to materialize before her eyes. She heard their voices speaking to her but she couldn't understand what they were saying. Reality was collapsing in the dark basement. Furniture and various lumber, the image of which she clearly had in her memory, came to life, and the scenery changed into unreal, surreal images. Time stood still, and she couldn't tell what was real and what was an illusion. She was overwhelmed by blindness, floating in the dark, trying to touch something stable and certain. The hallucinations merged with reality, creating a surreal mosaic she couldn't understand. It was like a dancing dream she couldn't leave.
And yet, in the midst of that darkness, there was something that made her, something that made her strain against all her fears with her own horrified perception. A soft whisper reached her ears, skewing reality. He seemed to hear his name spoken by a mysterious voice. Is it possible? Isn't she alone in this basement? She spoke, barely making a sound, but the answer came. Her heart was pounding like a hammer and at the same time a spark of hope breathed inside her. Did that mean someone had discovered her situation and was coming to help? The door slowly swung open, revealing beams of light that burst through blinding her for a moment. As her eyes adjusted to the intense glare, she saw a figure - it was the person she least expected. It was herself. Her mind and determination, which were unleashed in that magical moment, brought salvation. It was the final confrontation with her own fears and demons. The inner strength she discovered opened a door for her that she had never seen before. The answer came. The light broke through. She was free.
