This isn’t going to make even the slightest bit of sense.

Been feeling like I’m massively in the dark of late, so it was some shock to wake up into pitch black. I’ve guessed I’m alone, as no one responds when I call out. I’ve established that I’m in a smallish room, although how big it actually is, is a mystery. The floor underneath me is solid and although I can’t see them, I know there are walls there. I don’t think I really want to see them. I know they don’t smell too good, and they feel a bit sticky; I won’t be repeating the mistake of touching them again. I’ve no idea where the door is, if there even is a door! I hear nothing from outside, so perhaps there are no windows either. Instead of whimpering to myself or battered myself around the head with the book in my hand, the one and only object I can truly identify, I’ve opened it and started reading. I had to rip out the blank pages, and remove the dust-cover and hardcovers to use as fuel for the small torch I’ve managed to form. Tis always best to have a lighter with you, never know when someone will ask you for a light and thus strike up a conversation, for one. And the Ray Mears method of fire-lighting would have been next to useless here, no sticks!

I’ve sat myself down on my towel, another of life’s little essentials to have to hand at all times, and started to peer at the words in this dim light, without setting myself alight. My eyes are soon tired from the straining but I’m going to struggle on. It’s the only thing to distract me from this milieu I’ve somehow gotten myself into. I’m slightly hallucinating now, the unknown object on the other side of the room, that I haven’t gone near and am trying my best to ignore, is warping and appearing to move a little closer to me. To counteract the fear I’m doing my best to be my usual rational self and mostly not think about it. Just carry on with the book.

It’s a good book too. I feel I’m actually learning something, all the words are making sense and it seems to be taking up residence in my head, for a change. Shame it had to be happening here. Would so like to return to the comfortable surroundings of home, have a nice cup of tea and perhaps even a biscuit. No small luxuries available to me here though. The stink from the walls is making me queasy, I hope it’s coming the walls anyway. How’d I get here? Where am I? Is it just me, or are there others in a similar position? Too many questions. The book is calling back to me, “Don’t think about that, read me!”

Then a light flickers about five feet away from me. It’s not a natural light, and it’s very small. It appears to from a mobile phone. No, don’t go out, I need to see where you are…….. I crawl across the floor in the general direction of where the light came from, sweeping the floor with my hands. The floor, it turns out, is covered in a mud-like substance. This isn’t nice. I squelch through the ooze before my left hand brushes against something hard. I slowly move my hand back and feel a small lump of plastic. It is a phone. It’s got power. And has a signal!

Then I can hear the rustling of clothes as someone adjusts their weight from foot to foot and gives out a slight grunt from behind me.