10 months later

*Castor*

My breathing is harsh, heavy, and labored, my heart pounding, I am running, running, yet I don’t seem to be going anywhere. It is all an inky blackness, but beyond it ... surely there is something beyond it … if I could only reach it. She is beyond it, if only I could reach her.

Suddenly I am in a room, sitting in a hard chair, my hands tied behind me with silver chains, surrounded by shadows. Light shines down on me, the brightness causing me to squint. Where is its origin ? There are no lamps, no windows. Nothing. Only me, the chair, and the...