Thanatophobia (fear of dying)

Sleep

I wanted to get up, to move around, but I just couldn’t. It was as if each of my limbs had gained a couple of tons overnight, like some great unknown force was pressing down on me.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even think.

I tried to remember what happened. Did I fall? Was I drunk?

However as I tried to remember, my head began to ache enough for me to give up on the endeavor altogether.  

At one point I heard voices, but they were all murmuring gibberish, incomprehensible. I paid them no mind and then I blacked out.

***

I opened my eyes to darkness, panicked; I couldn’t breathe. I moved about frantically until I felt hands grasp under my armpits lifting me up into the light.

I gasped like a fish, taking in air by the mouthful. As I began to calm down, I shivered from the air in the room combined with the water dripping down my body.

A rough pat on my back sent me into a quick fit of coughing.

“Good. You’re awake.” A detached, deep voice said from behind me.

My muscles tensed up automatically, aware of danger even though I had no idea what the Hell was going on.

Did someone just try and drown me?

Rough hands on my arms wheeled me around to face a man I’d never seen before. Or at least I didn’t think I had…

“So, Jezebel, do you think you’re ready to cooperate?”

“What?” I asked, my voice coming out soft and cracked.

How long had I been out?

“Are you ready to cooperate?” He enunciated each word slowly as if speaking to a child, but a pounding sensation in my head kept me from being offended.

I cast my eyes about the dimly-lighted room and the dark objects I saw all moved about before my eyes, making them unidentifiable.

“I’m so confused…” I moaned, swaying slightly in the man’s grip.

“Shhhh,” He whispered as he placed a hand to my lips.

With his grip on my other arm, he led me across the room and shoved me down onto a plush seat

I cringed and clutched at my head, as I waited for the lightheadedness to go away. Why was I so weak?

“Where am I?” I jerked at the way my voice sounded; it was so rough it was almost unrecognizable.

“Home,”

“This- this isn’t home…”

“It is for now,” he looked down at me and his dark eyes captured my full attention.

I gulped, deciding it’d be best not to argue.

“God, you look just like her,” he muttered under his breath as he averted his eyes.

“Like who?”

“Carlea,” he replied, cocking his head to the side as if waiting for my reaction.

Carlea. Carlea. That sounded really familiar, as if it was hanging around the edges of my mind.

I creased my brows as my head ache increased, why couldn’t I remember?

I looked back to the man with a frustrated look. He leaned back into the couch we were sitting on with a small smile on his face.

“How are you feeling Jezebel?”