Out of Sight

Chapter Three

Ivy's thirst was slowly beginning to become her main concern as she found herself fighting off the dizziness that comes with dehydration. Her head and muscles screamed at her for just the smallest drop of H2O.

By the severity of her water depletion, she could only guess that she had been in captivity for at least a few days before waking up in the cell.

She concentrated on remaining conscious as her vision blurred from black back to the cell before her. Ivy knew that in order to gain an upper hand, she would need sustenance soon.

But maybe that was exactly why they were depriving her of the necessity to survival.

Ivy sat on her cot with her knees pulled up to her chest, and arms locked around the front of her shins. Her best chance was to scream for help or water, but she also knew that the little energy she had left would be needed for future endeavors and was not worth giving in so soon, in her mind.

Her eyes wandered around the cell searching for any signs of water. Just a drip from the ceiling onto the floor would suffice. But there was nothing. The walls and ceilings appeared well maintained and showed no signs of damage.

Meaning no water.

Ivy closed her eyes and again, counted to ten - concentrating on each breath hoping that with each exhale, her thirst might begin to disappear. But she soon found herself smacking her lips and doing her best to produce any saliva possible.

Just a little bit, she thought to herself as she prayed that someone would come soon.

Ivy did her best to keep hope but the little bit that was still there, slowly began to diminish as she realized that there was no one coming.

"I'll do anything," she whispered weakly to herself, knowing no one would hear her but saying it out loud to help solidify it in her mind.

To Ivy's surprise, a little slip of paper slid under the door of her cell just as she had hoped for any signs to show her she wasn't going to die just yet.

Weakly, she stood up holding out her arms to catch herself as her head began spinning and vision began to blur. Her hand hit the wall to her right, as she kept herself from falling back to the ground. Her bones ached with every step as she inched her way closer and closer to the mysterious piece of paper that laid on the concrete in front of the cell door.

As Ivy drew closer, she noticed that the light in the hallway outside the door was no longer on and all that stood behind the glass window, was darkness.

She studied the piece of paper for a moment. It appeared as if it had been ripped out of a notebook and was crumpled up into a ball. There was writing on the paper but the darkness within the cell, blurred each letter making it nearly impossible to read.

Ivy bent down slowly to pick it up, making sure to pace herself and hold one hand out into the air beside her to keep balance. Bringing the paper closer to her eyes, she realized there would be no reading it without another source of light.

The red light above her cot had not ceased to blink, and it would be the only way she could tell what was written on the note before her.

Forgetting about the severity of her dehydration, Ivy quickly hurried over to the red light that continued to blink above her cot - hoping that the little bit of light would help her read the blurred words on the paper now in her hand.

Standing on her tiptoes, she did her best to read what was before her. Although there wasn't much to see, Ivy read each word with each blink of the flashing red light.

Test One: Passed

The note passed chills through her arm and down her spine as she did her best to decipher what the little letter given to her, meant. What test? Where was she?

Question after question passed through her mind as she asked herself what she could've done to deserve such inhumanity. The isolation and dehydration were undoubtedly just the beginning. Ivy struggled with the idea of what else might be in store for her if she was unable to escape.

Not knowing what the note possibly meant, she could only guess that the present situation she was in, was only going to get worse.

Her thoughts quickly turned as she remembered the two prisoners that had been in the cells across from her own, and wondered if maybe they had returned back to their cells while she was asleep from exhaustion and fear.

Dropping the note to the floor without a care, she hurried back over to the cell door and bent down to open the slat that her tray had been practically thrown through. She paused for a moment, listening for any sounds coming from other cells or down the hallway but heard nothing.

"Hello?" She whispered quietly into the dark abyss of nothing. Ivy wasn't sure if she was trying to speak to the prisoners across the hall or if she was secretly hoping that someone on the outside of a cell would sympathize with her.

Silence followed. No answer was given and not so much as a single sound could be heard from any direction.

"Hello?" She asked again, this time a little louder. Maybe if just one person heard her, she wouldn't have to be alone. To that point, Ivy had done her best to try and forget about the loneliness that came with her captivation. She had only recently realized that isolation was one of her worst fears and was soon beginning to realize that dehydration was coming up fast behind it on the list. Knowing that there was just one other person would make coping with the present situation, just a little easier. And even better, knowing someone else was there would also bring hope. The more people stuck here, the more people looking for them.

She soon remembered that there was no one on the outside looking for her. Her daughter would've been almost twenty, but her death prevented her from being able to find her mother. Ivy's own mother, Marylin was far away and had no way of even knowing her daughter was missing in the first place. And her ex husband didn't give a damn about her.

She was alone.

Her eyes began to swell with sadness and hopelessness, but the lack of water in her body kept her from releasing any tears. She was left with the stinging of her own dry eyes, as she peered out into the hall one last time before closing the slat and slinking back to her cot.

She was alone. There was no one coming. If anything, the note that was placed in her cell was only further confirmation of her anonymous whereabouts. Whatever test she had completed already, there were more sure to come.

And if they were anything compared to what she had already been through up until this point, it was time to come to terms with the facts.

This was where she was probably going to die.