Empty as my Heart

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Darkness.  Pitch black darkness.

At first it cloaked me, hiding me and cradling me.  Keeping me from the horrors of the world.  But...after a while, it turned on me.  The darkness became a hollow pit, threatening to swallow me.  To drop me into a swarm of black nothingness.  My head collided with something hard, and I fell.  I kept falling down, never reaching hard earth.  Never finding a bottom.

Oh, my gosh, my head hurt.

As thoughts and memories returned to my brain, I realized that I wasn't really falling.  There was no black hole, sucking me into the depths of nothingness.  It was dark because my eyes were closed.

I was dreaming.

Cold snow numbed my back, and I realized that I must still be lying in the road.  Finally finding the ability to move my muscles, I slowly lifted my eyelids.

Then the rest of the day came back to me in a flood.

The crowd.  James.  My stupid attempt to draw the attention away from him.  The Hunter. 

Then...nothing.  My mind didn't remember anything more.

Sitting up, I took notice of my surroundings.  I was not, in fact, still laying in the street.  I was in a tiny broom cupboard, alone.  The door on the left side was small, smaller than the door on a dumbwaiter.  

I slowly scuffed my palms along the dirt floor, positioning myself onto my hands and knees, and crawled over to the door.  Trying the handle, I already knew the answer to my question.  Locked.

I turned my attention back to the room.  It was smaller than and actual closet, more like a tall, rectanguar box. 

What was going on?  I'm trapped!

Standing up, helplessly, I grabbed a broom from the shelf, aiming it at the tiny door.  Drawing my elbows back, using all of my force, I rammed it.  Nothing.

I tried again.  And again.  And again.

Nothing.

I was outraged.  Clinging to the handle on the broom, I kept at it.  Then finally began yanking at the door knob with all of my might.  It...Was...No...Freaking...Use.

"HELP!"  I cried to no one,  "HELP ME!"

I began beating on walls, on the shelves, rattling the brooms.  Scratching the walls until my fingernails began to bleed.  Shouting, screaming, crying for help.

But no one came.

Ignoring the throbbing pain in my head, I collapsed to the ground, kneeling with my head cradled in my arms.  I stayed that way for some time, unable to know if it was daytime or nighttime.  Unable to make sure that James was alright.  I didn't even know if I was alright.

I must look insane.  Crazy little girl, locked up in a closet.  That sounded about right.

Beaten and bloody.  Hair notted and falling into her face.  Wet tears falling from her thin cheeks.

Yeah...that sounded about right.

It sounded like a horror story.  Curling up into a ball on the floor, I realized something grave.  Something that hadn't even occured to me before.

This must be where the Hunters store their bait.  But why am I the only one in here?

Did they keep everyone seperate?  Only to give them the illusion that they were, in fact, alone? 

It was the perfect scene, the perfect way to break the strong ones.  To make them break down and give up on life, even before it was over.

And it wasn't going to work.  Not on me.

I would fight it.  I would remember.  I would remember that being alone, and dying alone were two, plainly different things.  Being alone was nothing.

The only thing that scared me was the thought of how well James would take it.  Would he give in, just as I almost did?  I guess I would find that out later.