The woman opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Rather, she tried to open her mouth, the neurons firing in rapid succession, her muscles contracting and relaxing in a motion that could only be considered and described as panic. Muscles twisting and contorting, the neurons desperately tried to find the right movement that had been until this moment a familiar action, a mindless muscle memory embedded in the brain. Her eyes could see nothing, telling the difference between open and closed eyes was impossible. Her mind slowing from uncontrollable hysteria to anxiety, the woman managed to raise her hand to her mouth, curiosity winning the battle against panic, needing to know the reason for her inability to perform a once simple action. (But as we all know, curiosity kills cats). As her shaking hand reached her mouth, what she came across was incomprehensible. Unreal. What she found, was nothing. Her hands found clammy skin, smooth, but moist with her fear. As she ran her fingers across the bottom portion of her face, all she could feel was the cooling damp sweat upon her skin. Her mouth was gone.
The hysteria came back. Knees collapsing, unable to keep up her weight, she fell forward. Her face colliding with the cold numbing cement sent unfelt pain rushing to her brain, her broken nose the least of her problems. She screamed and howled, the shrieks like sirens in her head made no noise in reality.
Without warning, once white fluorescent lights hummed and flickered as they came alive. The woman looked up, slightly lightheaded from her silent screaming and loss of blood. The room she was in held no doors or windows, with unmarked cement walls no one ever bothered to paint.
She was not alone. She could see another person only a few meters in front of her, lying face down, a note pinned to the back of their shirt with one word written on it. Dragging her body towards the person, she stopped as she read the single word. Manipulator. Before the woman even had a chance to consider the possibilities of what it all meant, she realized that the person had no arms, cut off from the elbows down, nearly black dried blood stuck to the ground from the sliced arteries. Trying once again to scream the woman turned away only to be faced with another body. The jaw was missing from the unidentified body, deep red blood still drying on the cloths and face. A similar note was stuck to the shirt, only this one read “cannibal.” Tears streaming down her face, the woman could see another human with no eyes, the word "observer" written by unsure, trembling hands on a piece of paper stuck to the shirt. Body shaking uncontrollably, the woman forced her eyes downward until they found what they were looking for. A note attached to her own shirt bearing one word and one word only. Liar.
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