I wake up, in a wet, dark, concrete room.
"W-what?", I squeak out out of fear of being jump-scared.
I'm in the floor in a crouched position, and as I begin to uncurl, I realise just how pitch black the room is.
I can feel from the humidity that the room is probably about the same size that I imagine a cell would be, but as for what else is within this room, I am unsure.
I touch the floor, cold, hard, and wet to the touch.
I begin to crawl on all fours, trying to find a wall, however, I stop trying to understand my surroundings the moment I hear something else breathing.
It's dead quiet, and the room echoes the slightest of sounds.
Like a deer infront of headlights, my eyes are as wide as can be, but still, I can't see anything.
I try to make out the breathing's direction and distance, but my tinnitus is louder, 'FOR FUCKS SAKE, WHY DID I LISTEN TO MUSIC ALL DAY EVERY DAY FOR THE PAST 5 YEARS??!', moments like these make me aware of just how important my senses are for survival.
I'm practically deaf blind right now.
I try to calm down and hear through the ringing in my ears, eventually, I adapt and my tinnitus disappears, but this is after 30 minutes of constantly paying keen attention to my surroundings.
Fear definitely snaps you back to reality, I realise that now.
With my hearing impairment gone now, I can make out the breathing finally, and it sounds like a woman's voice.
She might be listening out for my breath as well this entire time, and hasn't done anything out of fear as well, but to hope for that to be the case is practically asking for suicide.
I've had enough nightmares to know that doing anything but playing dead will lead to your death.
'Wait a minute, how did I even get here?', I ask myself.
"He-hello?", I hear the woman ask out to me while trying to pretend that she isn't scared, probably with the same nightmare mentality as I have.
We sit in silence for a while before I muster up the courage to respond, "Y-yes?".
She tried to speak again, "Am I going to be alright?", she asks me.
Her question frightens me, since I have no idea whether or not if this is part of the mind game of the place that I'm in, or something else.
Not wanting to give her an unsatisfying answer with the fear of being jump-scared, I say, "Y-yes! Everything is going to be fine."
I accidentally raise my voice, but this seems to calm her down, "Who are you?".
"I'm Cain.", I then think about the party I was just at, and with a little bit of hope in me, I say, "I'm one of the guests from the Big Esteem Party".
"Y-you are?!", she answers in shock.
"Who are you…?"
"I'm also from the same party! My name is Athena."
"Athena? N-nice to meet you."
From a distance we make our introductions, and it isn't before some time that Athena has the courage herself to crawl over to me, that we are able to properly be there for one another.
"W-what's happening?"
"I'm getting closer."
Thankfully she does so slowly, easing us both into accepting the situation.
To me, the back of the room is behind me, but to her, she thinks that behind me is the front of the room.
Without vision, perspectives can differ greatly.
Finally, she sticks out her fingers to poke at me, which scare me at first, but she's glad to realise that I'm not a figment of her imagination, and decides to lean on me for comfort.
"I'm sorry for being so selfish, but not being able to see while talking to someone feels only right if I'm this close."
"…I understand.", it's comforting me too in all honesty.
To have the warm of someone else who is also a victim of this situation, makes me feel like I've found my first genuine friend, though, I which it wasn't under such cruel circumstances.
As time passes, we wait and wait and wait.
And as we wait together in the dark, leaning on each other, we tell stories that cheer us up, make jokes, and have fun with our heartwarming conversation in our embrace.
We can hear each other's deep and heavy breathing, feeling almost sleepy from being so close to each other.
Eventually, we decide that it's best to finally start exploring this room together, even though hours have already passed.
We both try to stand up, but our legs feel weak.
We help one another up and hold each other tightly as we leave one arm out in front of us incase we hit a wall.
We take small steps, and eventually the flat floor is no longer flat.
We crouch down to cautiously feel for what it may be, and we speculate amongst ourselves what it could be.
I then feel a handle, "Look! Over here!", I them stretch my arm out to hers, missing it multiple times before grabbing on, and I direct her hand over the top of the handle.
With a sense of adventure and mystery, we both decide to pull on it together, and that's when the outdent reveals itself to be a square-shaped trapdoor.
We lie on our bellies, and reach around for a bottom, but, nothing.
Thankfully, we do feel what appears to be a ladder, so I stick my legs down the hole and try to feel around to see if the ladder actually does continue.
Sure enough, it does.
"Follow me down this way."
…
Suddenly, I feel the urge to hug her.
…
It seems that our hours of embracing one another has made me reliant on her for clarity in this dark world, and the moment I feel her arms wrap around me as I begin to make my decend, gets me thinking that she probably feels the same.
Based on the position I'm in and what it is that I feel, she must be lying on her belly right now, and she's so close to the edge that I can feel her chest pressed against mine despite having over half my body down the ladder.
That means, that her face must also be really close.
"We can't go down like this.", I feel with an ache in my chest, longing to hug her back.
"…I know."
She lets go, unsatisfied by the empty space around her and the cold.
"…let's climb down quickly.", I say.
She blushes, and I can tell this from her voice, "Ok~.".