I bolted awake as tons of blue boxes flashed before my mind’s eye faster than I could read their contents. What had just happened? Where was I? Wait, who was I? Why couldn’t I remember my name? Why was everything pitch black? Had my vision failed? Was I blind?

  “Hello, can anyone hear me?” I yelled, hoping desperately that someone could. The noise of my yell reverberated back into my ears unpleasantly. It seemed to rebound all about me. I reached my hand out, trying to placate some of my fear with another sense, and instead realized why my call had gone nowhere.

  My hands rubbed against the rough, cool surface of what I was pretty sure was stone. Running my hand across the wall, I found myself just turning in a circle. It seemed to entrap me on all sides. I dropped to the ground and quickly felt around the small floor I stood on and found the same. There wasn’t even enough room in here for me to lie down if I wanted to.

  As my panic set in, I ran my hands across every inch of the walls I could reach: nothing, all stone. There was no way out. How long would my air even last? Wait, was there something above me? I leaped, unable to find a ceiling, but more stone walls everywhere I touched. As I crashed back to the ground, another blue box flashed into my mind’s eye, this time, though it stayed long enough for me to read it.

  That confused me even more. Why was jumping now unlocked? I knew how to jump already. What did it even mean by being unlocked? Clearly, I had just done it. The pain in my legs as I hit the ground attested to that. As though on cue from my last thought, the box vanished and was replaced by a cascading series of pop-ups, each lasting several seconds.

  I assumed the clothing I was wearing had protected me from any sort of skin damage resistance or whatever it may be called. My pants felt like some sort of jeans. The shirt was just a simple t-shirt; I couldn’t feel any buttons. The shoes were harder to tell without my sight. I guessed possibly tennis shoes. They didn’t feel heavy enough to be boots.

  I then realized I had just spent the last minute cataloging what I was wearing, entirely ignoring the insane unlocking messages I had been seeing. Had that been my mind’s way of trying to distract me with something saner? If it had, it hadn’t worked for long. I was still here, trapped in a room with no idea on how to escape.

  Which forced the question of air back to my mind. How much did I even have? How long had I been in here before I became aware of it? I forced myself to calm down, to slow my breathing as much as I could.

  The irony of those pop-ups making me lose control of both things wasn’t lost on me. At least I still had a sense of humor, I supposed. Had I had one before? No, no, I couldn’t go back down that existential dread path again yet. I needed to see if I could feel any air flow. Again, I calmed myself down, going as still as I could, listening for the slightest. This time, I managed not to be distracted by the pop-up, keeping myself calm as it flashed away.

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  There was nothing. It was so silent I could hear my heart beat. My own breathing was the loudest thing in the room and the only thing producing the tiniest air flow. While there still may be a way out on the ceiling, for now at least, I was trapped down here with dead air. I may not know when it would happen, but eventually, the air would run out, and presumably, I would die shortly after.

  I took a deep breath, covered my ears, and screamed as loudly as I possibly could. “Help!”

  My throat hurt from how loud I had screamed, but still there was no response. And why had I unlocked yelling now? This was the second time I had done it. Was it because the first wasn’t strong enough? Wait, why was I even focusing on these stupid messages? They had no real use as far as I could tell. They just kept distracting me.

  Distracting me from what, though? There was nothing here. I was trapped, and I was going to run out of air, and even if that somehow didn’t happen, I would eventually starve to death anyway. I slumped against the wall, sliding to the ground in abject surrender to my own fate.

  As I sat waiting for the inevitable to come, I considered how it was possible I had even found myself here. With the gaps in my memory, I assumed I had to have been drugged, likely kidnapped. Had I been dropped in from above? That seemed like the most logical way to place me here. Just open the chamber, drop me in, and then seal it again from above. It still didn’t answer why, though.

  If this was just some serial killer’s idea of fun, wouldn’t they at least want to watch me die? Then again, I supposed they could be. I had no idea what was above me watching me. I had no idea if it was dark or if I was just blind. Everything other than these damn walls were complete and utter mysteries. I existed dammit, and it wasn’t fair that this would be the end of it.

  I pounded my fist on the ground as hard as I could in my growing rage. My hand screamed in pain as again the pop-ups forced themselves on me.

  Wait, that second one had said Stone Breaking Unlocked. I ran my fingers across the ground where I had pounded my fist seconds ago. There was no crack or sign of a dent. I had no idea why that box had claimed it was unlocked if I hadn’t done anything. I hit the ground again, the same as I had before. The result was unchanged. Why did these damnable boxes plague me? Was it just to give me the tiniest shred of hope at changing my fate only to yank it away?

  I screamed again in frustrated anger, forgetting to cover my ears.

  At this notification, I burst into a fit of uncontrolled laughter. The sheer lunacy of the situation had broken through the fear and anger. Several minutes of cracking up later and it dawned on me that the air must have been getting thin. That was the real reason for the burst of laughter.

  It was getting harder to focus as my breaths became shallow and ragged. A fit of coughing came on next. Right as the dizziness hit, I knew my time was running out. I felt myself slump forward as it became impossibly difficult to keep myself awake.

  Finally, I surrendered to that eternal sleep. Whatever had placed me into this prison had won, and I hadn’t even managed the tiniest fight. “Goodbye,” I tried to say, but the words came out as an unrecognizable jumble. I tried to laugh again, but it was too late; the need to sleep overwhelmed me, and all thoughts fled.

  ***

  I bolted awake, the memories of what had just happened flooded back into me. This time, there was no flash of blue pop-ups. Why was I alive again? I was standing again, just like the first time this had happened, but I was sure I had been sitting when I died. Wait, that wasn’t right. I couldn’t have died. It had to have been some weird dream, right?

  I reached out, feeling the same stone walls all around me as before. It was not a dream. I was still trapped in my hell of a prison, and now I couldn’t even be promised a release upon death. What could I possibly have done to deserve this?

  No, I wouldn’t fall to that hopelessness again. If I couldn’t die, that meant that eventually I could escape. There had to be a way. I ran through my thoughts of my brief past life and came to the conclusion that the only truly unexplored option had been the ceiling. I started leaping, over and over, trying desperately to go higher. I made jump after jump, having no idea if I was making the tiniest bit of progress in my dark world.

  I crashed back to the ground for the unknownth time, not having counted, to finally experience a new change. How was that even possible?