by Ashley Grant

  The walls enshrouded everything in sight. Glass engulfed everything. Water dripped slowly from a crack in the pipe above the ceiling. Drip, drip, drip, … Drip.

   The moisture crawled down the pane, drying before it hit the floor. The windows covered everything in a white, pale, empty nothingness.

   Why was he here? Where was here? The lone figure mused, standing in the center, motionless. The prisoner tapped lightly with the pad of his index finger, trying to assess the cage that confined him. Nothing caught his eyes in the white abyss.

   White. A void of bright nothingness that burned his eyes to look at. The lack thereof was haunting. What was this? His limbs felt numb, boneless, even. Was it a fake body? A fake brain? He had to have a brain, he thought (thus proving the fact).

   Slowly, the prisoner backed up to sit in the center of the box.

   The dripping water continued, irritating the senses.

   Drip! The water continued without relent, the vibration burrowing into his skull. Fingers clasped tightly around his ears; the captive attempted to barricade himself from the alien noise. He blinked rapidly, and, in time, more details emerged in the container. Letters, out of place, hung above him on the other side of the pane. He knew they said something. The pattern was familiar, what were they?

   A distance from everything else, beneath the floor, a blue sphere shined at the very edge of the prison’s vision. It shown, emitting a light into the box. It taunted him. The bright luminescence alluded to a hope of more than simply his confinement. He pushed his left heel into the transparent floor. He sighed. Liquid collides with the skin, and he felt his balance begin to diminish. In a millisecond, his head impacted with the ground.

   The water continued down, coating the floor. The slow, loud dripping liquid increased in speed from the pipe above. It was a steady stream, sprung out from the ceiling and further irritated his forehead. He threw up his hands and did his best to shield the water from his face, it offered little restitution.

   He sat up, sputtering, his eyes glaring up at the ceiling; bloodshot. Water now layered the floor.

   He looked at the blue sphere as it started to ripple in the distance beneath the surface. Its shine dimmed, meanwhile, like a bursting damn, the waters only increased, dampening the prisoner’s opaque pant legs.

   Soon, he found himself met by uncomfortable and heavy sensations that decided his body must now fall to a crouch. A light shiver raced through his spine as he fought back the bodily intrusions. He sneezed; about the only thing he could do short of combust.

   The pipe cracked more, banging into the suspended cage.

   The man fought, trying to regain his bearings, the water tested his resolve and considered it conquered. He broke heavily. He screamed in distress, but the cries fell on deaf ears. The water kept coming. Faster. It flooded the tiny cage. His limbs floated; no longer could he touch the floor while his body rose toward the ceiling with the rising tides.

   He clutched the only thing available to him as his head swung with the waves – the prisoner brushed his palm against the broken pipe. He brought his hand away with a scream. His own blood swirled into the water. His head sank into the darkening cell. Waves swarmed above him. Lunacy, nay madness!

   He unlocked his jaw to breathe. The bloody slush invaded his body with a coppery taste to it. He choked at the invasion. The man began to splash erratically in the cage, sinking toward the bottom. His lungs burned. He could feel his resolve start to diminish, his vision decreasing in between gasps.

   “Stop!” He spoke.

   Blood continued to seep out of him. The blue orb spun and spun, bringing with it a purple haze below.

   The captive knew with certain instinct, if he let his eyes close, they would never open again.

   And so, he fought. The orb in his vision the only thing left for him to aim at. He flailed hard with both fists and hit the floor. He struck again and again until amassing a spider web of destruction as the floor to his confinement broke through.

   As he fell toward it, the sphere was now brighter than ever prior. It was then, hanging upside down, the words on the wall appeared in a legible clarity – the final words to a glorified death sentence.

WARNING: CHAOS CONTAINED WITHIN

   A slow laughter broke out. It increased more and more as the former captives’ body picked up more velocity. It was a willful, maniacal screen, and it continued as the man hurled toward it. His only wish was to reap destruction on the unsuspecting orb below.