Three

Sleep wouldn’t come. Sheri stared at the concrete ceiling, where a hallway security light cut a dull yellow streak across the otherwise vacant slab. She knew that she should see nothing, but she saw the racing shadows of gaping jaws instead. It was worse if she closed her eyes, which were dry from the late hour. Their faces, slavering and inhuman, were alive in full color on the backs of her eyelids. She hated them and their devouring, so when she blinked, she blinked quickly, never removing her eyes from the grey cold above.

In books, she thought, prison cells had mice. She’d never understood why people were afraid of them. They were small and unassuming, picking up the crumbs left behind by larger creatures, and she quietly wished for a tiny kiss of fur against her palm, or maybe her cheek, as she listened to the space above her. The yellow hallway bulb was silent, and the prison’s breath weighed against her with a slow, rhythmic hush. Only an occasional low whisper or chain broke the walls’ aching slumber. From beyond them, she could hear nothing, and whatever secret message the moon and stars were blinking to her was lost.

********

Hello, gentle readers. I have a comment project for you. Why is my protagonist imprisoned, and where in the world is she?