With a sudden snap, the straps binding her chest came loose. The instant rush of oxygen made Amy’s head spin. She tried to talk but managed only nonsensical sounds. She could feel Basil working all around her, on her sides, behind her, slashing away with his knife. One by one, the straps on her fingers and wrists and forearms and elbows went slack. Each time there was a blessed moment of numbness, and then the limb exploded into fire as the blood rushed back, hammering pins and needles into the tips of her fingers and toes. It hurt so badly and what was the point? She wasn’t going anywhere. Why couldn’t he stop trying and leave her alone?

“Amy, please, talk to me,” Basil said from the darkness.

Amy held very still, her body wracked with tremors.

“I’ve been stumbling around in the dark looking for anyone,” he said. “All the power is out. The exit signs aren’t working, the air is shut off, and, to be honest, if this is what that sick freak did to you, then I don’t want to hang around and wait for him to come back. Come on.”

Amy didn’t move, she didn’t speak. All she did was close her eyes and sink back into the darkness.

“I’m going to help you stand,” Basil said.

She didn’t talk. She hoped that if she didn’t talk, he would go away.

Instead he stood behind her, grabbed underneath her armpits, and hauled her up. As her weight shifted, she felt boiling oil draining into her ankles and feet. The feeling was so excruciating that she slithered out of Basil’s grip and slumped to the floor. Instinctively, she drew her legs into a fetal position, sobbing as she hugged her knees to her chest. She wanted to get back into her chair. It was so much easier in the chair.

Basil hooked a hand around her belt, braced his legs, and pulled her to a sitting position. She collapsed bonelessly against the wall.

“Go,” she whispered. “Leave.”

He squatted next to her, brushed her sweaty hair away from her face, and shined his cell phone into her eyes. They were unfocused, unseeing.

“I can’t leave you here. I’m your supervisor. It’s my responsibility to keep you safe.”

Amy slumped over onto one side and tried to crawl away. Her arms were on fire, her muscles felt like they’d been torn apart and stapled back together. They pulled and knotted in all the wrong directions, and they didn’t fit inside her skin. Her body felt old and frail. Basil tried to stop her, but she kept crawling. She wanted to slither back into the darkness, she wanted this useless struggle to end. She mindlessly began to crawl along the wall.