The room was without any kind of furniture. The floor was soft, spongy—some organic thing that ate whatever bodily fluids had been spilled here. It had the feel of any other type of cell, only cleaner because of the organics. The room’s only light came from glow worms set beneath a translucent band at the center of the ceiling. The worms inside were dying, so the light was orange instead of pale yellow. There was nothing else in the room.

“Go on,” the woman said.

Inaya walked into the room.

The woman shut the door. Inaya heard the soft chitter of the scarabs as they descended outside the door to muffle all sound. But the sound of what?

Inaya leaned against the door and pressed her ear to the soft interior surface. The walls were coated in the same organic matting as the floor. Her face came away sticky.

She moved away from the door, into the light. Was she to rot here, then? Brought into one cell after another? What was happening?

Inaya paced for a time, then finally settled into one of the corners furthest from the door to wait.

And wait.

It was many hours before they came for her. She had to squat in one of the empty corners to relieve herself. She expected a man, an interrogator, but it was another woman. This one said only, “Come,” and refused any and all questions.

They moved her four more times, to four identical rooms. After a while, she started to wonder if they were simply taking her around in a circle and plunking her down into the same exact room time after time. During one of the many moves, they fed her. Some curried meat and rice slathered in saffron. She had eaten so much saffron the last week, the smell of it made her gag. But hunger and boredom overcame her queasy stomach, and she kept it down.

Every time she thought she might sleep in one of the rooms, they moved her again. It was then that she realized they must be watching her, and purposely disrupting her sleep. The rooms were all windowless, and the lights were always on.

When the door opened for the fifth time, she was so tired and disoriented that she almost didn’t recognize the woman at the door as the one who had come for her the first time. As the woman moved into the room, a second figure came in behind her. The fear came, then, the fear she had been tamping down for days.