He couldn't tell if what followed was a dream nor would he ever remember what all had occurred. Like in the room where he'd found the corpse of the young girl, he observed himself from above. He saw himself in a bed, but it was different from his own. It almost filled the entire room. Its many layers of sheets and blankets were soft to the touch and contoured gently around his body. In the middle, nestled up like a newborn kitten with its mother, William laid. The lighting around him was subdued, producing a mellow feeling of warmth and comfort. His eyes were open wide, staring up in a worried manner. It was quiet for several minutes before he suddenly fell from above, back into his body.

He was then looking upward onto a white, speckled wall.

"William..." a girl's voice called to him from the end of his bed, "why won't you look at me?"

The voice was small, coming from a person of very young age. Unlike the bed he lay in, the voice was anything but calming.

"Why won't you look at me, William?" She said again. The hairs on his arm stood firm and his spine sent tremors throughout his limbs.

He closed his eyes and said, "I can't."

She replied, "You already looked at me before."

When he opened his eyes, the lights were off. The sizeable bed he was in before had suddenly become the all too familiar wooden planks.

"It's only a dream." He said to himself. Little footsteps began at the end of his bed, making their way closer along the right side. The voice was heard once again, an angry tone underneath the surface.

"Look. At. Me!"

William replied with a loud "No!"

He moved off the bed and walked backward until he hit the very corner of the room. He couldn't see a thing around him. In a way, he was thankful for that. All the same, his blindness in the room was detrimental for any attempt to find a way out. So, he stood there alone in the corner, hoping the night terror would end soon. Wishing that he may wake up on the back of some old western horse, being galloped away to somewhere far away. All he had was a small fraction of hope and his weak, drained body.

The sounds of the girl's footsteps got louder and closer to him.

"Look at me, Will," Her voice screeched out, "look at me!"

He screamed back, "Why?"

The lights turned on and the room was lit up, blinding William for a moment. The brick walls around him began to crumble. They fell to the floor, one after the other until the floor was covered in the red rubble. It never ended, filling up every ounce of open space until it deepened to his knees. He could not move his legs under the weight, the fear paralyzing the rest of him.

Before he knew it, the bricks were up to his neck and he thought, at that moment, that his life was about to end. He thought his life would meet its bitter end by drowning in the very walls he attempted to break through. When his last moment of sight came to him, he saw the girl. Her back was turned to him and she seemed to float atop the rubble while he sank below it.

In the darkness of the destruction that had taken him under, he felt the bricks become wet around him. They were melting near his hands and the ones above did the same. They drenched him completely and he tried to close his eyes as the rubble began to burst into spouts of water.

"Wake up, William!" He heard around him. "Wake up!"

It was a voice that he so dreaded to hear.

"C'mon, boy, wake up! Look at me!"

He opened them. At the same time, he saw an incoming bucket filled with water flying towards his face. He felt the cold liquid splash onto him and drench his already wet body. William coughed and spit up the water, trying hard to wipe it off his face but could not move his arms. He couldn't move anything.

"There you go, boy. It's all going to be alright now." Said Father, above him in an odd, calm manner.

"What- where am I?" Asked William, still trying to come out of the daze.

"You're an asshole, Will. I raised you better than that, didn't I?"

William said nothing as he tried to wick away the water by slinging his head around.

"You've gone for a stroll around here long enough. You scared that girl half to death dropping down the hole like that."

Father started to pace, his hands placed firmly in either of his pants pockets and his long, wrinkled thumbs hanging out the sides. The room was dimly lit, not unlike the other rooms he had seen. It smelled of stale water and burning wax from the hanging lanterns. He couldn't see the lanterns, but he noticed six lamps that appeared to run on electricity, sitting atop a table behind Father. They let off a subtle buzzing sound behind the steel grates covering the bulbs.

His body was strapped by belts that were attached to a steel chair, propping him up at an angle. He tried to move again but to no avail. The straps were tight and constricted the blood flow to his limbs. His arms were tied down straight to his waist and his legs strapped down straight. One more was laced around his neck, though not as tight.

"Don't waste your energy. You aren't leaving here any time soon." Said Father. He stopped pacing and walked directly in front of William, staring intensely at his bloodshot eyes.

"Everyone makes mistakes, boy. When someone does the same thing every day for as long as I have, it's bound to happen. I guess it worked out for you, somewhat. But you got to see that you aren't alone here. The girl who lived below you noticed that, too. In fact, she saw a lot more than you did... Even managed to get outside once. Well, she didn't get too far. I think you know that much." Said Father.

"Why did you do that to her?" Asked William.

"I've done so much for you. All these years keepin' you fed and safe and you decide to stab me with a nail," Father continued, grabbing the end of the stretcher, "now that's something hard to forgive. But, if there's anything I know, it's that thirst and hunger can cloud our judgment." Said Father.

"All you've done is barely keep me alive... look at me! I'm starving and as pale as my fucking pillowcase. I have scars from you. God forbid, I have anything to care about to keep me from going batshit insane! And after what I saw... after seeing that girl... I'll be dammed if I ever care about you." Said William.

Father's face was becoming flushed with red and yet he remained stoic in his expression.

"I've kept you safe." Said Father.

"Safe from what?"

He didn't get his answer. Father walked over to a table that was lit up by one of the lamps and grabbed something off it. He walked back to William, holding up a nail in his right hand.

"Look familiar?"

He almost wanted Father to do it. Impaling him with the nail seemed better than being held captive for another day. The hope he had inside was running on empty and nothing but the faint fumes of it were keeping him somewhat glued together. He felt the human side of him becoming like that of an animal, tied to a post and ready to snap. His thoughts were nothing more than the purest instinct of survival; fight or flight. The situation currently bounding him to a chair by belt straps made the choice of either, implausible.

Father walked behind William and began to drag something heavy across the floor. The sound was metal on metal, screeching the entire way, subduing the grunts from the wicked old man. William looked toward his right, seeing the back of Father, hunched over whatever he was dragging. Then, it became clear - it was another chair and another person's legs were strapped to it the same as his.