The echo of sobs woke me. Darkness, all around. Where am I? Were my eyes open? Only the kiss of cool damp air confirms it. There are no discerning shadows, nothing but pure, unrelenting darkness. It's disorienting, the complete loss of one sense. The air tastes musty on the tongue, of spaces long closed off. Grainy sand scrapes my palms and bare knees. I dig my fingers into it to steady myself, feeling individual grains lodge beneath my fingernails. It's cooler than the air, clumped with moisture. The sobbing sharpens into gasping cries.

"Hello?" I call. I try to lift my hand, reaching out into the expectant dark. I swipe my fingers through the air, feeling nothing.

"Help me! Help me, please! Oh god, it hurts." The voice's high pitched, a woman, shrieking, pain laced through her words. "Help me, please!"

Adrenaline blooms through me, fear burning off my confusion. "Where are you? Where are you?" I scream, scuffling forward until my hand meets something hard and smooth. The woman's screams rise to a pitch of true terror before choking off in a wet gurgle. In the absence of her cries, there is a new sound. A crunching, tearing, sodden sound. The back of my neck prickles with awareness.

Why is this happening? How did I get here? I went to sleep in my bed.

The cool air seeps through my thin nightshirt and shorts. The sounds continue. I swallow at the dryness in my mouth, exploring the object at my fingertips. The grooves, bumps, and hollows are familiar. I am certain of what it is when the pads of my fingers run over the teeth. Jerking my hand away, I scuttled backwards from the skull, my breath caught in my throat. I breathe in short sharp gasps, listening hard to the wet crunching echoing through the dark. Listening when the sound cuts off. The silence stretches as I wait. My nerves are frayed to the breaking point, ready to snap at the slightest movement in the dark. I wait. I hold my breath until my lungs burn.

Something warm and wet wraps around my ankle.