“Hey, hey wake up.”

I felt a rough hand on my shoulder, shaking me.

“Five more minutes.”

I grumbled and rolled over, drifting slowly back into sleep. The hand came back, it was more forceful this time.

“Wake. Up.”

I groaned in frustration and slid my eyes open, expecting to see my mother hovering over me, but when I opened my eyes, I saw nothing. I don’t mean that there wasn’t anything in the room to look at, I mean there was literally nothing. It was pitch black. Nothing but empty darkness. I scrambled back, seeing the faint outline of a big figure in front of me.

“Where am I? Who are you?”

It looked like they shook their head, I couldn’t really tell, the room was completely void of light.

“I have no idea, I woke up about twenty minutes ago, I found you by accident while I was trying to find a way out.”

It was a definitely a guy. His voice was low and gravely, but gentle, like he was trying to coax me.

“You didn’t answer me, who are you?”

He sighed,

“I’m Benjamin, or Ben. Ben Caluss.”

I shifted, sitting up. Trying to wrack my brain for some remnant of some memory that would explain where I was and who I was with. I shook my head.

“I’ve never heard that name in my life.”

“I assumed. You don’t sound familiar, what’s your name?”

“Reana. Reana Scott.”

I heard him moving around, but it was impossible to see what he was doing.

“Yup, I don’t know you either.”

Putting my hands on the floor, I ran them along it, it was cold and smooth. Concrete, I presumed.

“Do you have any idea where we are? Or who might’ve put us here?”

I yelped as I felt something touch my hand.

“Relax, it’s just me.”

I felt him now. His leg brushed against mine as he sat beside me. We were both silent for a moment, aside from the sound of the air flowing in and out of our mouths, all was quiet. Suddenly I felt him moving beside me.

“What are you wearing?”

My knee jerk reaction was to look down, but all that met my eyes was black. I felt the sleeves of my shirt, the fabric was soft, the sleeves slightly too long. My fingers glided along the surface of it. Ribbed. So my lavender sweater. It only took a second to realize I was wearing leggings. I wondered why he had asked, when it hit me. It was the same outfit I’d been wearing when I last remembered being with my family. That’s when I realized.

“How long have we been in here?”

“I’ve been awake for a couple hours, it took a bit to even find you.”

“But, but I was with my family, this, this isn’t right. My mom she-”

He cut me off.

“I know. The last thing I remember I was with my older sister, we were cooking dinner. She told me that she loved me, and then next thing I know, I wake up in here. Wherever “here” is.”

I sat up a little straighter,

“My mom said the same thing, that she loved me, and that we would be together again one day.”

“One day when things are right.”

I looked at him, or well, I tried to look at him. My head turned in his general direction and my eyes widened.

“Those are the exact words that she used.”

And we sat there. The bitter silence enveloping us. The darkness merely adding to the weight of reality. I could hear his mouth opening and closing, every now and then. Like he was trying to figure out what to say, but changed his mind every single time.

My head started pounding, I groaned slightly and rubbed my temple gently.

“You okay?”

“I, yeah, I’m… I’m oka-”

I felt my head start sinking slowly to the floor and my eyes rolled back into my head. I felt the same rough hand that had awoken me into this nightmare, slide under my head, and coax me back to sleep.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

“Gosh, when is she going to get up?”

I tried to sit up, to no avail. It felt like there was a weight on my chest, pushing me down, keeping me from moving.

“Is she moving? No. I don’t think so, it’s impossible to tell anyways.”

He was loud, ringing in my ear, I wanted the noise to stop. It hurt my head

“Can you quiet down please, you’re hurting my ears.”

“I-”

The noise went silent for a moment. But then it came back.

“You can hear me?”

“Yes? What kind of question is that, why wouldn’t I be able to hear you?”

“Reana, I’m not talking, you’re unconscious right now. You’re hearing my thoughts.”

I stopped. Trying to piece it together, probably complete bullcrap, but then, my mouth wasn’t moving during any of that…

“How long have I been out?”

“Almost two days. I found a storage container at the back of the room, which turns out to be huge by the way. There were a whole bunch of necessities that we can use.”

“What do you mean, we can use them?”

“I don’t think were getting out of here any time soon.”

Forcing myself out of my haze, I fought through the pressure, and snapped awake. Immediately looking around,

“Ben?”

I felt him next to me, his hand tapped my shoulder lightly.

“I’m right here. I thought you were going to be out for days, not gonna lie. I’m glad you’re awake, I have stuff to show you.”

Right so were just going to ignore the fact that we could hear each other thinking. Good to know for future reference.

“I hope you know, I can still hear you.”

I whipped around, trying to figure out where he was.

“How? I don’t understand, what is going on?”

“Look, I’m just as lost as you are, but for now, we have to figure out a living plan, so we don’t die in here.”

So figure out we did. There were tons of bins and cargo containers in the back of the room we were in, we did our best to count but couldn’t get a solid number. Our guess was around 50 containers in all.

Food, water, blankets, clothing, medicine. Everything. It was all engraved, so we could feel the words on it, when we couldn’t see them.

The silence that hit after that was almost unbearable. We went days without talking. Simply laying in a makeshift bed, or blindly pulling at a stray ball of yarn that had happened to lose its way from the rest of them. The darkness never ceased. Not a single shred of light entered our room. It was terrifying.

Finally, after the third day, I’d had enough.

“Alright you’re going to have to talk to me eventually, I hope you realize that.”

“If you wanted to talk sooner you could’ve just said something.”

My mouth shut. The words got knotted up in the back of my throat. It burned, and stung. I wanted to scratch at my neck, relieve the ache somehow. But I couldn’t. Instead. I turned away from his voice, and let the silent tears fall.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 8.

We aren’t as quiet anymore, we talk for the majority of the day now. Day? Night? It’s getting hard to tell, Ben said he keeps track with this old watch he has, but it’s so hard to read. We could be completely wrong about the time.

Day 15.

Today I learned that his favorite color is Red, but not firetruck red, more of a deep red, closer to maroon.

Day 30.

Both of our families are pretty much history. His parents split a while ago, leaving him and his older sister Ella to fend for themselves their whole lives. My parents had also split, a while ago. I stayed with mom after the fight in court. My siblings all went with dad.

Day 50.

Not a whole lot had been happening. Except for us getting to know each other. We can still hear each other's thoughts. Sometimes it's easier to communicate without actually talking. Thinking is easier, we can't hide anything, we can't mess up our words. We can't control our thoughts. So we are always honest with each other. Everything's open. I have no idea why we can hear each other. But we can. Today I might-

BOOOOM

I practically threw the journal I had been writing in. Or what I think I was writing in. I knew that the pen was pressed against the paper, and I was careful with the spacing, but who knows how messy the words were.

Closing it quickly, I looked up, knowing full well there was nothing there. I still tried to find what could’ve been the source of it.

I heard it again. Louder this time.

Ben's voice came drifting through the air from across the room.

“Thunder.”

“I hope not.”

BOOOOM

I froze, it was definitely thunder. My breath hitched as the noise triggered the anxiety. It washed over me, swallowing me completely. I could faintly hear Bens foot steps from across the room.

“Reana? You okay?”

My face was frozen, my throat closing. Everything shaking. My eyes clamped shut, super glued together.

I started hyperventilating, feeling my hands go numb as I clenched them into tight fists.

“Hey, hey hey where are you? Ana talk to me.”

I tried to open my mouth but it was clamped shut, my jaw refused to unhinge. Forcing my legs to lift me from the floor, I stood rigidly, barely breathing. My whole body trembling as fear, anxiety and panic wracked my body. I was completely frozen. The panic attack too much for me to control.

Finally, he found me. He put his hands out until he found my head, I heard him slightly chuckle when he did. But I barely noticed. From there his arms slid down and around me, pulling me to him. He rubbed my back gently. Whispering.

“It’s okay, you’re okay, I’m right here. Ella has anxiety, I helped her through panic attacks all the time. It’ll all be okay. I promise.”

My breathing seemed to slow, but it was still labored and forced. He stepped back slightly and felt around before finding my hands, he unclenched them and held them in his own. Drawing circles around my palm. Counting.

“One. Take a deep breath.”

I struggled to inhale and exhale without sounding like i was having an asthma attack.

“Two. Focus on me, I’m right here.”

I opened my eyes, slowly, and forcefully.

“Three. Think about your mom, think about Jovie, your little sister, remember?”

Jovie. So young, so full of life. I hated leaving her behind more than anything.

“Four. Think of your life, think of who you are. Tell me who you are.”

I gulped down the huge knot in the back of my throat, my voice was raspy and pained. Full of fear.

“I’m Reana Scott. I’m sixteen. I'm from Tampa bay, Florida. I have three siblings. One brother, two sisters.”

The raging thoughts in my head finally cleared, my hands began to get feeling back. My breaths, slower and more calculated.

“Do I need to go to five?”

I shook my head, knowing he was close enough to see the shape enough to figure out what I was doing.

“How did you, why did you?”

“Why did I what? Help you when you were panicking? Reana we’ve been living together for almost two months, you think I wouldn’t help you?”

“I-… I don’t know.”

Then I remembered.

“You chuckled, why did you chuckle?”

I could hear the smile in his voice.

“I had to find where you were, I didn’t realize you were so short. I don’t know, I guess it just, made me laugh.”

“How tall are you?”

“Six foot two.”

I coughed harshly. I was barely five foot four. Barely.

“That would explain it.”

Suddenly I felt my cheeks turn pink when I realized that his hands were still wrapped around mine. But he didn’t pull away.

“Reana, I’m going to protect you. We’ve gotten close, you know. I know that you know and I care about you. I don’t know how it’s so deep seeded after only two months, but I do, I really care about you. I’m going to keep you safe, and help you through the panic.”

I smiled through my tears. Realizing I had started crying.

“We’ll be okay, Ben.”

He squeezed my hands.

“Yes, yes we will.”

The thunder rolled again and I flinched, but he simply guided me back to the floor, onto my bed. He stroked my hair back.

“It’ll stop soon.”

I whimpered as another loud crash rung through the space. He paused for a moment, then stood up.

“Ben?”

“Don’t worry, I’m coming right back.”

He returned quickly, four blankets in hands. Laying down next to me, he hesitated before wrapping me in his arms, my head pressed into his chest. I held my breath for a second before relaxing into his embrace and slowly, falling asleep.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

10 months and 11 days later.

I was leaning against the cold wall, dozing off when I heard him.

“Reana, Reana come here!”

I sat up, standing quickly.

“What? What’s going on?”

I found him quickly, his fingers lacing with mine.

“Look, up there, there’s a little crack of light. I can see a handle.”

I looked up and saw it, a small hatch, perfectly defined in the tiny light. He reached up and pulled on it. It opened. We both scrambled to get out of it. He lifted me through before climbing up after me.

The light was blinding.

We stood on an open field, sunflowers everywhere, huge trees bending in the wind in the near distance.

I gently closed my eyes, giving them time to adjust. And finally, they did.

I looked down and saw that it was the exact time that he had first found and awoken me.

1:29

I could see his watch now. I could see his figure now. Tall, he wasn't kidding about that. His hands, calloused. The same rough hands that had stroked my hair, guiding me to sleep, almost every night. He was wearing a simple outfit. Gray sweatpants and a blue t-shirt. His shoulders were broad. The same shoulders I'd cried on so many times. His chest was stocky and flat. I was reminded of all the nights I had drifted off to sleep on that chest. Never knowing what it looked like.

And for the first time in exactly a year. The first time since I had been awoken all that time ago. The first time since I'd ever heard his voice. I looked up. And saw my Benjamin for the first time.

“Fluffy brown hair. Soft brown eyes. Scruffy facial hair. Big smile. Small wrinkles by your eyes. A little birthmark above your left eyebrow. Three freckles on your neck.”

He smiled at me. His expression soft.

“Long brown hair. Bright hazel eyes. Freckles, all over your face. Your forehead, your nose, your cheeks. A birthmark, under your left eye. A soft and gentle smile.”

He raised his hand to my face, tears filling his eyes. The wind blew through my hair, sending chills down my spine.

“You're more beautiful than I could've ever imagined.”

Covering his hand with mine, I smiled at him.

“And you are more handsome than I could've ever imagined.”

And so, we stood there. Staring into each other's eyes. Analyzing every detail of the other. And after a while. He pulled me to him, just like he had that first night when the thunder came around. He wrapped his arms around me. I buried my face into his shoulder, holding him just like I had so many times.

But this time. It wasn't in the dark.