An inky gloom and distant memories swam in his head, a fierce pain threatening to split it in two.  His hands seemed to swim in the greasy puddle in the alleyway where he found himself alone, the distant sounds of the city buzzed away on the edge of his consciousness.  How he got here, at this time, he could not tell.  He tried to stand but the world seemed to violently shift below his feet and his vision sickeningly defocused as he pitched noisily into a pile of detritus at his side.  The pain in his temples and his breath, shallow and raspy, he descended into darkness again.

A low buzz, disembodied voices, filtered into his semi conscious mind. As he tried painfully to open his eyes, they were assaulted by the stark brightness of this new reality.  Fuzzy forms moved purposefully in the clinical world that seared his senses.  He screwed his eyes tightly trying to protect himself from the glaring room, the sharp smell of chemicals, like that of an operating theatre, invaded his nostrils.  His limbs were bound tightly.  He pulled at his constraints trying fruitlessly to free himself.  The muffled voices seemed to buzz closer now as if interested in his activity.  He felt a hand on his shoulder and he reacted with animal-like agility, pulling away as far as his tethers would allow. Staring blankly though closed lids, he tried desperately to free a limb, to escape somehow from where he could not tell. He felt a strong hand grasp at his arm holding him down as something  sharp tore at his skin. His mouth forming silent screams, he tried without success to fight off the unseen assailant.   A warm, numbing sensation seeped through his arm and into his body, the acrid taste of metal flooded into his mouth as his mind slowly clouded to black.

Hard outline slowly formed within his blurred vision, harsh edges delineating his current environment.  Slowly the dark room coalesced into somewhere he could understand; plain, stark, grey concrete, devoid of anything except the black glass window facing him and the chair that he had been securely strapped into.

An electronic voice invaded his head as if the walls, themselves, were talking to him,
“Welcome...”

Silence, then the walls spoke again,
“You have been a hard man to find.”

Thoughts swam as he, vainly, tried to piece the scattered jigsaw of his life together.  Recent events constantly flooded back in to blot out the wisps of his past, as if his mind was trying to forget.
He tried to form word, his mouth sticky and dry,
“Where have I been ?  Who are you ?  Where am I ? ....  Who am I?””


Seconds seemed to stretch into hours until the blackness was cracked by the distorted voice.
“You are the new Black ........”




Church has been desicrated ...
Hurt will not heal ....

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-=d^_^b=-

In the middle of darkness there is a light