Claustrophobic

“Good morning.”
“…Who are you?”
“It is not who, but what. Are you ready?”
“What?”
“Goodnight.”
Moments after you’ve woken up, a disembodied voice greets you from nowhere in particular. It doesn’t sound echoed at all, simply… flat. Centered. Directly within your mind. It does not sound amused yet. Now that it’s finished its nonsensical greeting, you are plunged into void. Not quite darkness- as with darkness, at least you know that something is there, and perhaps you are not alone. Here, floating yet grounded in this abyss, you are incredibly sure that you are alone. Darkness is thin, simply veiling what surrounds you, but void surrounds you completely and without remorse. It suffocates you. You can feel the absence of existence hugging tightly against your skin like a thick sludge, or perhaps a heavy film. You have an innate knowledge that nothing could exist here if it tried. Do you exist here?
And now, you fall. You fall from nothing into something, and your spine crashes into the bedrock beneath you in such a way that you shouldn’t be able to walk again. Nonetheless, you stand and take in your surroundings as your breath grows shallow with panic. Unfortunately, there are no surroundings to speak of. The voice returns, louder this time.

“Welcome to the panic room.”

     Before you can reply, four steel walls slam down from nothing about twenty feet away from you, one in every direction. The impact makes an awful, deafening screech, and your blood runs colder than this metal must be in the realm you’ve found yourself in.

“Standard procedure is isolation and exposure therapy. Treatment for: Phobic Panic Attack. Please remain still, and do not remain calm.”
“Excuse me?!”

      Just like that, the plates begin to close in, scraping against the floor with an unbearable sound that makes your skin crawl. Disobeying whatever entity is in power, you begin to dash for one of the openings. Immediately, pain shoots through your legs, spiking through your nerves like a pure adrenaline shot. You hit the ground again, and the formation of the plates shifts to accommodate you.
      Breathe. All you’ve got to do is breathe- that’s what you keep telling yourself, but as the steel closes in and you begin to lose sight of the plane you stand on, and your lungs seem to collapse or disappear entirely, that isn’t such an easy task. Finally, the seams meet, and you’re left frantically scratching at them like a cat begging to be let out of its cage. Your breath quickens, who knows where it’s coming from. The walls now somehow begin to close further, phasing through each other. Closer, closer, closer… You hug your arms and tilt your head toward the sky. If you can just keep your eyes on the opening above you, you’ll be fine. It’ll be fine. This can’t be real, none of this can be real-
      
“Ten seconds.”

      Faintly now, from somewhere away outside the box, white noise begins to whirr and buzz in your direction. It slowly draws closer, increasing in volume until the noise is all but deafening. A dark entity emerges from the edge of the box, peering in at you. It seems to be made of a gnarled mass of static, with too many blank white holes to count where its face should be. It stares down at you, then shuffles something on the ground outside, something that sounds terribly familiar.
      The metallic sound of a fifth steel plate. It brings the plate above you and slowly lowers it toward the box as the last slivers of light available are chased out by darkness. Your breath grows labored.

“No- no, please, please,”

      It doesn’t heed your call. And now, darkness- but the cold steel brushes against your skin, closing in. You can’t even hear the scream that escapes your soul over the static, but as the light fades out, you’re sure you’re going to die. But perhaps you already have. Resigning yourself, you wish you could catch your heart as it hits the floor and the steel begins to tightly encase you.

“Procedure complete. Shut down?”

      Hot tears sting your skin as they stream down your face.

“…alright.”