“Relax... It's going to be okay” a drawn, melodic voice speaks from within the darkness. The concrete floors are cold against Eliza’s hand as she sits balled up, hugging her knees in the corner of the echoing room. The pain of acid building up within her throat as if it could rise any moment, blocking her errant haggard breath. Eliza tries to cover the hurried sound of her breath as tears fester behind her eyes, pushing to be released as she hears the clunking of footsteps echoing off the walls.

“Oh darling, don’t worry. We’re all here together now. Just take a look around. No one is going to harm you. “ The voice seems to verberate from every direction. The vibrations go bouncing off the walls, the sound waves hitting in a crashing motion like the tides to the beach in a storm, shaking the ground as they go. Eliza feels them penetrating deep within her.

     This is not what she signed up for. It was just supposed to be a psychology experiment about memory right or was it really some form of torture. The professor seemed nice with all his friendly smiles, but she should have known. The signs were there. The basement of the science building. The locking of the door when she wanted to leave. The requests from him to remove her clothes to see if she was mentally sound. What does memory have to do with all of that anyways.

“Come on now, open your eyes. They all want to see you.” Cunningly, the voice speaks. Eliza feels like she is surrounded. Her ears feel as if they are filled with thick jello. It sounds like screaming through water, oriented and fragmented.

“Eliza, my darling child, please open them. We all want to see you. We have missed you so much.” The vibrations multiply gradually, with the words trying to flood her mind. Like more voices have joined the sing song melody.

On the dark lids of her eye, she sees images. Blurred, but familiar images. Something that seems to lost. The professor. The signs were there, but it’s not that. That voice. There is something behind it. The origins has to be someone she knows. There is no other explanation, who are the others? It sounds not only a single voice, but two... maybe three. It’s not one anymore.

​

     “Eeellliiizzzaaaa. Eeellliiizzzaaaa. Listen to us. Let use see. Those beautiful eyes of the deepest shade of green.” A haunted tune arises around her. It pulls at her mental strings.

​

     It is so familiar. She knows this song. What is it? The tension starts to raise the pressure in her chest. The vomit close to escaping the confines of her mouth. A feeling of vibrations resonates through the concrete ground with the sound of boot stomping around her, creating a harmonic for the hallowed melody.

The rhythm begins to pulsate through her. Her mind racing to find the hidden places the forgotten song resides. Her stomach twists. Time speeds past. Sounds blazing. Hearts thumping. Too much. Can’t take. It.

​

Hhhhuuuuugggghhh, hhhaaaannggghhhh

​

Kuhn, Kuhn

​

Hhhhuuuuugggghhh, hhhhaaaannnggghhhh

​

     A hunched over body lies in the center of the room. It’s hair hangs disheveled in along its face. On its hands and knees it heaves out breaths. Below, the hands are surrounded in a vile metallic smelling liquid of bile, acid, and blood. Wide, Bloodshot eyes stare down into the mixture below the body. The whole body shakes with tremors of fear, anxiety, and panic.

     Eliza, shaking with chills, remains still staring into her own fluids. Her body is a solidified mess, becomes on high alert. Something is off. There is no pressure on her ears. There is no resonance around her. The floor, cold and still (excluding her own waste), she hears nothing. The static in her head is gone. All seems settled around her.

     Oh the familiarity. The one missed thought runs through her head. The missing piece to the confusion. The silence. The stillness. All too recognizable.

Her body shakes. Deep from within her diaphragm swells an overwhelming gurgling of air. It pushes itself through her body, sending convulsions through every nerve and limb till it reaches her throat.

     It erupts from her mouth within a baritone sound. The laughter is chaotic.

Feeling the need, her eyes slowly lift. Through the shield of her hair, her eyes land on all that is around her in the darkness. The deep shadows and shapes easy to make out after she remembered. There they all were.

Still, frozen in their cryogenic chambers, bodies filled with liquid nitrogen preserved in a chilled form. Eliza’s family forever suspended in time.

Deep within the cold static air, she felt one last presence. An aura that once used to fill her with warmth when he walked into her room at night. A jovial feeling of childhood that remains a whisper of the past. She can feel his eyes on hers as she raises her head to meet his.

Into the darkness, she calls out to him. A whimpering voice that sounded of a nine year old emerges from Eliza, she now mentally reverted to a child on the floor, her arms stretching upward into the expanse of the room.

“Daddy”

In a swiftness of a breath, the voice that would sing to her as a child, calls her home. “Welcome home, my darling.”

she remembered. There they all were.

Still, frozen in their cryogenic chambers, bodies filled with liquid nitrogen preserved in a chilled form. Eliza’s family forever suspended in time.

Deep within the cold static air, she felt one last presence. An aura that once used to fill her with warmth when he walked into her room at night. A jovial feeling of childhood that remains a whisper of the past. She can feel his eyes on hers as she raises her head to meet his.

Into the darkness, she calls out to him. A whimpering voice that sounded of a nine year old emerges from Eliza, she now mentally reverted to a child on the floor, her arms stretching upward into the expanse of the room.

“Daddy”

In a swiftness of a breath, the voice that would sing to her as a child, calls her home. “Welcome home, my darling.”