Sunken [Artsydaze & Mysteria]

You couldn't breathe as something kept pulling at your hair and gripping your throat as whatever it was dragged you further down, into the icy depths. It was cold and dark in here, an abyss you couldn't see the end of cradled you in it's dead embrace, threatening to overcome you completely and to make it it's own. You reached out, grasping for something, anything to pull you back into the light but couldn't find purchase and so you kept on being dragged down by invisible hands with a hundred icy fingers stealing your breath away. Just as you let go of your struggle and embraced death did something change, the hands and fingers retreating and a faint flickering light beckoning you upwards.

With a gasp you awoke, coughing water with a strange aftertaste of salt on your tongue as your shivering body hacked out painful coughs. You lips must have been blue for how cold you felt, and your eyes burn as if they had been immersed in chlorine, watering and itching dreadfully in the gloom of wherever you were. Where were you, anyways? Looking around, in shock of your dreadful nightmare, you took slowly notice of your candlelit surroundings.

You were in a cold porcelain bath, the kind that you assumed was claw footed in what seemed to be the middle of a marble bathroom with various candelabras sporting dark candlestick all around the room. Translucent drapes shadowed some part of the room as you could not see much besides the outline of a vanity and it's mirror before you, the toilet and exit nowhere to be seen. Calming down somewhat you could now hear the constant sound of dripping water and saw that the faucet of the bath was running, the water threatening to overflow into the clean white marble below.

You shivered once more, reminding you that you risked hypothermia in this cold water. You did not recognize your surroundings either and felt a spike of dread pierce your psyche, overcoming the frozen haze you slowly fell into. Where in the world were you? Ominous shadows flickered along the walls and threaded through the drapes. You felt unsafe here.

Her hand shot out and twisted the porcelean handle on the bath. She vaguely thought it was funny that she would be worried about water overflowing in her circumstance. She could have laughed. But she didn't. The air stifled any kind of joy and twisted it into a sickening feeling.
Once she shut off the dripping water, she realized the silence was worse. It made room for the flood of questions. Where am I? How did I get here? She shivered....Wait - "Who am I?" she whispered the words into the air, in an attempt to appease the silence. A wave of naseating panic flooded over. She couldn't remember who she was, or where she was from. She clamored out of the tub, shivering and hugging herself. She looked down and was puzzled to see she was wearing clothes. In the bathtub with clothes. She slipped on the cold, wet floors as she made her way to the vanity mirror, glancing behind her every few seconds. The shadows looked like they had arms reaching out to strangle her. She shuddered. She peered at her foggy reflection in the mirror. A young woman, college age. Small. Straggly brown hair. Owlish grey eyes. Wearing a threadbare white tee and baggy jeans. She was dripping all over. Who am I? The water and darkness seeped into her lungs and she coughed. With trembling fingers she fumbled in her pockets for a phone. Nothing. She turned in a circle, looking for a door. I have to get out of here. I have to get out.