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WAREHOUSE

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SANGEETHA KAMATH

 

In this dark storeroom, the staccato gives me anxiety. I realize it's the thudding of my heart! In this room where there are shapes in monochrome, the daylight could once bring brilliant fuchsia or deepest scarlet, but for now it could be a still from an old movie. The door doesn't budge. With darkness all around the silhouettes are menacing, closing in! 

Four walls…ceiling…floor. How long have I been screaming?

My throat... hurts...Water…

I noticed how time is so much like water; that it can pass in slow motion, freeze, or zoom in the blink of an eye. The past few minutes had passed like a million frames per second. In this slow time-bubble my heart explodes in my chest, my skin is clammy as I lean against a wall. 

Outside this room is rubble from the massive earthquake which hit us out of the blue. There is nothing here to even mark time.

Would someone come and find me in fifteen minutes or two hours… or ten days? Or never? Will I get out alive? 

The panic is mounting… I'm trapped…! Claustrophobia…! I slump on the floor as I hyperventilate…

Help me….

©️ Sangeetha Kamath 

Pic Courtesy: Image by Sibeal Artworks from Pixabay

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