Wind howled all around her. Goosebumps covered her skin. Muggy air invaded her nostrils. Sight was useless in the endless blackness of the labrynth she was be ing led through. She had heard stories about what existed in the cave, but she had always dismissed them, too intent on her research. Her research led to a rumor, a rumor about Omega Technology. Following that rumor, she discovered something that was ment to be hidden forever. That night, they had appeared and taken her into the blackness, because she knew too much.

A flash of light surprised her, and she blinked in pain, adjusting to the new light. Shoved into a room, she stumbled, but managed to right herself. The room was made of slimy moss covered rock, and the light came from all directions. In one corner, there was a small mat. In the other, a plate of stale bread and a pitcher of water. Trembling, she sat on the mat and began to cry.

"Stop that. It's not going to do any good," a stern voice said. "I have tried everything. Nothing ever worked. They only ever said they had to wait for someone. Someone special."

She hiccupped. "And you, whoever you are, think I'm the one?" She looked incredulously in the direction his voice had come from.

"I see no reason not to. My name is Dimitri."

"Carabelle Sutters."

"Italian name, meaning beautiful face. Your first name I mean. Not very common, either."

"Bit ironic if you ask me."

"Why?"

"A childhood accident. There was... there was..."

"You do not have to tell me if you don't want too."

"No, I want to. I need to tell someone." Carabelle took a deep shaky breath. "I was in a car crash. I was pulled out in time, but... my parents..." She turned away from where she had heard his voice. "They didn't make it."

Silence.

"Hello?... Dimitri?... are you stil there?" Nothing. "Dimitri!" Her voice echoed ominously. She stood up and looked though the small barred window on the door of her cell. She saw only one other door, hidden halfway in shadow. Her heart pounded as she slowly backed away from the door. Ears straining, she hear footsteps coming closer... closer... then they stopped right outside her cell door.

"Carabelle Sutters?" a smooth voice asked.

"Y-yes?" she stuttered back.

"Come with me. The door swung open, hinges creaking with all their might, sounding for all the world like a dying cat. Or what she thought a dying cat might sound like. She shuddered at the thought. Standing by the door was a stern looking woman with thin lips, and a hard crease between her eyebrows. Her clothing was black, and her nametag read "Raven," and underneath that, "Omega Technologies". Perhaps she was the one who killed the cat, Carabelle thought.

The quick clips of her heels echoed as they walked. Carabelle felt like her heart might burst, it was pounding so hard. Finally she said, "Who is Dimitri?"

The woman paused for a second. "Dimitri Orlov? He's no one. Why do you care?"

"Because I was just talking to that 'no one' a few minutes ago."

This time the woman stopped completely. "You couldn't have. He left this facility three years ago."

"He... he left!? But, I was talking to him! Clear as day! I am not crazy, I was talking to someone, I swear it!"

The woman did not respond to the burst of histeria, but held a small black object up to her too thin lips. "This is Raven. We have a code yellow. I repeat code yellow."

"What's code yellow? I am not in trouble? Oh, gosh, is Dimitri? I shouldn't have brought that up!"

"Calm yourself, before I put a sedative on you!"

They went deeper and deeper into the maze. Carabelle lost all sense of direction long ago, but the woman, Raven, knew exactly where she was going. Whenever Carabelle tried to speak, she just got a harsh "Quiet!" and a reprimanding look. Before long, she was in a room, lying on a cot, with sedative pumping into one arm, who-knows-what in the other, and was being wheeled into a stark white box with lots of cables and wires sticking out in odd places, and sparks coming from the machine.

"Raven, are you sure? No one since Dimitri has survived." A man's deep voice asked.

"She's the one. Send her through."

Carabelle Sutters, for her part, was remarkably calm, though that just might have been the sedative starting to act. A jolt of pain flashed though her body, and then all was quiet. Too quiet. Quieter than even the most suffocating silence. And it was dark too. Darker than the blackest night, than a bottle of ink. darker than even the vacuum of space. The darkness and the silence was so suffocating, Carabelle wondered if she was dead. Then she thought, if I was dead, there would be something, fires, or clouds, or something other than blackness! She tried speaking, but her words were immediately extinguished as soon as they left her lips.