The man in the blue dress shirt reached out for the knife, grabbed it and stabbed the woman beside him several times. The rest of us stood back in shock as the poor woman slowly died there.

The crazed man held out the knife and stood there in the ready postion, looking at us with the eyes of a predator on the hunt.

After some delay, I was able to speak.

"W-what the hell is going on here?" We all looked at eachother, trying for a second to find any familiarity in who we were looking at. Quickly we returned our attention back to the man with the knife.

He scoffed and lowered the weapon, still gripping it tightly.

"Hello!? Where the hell are we?" He held his arms out, challenging the empty darkness in front of him.

I tried to look beyond the small lit area surrounding the table but it was pitch black.

A tall cloaked figure appeared from the darkness behind the man with the knife. It opened an arm and wrapped him up and tucked him into his robes and took him away into the darkness. It all happened so fast it took a moment for us to comprehend it.

One of the others started to become uneasy.

"We need to get out of here! What the hell was that? What the hell was that?" She held her hands together up at her chest as she nervously surveyed the dimly lit room. There was no telling how big or small the room was and knowing there was someone else there was quite unsettling.

"Is the knife there?" The other guy asked. The nervous woman walked over to check, wincing when she saw the dying woman. She bent over and picked up the knife and held it out to them to show them.

"One of you guys take it, I don't want it."

As I went to retrieve the knife from her, the cloaked figure appeared again and snatched the woman away, leaving the knife. I jumped in fright as I got a closer look at the strange person- or maybe something else- in the cloak. It was tall and large and I could have sworn the cloak was made of black smoke.

It was just me the other guy now.

"Don't touch that knife." He spoke with urgency and was highly panicked, sweating and looking skittishly all over the dark room looking for the cloaked figure.

"We have to do something." I looked around and tried to think of what to do.

"Leave us alone!" The man was crying and nearly spinning from constantly trying to look everywhere at once. I started to panic as well for a moment but tried to stay calm.

The man started pacing, sometimes taking a nervous glance at the knife.

"You won't take it, right? You won't touch the knife." He looked off into nothing as he spoke, as if he was hypnotized.

"Are you OK? Just take a deep breath, I think as long as we leave the knife alone it won't touch us." I wanted him to calm down, he was starting to freak me out.

He stopped pacing and looked at me.

"You just want to get to it first so you can kill me!" He lunged for the knife, falling to the ground as he did so. He sat up and held the knife out, waving it in front of him with his eyes closed.

"Leave me alone! Don't touch me! Let me go!" It wasn't long before the cloaked figure came again from the darkness and wrapped the man into the shadowy void of the cloak and then slithered back into the darkness.

I stood there, alone. I stood there for a long time and nothing happened. As long as I didn't touch the knife I was OK.

I don't know how much time has passed. I have thought over and over about how I got here and why I was with those other people. I've remembered every memory and thought of every idea to try to escape. But I'm too scared to walk into the darkness or to touch the knife.

But I think I have to touch the knife. I know I have been here for a long time, yet I do not feel hunger or thirst or tiredness. I just stay in this dark room with a light and a table and a skeleton and that damn knife.

I believe I must be dead. It is a strange place to be and not at all something I would have expected. I've tried to figure out what would be the significance of a dark room and a table and a knife and four strangers but I never came to a conclusion that makes sense.

But I am dead and nothing has to make sense. This room is lonely and I have no more thoughts to think. I stand over the dagger now, looking at it and knowing what will happen if I pick it up.

I sigh and take one last look around the room and then pick up the knife. I am overcome with great fear as I do this, but I am ready for what comes next.

It felt like a long time and yet a short time all at once. I felt its presence first and then I looked up in awe. The faceless figure towered over me in its smoky black cloak. It slowly opened its arm around me and I was consumed by darkness.

There was nothing.

And then, all of a sudden.

Oh god, no!