Riddles

'Where am I? Where am I? Where am I?' Oliver repeated over and over in his mind, though he didn't really expect anyone to answer. It had been some time since the cycle of pain and heat ended, he had no way of knowing how long of course. Whoever was doing this to him was cruel indeed. He began to curse whatever god or devil fed him the lie that everything would be alright if he just didn't resist. It was then that Oliver was introduced to a new sensation. He searched his memory for a way to describe this feeling, it was akin to slowly lowering oneself into a warm bath. He would have been worried of drowning but as he currently had no need to breathe, he simply enjoyed his new situation. It was anyone's guess how long it would last.

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Oliver assumed he had been submerged for quite a while as he had become numb to the sensation, or maybe it was that whatever liquid he was in had cooled to room temperature. There was simply no way to tell. A wave of emotion passed over him. He wanted to cry at his powerlessness, but even this was denied to him. 'How many people can truly say they have been alone with their thoughts like this?' He mused. No sight, no sound, no smell, no way to move, and only the occasional feeling. 'This is torture. Please give me something...anything' He thought a silent prayer to whatever might be listening. pst pst pst. 'What is that?' He again though to himself. pst pst pst. There is was again. He again searched his memory to understand this new development. It felt almost like he was shaking, but that wasn't quite right. pst pst pst. No, something was shaking him...No, that wasn't quite right either. The shaking was running through him. It was very subtle, but he could feel it thanks to his lack of feeling anything else recently. Now if only he could figure out what it was. pst pst pst. 'When was the last time I felt this sort of excitement?' He asked himself. His heart would be racing if he had a heart beat. He pondered and puzzled this strange new development. 'A vibration!' He shouted in his mind excitedly. Yes that was the best way to describe the shake that would run through him. 'But what is causing it? Typical, the answer always leads to more questions...' His thoughts trailed off. He had plenty of time to follow this maze to it's end, for now he was satisfied with solving the first puzzle.

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pst pst pst. Oliver awoke to the sweet vibrations that he was beginning to become acustomed to. Awoke? No, not really. Like breathing, he didn't feel the need to sleep since the incident. Was it more of a meditation? Or being lost in thought? 'One puzzle at a time.' Oliver said to himself, thinking his time would be better spent on figuring out what he did know than going down the rabbit hole of defining sleep. 'What causes vibrations?' He asked himself. 'Pitty I didn't major in a science field that dealt with such things. That would make things easier. Then again, maybe my current predicament would have been better suited by a psychology degree.' Another rabbit hole. 'Focus! Damn it all!' He scolded himself. This new sensation may last forever, or it may not. How could he be so foolish? The liquid feeling was something new, but before that was heat and pain. Now there was no heat, no pain. What if these vibrations also occurred only for a period of time? If they stopped too, what would be left for him to puzzle out? His thoughts returned to vibrations. There was the one he felt just before incident. The flames in his view, the heat. 'No, these vibrations aren't from heat' He thought to himself. Surely he would know heat after his recent tortuous experience. Besides, what kind of heat causes consistent yet sporadic vibrations? Explosions maybe, but there's a lot of things that can cause explosions. Oliver hoped that wasn't the answer. It felt like he was close though, there was something about the incident that would answer this part of the puzzle. He couldn't explain how he knew, he just did. Just like with the incident...'Someone is playing games with me' He thought. Another rabbit hole, no time to waste. 'There must have been an explosion when I was in the truck.' Oliver pieced together in his mind. 'So what do explosions and liquid have in common?' He had no idea, but he could feel that he was on the cusp of finding the answer. It was infuriating to be so close and so clueless. 'Maybe further back' He prosed as he thought further back before the incident. The man running, The clerk in the doorway, the shotgun. Again he felt like the answer was close. So close he could almost taste it, if he could taste at all. 'Damn it! There must be something here!' Again Oliver shouts out in his mind. Almost as soon as the thoughts are voiced Oliver found himself recalling one of his science teachers explaining how sound waves travel faster through liquid than it does in air, and even faster through a solid. What prompted this thought? Thinking on it, it was the second time he had asked for something and something had been given. 'Could this be the answer? Sound is causing the vibrations that I'm feeling?' He had to admit, with the given information it did make sense. Perhaps more pressing though, is that someone or something was listening to his thoughts.

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'Answer me damn you!' Oliver screamed in his mind. He had been doing so for a long time now and recieved only silence as a reply. His whole being was filled with anger now. Anger at his powerlessness, anger about the incident, anger at the thing listening toying with him. 'It's unfair, why are you doing this to me?' He screamed. He couldn't recall doing anything to deserve such treatment. SWISSSSSSHH. Again his thoughts were interrupted. He felt himself being lifted, he could feel gravity pulling him down while something held him up. One, two, three, four, five. His sense of touch had grown quite well! He could feel five spots touching him rather close together. 'I do not enjoy the game you play!' Oliver shouted internally. One puzzle after another with no clear answers. At least as far as puzzles go, this one was rather simple. What was something that could lift and had five points of contact? 'The answer is a hand!' Oliver said triumpantly to whatever was listening. As if in response Oliver felt new vibrations, however these were brief and different. TINK TINK TINK. He felt a pressure settle around part of his body. 'My reward for a correct answer?' He asked, though expecting no answer. SWISH SWISH SWISH. Thanks to his feeling of gravity and the new understanding that he was being held, Oliver could tell that he was being swung around. Though it didn't have the same feeling as the liquid, there was less resistance. 'Air...I'm being swung through the air!' He had the feeling he was correct in this assessment, though what was the actual question?