Everything that is!

Ana slumped on her couch lazily with a cheap glass of wine and a piece of pizza. She grabbed the pizza with her teeth and tried to switch on the TV, somewhat managing to sit without spilling the wine all over her beautiful white couch.

Yes, it was a surprise that she still cared about a few things in her life. Although she had recently given up on a lot other things, like taking a shower or combing her hair for instance.

This was definitely not how she pictured her day to be. If things had gone well couple of weeks back, she might well be sitting on her boyfriend Joshua's lap and sharing that wine with him along with some beautiful giggles and kisses, but nope! That's not how life plays, at least in Ana's case.

She was shuffling the shows on Netflix when her phone vibrated under her butt. 

'How long was I sitting on it?', she mused and quickly picked up the call but sighed after knowing who it was from.

"Not in the mood to talk, Kathy", she said immediately before Katherine could even say a hello. 

Katherine was Ana's college friend and colleague. As soon as they both graduated, they got their jobs on the same day in an interview at the Museum of Natural History. Ana worked as a curator and Katherine was a conservator in the museum. They always had this special bond and have been friends for a long time. They usually shared everything with each other but currently Ana wasn't in the mood.

"How long are you going to be like this? It's been sometime and we're worried. Well, I'm really worried", Katherine said on the other side in a concerned voice.

Unlike Katherine, who had never been in a relationship more than a month, Ana always had a steady relationship with Joshua. He was her high school sweetheart and they had been going out for almost 10 years now. When it was time to take the next step, Joshua decided to do the exact opposite and broke up with Ana. Why? Nobody knew, especially Ana.

All he said during the heat of the moment was to break up and go their separate ways with no questions asked. It wasn't like they were having constant fights or bickering all the time.

It broke her heart and she was devastated, but now it'd been sometime and she was all dried up of tears. The mere thought of everything only brought sadness to her.

Ana was furious by the way he behaved but after some thought she calmed herself down and convinced herself that maybe he just wanted some time away and she hoped that everything might go back the way it was, but after the breakup when she tried reaching him, he hadn't once picked her call.

She didn't want to create a big scene by going to his house or office because it was very clear that Joshua didn't want to talk to her. She hated the fact that she even liked him so much as to care about what happened. Now all she wanted was to quickly move on, forget everything and pretend that it never happened.

"I'm not being anything. I'm just taking a break. It's no big deal, really. Trust me! Everything is awesome in Anaville", Ana said mockingly but failed to fool Katherine. 

"Ana..... You know that everything is not fine and you do this all the time. You act so tough and like you're fine even though you are hurting inside. You never admit it", Katherine sounded a bit angry which only made Ana sigh in frustration.

Damn it, Kathy! Ana always hated that Katherine knew her so well. Yes, she was hurting inside and she wanted to closure, she wanted to speak with him again, put a full stop and move on but that wasn't happening and she was frustrated as hell. But what could she do? Just hosting a pity party with Katherine was anyways not going to solve anything, right?

And to be that much worried, it wasn't like she was dead. She just wanted a few days of break. Especially after the big scene and embarrassment she had to face in front of her colleagues!

And it wasn't like her work was so crazy good anyways. Although she was doing her dream job, she had to face her stupid boss once in a while who got on her nerves little too often and sadistically enjoyed it too.

"Look, I'm fine okay? I'll be there tomorrow in office. Nobody has anything to worry here... Just let me be….", Ana replied half minded, her focus returning back on the Netflix shuffle. She desperately wanted to avoid this conversation and cut the call but Kathy was the only friend she had and she didn't want to be rude to her.

"I came by earlier and you weren't home. Ana, I really don't know what to say or how to help you. It's okay if you want to take a break, but you've got to let people in. You can't kept this going forever. I know being alone really sucks right now but it'll be much more bearable if you let people help you", Katherine went on and on like that for another five minutes which Ana promptly ignored. The last thing she needed was someone else's pity and concern.

"Did he pick up your call? Or did you meet him?", asked Katherine. That brought Ana's attention back to the conversation. She had been dreading this question all along. She wanted to shout, cry and make a scene but she just said, "No" which made Katherine worry more about her now.

"Leave it.... I don't think he wants to speak with me. I've given up calling him. If he thinks whatever time we spent was important and wants to tell me what happened, let him do that, or else I don't care", Ana said with a finality to her tone.

But deep down, she was hiding all the frustration building up in her heart.

"Fine…. Let's not talk about that… So…. You'll be coming tomorrow right?", Katherine asked happily.

"Yes… Only for you…", Ana replied to her friend.

"Thanks Ana, I love you….", Katherine said.

"Love you too.. Bye-bye", Ana told nonchalantly before cutting the call.

"Ughhhh… what are you doing Anaaa!", she shouted to herself only to hear a low moan from down below from her kitten pepper. She already had tears brimming from her eyes and tried so hard to keep it down.

She wished Joshua would call her and tell her that it was all a mistake or he just wanted some time and he was still in love with her, but all that was just wishful thinking. He was never going to come back and she somehow sensed that.

She stopped the shuffle and played some Sci-fi series mindlessly on low volume. She desperately wanted to sleep today without any nightmares.

Since childhood, Ana was prone to having nightmares almost every day. Her mother had to sing, dance and perform all kinds of soothing mechanisms to make her sleep.

But after being with Joshua, sleeping near him or maybe having some human contact made her not dream all those ghoulish things and she liked having a peaceful sleep. Now that he had left, all her nightmares were back, along with a bad migraine which she suffered from as a kid. She really couldn't say if Joshua leaving her was the real nightmare or whatever hellish things she kept dreaming about. 

The first episode was only on for about 10 minutes and she was already sleeping soundly with a mild snore which pepper promptly ignored.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There it was. That cry again. It was more like a wailing than crying. Ana wasn't able to point out what or who it was but it was so unnerving and bothering but all she could do was just hear it.

She wasn't in a better position herself either. She was in a dark room, chained by her wrists and ankles. There was a huge shackle around her neck not letting her even take a step forward. Though she tried so hard to free herself up, she couldn't move and the more she tried, it only made things worse.

She rubbed her eyes again and again and tried to see what was in front of her, but all she found was a cloud of darkness shrouding everything in mystery. She felt alone there with nobody else but the darkness for company.

Nothing could escape that, especially Ana in that weakened state. She now tried to shout something so that whoever was crying could hear her and feel consoled that they were not alone in there. But she couldn't speak and more precisely she couldn't even feel her tongue. She slumped down in defeat and waited for whatever awaited.

That place was nothing new to her. She'd been trapped in there since childhood. Every single day after she went into a deep sleep, she dreamt of this place. The sounds, the wailing, the pungent smell.

The same thing every day, but the horror somehow felt different and new every day and made her cower in fear. Ana might be so strong during the day but this was beyond her control and she felt like a small little kid hiding from a monster every time she was in that nightmare.

She felt trapped in there forever with no means of escape, she had tried everything like yanking on her chain with brutal force, trying to shout, moving around but nothing worked.

There was definitely someone else just like her who'd been down there and was crying incessantly. She wanted to find that out as soon as possible.