She must have fallen asleep at some point because when she awoke, it was to the smell of food. She still couldn’t see, couldn’t even make out her fingers in the darkness, and she felt the creeping fear set in that maybe she actually was blind. Pushing herself into a sitting position, she turned her head this way and that before she finally settled on where the scent was coming from. There was no noise in the room with her but there was a calmness, something that she guessed was another person sharing her space, but she declined to comment.

She stood unsteadily, the fact of being blind making her feel unbalanced for a moment, then he took hesitant steps toward where the scent was coming from, her hands stretched out in front of her to feel for any obstacles. She was met with a small table only a few paces from where she’d been sleeping, and after fumbling around on it for a moment, she found a small chunk of bread resting on the top. She picked it up to sniff at it, wondering if her captors were trying to poison her, but then with a shrug she figured it didn’t matter and took a big bite.

“Well done,” the voice came from directly behind her and she jumped out of reflex before she spun to face them. She swung an arm out in an attempt to catch him, but her fingers passed only through empty air and she frowned even as she crouched in a defensive stance. It was the same voice from before, the same man who had tormented her, and she wasn’t about to let him catch her off guard this time.

“Who are you?” she demanded, anger making her voice firm even as she took several steps into the room to put distance between herself and the small table. She didn’t need to trip over that if she got into another fight with him.

“Now, now, don’t be rude,” he chastised, his low voice coming from her left, and she kicked out that time. Her foot struck empty air, as she thought it would, but she could have sworn she heard a slight movement as he avoided her strike. She paused to listen, her head cocked to one side to try and see if she was right, and then she heard it. The barely perceptible shift of clothing on skin as he moved away from her; somehow his feet weren’t making any noise as he crossed the room, but the fabric was.

As soon as she’d identified what the sound was, it faded away and she was left once again in utter silence. He must have stopped moving, she figured, and moved to take a step forward in the direction she thought he’d gone…

Only to have a leg come sweeping across the floor from behind and to the right, knocking her off of her feet to fall onto her back, the piece of bread dropping from her grip to fall somewhere on the floor. She let out a whoosh of air as she struck, and then a heavy knee was placed on her chest, a firm grip on her jaw.

“Focus, Amber. You need to use all of your senses and learn to defeat me… and when that happens, you’ll know more.” Then the kn