Discomfiture

Prompt: Recall an experience in which you felt terror.

An anxious feeling gripped me, even as the rational side of me tried to think up excuses for this sudden...loss of self. What was I to do now?

But then, a completely different sensation washed over me as I lay eyes on a building I recognized, a haven standing amongst faceless concrete. I found my way inside as if nothing had been wrong - though, that was strange, because below this false sense of security, I could still feel me confusion and terror.

The inside of the building was dim, a labyrinth of endless halls and a tall staircase that seemed to lead only up, to the ceiling, to nowhere. I knew I wasn't alone - and though I could see no one, there was a presence pressuring down upon me, suffocating. And again, I was becoming afraid, compelled to climb those stairs with frozen limbs. There were others - but I could not truly see them, despite their closeness, only glimpsing dull features and clammy hands that clenched around wrought iron. Time seemed to either pass slowly, or rush by as quickly as it could; I couldn't tell, my mind devoid of anything but my sharp fear and the spell that bound me to the staircase. I reached the top, and then I saw him.

Unlike the others, this man was clear to me, every detail of his being seeming to shine in the dimness of this hell I'd found myself in. HIs hair was long, dark, shielding a gaze of onyx, a pair of jeans and faded t-shirt hardly concealing his beauty. But there was so much sorrow and weariness in his features -

Abruptly, my fear had gone, and I was overwhelmed with the urge to weep for him, as he could not cry for himself. Moving on emotion, I took this...being into my arms, cradling him close without a word.

And then - I was choking, suffocating, unable to do anything other than gasp. My hands closed around the ones that covered my throat, and was distantly aware of the other nameless people crying with me.

"Lost," they said, "we are the Lost." The man had ceased his violence against me, I realized after a dull moment, but then I understood why.

There was the gleam of light against the metal blade in his hand -
A feeling of coldness, sharpness, against my throat-
And -

I woke up to find my neck bleeding.