"Why do we fear the dark?"
Tom heard the voice directly in front of him speaking in measured, even pleasant tones as he tugged once again at the leather straps that bound him. His wrists and ankles were strapped to an uncomfortable wooden chair. He squinted to try to see through the deep shade of black that surrounded him, but the room was so dark that he couldn't even make out the outline of the person speaking to him.
"Personally, I think it's an extension of our natural fear of the unknown."
He tried to yell out, but the gag over his mouth reduced his words to an unintelligible mumble.
"After all, in the dark, everything is unknown. You don't know what's out there... or what to expect."
With those last four words, the voice suddenly came from his right. Tom swung his head around, trying to make out some details of the speaker. It was no use. His eyes weren't adjusting to the darkness. He still couldn't see a thing.
"And that uncertainty fires up the imagination. It activates the cynical part of our nature that prepares us for the worst. And it fills the dark with all sorts of terrors."
The voice faded slightly, as if the speaker was moving away from him. Tom's panic subsided a bit and he focused on the sounds in the room, trying to pick up any background noise that might give him a clue as to where he was. Then he heard the scraping of metal against metal just inches from his head and the fear rushed back in even stronger than before. He pulled harder against his restraints.
"Ironic, isn't it... how that primal instinct intended to protect us can also become one of our biggest weaknesses."
Tom felt a hand suddenly reach from behind, grab a handful of hair and yank his head back. It was followed quickly by the sensation of cold metal against his left cheek, a sharp edge pressing hard against his skin but stopping just short of cutting the surface.
A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his head as his breathing hastened involuntarily to short, panicked bursts. In his mind’s eye, he could picture it traveling down to the steel and then creeping along the side of the blade, fighting gravity until it finally fell to the floor with a blood red splash.
“But you, my friend, have every right to be afraid. Because this will be a night you remember for the rest of your life… however long that lasts.”