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No light. I stare into an immovable blackness that covers my whole being.

This hood, my faceless face. This hood, is now all I am.

In a cage barely bigger than my body, forced only to stand.

I call out to the dark, proclaiming that I am still a man.

No one answers.

I scream up to a God for some form of salvation.

No one answers.

I would wish this hell upon no one.

No one answers.

My hood is pulled up as I am restrained.

Not a word spoken to me. Not a face to be seen.

My body appears before me.

Floating, weightless and vapid.

I mouth words to myself that I do not understand.

No sound emanates from my lips, only the chill that surrounds my bones.

Abandoned again. Left to dwell inside my own mind.

How long has it been?

How long have I been here?

Mind, regressing into an incoherent state.

Abandoned again, I have not seen another soul.

How long has it been?

Standing... It’s been years.

I’m dying, but not fast enough.

Standing and I’m dying, but not fast enough.

How long has it been?

How long have I been here?

I’m dying.

Standing. Dying. But not fast enough.

Only myself.

Only myself, and time.

My hood, my cover, my identity.

Only the thought of you keeps me sane.

The flavor of the hood infects my food and water.

Stale, insipid, the stench of years of oral decay.

I am fed so rarely, food makes me sick.

Dry vomit covers my face.

Weeks old, months old, years of filth plastered to my skin.

The hood is my face. No name is my name.

This cage is my home, and my tomb.

Hands shackled, feet bound, in a cage.

Neck chained to the wall. No escape.

Kill me. Kill me. Kill me. Kill me.