Claustrophobia

A fear of small places, something Abby had never suffered from. She’s never had much reason to. She has never been locked in a closet, or trapped in a room. So that paranoia and fear of enclosed spaces never sunk in. However, that would be changing momentarily.

“ I said let me go dammit.” she cursed, trying pointlessly to squirm her way out of their grip. That then resulted in violent tugging, and that nearly dislocated her shoulder. By the time she got down her list of ideas to just moving backwards, the parasite infected guards had gotten just about sick of the American. Resulting in throwing her rather roughly into the wall of morgue drawers. Sending a jolt of pain through her lower back, one of the handles slamming into her.

Abby personally had no clue what the hell they were doing with her in here, but that soon became a realization when one of them opened one of the drawers, pulling the body rack out. Her breath hitched in her throat, whipping herself in the other direction hoping to get away, but the lackey still holding her had a firm grip on her arms, slamming her into the wall again. That sent a white flash across her vision, the guard shoving her into the general direction. She dug her heels into the floor, absolutely refusing to go. Her choice in shoes still had her sliding along the floor, but she was squirming to escape. Her hands not in reach of anything.

“ No.” She said through gritted teeth both feet braced on the rack, preventing her from moving. She would have laughed in her apparent victory, had the other man not grabbed her ankles, she started kicking again, she would not allow anyone to shove her in one of those things. Firm hand on her chest shoved her torso down, the other man shoving the drawer back into the slot, pushing her back to be able to shut and lock the door.

As soon as she heard it click she started panicking, “ Let me out!” she yelled, kicking at the door. It was pitch black and freezing cold. She was starting to get a little scared. The onset of a panic attack setting in. her breathing getting uncontrollable, hitched. She started feeling around for her perimeters, which were very small. She didn’t like it, she started pounding her fists onto the metal above her. “ Please, Let me out!” She screamed, giving the door a good kick. The reinforced steel sending a stab of pain up her leg.

Dammit she refused to go out like this, she would have tried to shoot the door out, but the last thing she needed was the ricochet killing her on accident.

She was actually quiet for a good few minutes, trying to rationally think of how she was going to get out of this. After realizing this wasn’t going to work, she started screaming again, hoping that by some act of god, someone would find her.  Her hand brushed her pocked, finding an odd lump that she could remember what it was, it couldn’t be her cell, that was in her coat pocket. She reached in her jeans, and pulled out a rosary.

“ Julie.” she murmured hoarsely, voice harsh from screaming. Julie had always known that she had lost her religion since raccoon city. But still tried to slip her old rosary to her somehow. Right now she actually thanked her for it. Any thoughts of making it out alive went out the window anyway, reverting back to old ways. Reciting any prayer she could think of, trying to calm herself down one way or another. She was stumbling through everything, tears streaming down her face, slapping her palm onto the wall above her, biting her bottom lip.

This was it, she was honestly going to die here, in a morgue drawer in some foreign country, trying to do her job. No one knew where she was. Anyone that mattered anyway. think about never seeing  anyone she cared about again sent another round of coked sobs through her. She started thinking about the funeral and all the weight that came, theoretically, on her immortal soul with all of her sin. Her last decent confession happened when she was…sixteen, when she started smoking. So its been a decade since she’s formally confessed anything. She shouldn’t even be thinking about this, she’s lost her religion six years ago. Raccoon city robbed her of all beliefs in any form of god. However the impeding situation wiping that notion off the board. She clutched the rosary tighter, the metal engraving of Mary digging into her palm. She swallowed hard, trying to rid herself of the lump in her throat.

“ Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in Heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.” she recited, the elementary school years in catholic school coming forth. She figured she might as well start praying her ass off now. She didn’t know how much oxygen was in here, or if the place was airtight. She doubted it for a moment, the place was dilapidated for the most part, the labs more sophisticated than not.

She had her eyes squeezed shut, too focused on her own breathing to realize the door was opened and the drawer pulled out. She opened her eyes, assaulted by the dim Florissant bulbs. Finally taking notice of the thin stream of blood going down her wrist. She finally sat up, running her hands through her hair, which in retrospect was a bad idea. Managing to streak blood through her brown hair. She looked up, Ashley was behind Leon, as per usual. She could see the look of concern plastered on her face.

She tried to hide the face that she was crying, wiping the tears from her eyes. It didn’t work so well, she started crying again, realizing that she wasn’t dying. Then the reality of what happened set in. glassy hazel eyes looked up into his crystal blue before desperately wrapping her arms around his neck. Burying her face into the crook of her neck. Sobbing all over again, she hating being seen like this, but she was honest to goodness scared. The rosary fell out of her hand, falling to the floor with a delicate ‘tink’.

“ Shh, its okay Abby.” he murmured, his hands running lightly up and down her back. Trying to calm her down, “ Its okay, your out of there. Just calm down.”  

Ashley bent down to pick up the necklace that Abby dropped, looking at the rosary before wrapping it around her delicate fingers. As short of a time that she knew Abby, she never struck her as religious. She turned around when Abby’s sobs died down, the Italian getting back onto her feet. Wiping her eyes again.

“ Thanks.” she murmured, he was surprisingly good as that. With two other brothers, she figured consoling wasn’t in his repertoire of abilities.

Ashley came up and put the rosary back in her hands, “ You drop this.” she said, smiling at her.

Abby just kind of laughed, “ Thanks Ash, I’m surprised my sister managed to sneak it into my pocket.” she tucked it back into the pocket of her blue jeans. “ No one seems to get why I’ve just decided to drop religion all together.” she mumbled. She walked to the other side of the room, trying to brush off what had happened, she knew she would get over it so easily. Hell, Leon and Ashley knew it. She just kind of shook her hair back into her tear streaked face.

Claustrophobia, a fear of enclosed spaces. One of the few things she would take back with her after this mission.