Rise the Dark by Michael Koryta

should have wanted more of them, that the light was the part of the world she needed, the part to which she belonged, but as the matches multiplied and their glows lingered, she was more afraid of them than the dark.
    This is not my home. I do not know where I am. I was taken from my home. I am alone. Where am I, and why am I alone? What happened?
    Snap and burn, snap and burn. Eventually the match glows began to blend together and flame came with it and then light and for the first time Sabrina felt the weight on her wrist and looked at it with uncomprehending eyes.
    There was a metal bracelet on her wrist. No. Not a bracelet. There was a word for it, and the word was scary. The word was terrible, the word was—
    Handcuff.
    It was in that moment of recognition that she slipped fully out of the dark fog and into understanding, and her fear poured forth like blood filling an open wound.
    She cried out then. Said the only word that came to mind: Help. She cried it again and again, and her mouth was dry and her tongue felt strange, hard to maneuver, but the effort of shouting and the intensity of her fear were scrubbing the haze from her brain and she saw more of her surroundings, or at least understood more of them.
    She was on a cold wooden floor, and the chain of the handcuff on her right wrist ran to an anchor bolt in the log wall, where the other cuff was clipped, holding her fast. The room was dim and though she could make out shapes, it was hard to get a sense of the place beyond the floor, the wall, and the chain between them. She turned her attention to herself then and saw her bare legs and felt the light fabric over them and understood that she was wearing her nightgown. She’d gotten out of the shower and put on her nightgown and she’d been ready to go to bed early, expecting to fall asleep alone, knowing that Jay might be many hours at work yet because the power was out in a lot of places and there was no telling how quickly he’d get it back on.
    And then?
    The large man. An intruder. He’d spoken to her. Said something about air, though she couldn’t remember exactly what, just that it had been strange. She didn’t have any clear memory of him, just knew that he’d been there, that there had been an intruder and she had been afraid. The lack of clarity in the situation told her that this should be a dream.
    But it wasn’t. The cold floor was real, and the prickling flesh of her bare legs under the nightgown was real, and, more than anything, the biting weight of that handcuff was real.
    She pulled at the cuff, using her free hand to get a grip on the links of chain that led to the wall. She tugged with all her might, rotated so that she could use her feet to push against the wall, and all she achieved for her efforts was pain.
    She was curled against the wall and crying softly when there was the sound of a lock working and then a door opened and light spilled into the room. It fell across the floor to Sabrina like an extended hand.
    A figure stepped in and blocked the light.
    “You may make all the noise you wish, but it won’t change your circumstances, and I would prefer not to hear it.” His voice was emotionless. She couldn’t see his face because the light was behind him.
    She didn’t think he was the same man who had been in her home. He wasn’t large enough and his voice wasn’t deep enough. At first this seemed good, but then she realized what it meant—there were two of them. At least two.
    “It seems bad now,” he said. “That was expected. That was understood. But you’ll begin to feel new things in this place soon, Sabrina. I promise that you will. You’ll begin to feel a sense of purpose stronger than any you’ve ever known. You’ll realize that you are a part of something larger than yourself, and it will please you. If you allow it to, it will please you.”
    He paused, and behind him another figure shifted. Oh Lord, there were more of them.
    “It’s a lonely predicament