Mid-Week Flash Challenge - Week 290

This week's photo prompt is by Sortvind over on Deviant Art, a Norwegian artist. He posted it back in 2007! He hasn't posted since 2016, and I haven't been able to track him down to anything recent. Anyway, he calls this Stay Focused II.

Short and sweet this week - and dark.  

The General Guidelines can be found here.

How to create a clickable link in Blogger comments can be found on lasts week's post here. 

There is also a Facebook group for Mid-Week Flash, if you fancy getting the prompt there.


Drop Dissociation
He was intrigued howthe black and white pattern on the walls reflected in each drop of water as itfell, shining in the glare of the single naked light bulb, before landing onhis face. He had managed to stop caring about the sensation, and diverted the panicit aroused, instead turning his mind to the droplets themselves, letting thefascination of the perfect reflection and defined checkered pattern take overand consume him.

It carried him away from this place oftorture, where they were trying to get him to speak. They hadn’t worked out yetthat he couldn’t. Their enemies were also his enemies. They had taken his voicebox some years ago and he couldn’t tell them anything while they kept his handstied behind his back.

They seemed to think this kind of persecutionwould help them, but it wouldn’t. They’d never be able to catch them if theycouldn’t understand who were their friends and who were their enemies. Theywere foolish people from a land so far away they had no concept of life here,either what it had been or what it was now.

This wasn’t hard. He could lie here as longas it took them to work out that they were wasting their time. He had learntlong ago to see beauty in the tiniest of things; it was the only way to survive.And here he was again observing each drop as it fell like they were coming fromanother dimension … and maybe they were. They seemed to slow down when hewatched them, as he waited for them to tumble in the light and take up thepattern of the walls. He could dream of being in another dimension, steppinginside one of those droplets and vanishing from this place. And mentally he didjust that. He had all the time in the world.