She awoke with a start, her face throbbing. She surveyed her surroundings. Unpainted concrete walls rose on all sides of her. She was lying on a brown mat on the hard floor, her legs bent as there was not enough room to extend to her full 5’7″. She stood up to look out a small window covered with three bars. She had to stand on her tiptoes to look through it. It was as dark and silent inside the building as the black of the moonless night outside.
She sobbed, remembering the explosion and her friends. She was leaden with guilt, feeling entirely at fault. First Wynn Elias, then the whole island population. She shook and sobbed, feeling empty and alone. She sat back down again, crying hard. She watched as a spider wrapped a fly that had gotten caught in its web in the corner of the ceiling in the tiny cell.
All at once, a strong feeling of peace washed over her and seemed to fill her. She sighed heavily and immediately fell into a deep sleep. In her dreams, she heard a voice which said, “Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace; For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee.”
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