Instead of a panel, however, Jon's hands met a layer of goo that seemed to have coated the walls. He tried to pull his hands back but found that the goo held them firmly in place.
"Shit," he said, panic rising in his stomach, "Zoe! Let me out!"
He didn't know what the walls of the closet were made of, but whatever it was stopped Jon's please for help from reaching the outside world. Alone, in the dark, and scared, Jon waited for something to happen. A minute passed, then two, then three.
"Maybe it's broken," he said to himself.
A loud KUH-CHUNK banged over his head, then the sound of sliding metal, followed by another KUH-CHUNK. Before Jon could react, a number of things happened simultaneously.
Firstly, a bright light shone in his face, blinding him. Not that he had been able to see in the dark before the light had turned on, but since his eyes were used to the dark, the pain of the light was intense. He closed his eyes, but the light was so bright that even through his eyelids the light was painful. And hot. It was as if he was standing under a dozen heat lamps, all blaring at him at full power.
At the same time, Jon was sprayed with an ice cold liquid. It soaked into his clothes, which then began to sizzle as if they were in a frying pan. Quickly he could feel his garments begin to dissolve and fall off, leaving him naked.
While this happened, Jon felt a number of needles begin to pierce his skin in different places, his legs, his face, his chest, his stomach. Almost everywhere. Quick, sharp, intense, like a swarm of angry wasps, Jon screamed, but nobody heard.
Then, just as it had begun, the light, the needles, and the spray all stopped. Again, Jon stood in the darkness, panting, crying from pain and fear, hoping that his ordeal was over. It wasn't, because...
