JERICHO Time had no essence. It slipped and spilled. It ticked and rolled. From one moment into the next torturous moment. My will to live dwindled and the thread of life I grasped now sat at the edge of my fingertips. I wasn't sure how much time passed but once the torturing started, I stopped caring. The pain had me retreating into the darkest corners of my mind and yet, solace and silence still evaded me. I shifted in and out of lucidity as gruesome, unspeakable acts were performed on my body. The fowl, metallic stench of blood permeated the air, and my screams and pleas caused a dull ringing in my ears. Hatred danced across my tongue with bile as its partner and my heart playing a hazardous rhythm. Echoes of agony rattled my bones. I sat, chained to this chair with no means to fight back. My kneecaps had been shattered, fingers broken, hair pulled out, nearly drowned, flesh carved from my body, and when I lost consciousness, they brought me back to repeat it all over again. I ha