What's that in the corner?

 The small room was illuminated by fluorescent tubes. Shelves sparsely stacked with boxes and bottles. None of the labels made sense, doubtful anything in here was pure grade cocaine. 

Wedged in the corner between a heavy safe door and the concrete wall was, what exactly?

It looked fearful, nervous even. This tired living thing. It tried to communicate but the rumble sounds made you think of hunger rather than spoken word. It wanted pity, sympathy for whatever fate awaited.

A shivering finger touched your hand, it felt cold and weak. Tears were cutting trails down your face.

Words of curse

 It's the most powerful curse spoken: I wish you a long and prosperous life.

I'd rather die young.

A long life is punishment for not living a full life. Humans are not meant to live forever, so forget about the quantum singularity. Before settling in for the long haul think about it.

Life sucks

Get shit done

People don't change

Take risks

Accept your mortality

Something blocks your path

 Straight ahead, you notice a large shape blocking the path. It isn't moving but you sense this could become a huge problem. Other than your wits you hold nothing useful to deal with this problem.

What do you do?

Walk passed the doors

 Passed the rooms nobody enters, the doors remain closed because nothing comes out. What is stored behind closed doors I do not know. You may feel tempted to turn on a door knob or knock lightly but do not be distracted. Your interest is the long walk ahead, unending as the horizon. 

No proof of life

 The visions of my night terrors paralysed my sleep. Watching the dismemberment, unable to move. Feeling their blood saturate my mind

Disposal

 'Throw it into the pit,'

I couldn't accept the out come, we erased everything. I'd tried to keep the stomach content down, tasting acid in my throat I swallowed hard. Pieces of a corpse were falling into the black pit, small hands waving a grim farewell while the sludge slowly consumed them.

'Throw it into the pit,' the voice beside me repeated. I felt the lumpy mass between my hands, all discernable features destroyed. I held a small head, no teeth, no eyes, no identifiable markers, discarding it in the pit to digest any trace evidence.

'Do it,' the voice impatiently commanded

Erased

 The message saved in a photograph. Data, embedded in a single image. Secrets hidden in view. The low-tech algorithm keeping a secret, a secret printed on paper.

Paranoia, their digital presence was backed up to a hard copy. The cipher keys were hidden in the library.

Take a walk

 Standing in a darkened hallway, dim lighting flickering intermittently. It's a long walk into uncertainty but we're confident there is nothing menacing waiting in the shadows, it would be silly to fall for a jump scare. What's out there?

Begin with that first step.