“She stands at the doorway with a bowl full of something I cant quite make out. She asks everyone as we enter to please put on the nose clips along with the earplugs and earmuffs we will find at our seats.

We enter the long and narrow room one by one. The only thing in the room is a long table. Set with food and drinks and lit by candles - a candle per every 2 people. There must have been 20 people at the table. 

As we get settled she asks us to snuff out our candles once we have all our “gear” on. She says, Enjoy your meal.

The room goes dark, so dark even when my eyes finally adjust I am questioning if I am the only person in the room or even at the table. Is this a prank?

The room is quiet, some background noise maybe. Something like a fan that I cannot really make out through my earplugs and earmuffs. In fact, the longer I sit hear the louder the sound of my heart beating is in my ears. 

Every so often I can feel the table shift under my arms – I know others are there. 

Enjoy your meal,I hear her say in my head. Okay, here I go. 

Feeling around my place setting. I didn’t get a good look at what was in front of me before I sat down. I was curious what was going on – almost feeling like a sheep being lead to the slaughter. I think I saw spaghetti… and maybe a bowl of bread between me and my neighbors. Found the bread. Took a bite. I am taken aback by how hard it is to eat with nose clips on. I can’t breath and almost feel like I’m drowning. So much pressure in my head. 

It’s a little better when I chew with my mouth open. 

Feeling around again I bump into what I know is a glass of… water, I’m guessing. I stick my finger in to see how full it is. It’s pretty full. Taking a drink. It is a worse sensation than eating the bread! Drowning.

Exploring more, the spaghetti is cold. Not pleasant. There are oval, squishy things on my plate. I put one in my mouth. Burst of juice then crunch. Seeds? Grapes? I’m not sure. I picked at the food a little more, feeling distrusting of it.

Then I sat back. Trying to make out shapes or shadows in the room. I could see a vague light coming through a hole in a cinder block. I felt like I could see the outline of the person to my left. I was never sure if it was them, they never seemed to move. 

I sat in this darkness for a long time. Wondering when it would end – questioning if I was supposed to just get up and leave. I had no direction. I was trying to find contentment. 

After what felt like an hour I see a candle light at the other end of the table. There was an instant bustle of movement, sounds, and talking as everyone started lighting their candles and taking off their gear. 

The woman across from me ate everything on her plate and in her reach. She did what she was told, she ate. In fact I think she was the only one that ate everything on her plate.

 Another person at the other end of the table had her knees pulled in to her chest and was struggling with a potential panic attack. She said she was like this the whole time. So much fear.

One guy said he hadn’t had an opportunity to just be still in a very long time and he could have sat there another 30 minutes. 

The chatter went on and people started to eat their food.”