Jack Laurence

They were moved again and again, location to location, building to building, the kind of constant relocation designed to disorientate, to prevent any possibility of another plan being formed, to ensure that nothing they had observed and memorized about one place could ever be useful again.

The kidnapper's most potent weapon is the fear of the unknown.

and their captors now wielded that weapon deliberately and systematically.

They were of course chained and they were beaten.

And then came more of the mock executions.

A mock execution is categorised as psychological torture.

It involves making a victim believe that their execution is imminent or is actually taking place, blindfolding them and telling them they're about to die, holding a gun to their head and pulling the trigger.

It leaves, of course, no visible wounds, no broken bones, no marks.

But some survivors of mock executions say that they were left feeling like they were already dead.

Many relive these near-death experiences in nightmares and flashbacks for the rest of their lives.

Some survivors have reported pleading with their torturers to simply kill them, preferring real death over the constant threat and intolerable terror of not knowing whether this time was real.

Think about that.

Think about what that actually means.

In that moment, blindfolded, hands bound, waiting, every single survival instinct in the human body fires at once.

Your adrenaline, fear, the terror, the complete and total certainty that you're about to cease to exist.

And then nothing.

Silence.

And the slow, nauseating realization that you're still alive.

and that they can do it again whenever they choose.

It would not be the last time they faced it.