I pick up the black headset, attached to the computer by a knot of cables, and slide it over my eyes. Headphones cover my ears. Wearing both, I feel a little like I‘ve slipped under the surface of some obsidian lake, into dark water. I press play.

The darkness dissipates, replaced by a gauze-like film covering the only light source. I hear distant footsteps, but also something much closer. It's approaching from in front. I hear its heavy breath and instinctively hold my breath … then the gauze is withdrawn, the blindfold removed. Immediately there is a sense of presence to this world: visually, aurally, bodily.

My first instinct is primal, to observe my surroundings for threat. Freed to look in any direction, I peek over both shoulders, up at the roof, down at the floor. I’m in a dark, catacomb-like chamber. Whoever removed my blindfold is now retreating away from me, a shadowy figure. He pauses in the entrance doorway, silhouetted by light, and then closes the door. The experience of these events is unlike watching them occur on a screen – instead, I am in this space, in a moment of encounter.

The sound of slow-running water suggests that perhaps I am underground. Suddenly, unintelligible whispers orbit me, voices without a source. I twist and turn, trying to pinpoint their origin. They fade away.

Time stretches as the water continues its gurgle. The stasis is broken by flashing fluorescents, illuminating the room in blasts of white. I can now see that I am in the centre of what appears to be a circular room, with four arched doorways leading to a larger surrounding chamber. My reconnaissance is interrupted by what the strobing light suddenly reveals – a woman, in the chamber with me, facing the wall.

As the light flickers and strobes, she disappears – and reappears fractions of a second later, closer now, facing me. Approaching, and then retreating. She lurches and trembles. The light continues to obfuscate her movements. The whispers return, ominous and threatening. The light goes out …

When it returns, they are screaming at me – not just one woman, but three, madly shrieking.