 The pain was atrocious, inhumane. It wrested from me a cry that came from the depths of my gut. The echo of it reverberated endlessly in the maze of rooms and somber corridors. But I knew that I had no hope of any help in that dismal place, so I kept quiet. This had the effect of increasing the ill humor of my assailant. My silence to him was like a red flag. He vented his fury on me using even more force.