Which word best describes the mood in this excerpt from little brother? the faceless, eyeless armed man above me kept his gun very level. i didn't even breathe. van was screaming something and jolu was shouting and i looked at them for a second and that was when someone put a coarse sack over my head and cinched it tight around my windpipe, so quick and so fiercely i barely had time to gasp before it was locked on me. i was pushed roughly but dispassionately onto my stomach and something went twice around my wrists and then tightened up as well, feeling like baling wire and biting cruelly. i cried out and my own voice was muffled by the hood. lonely threatening optimistic warm