Certainly fits teh genre well and could go with a couple of different stories. To nitpcik, maybe it should be, “…scream I should have stifled…”? Just being a kibitz.

Thanks for the comment. You’ve got me pondering now :-) I went for “had to stifle” to show how important is was to not make any noise; IMHO “should have” feels like it conveys less seriousness, but I’ll keep on pondering!

I think THX hit it on the head although I got goosebumps reading it in the context.