14

Prologue: The Beginning

"Written here are all my stories of escape. How I escaped reality, how I escaped my own sanity."

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The grass was green, the sun was bright, the trees were tall, everything was the way it should be. Everything is where they belong. But why do I feel like I'm not where I want to be? I want to explore, I want to experience something new. But all odds forbid. I face the same old crowd wherever I go. I hear the same old stories and words everyday. Everyone just wants to teach and teach. But I want to learn on my own.

As I trekked along the garden, I saw flowers. They were the only ones that looked different but beautiful. People keep saying that being different is wrong. Everyone needs to follow a certain belief. A fixed belief. And with that, I had boundaries. I want to escape limits. I want to follow my own belief. But everyone thinks I'm wrong, that I'll never be able to get to where I want to be.

I want to prove them wrong.

"Maria! What are you doing? It's time to go back inside." I turned my head to my mother, a person who strongly opposed to everything I thought of. The only one I could trust with my imaginations was my father. But he's gone. I didn't understand, they said that he died because he was a bad man. But I don't think he is. I know he isn't. He loved me so, and people thought we were strange because we had different views on life than the majority. I loved that bond. We would talk for hours lying beneath the stars at night and talk about the adventures we dreamed of. We would talk about the supernatural. We could talk about anything.

I looked at the sunset, the beautiful sunset. I looked up the sky and felt the cool breeze kiss my face. I loved how it felt. It was the second most comforting thing next to my father's embrace.

I ran back inside and decided to talk to my mother. I wanted to escape. But of course, I wanted to let her know about it. After all, she is still my mother. And I still love her, even if we don't agree on each other a lot.

"Ma," I said softly, she looked back and smiled at me. She continued working and was waiting for what I had to say.

"I want to leave home." I said, more straightforward than I wanted it. She froze, and then looked back at me moments later.

"What do you mean?" She said in confusion. I could feel the words strike her heart for she didn't want me to leave because I was the only child left to be with her.

"I..I want to leave." It was getting harder for me to say it.

"Oh, okay. But, why? Do you not like it here? We can move if you like, just tell me where you want to go," her voice sounded softer and softer and it broke my heart to hear her. I wanted to leave for my father. I want to show him where my feet could take me with every motivation he gave me before he left.

"No, ma. It's alright. I just want to think and rest for a little bit. And I want to give you a break, too. I know that I've been such a headache to you for almost 24 years." My voice cracked but I still managed to give her a smile. Tears formed in my eyes and it was getting blurrier as seconds passed.

"If.. If that's what you want, I'll let you go." She said. I ran to her and embraced her, crying on her shoulder. After a while, she started to pat my back, and rested her head against mine.

I pulled away and cupped her face with my hands and wiped her tears away with my thumb. I didn't like seeing her cry. The last time she did was when she knew that my father died. It was hard on all of us to accept it.

"Go ahead and pack." She said with a forced smile. I nodded and walked upstairs.

After doing so, I looked around my room one last time, and all the memories flashed inside my head. I was going to miss that place. I ran downstairs with a tight grip on my bag and went to my mother one last time.

"Please don't wait for me," I said as I embraced her one last time. She didn't say a word, but her embrace said it all. She didn't want me to leave.

She pulled away and kissed my forehead. It was her warmth that I would miss the most. The way she held me, the thousand kisses that she had placed on my face in all the years of growth, all of it.

"Take care of yourself, okay? I love you. Forever and always." I said.

I took a trip to a mansion. I knew where it was because before my father had died, he gave me a message. It was his only heritage to pass down to me. He never told anybody about it, and told me that I needed to go there when I felt like going on an adventure that I would remember for a lifetime.

I arrived in front of that mansion and entered. It looked new, it looked like it was from the old times but it looked as good as new. It was probably secluded from people, but still had easy access to the city. I entered the home and felt strange as it looked clean and maintained. It was fully furnished, too.

I was pretty unsure whether I should settle in it or not, because it looked as if someone actually lived in it. The front door was unlocked, which still leaves me bothering as to why no one tried to break in.

I ran upstairs and looked into each room. When I finally found the bedroom, I dropped my bags and plopped on the bed. Finally, something to rest on. But in the corner of my eye I noticed something, a notebook sitting on the coffee table. I sat up and walked to it.

The moment I opened it, I felt strange, there was a bright light that spread across the room. I suddenly felt dizzy and then blacked out.

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"Hello? Is anybody there?" I said as all I heard were my echos. I was in a dark, black room. I couldn't see anything.

"Help us," Whispers of those words started to fill my head. Then more added, "Set us free," "Don't give up,"

The whispers started to get louder and louder, and I could do was collapse and cover my ears with all my might to try and block out the disturbing whispers that filled my head. There were more words, but I couldn't understand them. Was it in a different language? Whatever it was saying, I was tired of hearing it.

"Stop it! Stop! What do you want?!" I screamed and screamed. Until everything went silent, whisper by whisper. I calmed down. But then, there was a loud white noise.

"Set him free." It was loud and clear.

What did it mean?