From Within

You Can Run...

                I was in the middle of the woods with my brother. The sky was cloudy like it was going to rain and it seemed to me like it was probably kind of chilly out. The color of the woods were really rich. We were sitting in this really little building waiting for something. I guess it was some sort of appointment. This creepy guy wearing a black leather mask, black leather jacket, black shirt, black jeans, and black boots came in and sat across from us. I remember calling Alexis and talking to her about it like he wasn’t even there.

                He ended up kidnapping me and talking me to this huge mansion in the middle of the woods. All the lights in it were red so it was pretty dark and disorienting. The people who lived there captured and tortured people for reasons I never found out. The guy who kidnapped me was pretty low on the totem poll. Basically, he went out to capture people for them and tortured people the way he was told to. There wasn’t really much to it I don’t think.

                I don’t remember much of the torture. I remember being in this relatively small room with about ankle deep water and a raised square of floor in the middle where water was sucked in. There were kind of rapids in the water, but it was still east to walk in. I think the water heated up and it pretty much boiled you alive from the ankles up.

                I remember escaping, pushing a red button just inside the door, and locking the guy in there. I escaped from the house and bolted down the road. I know I hid in a lot of places, but the guy always found me and hurt me in some way.

                The last part I remember was where I made it home. I was standing with my parents and Alexis. My brother was nowhere to be found. There was water in the house up to our waists, but no one acted like that was strange at all. I knew it was only a matter of time before the guy caught up with me again. When I realized the back door was half way open (no water was leaving the house for some reason) I knew he’d found me again and it wasn’t just me who was in danger.

                I tried to decide between opening the door and seeing if he was there (apparently I couldn’t just leave) or just accepting that he was and closing the door to get it over with. I closed the door. The water started rising and two big metal hooks on chains hanging down from the high ceiling showed up. We ignored them and started looking for clues. My dad put a lighter up to the dusty windows and some of the dust caught fire and burned away. It said something about the guy threatening to rape me.

                So after that we learned what the hooks were for. The guy told us and I’m pretty sure that’s the first time I ever heard him speak. He said the only way to raise the cover over the drain was to stab the hooks through our back and let our weight lift it. I was meant to be the one to do it and I knew that. I just stared at them my chest hurting as I imagined the pain.

                Then I woke up.