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Grade
11

I remember my freedom. The freedom I had before the monsters took me and the dark, grey clouds overtook the sky. They dragged me into this room in a gloomy, run-down building. They chained my arms down and locked the door. I struggled and screamed for help, but it was like no one was there, no one could hear me. I was in my own little asylum and there was no way out.

I’ve been here for what seems to be years. I’ve lost track of time and have ceased to really care about what was going on in the outer world. I just know it has been a while. I’m stuck in this place. They locked me in this room, and left me to die. Well not die. I guess fend for myself. My chains are released every time the alarms sound and I run to get away. Every time they find me, I’m running out of places to hide, and the want to keep running. It is the same thing  over and over again and nothing has stopped the vicious cycle.

Sometimes the shackles come undone without the alarms. Those are the days I have a slight freedom returned to me. I am still in the confines of the asylum but now I am free to roam the halls. I try to find a way out. These halls seem endless with door after door of rooms. Some are opened while others tend to be locked. One door in particular I am drawn to. It is not like the others. I want to get in. I feel as though that is my way out, but I must find the key. So many of the days I spend partially liberated are used to try and find the key. Sometimes the liberation runs for a few days and I find many rooms; some elicit a feeling of joy and wonder; others bring of feeling of terror. In the end I always end back in my prison. The room where I’m shackled to the walls day in and day out with only a cover to shield me from the horrors of what surrounds me.

As the alarms continue the conditions tend to get worse. Sometimes it’s a lack of oxygen making it harder for me to run. Sometimes it feels as though the hallways are beginning to spin and I must hold to the walls, this only slows me down.

I wonder if anyone knows I am in here. I have never seen anyone other than the demons who haunt me, the demon’s who chase me and drag me back to the room tightening the shackles. I plead with them to let me go. I don’t know why I am in here, what I did to deserve this.

I sit in my room laying against the wall. I move my shackles around in an attempt to make them more comfortable. It has been calm for a few days. Maybe they will release me from the shackles again and I will have some time to explore.

Then I feel a shiver and my eyes go wide. The shackles tighten slightly and then I hear the alarms begin to blare. I sigh and scream.

“No more please!” I beg.   

I hear the growls, the scratches and I know they are coming again. The monsters are coming for me and there is nothing I could do to stop them. The alarm was triggered and the shackles were unlocked. I had no choice but to run: the problem was where? I get up and stumble to the door grabbing the door handle with a death grip. I open the door and topple out catch hold of the wall. This is one of the bad attacks as the oxygen in the halls begins to dwindle quickly as I waiver to the other wall trying to get away from the oncoming terror.

I find the same room. I believe this is where the alarms are triggered. I try to get in, but again it is locked. The snarls and growls are coming closer. I bang at the door with my entire body trying to get the door open. It’s now or never.  They get me and it’s back to the room. Back to the shackles of the dark, putrid, hell of a room, back to screaming at the top of my lungs begging for help when I know no one can hear me from in there. I go to ram my entire body into the door once more when I am grabbed. They caught me. I feel the claws digging into my skin as I am dragged away from what may be my only way out. I don’t know if I ever will get there, but my hopes are slowly dwindling as my health continues to plummet and my ability to run seems nonexistent. I give my best fight, but even this is futile. They claw at me, some grab at my arms as I reach for the door. They pull me away as I get one last swipe nearly reaching my target. My vision darkens as they drag my battered, senseless body back to the room. My vision fades to black as they pull me in and place the shackles back on.

I wake up later as my vision began to clear. I am back in the room. I move slightly and I feel a shot of pain go through my body. I get up slowly and and lurch forward toward the mirror in the corner.

Layers of dust had built up on it. I take one swipe with my hand and gasped slightly when I take in the state of my being. A former ghost of what I used to be. A hollow look in my eyes. My hair scattered all over and knotted in many places. I pull at the shackles slightly dragging the chains forward. I give another swipe at the mirror toppling over slightly I grab to the side. I look at my body, the once white dress I wore filled with filth and dried blood stains. I look around the room, a wooden prison, the only things in here are this mirror, my chains and my blanket. I move back to the wall and slowly slide down and adjust the shackles once more so they can be as comfortable as they could possibly be. I sigh and look down. Then the worst possible thing that could happen does. The alarms sound once more and the shackles come undone.

“GAHHHHH!!! Can I just have one day? One day to recuperate! One day where I am not constantly struggling to move on to the next. Maybe a proper meal?” I sigh. The sound of oncoming growls and snarls tell me otherwise. I groan and once again lift myself and repeat the vicious cycle. I return back to the door. I slam my body into it hard.

Then I hear a miracle. The beautiful sound of a wooden door cracking. I slam my body into it and the door cracks once more. I hear the monsters come closer to me. “Please please!” I plead as I take a quick breather and slam my body into the door once more and it breaks down the middle. I push my way through and enter. The sight inside surprises me.

             It seems to be some sort of a control center. Sitting at the controls are two dark figures. I look up and see some strange place. A room with chairs and a lady with a computer. The figures see me and screech. They come at me but I duck. I go to the controls but they pull me back.

“How are you feeling?” The woman asks me. The figures throw me to the floor as one of them goes over to the controls.

“I am just fine.” He says into the microphone, a female voice comes from what I believe is... me? Or my shell?

“That’s not what I have been told.  Many of your teachers are telling me the attacks are getting closer and closer together.” She gives me a look. This lady wants to help. Help? Something I haven’t believed I would receive in a long time. I get up and push passed. They drag me back. I struggle to break free, to break free of their hold and get to the microphone revealing how I truly feel. “Hey, you can tell me,” she adds. At this I break free and get to the microphone.

“I AM NOT OKAY!” I yell with all my might. The lady’s eyes go wide and she has a slight smile.

“Well then,” she looks at me. “I can help.”

In that moment the dark figures disappear. The light begins to rise and a new era begins. In that minute my freedom feels as it has been returned and I can slowly but surely regain control, and return things to the way they used to be. There is no physical key to freedom; it is the fight to get there.