I hear the door swing open. Something slams onto the ground, hard, near my face and then the door slams back shut. I don’t want to open my eyes but I know that I should. I’m more scared of what I will see. The last thing I remember was I was laying in bed and I heard a laugh. I didn’t open my eyes then either. I felt arms wrap around my waist and I was jolted into the air. I started screaming. I was taken from my home. I don’t know how long I’ve been gone or asleep or even where I am. I just want to go home.
As I slowly open my eyes, I see a tray of food sitting in front of me. I grab it slowly then realize how hungry I truly am. I smell the food and devour it without swallowing. I don’t know what it was. It honestly looked like nothing I have ever seen before. It didn’t have a direct smell either. It didn’t have a distinct smell. I have no idea what it was but it was quite filling. I started to get slightly thirsty and as if the room understood my thoughts, a glass of some mysterious liquid slid on the floor over towards me. I looked at it and decided at this point I didn’t care. I gulped it all down. It tasted worse than any other taste I had ever experienced before. It isn’t even describable.
I stand up from the small slab I was on. I had been laying on the floor for however long I had been here and I could definitely feel it. My back was killing me. I walked over to the little metal door. If I was ever let out of here I would surely have to duck so I wouldn’t hit my head. This was actually a crazy small room. It seemed as though it was made for children smaller than me. Looking around, everything looked smaller than what they did back home. This place was starting to give me the creeps.
I attempted to yell out the door but it was like my voice had forgotten how to speak. I started thinking that maybe it would work. I thought to myself I wish this door would open so I could get out. As soon as the word out had been thought the door swung open. I definitely need to get out of this place… I walk down a hallway that I hadn’t been able to see through the door. It must have not been as see through as I thought.
I walked down it slowly, taking notes of small details as I walked. The hallways were small at the beginning where to door connected to it but as you walked further down the hallway it got larger. The walls were painted a series of different colors. They were splattered in black but nowhere else on the walls was any form of black or grey. They were all bright colors but the black had been splattered on the walls much later than they were originally painted. You could tell by the markings on the original paint that they were done previously. They were scratched and beaten. The pain had faded quite a bit from the original paint. The black spatters were almost fresh. I felt as if you could touch them and when you pulled your hand away you could see the fresh black paint running down your fingertips. Someone must not like it here either.
I got to the end of the hallway without noticing that there was not a single piece of furniture. The hallway was completely empty. The walls were decorated but other than that it was completely empty. The floor looked just like the ceiling. I walked down a square. Complete identical and the same.
There is a door. It was wooden and cracked down the center. You could almost see what was on the other side if you looked through the crack. Had there have been more light I would’ve known what I was going to be facing when I opened the door. I heard voices coming from behind me talking about the new child they had just gotten in a few days ago. That was either me or that took kids a lot more than I was thinking they did. I heard the creak of the door from the cell I was just in. They start yelling things but I don’t understand them. I swing that door in front of me wide open just to be met with the face of a male. I have been caught… Again. These people can read my mind I swear it.
The guy grabbed me and muttered something about how other kids took longer to figure it out. I don’t know he might be just as crazy as the next guy in this place. He sat me down in a chair. He didn’t say anything but it was like I could read his thoughts. He explained that I was here just like the rest of the children. I was special. I could do things with my mind just by thinking about them. It was like he was telling me that he was going to help me fix whatever was wrong with my life. I sat up straighter feeling like this non-conversation was going somewhere.
My mind went blank. He was done with whatever he was thinking. I don’t think I am supposed to say anything back but being me I think it before anything else. All I thought about was when can I go home I don’t want to be here anyway. He looked like steam was rolling out of his head. That must have made him mad. I don’t know why he would be mad. They took me! This was not my fault. Of course I missed my home and my family who was probably freaking out about me by now. Actually, I doubt that they even noticed I was gone. My dad dipped on me when I was seven and my mom has been too drunk ever since to even know I am still a human.
He got up and took me to a different door this one wasn’t as old and I could see the light shining from the other side of it. The door screamed with happiness. It made me feel like I was going to go outside and enjoy the sunrays. The door swung open and it was the outside. The grass was green and luscious. The trees were green and swaying in the wind. Under the trees there was a mixture of swings and hammocks. There were several different areas for people to sit and relax. Book shelves were floating but there were no books on them. I thought about how nice it would be to sit back and enjoy a book right now. My favorite book is Shadows by Jennifer L. Armentrout. Just as I was thinking of all the times I have read and reread that book, a bookcase passed by me with that book on it. That was the only book on the entire bookshelf. I reached for it and the bookshelf stopped. I grabbed it and felt happy. Content with where I was, I walked over towards a hammock and took a seat. Comfort filled my body as I opened the book.
I sat there and read the book for what felt like hours. I read the last word of the book and sat there and sighed. It felt like this place wasn’t a bad one it was actually a good place for me to be. Somehow though I felt as though this place was still a bad thing. Something was off about this place and I wasn’t liking how comfortable I was getting in a place with people that took me away from my home. I decided maybe I should get up and go look around to see what else this place held. It was a large place. I walked towards the playgrounds on the left and saw that I couldn’t actually get to the playground. There was a barrier keeping me in the little area under the tree with the hammock.
I turned around and looked at the tree. The sight had changed it. It was no longer a tree. It was a scary place to be. It reminded me of somewhere I had been once when I was little walking through some haunted house thing with my family. I walked towards it. The outside wall were colored a dark grey and the windows had been shattered out. The walls were broken with holes that size of rats scattered along the bottom. Little things moved across the ground as you walk. All together just the outside of the place gives you the creeps. Its gloomy and scary, especially as a little girl but still scary when you’re older. I remember when I was a little girl the haunted house wasn’t as empty there were people bumping into each other and people tripping into walls and getting hurt. This place was like that place except I was completely alone. I opened the door, it had the same creaky sound it did back them. I walked into the first room. It was all empty. All I could see was black. I turned around and grabbed the door handle.
Opening the door was hard. It was like it had gained 200 pounds the second I had let it close. I finally got it opened and stepped out, careful not to slam my body in the door. When I stepped off the porch everything had changed outside. It was now night and there was a bed under a roof where the tree used to be. I could see several more but I assumed I couldn’t get to those since I couldn’t get to the playground earlier. I walked toward the bed hoping maybe it would be warm. The air had cooled down to nearly nothing. As soon as I stepped under the roof I was hit with a wave of comfortable air. I wasn’t cold but I wasn’t hot. I saw a light that I hadn’t seen from where I was standing outside. I turned on the lamp and looked around. In my little area I have a bed, a lamp, and a small table. The table had nothing on top of it or inside of it.
I sat down and started thinking about my family. I didn’t miss them but I did. It was like the longer I spent at this place the less my family came to my mind. Something was definitely off. I Stood up and started to walk over to the barrier I was at earlier. I hit a barrier similar to it at the edge of the roof. I am so lost. How did the barrier shrink? I don’t understand what is going on here. I just want to get home. In the meantime I am tired. It just hit me out of nowhere. I am completely and totally exhausted. Some things just don’t make sense. I walked back over to the bed and laid down. As soon as my head hit the pillow I was asleep.
During my slumber I dreamt of nothing. My mind was, for the first time, blank. Awoken by a thought in my head telling me to get out of bed. I listened because I felt as though I couldn’t disobey they orders in my head. I sat by where the barrier was located last night and stuck my hand out. The barrier was gone. I stepped out into the sun and felt five times better than I had the night before. I stretched and it felt so beautiful I could feel it in my toes. I turned around to see the same sight I had seen that previous day when I had arrived at this place. There were bookshelves flying around and there was a hammock sitting under a now larger oak tree. I looked up to see the top but the tree was tall enough that the top of it was out of my view, or there was not a top and this wasn’t an actual tree. I sat down in the hammock and curled myself into a ball. I just wanted to go home. I was slowly forgetting things about the life I had before I got here. I stressed my brain for anything about my life but eventually I just gave up. It wasn’t going to happen. I wanted out of this room. I remembered yesterday when I walked in here. This wasn’t the actual outside. This was simply a room.
Instead of trying to find the exit, I thought up my own exit. A door slowly appeared in the tree's base. I opened it slowly, looking around before I dropped into the hole behind the door. I saw no one… Shocker. I dropped down and saw people standing around thinking about things I had wanted to know. They were thinking about how they got here and how crazy it was that they couldn’t talk. They didn’t understand how they could hear anyone else’s thoughts.
I walked over to the group of people around my age. I heard a thought. It was to me, asking me how I got there. I recalled how I had gotten here. When I looked up all of the people around me were staring at me in amazement. I didn’t understand what they were staring at, I just put everything together in my mind and got out of the room. They then thought to me that this was the next stage in the puzzle we were forced to be in.
I was even more confused. If all we were supposed to do was get out of the rooms why didn’t they just think their way out of the room. Thoughts flow from my head but they don’t hear me. I blocked them out. I thought about how we all wanted to get out of this room right away. A little light appeared from a corner in the room. I walked over to the light but no one noticed. As I slipped closer to the light I saw a door. I turned back around but none of them had looked at me. I opened to door without thinking twice and slipped through it.
I was greeted by a man, slightly older than I was from the looks of it. He just stared at me. For several minutes we just stood there, me looking down at my feet and him staring at me. I could feel him staring and it was getting annoying so I turned on my heel and walked away in any direction. When I looked back he was watching me walk away. He looked slightly crazy. I ran into something while was looking at the man behind me. I turned around and faced forward again. My eyes fell on the bed in front of me. It truly looked like the most comfortable bed I’ve ever seen in my life. I laid down on it and crashed.
This time while I slept I actually had dreams. I dreamt of things that made no sense. I was walking down a hallway. The hallway had white walls and a white floor. I turned left than right. Then I came to a cross in the path. I had to make a choice between left or right. I felt the pressure on this choice, like if I made the wrong choice something would go extremely wrong. I turned right again and off the right turn there were two left turns followed by a right turn. At the end of the hallway after the last right turn I found a small sign. It said something I couldn’t read in my dream. I felt the dream become more relaxed. I pressed a button and a door appeared. I opened it and walked out.
I was awake before I got to see what was on the other side of the door. I got out of the bed, did a half ass stretch and turned around to be met by a small door. Something wasn’t right. This door looked like the first one I had went through. It was old and beaten up. It truly looked as though people had tried to get out of whatever was on the other side of the door. I opened it. If I’ve made it this far by myself than I can make it through whatever is on the other side of this door. It creaked open like I figured it would and I stepped through the small entrance. I was greeted by the white hallway from the dream I had. I tried to think back to the dream but it was slowly fading away. This must be a maze and that dream must have been the answer. I had to hurry up and finish the maze or I’m sure I would get lost in here. I ran to the end of the hall and saw the first left turn. I took the turn and kept running until the right turn. After I took that I ran forward. Halfway down the hallway I started wondering why I was running. It wasn’t that important to get to the end of the hallway.
I walked and tried to see something besides white but I didn’t. I touched the walls and ran my hands down them until I reached the end of the hallway. I saw I had a choice to make, left or right. I thought back. I felt as though I had seen all of this before but I can’t remember from where. I looked both ways, they looked exactly the same to me. Which way should I go? It doesn’t matter that much to me but I feel like it should. I started to take a left when I felt a twinge of pain in my head. It was like a little voice telling me that I was going the wrong way. I turned around and walked the other way. I looked back over my shoulder at the left path. I stopped. I saw blood splattering the walls and dead bodies lining the floor. I turned my head back to the way I was walking and tried to get that image out of my head. This must have been the right path to take and that one must have definitely been the wrong one to take. I kept walking forward and followed the hallway through the last three turns. The turns were left, left, and then finally right. I saw a small sign that read, “WELCOME TO THE FRIENDLIEST SPOT ON EARTH.” Over the top of the words was two words written in blood. Those words read, “HELP US!” Underneath the sign was a small button that had appeared as soon as I looked at the sign. I pressed the button and a small door appeared. As soon as I saw the door I remembered everything from my dream. I didn’t know what to do. I know in the dream I opened the door but I didn’t see dead bodies and a bloody hallway in the dream. I don’t know what is on the other side of this door. I could be walking into my own death.
I decide after my several minutes of contemplation to open the door anyway. I grab the handle and feel warmth flood my body. I suddenly understood that I was safe. I turned the knob and opened the door as soon as I walked through I saw a bright light. After my eyes adjusted to the room, I saw a bed with two lamps on sitting in front of me. I jumped from the door to the bed, which was a good three feet away from me at the time. I landed, head on the pillow and body fitting perfectly on the bed. Instantly, I was asleep.
I didn’t have a dream while I slept this time. All I had were thoughts. I thought about what it was like my first day, the things I saw and how things were. The first day I was completely alone in a place that was pretty simple to get out of after I realized my path and what I was supposed to do. Then I started thinking, I didn’t know if I had been here a full day before I found my way out of that first place or if it was all an illusion. The second “day” was just as easy as the first but I was with more people. There were several of them in the room but when I found the way out none of them followed. Then I walked through another door which led me to a man who didn’t do anything but stare at me. He followed me with his eyes, almost as if he couldn’t move his feet. In that room there was a bed. While I slept I had that dream which gave me the exact way to get out of what was coming next. When I woke up I was in a room different to the one I fell asleep in. I went through the door and finished that “maze.” Now I am in yet another bed recalling all of my actions instead of dreaming or while I’m dream. This itself could be a dream. At this point, I’m not sure of the difference between asleep and awake.
I wake up to the click of the lamps turning on and the lights shining brightly in my eyes. I stand up and turn around to see how the bed disappears. Every bed before had disappeared while I was stretching. I watch the bed closely to see if it disappears while I am watching it. None of this made sense. I turned around and “stretched.” The bed was gone. I looked around I didn’t see anything of value to me or that could even help me get out of this space. I saw a table and a dresser. There was a bathroom and a small closet. I walked over to the table and saw a key and a spot on the dresser that had been burned. I looked closer at the burn spot and saw that it said something. It read, “LET US IN.” I decided I would look at other stuff before I would even touch the key. I turned to the dresser next to the table. I figured that there was nothing in it but I might as well give it a shot. I opened the top drawer and saw a pair of jeans, socks, and undergarments.
I picked them up and checked sizes. These things would all fit me better than the clothes I was wearing right now. I put them on top of the dresser and walked over towards the closet. I looked inside and saw a book bag full of supplies that would’ve helped me a few days ago. I threw that over by the table and kept looking. On the floor at the bottom of the closet was a pair of shoes that I assumed would fit me. I checked the size and they would so I threw them next to the bag on the floor. I looked on the other side of the closet and saw a couple shirts that were lightweight and a couple long sleeve shirts that would keep me warm in times of need. I grabbed all the shirts in the closet and walked over to the bag. I threw a lightweight shirt on top of the clothes on the table and the rest of them I put in the bag.
I grabbed all of the clothes off the table and walked into the bathroom to put them on. I changed extremely quick. It felt amazing to take those nasty clothes off. They were covered in dirt from the past few days and I wondered how I didn’t smell horrid. I looked up into the mirror and I didn’t look bad either. I didn’t understand that at all. I looked around the bathroom for anything else. I saw the shower and decided maybe I should have one of those before I go anywhere else. I take off all the clothes I just put on and hop in the shower. I cleaned myself up and then I just let the water run on me. I missed the feeling of a shower. I thought maybe it was time to get out when the water finally got cold. I put all those clothes on and brushed my hair with the brush that had appeared on the counter.
I turned to the door when it caught my eye. A little door that read, “COME FIND US.” I didn’t question it. I opened the little hatch that wasn’t big enough for a body and threw my dirty clothes down it since they would just weigh me down. I figured that with all the materials I had gotten whatever was next I was going to want as little on me as possible. I walked back into the main room and saw a new door. I walked toward it slowly. I heard a voice in my head egging me to open the door but I hearn another voice telling me to stay away from the door. Either I was conflicted internally or there were two other people in this room thinking different things at me.
I grabbed the handle and stopped. Both voices were screaming in my head now. It felt like my brain was going to explode. I couldn’t handle this. I dropped to the floor and plugged my ears. I just wanted to scream and tell them to shut up. I told the voices to shut up in my head but they just grew louder and louder until they were completely inaudible. I knew what the voices were saying but I couldn’t hear them. I justed wanted them to stop. I got up and ripped the door open and stepped through. I was greeted by both of the voices leaving my head. It was empty again. Thank god.
I never had been so happy to be alone in my life. It was like right after a storm when the sky is just starting to clear up and it gets brighter. You can see the damage but you feel much better than what you did while the storm was going on. You feel safe and relaxed. That was where my mind was right now. I could feel the damage but I felt much better now than what I did before I opened that door. I opened my eyes for the first time since I had walked through the door. I saw a place that looked like my bedroom from home. I looked down and I was standing on my bed. I climbed down onto my floor and walked towards my bedroom door. I opened it expecting to see a different “stage” but instead saw my house. My house was a sight I thought I would never get to see. This couldn’t be possible.
I walked down the stairs looking for anything that made me get the fact that this was not my life. Once I got into the living room, I saw my mom sitting on the couch playing her game on her phone with the television on. I sat down next to her and we talked about random things that had happened while she was at work. I had no idea what was going on. I was completely and totally lost. I didn’t understand how she didn’t notice I was gone. Did anyone notice I was even gone? I decided to go outside to see if something was wrong outside.
Everything seemed to feel the same but it all felt wrong. It was like I was home again but I wasn’t. I felt like someone had thrown me into my house, in my life, but it wasn’t me. If I keep doing things like I would’ve in my own life then maybe it would reveal itself to me that it wasn’t actually my life. I went back inside and walked upstairs. As soon as my head hit the pillow I fell asleep. While I slept, I didn’t dream but I saw one thing the whole time. I saw a door. It was a dark brown door, lit up with just one light above it. The walls next to it were made of stone. I couldn’t see much of what it looked like because it was distorted and looked a little fuzzy in my head.
When I woke up thoughts of that door were fresh on my mind. I walked over to my desk and started to sketch the door. I drew as many details as I could but the memory of the door was slowly fading away. Just as I lost all memory of what the door looked like I finished drawing the door. I looked at the drawing. It turned out more like what the actual image would’ve looked like if it were an actual picture. I pulled it off the notebook and shoved it in the pocket of my pants. I looked around for anything that would help me in this adventure. I needed to find that door tonight if there was any chance of me getting out of this place.
I climbed out the window of my room with nothing but a flashlight in hand to start looking. I was assuming it was around midnight due to the lack of light outside. I didn’t know where to start my search for the door. I grabbed the piece of paper that was burning a hole in my pocket. I unfolded it to try to see if there was any surroundings that could help me. The wall was a grey brick wall with an arch above the door. The door was raised up off the ground and met by three stairs coming up from the ground. There were two windows in the same shape as the door but only smaller on each side about two feet away from the door. All the dream gave me was a door with walls and the same description as half of this town. All the buildings are made of grey brick walls. This drawing literally doesn’t help me at all. I fold it back up and shove it in my back pocket of my jeans.
I turn and start my walk around town. Although this town isn’t small, I can probably walk around it in three days time. It will take a little bit more time to walk up and down every street and every alley looking for a door. In the drawing I couldn’t see the grounds so I don’t know if it is an alley or a side street in town. I don’t even know if it is in town. This door could be across the country and I would have no idea. I will walk the outskirts of town first. Tonight I should be able to get about 5 miles out of the way but I don’t think I will find it. I walk around looking everywhere for that door. After a while I gave up and left a marker on the ground where I stopped. I thought to myself on my walk home if I should come back to this spot or start going the other way. One way or another I was going to walk every night until I found this door.
Once I made it home, sleep came easy. It was like my bed was made of clouds and I wouldn’t have a problem seeping for the rest of my life. All I see in my dreams is that door. I knew it was important in some way. Just before I woke up I saw an image of someone lying dead in a bathroom. Blood splattered across the walls and a girl holding the body sobbing. I shoot up, horrified of what I have just seen. I run to the bathroom and see my best friend laying on my bathroom floor, dead. Blood splattered all over the walls, just like in my dream… This couldn’t be real. I didn’t even go see her yesterday. Even if this place wasn’t real, I should’ve went and saw her.
I got up and left the bathroom after crying over her body for several hours. I wasn’t sure what to do next. I was hoping that it was all a lie. She wasn’t really gone. I would walk down the street and walk in her front door . She would be sitting there on the couch on her phone. I would sit down on the floor and we would sit and laugh for hours on end. After a couple of hours we would get bored and decide to go for a walk. I would get home late. She isn’t gone she will be at home. I run out the door and down the block. I have to see her. She can’t be gone. This place is hell… She was the only person I had left and now I have nothing in this world, whichever one that might be. I run up to her front door and barged inside. Her parents start screaming at me to get out of there house. And that I’m a stranger and shouldn’t go running into other people's houses.
I walk out. This can’t be happening. This isn’t the real world and I understand that now. This place is five times worse. People don’t know who I am that knew my before I was placed in this world. They took my best friend away and now I’m going to get out of here and find out who put me into this hell. Once I find out who put me here I will put them in the ground. I am done being here. I start my walk around town. I got sidetracked away from the door because of what had happened. I still didn’t know how to handle the situation but I knew I needed to keep moving forward. I didn’t have much of a choice anymore.
I was walking toward a street I had once known in the real world. I turned because I knew it would be too hard to walk down the street. When I was little I watched my best friend get killed by her father on that street. Her mom and dad had gotten divorced because he always abused her mom. She completely cut her out of her life and he didn’t like that. A few months after the divorce her dad showed up while her mom was at work.
He dragged her outside by her hair and beat her on the sidewalk until she couldn’t move. He pulled out a gun and shot her three times in the head. She was only 10 years old at the time. I was at her house that night. When she saw her dad pull up she pushed me in the closet and told me not to move until she came back. After I heard her screaming I walked to the kitchen window that overlooked the street and watch him beat my best friend and then shoot her in the head three times. Three times! When he started walking back up toward the house I ran back into the closet. I didn’t want him to find me because I knew it would be me next. He closed the door. I heard his car start and him peel out of the driveway. I ran outside to my friend's lifeless body and held it. I didn’t cry I just sat there and held her until the cops showed up. After they took her away I cried. At that point I knew she was gone. I gave my statement and went home. I haven’t been on that road since.
I had stopped walking while I was thinking about what happened that day. I turned around and walked back to the end of her street. I took a deep breath and took my first steps. I hadn’t taken a step like this in seven years. It was by far the hardest thing I have ever done or ever will do. I wasn’t ready for this. How could I ever be ready to walk down this road and see her house and that sidewalk. How could she ever forgive me for letting it happen. She was probably up there right now looking down on me thinking to herself what a horrible person I am for letting it happen.
Within seconds I was in front of her old house without even realizing that I had been walking. I turned to the door of the house I once called home. I started the long journey to the front door. I knew no one lived here because her mom wouldn’t let anyone touch the house after the incident. She owned it and wouldn’t let it go. I walked to the door and turned the knob. It popped open without any trouble. I walked in slowly just in case this was different too. No one was here and nothing had changed. I walked to the closet that was still wide open from that day. I walked to the kitchen and the curtains on the window were still partially cracked open. I walked to her room to see if there was anything in there that had been changed. I cracked the door open first and was hit with the smell of perfume and fingernail polish. I opened it a little further and saw a stone wall.
I slammed the door open. How could I forget? Her room had the same door. It was the door to her closet. Her parents thought it would be cool if their child had a retro room but it ended up looking more creepy than ever. I walked to the door and saw words had been etched deep into the wood. They said, “DON’T LEAVE US.” That was extremely creepy to me. Who was the “us” in all of these notes. I hadn’t met a person in this world that would leave a note on a dead girl's door for me. Why do these people want to be found? I don’t know what is going on but I don’t think I want to find out.
I grabbed the knob of the door and slowly started to turn it when I heard a voice. At first I thought it was all in my head again until I realized I could hear it talking from behind me. The voice was saying, “You left me. You let him beat me! You let him kill me! You can’t leave me anymore. You can’t leave us. We will keep you forever.” I was too scared to actually turn around to see if she was there but knew I had to face my fears. I knew  I had to face her. I turned around with my eyes closed and the voice continued, “You can’t even look at me! What kind of best friend are you? You are worthless! We will kill you!” I didn’t open my eyes. Instead I flew back around and grabbed the doorknob. I turned it and flung it open. I had never flown through a door so fast in my life. As soon as my feet touched the ground I heard the door shut. Whoever was behind me quit talking. I was alone again.
It was dark wherever I was. It smelt like a tree that had just been cut down because it was too old and then thrown into a river for several years. I swung my arms around me and felt something grab my hand. Whatever had grabbed my started pulling me away. I started to freak out. I felt myself being pulled downward. I took a step to be greeted by a flight of stair. I walked down them, not by choice but by force. Whatever was pulling me made me feel like it had a reason for pulling me. It knew something I didn’t. I get to the bottom of the stairs and aa light comes on. It takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust but when they do, I am completely alone in a room. I was right about the tree part. I was in the middle of what I was guessing to be a really big tree.
I walked around the inside the tree looking at the fine details, if there were any that were worth looking at. As I was walking around, I came across a small hole in the ground. It didn’t look bigger than that of a small mouse. I was confused so I bent down and looked a little closer. I reach down into the hole and feel the cold metal touch my fingers. I wrap my fingers around the small metal object and try to pull it out of the hole carefully, scared it will crumble inside of my hand. When I finally get my hand out of the hole, I open my hand to reveal the small metal key lying on my palm. I look around the inside of the tree again and this time my eyes land on a door. The door says freedom but it was scratched out and above the word freedom in big bolded letter was the word “HELL.” I was concerned for what would be waiting there was a small key hole in the door. I slide the key into the hole hoping things would be safer on the other side. I turned the key and opened the door. I was greeted by a bright light and the sounds of traffic.
Once my eyes readjusted to the lighting of this new place, I saw I was home. I had returned to the real world and I was sure of it. No one would know I was missing and no one would ask me about what had happened because I wasn’t taken in my sleep. I was a captive of my sleep. I was a slave of dreams.