Path to Freedom

A Story by Loukil

I woke up with a jolt, and sat up. Unaware of my surroundings, I surveyed the room. I couldn’t seem to remember how or why I got there.All my memories, gone. My eyes settled on a wall, except it wasn’t a wall, it was a mirror. In the reflection I saw a ghost of what the girl staring sullenly back at me might have been. Skin stretched over bones seeming too sharp. Eyes as dark as coals seeming glazed over. Hair a messy golden halo surrounding sharp cheekbones and round chin. Arms seeming impossibly small and joints too big, knees bigger than the width of my thighs.Turning away from the mirror unable to look at my reflection any longer, I attempted to stand, and put my foot down onto the mercilessly stone cold floor and stood. Standing, which proved to be a challenge on its own I discovered, as soon as I found out I was unable to do so without leaning onto the bed.

In the room stood a single stainless steel table with nothing on it but an empty tray lined with a thin sheet of paper with nothing written on it. I laid my eyes on the door which was on the opposite side of the room and was filled with a fiery determination to leave this horrible place with its whitewashed walls. Launching myself from the bed to the wall with the intention of using it as support was a mistake. Too weak to even make it the whole way across, I crumpled onto the ground halfway between the bed and the wall. Having no intention of giving up I felt a spark budding deep in my chest and dragged myself to the wall and pushed myself up. My forehead was now coated with a film of sweat from all my efforts. Painstakingly I made my way to the door using the wall as support. Then, I reached the door and pushed its handle and it popped open.

I peeked into the hall which was eerily quiet and empty, but I didn’t care or notice. All that was on my mind was the fact that I needed to leave and the spark in my chest grew. I hadn’t any idea where to go so I just went where my feet took me. Forward. After what seemed like hours walking in the hallway, I was met with another door. Except this one looked heavy and was made of metal. I pushed the metal handle but the door didn’t budge so leaning my forehead on the door, I focused on breathing in and out, trying to push away the frustration rising so close to the edge of overpowering me. Then, I started again, going back the way I came from and passed by my room once again and peeked inside. Fear gripped my heart and I tried to heighten my pace and get away from the room where my memories of this world had started.

As I crept further away from the room the number of doors identical to mine began appearing and growing in number. I didn’t dare look inside the doors in fear of what I might find. Seeing myself in the mirror that took up a whole wall in the room was enough. I didn’t feel like having to bear witness someone else in the same state as I was in.

That’s when I heard them. The voices, coming from further down the hall. Stricken with panic I didn’t know what to do, frantically looking around I didn’t dare seek refuge in one of the rooms but, as the voices drew closer I felt I had no choice. I entered a room and was plunged into darkness. Relief flooded me and I waited for the voices to pass. Waiting a few minutes after the voices had passes to make sure they were gone I opened the door a sliver and light flooded into the room. Turning back I saw what I had been trying to avoid the most. On a bed lying there was a young boy. No older than seven years old, with tubes piercing his flesh in more areas than I cared to look for. And just like in my room there was a mirror taking up a whole wall.

The boy flashed open his eyes and looked straight at me. Giving me a blank stare, nothing less, nothing more.I backed out of the room wanting to leave the inhumane look I was receiving. I clicked the door shut behind me and continued my trek down the hall. I reached a glass door that led onto a terrace holding a few tables and had brown wilted grass. There were no other doors except the doors to the rooms holding horrors such as myself. I walked into the terrace and immediately the air burned my lungs. I powered on, to a balcony I spotted and looked out onto the horizon.

Looking out into what the world had become I made a choice.

Not wanting any part of it. I climbed up on the balcony ledge as the setting sun lit my golden halo of hair into a fiery red. The terrace door clicked open and I glanced behind me. The young boy stood there. Giving me the same blank stare with his icy blue eyes while blood seeped out, of the places he had ripped out the tubes, and bloomed onto his white nightgown.

I turned back around and my closed eyes.

Willing myself to calm down I stood there breathing in the burning air, then stepped down from the balcony ledge. I made my decision. Fear and doubt, I decided, had no place in me at that moment. ‘‘It’s time to go.’’ I walked to the boy and took his hand as he gazed at me with curiosity. The first hint of emotions I had seen blossom from his face. I pushed open the door and stepped back into the white hallway.