A Moment In Reality

A Story by Chelsey Keller

Do you ever feel like you just loose touch with all reality? You don't know where you are, you're lost and scared and can't really make anything out. There's a lot of people where ever you are, well what you assume to be people, and you feel your lips moving and forming the word “Help” but you can't hear anything that's coming out. In fact, you're not even sure who you are. You can't remember anything about yourself. Where you're from, what your name is, what color your eyes are or even what you look like. Everyone around you has a blank stare and a gray complexion. You're trapped in this room with strangers but worst of all you're trapped in this room forever. You don't know if it's been 5 seconds, 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, 5 months, or 5 years, but you know, you know that you want out and you'll do what ever it takes to do it.

Pretty soon the walls start to expand, then fade away and the gray, depressing faces of the strangers start to transform. At first, you aren't too sure what's happening, but then you see a field appear before your very eyes and the scary faces turn into bright wild flowers, fluffy white clouds, innocent sparrows, and a warm summer sun. You start to walk towards the hill and then you begin to remember.

You see a huge, broken up, red barn in the distance and a little, yellow, two story farm house with a stained glass attic window and you then remember that this is your home. A smile grows wide across your tired face and all you can do is laugh and run towards where you belong. “That was nothing but a bad dream!” You shout out loud for all the world to hear. And just when everything is perfect you turn your head to the left for a split second and then you see it. Your worst nightmare. The tree.

The oak tree with the low branch and the noose. The noose that ruined your life. And not just yours, but your families. Your eyes start to water and you fall on your knees. You close your eyes and then everything begins to turn black. And then everything starts to fade away. The smile you once had is back to a frown and full of pain. You think, “No, no no no, please, come back, I was free.” The walls form again, and the faces are back and you can't talk anymore and you're cold, and confused and miss your family and then you forget everything in a blink of an eye, but you do know one thing. That this is Hell and there's no getting out.