Outlawed

The walls were old and the dry wall was almost broken through. A steady drip fell from the ceiling causing a puddle of water to collect on the cement floor. My head hurt, my heart was pounding and the ticking of a clock seemed to ring louder and louder in my ears with each passing second. In a desperate attempt to break free, I reached out to touch the metal bars which were keeping me imprisoned. The rusty metal was cold to the touch, and a small pool of crimson blood dripped from my wrists. I was handcuffed. The silver steel which bound my wrists was cutting my skin. “Help.” I managed to mumble, but the whisper yielded no response. I started to whimper which evolved into violent yelling. No one seemed to hear me. No one was around. Defeated, I leaned my back against the peeling wall and licked my lips. My vision was distorted from crying, and my lips tasted of blood and salt. The left side of my face ached which led me to wonder if someone or something had hit me. The minutes seemed to last for hours and the silence grew louder, until I was convinced I could no longer take it. I must have drifted off to sleep because I awoke to the steady sound of footsteps. “Hello?” I screamed out.

“Look who finally woke up.” The man on the other end of the bars, said smirking. He grinned at me, sending chills through my bones. “Where am I?” I mumbled, barely audible enough for him to hear. His smirk grew into a full out smile as he answered slowly, “looks like you got yourself into a situation that you can’t get out of, sweetheart.”  I stared daggers at my captor. Instead of taking me seriously, he began to laugh, quietly at first, and then growing increasingly louder. “Stop.” I whispered, my throat burning and raw. He began to pace back and forth just inches from me on the other side of the bars. “Just let me go. What did I do?” He laughed louder. Questions began to race through my mind. Where was I? Who was this man who imprisoned me? Why was I being held captive?

Irritated, I stood up and violently kicked the wall. Much to my dismay, the only result I got was a sore foot. This only seemed to make the man laugh harder, which angered me even more. I erupted into a violent fit, kicking, screaming, hitting and punching the walls as hard as I could. “Throwing a tantrum isn’t going to get you out of here.” He said in between laughs. My hands were numb from the handcuffs at this point, so I took a deep breath and swung my arms into the wall. My swing had made a fist-sized hole and with that, I flashed my captor a sarcastic grin and began tearing down the plaster.

Once the man realized what I had done, he began to panic. “Stop that!” he screamed. He began to dig through his pockets, for what I assumed was the key to the bars separating us. I began tearing through the wall as fast as possible, though with my hands bound, the degree of difficulty had definitely increased. After a few seconds, my hard work had finally paid off. The once fist-sized whole was now large enough for a small child to fit through. Just as I began to fit my hands through the wall, I heard the click of the prison bars being unlocked. I crawled faster and faster until, finally I had made it through. Luckily, the man was too large to fit through the small childlike hole, so while his rough hands continued to tear down the remaining plaster, I took off running.

Breathing frantically, I searched for a way out of the mysterious prison. The rest of the facility was in poor condition as well, for the pipes running along the ceiling were rusty and leaking water. I blindly stumbled into a room that led me to a staircase, and reluctantly I began to climb the creaky steps. The hallway to which they led was poorly lit, and I had to squint my eyes in order to see. “Hello?” I whispered. No one answered. Approaching a knob-less door, I pushed it open and walked into what appeared to be a bathroom. The lights flickered as I peered into the broken mirror hanging above the old sink. The image of my bruised and bloodied face made my stomach uneasy, and I backed away from the mirror. There had been no sign of my captor, but I figured that he couldn’t be too far behind me. I returned to the dim hallway, and continued to explore. The walls were bare, and the floorboards had begun to come up in some spots. As I came to a bend in the hallway, I could just make out a silhouette. “Hello?” I whispered. “Who’s there?” Walking closer, I saw that there was a boy in a jail cell, much like the one I had been in. He looked up at me, as a look of recognition came over his face. “I- I thought you were gone.” He whispered. “She should be.” An eerie voice spoke from behind me, I spun around only to come face to face with the man who had imprisoned me. “Hello, love. Ring a bell?” My captor said grinning. He pulled out a syringe and injected me in the neck. A cold pain shot through my veins like ice, as I struggled to keep my eyes open. Hello, love? Love. That was it. Love had been outlawed and the boy in the jail cell was the one I once called mine. A drowsiness overtook me, as my eyes closed and I drifted further and further away from consciousness.

Author's Note

I know the grammar isn't perfect, but what does everyone think so far?