Behind the Walls

Behind the Walls

“No! No! I swear I didn’t murder the Avery’s. I’m telling you, I’m innocent.” You flail against the mute guard escorting you to your cell and, in return, receive a sharp slap across the face. White hot pain jolts through your spine.

How thoughtful, you think sarcastically, I have my own bodyguard.

The narrow corridor is blank with the exception of a few doors, leaving you to your jumbled thoughts. Occasionally, a barbaric shriek is heard from behind a wall as you pass. Fright claws at your sanity and threatens to overcome you, but you manage to stay strong.

After walking through the endless hallway for years, your guard stops abruptly, turns, and speaks in a gruff voice.

“You will possibly spend the remainder of your life here. Don’t bother trying to escape; it isn’t possible. Food and water will not be delivered to you. Within the next week, if you aren’t dead, you will be released a free man, but you will certainly be insane.” He pauses for a moment and smirks. “In case you’re wondering, no one has made it out alive. I doubt you will either, but we all enjoy a good show, now don’t we?”

As you speak, your voice quakes. “We?”

“Why of course. There’s an audience watching your every move, listening to your every breath, laughing at your every breakdown. Not only does it teach a lesson, but it also provides excellent entertainment. Don’t hide your emotions; nobody likes that.”

With that, he faces the wall and murmurs a sequence of numbers. You jump as a door materializes to the side and opens. The guard gives you one last menacing smile and roughly throws you in. You land sprawled out on the ground, completely helpless to the mysteries awaiting you. A telltale click behind you indicates that the door locked. ...

... middle of paper ...

...m to your face and take a sip. The metallic taste of iron fills your mouth and you immediatly gag.

Intense fury burns within you, fueled by scrambled thoughts. The world whirls while wisps of unanswered questions drift through your mind.

What's happening?

Why am I here?

Do I want to continue this life?

Something inside you tells you to calm down. You pause and take deep breathes. Inhale… Exhale… Inhale… Exhale… The rush of oxygen gushing toward your brain only enhances your pounding heading. Your heart still beats swiftly, as if you had just fallen from the top of a skyscraper.

At first you think you imagined it, but no, the echo of manic laughter fills your ears. Someone else is in the prison. Finally, at long last, an angel had seen that this isolation, this torture, is barbaric. A wide grin spreads across your face; your lips stretch and crack even more.