Hidden Hero

Chapter 1 - A Major Breakthrough

8 years stuck in this prison. It's a complete nightmare. 

I bang my head against the wall. I can't remember it very well, but I'm very aware my own mother locked me in this place. I can't say why, because I have no clue. And then she abandoned me.

I don't even know what happened to Neonilia. 

All I know is something about the city being set in flames. 

No one told me why. I've never had a single friend. I haven't seen the light in 8 years. I can't even remember what light looks like. I only know darkness. But if there is one thing I remember clearly, it's how much my mother hated me. 

I pretended I didn't know she was there. I pretended I didn't know she was going to stab me in my sleep. But I knew she was there. It scared me so much.

It's time I do something. "AHHHHHHHH!" I scream as I punch the wall as hard as I possibly can. I don't even make a dent in the friggin architecture. "OWWW!!!" I yelp. "New plan," I mutter to myself as I frantically shake my hand in pain. 

"That was probably stupid." Oh ya think you dummy? I think to myself and I roll my eyes in the stupidity of my own actions.

"UGHHH!!!" I complain. "This place SUCKS!! And who made these walls? What's the use of a wall if you can't break it??" Complete silence. 

I bang my hand against the wall again. I keep going at it until my fist is all bloody. "It's no dang use." I trudge over to the middle of the room. "Oh my gosh, I'm STARVING." I say.

I turn to look at the boxes and boxes of food. There's still a lot of food left, there's no doubt about that, but I'm very aware that I can only eat so much of the food that is there. "I'll starve if I run out," I tell myself. 

"I'll be stuck in this place until the point of death." I take a small box of wafers and start eating them.

Once I finish, I throw the cardboard into the corner, which is accumulating random trash. I turn to look at the wooden door that is keeping me from escaping this hellish place. 

I place a hand on the sanded wood and drag my palm across it.

"If only there was a way out." I try to peek through the peephole, but obviously my sickly mother put a mass amount of tape on it so I can't see anything."Well isn't that lovely," I deadpan to myself as I look around. 

There has got to be something in this place that can help me escape. I mean, sure, I've been trying to escape since I was 5 and finally got a grip that mother was not coming back, but that doesn't mean I won't find a way to escape now. There's got to be something.

Twisting and turning I look all over the place to see if I can find anything. "Okay, okay, there has to be something. Anything." 

I flip everything around. Half of the things in the room I literally have no clue what they are. It's too dark to see a single thing.

Today's going to be different. I try at most once a month to escape, hoping that something came my way, but the majority of my time in this nightmare is spent on being depressed and hopeless. 

But not today. 

I'm going to escape today if it kills me.

I look around and see a piece of wood in the corner. I gasp. A breakthrough! I run over to it and snatch it up in my hands.

 "HAHA!" I shout victoriously. "I've found something that is actually useful!!! It's been so long!!!"

 I know I haven't seen light in about forever, but I still am aware of how fire works.

I just need to simply figure out how I'm going to snap this wood in half and then I'll rub them together until sparks fly. Easy. 

As I try to snap the wood, though, I realize this job is tougher than it looks.I smash it against the concrete walls until I hear a loud cracking noise. "GOT IT!!" I shout. I smile; I know what smiling feels like, but I haven't smiled for years. 

It's been so long. I rub the two pieces of shattered wood together frantically, trying to get sparks of flames. "

I know how the world works, you stupid piece of wood," I mutter.

"You're just lame." 

I rub them together until I'm sure I'm experiencing carpal tunnel firsthand. "Must. . . keep. . . rubbing. . ." I'm exhausted by now and sick of the world's crap.

 "Dang it, this sucks." I'm about the give up when a spark shoots up.

"W-what??" I ask. A tiny flame ignites and I shriek in pain. 

"OH MY GOSH THAT'S SO BRIGHT!!!" I scream in a panicked voice, probably looking like an idiot. I keep trying to stare at the flame, despite the pain that it causes me.

I blink several times and it takes about 5 minutes, but I'm finally able to get used to the sight of the fire. I wave around the stick of wood. 

"Okay, I've got fire." I note. "Now I've got to figure out what to do. There are plenty of options; I could simply burn the place down, I could burn the windows, I could fry the door. . ."

I go on and on about the possibilities. 

"Eh screw it I'm just gonna wing it."

 I hold up my 'torch'. I wave it around and watch as the yellowish-orangish flame dances around in the air and flickers on and off again. "Woah." I mutter to myself in awe.

I've never seen fire before, but from how it was described to me I'm sure this is it. I walk over to the wooden door. 

"I don't think concrete catches on fire, so I think that this is the best option." I note to myself as I carry the torch over to the door.

I start to put the flames over to the door, but the fire starts spreading across the wood I'm holding. 

"Oh gosh oh no oh gosh oh no-" I mutter in panic as the fire reaches towards my hand. The wood is completely covered in flames, but there's something strange about the scene. . . 

I'm still holding on.

"Isn't fire supposed to burn?" I ask no one in particular out of curiosity. "If so, why am I not burning?" I squint at the flames I'm casually holding in my hand. 

I blink in confusion. "Whatever," I mutter as I place my left hand on the wall, my right hand still holding the flaming piece of wood. I look away from the wall for a moment. Instead, I stare at my right hand. 

Fire IS supposed to burn, isn't it?? As I stare at the wood, I see light in the corner of my eye. 

"What the hell?" I whisper and I turn around to see something horrifying; the whole entire front wall, including the door, is lit up in flames.