The Distance Between Us

Six.

My eyes slowly opened, the darkness of the room reminding me that I was still down in the basement; my heart began to hurt thinking of the previous events that unfolded before I was knocked unconscious.

Tears formed in my eyes again as all of the memories came back, and all of the pain that I had felt. As I laid there on the concrete floor, my body was numb, bruises had formed in various parts of my body, and I had dried blood all over me. My head throbbed in pain from being hit in the head so many times, I even believed that I might have a concussion.

When will all of this end? Will it even end? What if I never get found and I have to live the rest of my life in this room?

My mind couldn't bear the thought of having to live here for the rest of my life. I knew that I had two options: Wait to find another opportunity to find an escape, or cut my life short and find a plan to end it sooner rather than live in this agony.

My mind began to hurt more just trying to weigh out both options. I continued to cry as I laid there staring at the ceiling above, trying to think of any possible solution.

I was lost in thought when I heard the door upstairs open, then footsteps began to make their way down. I quickly wiped any remaining tears off of my face and closed my eyes to pretend that I was asleep.

The footsteps then reached the bottom of the staircase, and then opened the concrete door. The footsteps slowly walked in, and I heard them put something on the ground, then close the door and the footsteps made their way back up and out through the front of the house.

Once the house was quiet, I opened my eyes and noticed that there was a new tealight placed on a tray with food. The old tealight that was in the room ran out of batteries, so I had no light whatsoever until now.

I looked at the food, and I wanted to throw up. Before I knew that it was Joel that had kidnapped me, I used to get really tasty meals. But, ever since I found out, all I was given was rotten and moldy food.

I threw out all of the food off the plate and onto the tray as I grabbed the plate and smashed it onto the ground. Once the plate shattered into pieces, I grabbed the sharpest piece and placed all of the other broken pieces back onto the tray.

I slowly pulled myself up, wincing in pain as I made my way to the wall that could help me open the door. I used any strength that I had left to jump and push the same part of the wall from last time, and I fell to the ground due to all of the pain in my body not supporting my actions. I sat there for a few minutes until I was able to hoist myself back up and attempted to pull the door open.

Every muscle in my body hurt as I tried to pull the door open. I opened it just a crack and ran out of energy, so I had to sit down once again for a few minutes until I was able to get back up and pull the door some more. I had to repeat this process for what felt like ages until I was able to squeeze through the smallest crack of the door. I sat there and cried as the pain was so unbearable and squeezing past the door did not help either.

I felt my entire body throbbing in pain, my stomach growling from hunger. The last actual meal I had was the day before I found out who my kidnapper was. My hair was a knotted mess, and my clothes were all old and stained with blood.

My head had also been in extreme pain from all of the falls and beatings I received, I was sure I had a concussion. I had moments when my vision would be blurry, and sometimes I couldn't even recall some events that had just happened.

I must have had another moment of those since I had fallen asleep at the bottom of the staircase and woke up confused as to how I had gotten there. I took a look at my surroundings and then slowly began to remember some minor details as to how I managed to get to where I was.