Freedom's Maze: Maze Of Secrets

Prologue - Part 1

Abigail. Year: 2012

It was another one of those nights. Another one of those fearful nights that had her pressing  her back to the far left corner of her small square room.  As callow as it may seem, this lone corner is her main defence against the ever looming fear of any impending danger. A futile attempt at security but it was the only way she could get herself to feel safe. The only way to keep her feet planted to the ground so that she wouldn't run away in an erratic fright, screaming out to the world the truth that lies behind these walls. The horrid, inexcusable truth that kept her awake every night. Not because she couldn’t take the nightmares that haunted her or the suspicious creak of the trees that loomed outside her window, no she did not sleep because she was afraid. Afraid that she couldn’t bear to pay the cost of such a blissful retreat. Abigail hated the fear of sleep she had obtained,  and she despised the distance her situation put between her and freedom.

Freedom, such a foreign word to her though she desired it so much, but she had no freedom. No freedom to sleep peacefully in her "home" without constantly worrying about the vulnerable state she put herself in.

Sleep was a risk. A risk that Abby almost never had the luxury of taking. It was law and tonight was not the night to get rebellious.

 Even as she thought this Abby’s eyelids began to get heavy and the nights sky whispered for her to rest in its meager attempt of security. A cool breeze slid through the cracks in her window and danced around her arms forcing her to cuddle into herself. Soon, she found warmth in the night and slowly started to fall into its embrace, enveloping herself in this new found cool warmth. And for a moment there was no danger. No threat. No reason for her to press her back so stiffly to the wall.

Fall... let go. The wind seemed to croon. Tempting her to forget about the risk and just fall with abandon. Just fall into the night, the warm cool night, and trust that everything would be okay.

Trust? It would so be nice to trust...

But I don't trust anyone.

Abby shook it off, determined.

She couldn't go to sleep. Not tonight. Not when the wind blew so perfectly and the urge to trust made itself known. No, she can’t fall tonight. Tonight was becoming too much like that night. The sounds were too similar. Her clothes were too warm and the temptation to sleep was too high. No, she couldn’t fall, no matter how tempting it may be. This night was too much like that night and Abby couldn't, wouldn’t, go through that again.

At that thought her back returned to the stiff rigid angle she'd purposely put it in before and her eyes opened till they began to water at the sides. Her muscles started to ache from the position but Abby didn't move to put them at ease, she didn't want to be comfortable. Within the layers of comfort there was danger, she'd learned that that night. And now she was about to re-learn that lesson. No matter how much the memory made her bruises burn. Tonight, she would welcome the pain. Tonight, she needed the pain.

Her eyes remained wide as the ghost of her past revealed its unwanted presence. She let the past take her as she stared into the darkness and opened herself to the brutal memory of that night.