Note: The formatting of this story is a little wonky and I can't figure out how to fix it.
----
Ever since the dream, I had trouble sleeping. I was afraid that I would have the terrifying
vision again. I wouldn't even close my eyes some nights, for fear of drifting off, but eventually I would fall asleep anyways. I tried to talk myself out of my superstition, It was just a dream. What are you afraid of? I thought, to no avail. I was still terrified of the sneering, skeletal figures that had haunted my dreams.
I heard the food slot slide open. My lunch was here. I grimaced at what was supposed to be
mashedpotatos. It looked more like a genetically altered jellyfish. I was disgusted. Even though I had stopped outwardly complaining about it, I still thought it was gross. As I was chewing the tasteless food, I developed a splitting migraine. It felt like a smoldering hot meteor had embedded itself in my brain. I cradled my throbbing head in my hands. As I looked down, I saw an off-white piece of paper lying face-down right below the food slot on the floor. I stood up, walked over to it, and picked it up. How did this get here? I thought, Was it on my tray and fell off when I picked it up? I flipped the paper over. On it, in neat, cursive handwriting, it said,
Wait until the power failure
- A
As I sat back down on my bed, the springs creaking, I wondered what the note had meant. What power failure? Who was A? I was confused. I sighed, deciding I would take a nap to clear my head. For some reason, sleeping in the daylight, I was not as afraid of my dreams as I was during the night.
I lied down, attempting to combat the insomnia that had plagued me since I was young. Just as I was about to drift off, in my half-awake state, I saw all of the lights go off. I swung my feet off the bed, flinching slightly because of the cold floor. I couldn't see well. The only light came through the barred window at the back of my cell. I gazed at my door, suspicious. Was it possible that it was open? I tried pulling it as hard a I could. It flew open, sending me reeling backwards into the wall. I groaned, cursing myself for my clumsiness.
I made my way carefully out of the room. The darkened corridor was completely empty. It was eerie how silent this place, usually bustling with guards, was. As I was pondering this, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I spun around, swinging my arms violently. My fist hit something soft and squishy.
"Hey!" a voice groaned, "What'd you do that for?!" A young boy, probably two or three years younger than me stepped out of the dark holding his cheek, shining a flashlight in my eyes.
"You startled me," I sighed in relief. It wasn't a guard. But still, who was this figure? Why was he here? "What are you doing?" I questioned
"I'm getting you out of here!" he said, staring at me like I was the stupidest person ever,
"Didn't you get my note? I slipped it in with your mashed potatoes!" He wrinkled his nose, apparently just as disgusted with the food as I was.
I started to say something about how cryptic the note was, but he interrupted me.
"We have to go," he said, "Hey, what are you staring at? C'mon, I know a place we can hide! My buddy said we can crash in his basement."
I quickly stopped gazing at him, in utter awe of what he was doing. Why was he rescuing me, of all people? It didn't make sense. "Hey," he said, shaking me out of my thought, "Are you coming or not?" He raised his eyebrows questioningly. I nodded, still in shock. We began to run through the asylum, other inmates too batty to realize they could open their doors. As we neared the front doors, the boy (I still didn't know his name) pulled out a concealed handgun from his pocket.
He looked around the corner, checking for guards, presumably. Deeming it clear, he motioned for me to follow him. We ran through the lobby, stopping at the doors. The boy looked at me, grinned, and walked over to the window. He then proceeded to smash it with his foot.
I stared at him. "What'd you do that for? You know the doors are never locked right?" During my free time, I had observed the guards opening and closing the door without locking it.
"I know," he replied.
"Then why'd you smash the window?" I cried, exasperated.
"For fun," He stated simply.
I shook my head as we stepped into the daylight, away from the darkness of the hell that held me for so long. I looked around, seeing the beautiful, twisting, turning patterns of nature for the first time in a while. I grinned and looked at the boy.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Adrian." he replied
"I'm Ash-" I started, a popping sound cutting me off. I felt a sharp pain in my left calf, and immediately knew I had been shot. Though the pain was excruciating, Adrian was worse. He had suffered a shot to the stomach and was losing a lot of blood.
I looked around to see who our attacker was. It was a guard. He was walking toward us at a leisurely pace, as if he knew that was couldn't get away. He was right. Even if the wound on my leg didn't stop me, I wasn't leaving Adrian behind. Even though I had only known him for a brief amount of time, he had attempted to save me, which was more than anyone else had ever done for me.
The guard was slowly coming closer, still walking at a relaxed pace. It made me angry. He knew that we couldn't escape, and I knew it, too. We were so close to freedom, it wasn't fair.
The End.
