Find Me

Chapter 3

She awoke to find herself in the dark. She lay for a moment, waiting for her eyes to adjust, but after many long minutes with no change, she started to get nervous. She sat up and found that she was not in her own bed, but instead on a ragged mattress with a threadbare blanket. Her heart began to pound. Where was she? She tried to remember what had happened, but her brain was too thick and fuzzy; it was like trying to wade through waist-high snow.

Swinging her legs over the side of the mattress, her feet immediately touched the floor; the mattress must just be lying on the bare hardwood. Shakily, she stood and reached out her arms blindly, taking a tentative step forward. Almost immediately, her fingers touched a wall. Keeping one hand on the wall, she stretched her arm out in the opposite direction and found that the walls were little more than arm length apart. Claustrophobia and fear clambered up her throat and began to strangle her, but she swallowed it down. She couldn't panic, not yet. She'd seen it on TV; when people panicked, they missed things. Maybe she could find a way out.

Keeping one hand on the wall next to her, she turned left and stretched out her other hand, taking slow, shuffling steps forward. After only two paces, she felt another wall. Running her fingers along the smooth surface, she desperately looked for a door or maybe--a window!

Her fingers felt the hard edge of the window frame, though it felt as though there was a thick piece of fabric stapled around it to keep the light out. Maybe if she could get it off, she could see outside, or even escape! She pulled at the corner, but the fabric held fast. Furrowing her brow, she felt for the individual staples and worked at pulling them out with her fingernails. It took a long while, and hurt as she ripped several of her nails down to the quick, but finally she was able to get the corner part free. Now that she had a better grip on the fabric, she braced herself, then pulled with all her might. There was the popping sound as several staples were torn from the frame and hit her. There was a loud rip, causing the cloth to tear away from the window to reveal--

--nothing. It was just as impossibly dark as it had been before. She sprang up and reached toward the window, the glass cool under her fingers. There must have been something covering the window from the outside. She tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. 

Tears filled her eyes and threatened to spill, but she couldn't give up yet.  She still needed to try to find the door. Sniffing and trying to get her shaking breath under control, she continued to feel around the exterior of the room. She never bumped into anything, so there must not have been anything in it besides the mattress. It didn't seem like the room was big enough to fit anything else anyway. 

Finally, on the opposite side of the room from the window, she felt it; the door, made of what felt like a very solid wood. She grasped the handle and tried to turn it, but it didn't move. It didn't even rattle. No, she thought, pulling even harder. Nothing. Panic welled and finally spilled over inside her. She was trapped and there was no way out.

Screaming, she pounded at the door. "Let me out! Let me out!" No one came, so she pounded harder and harder and screamed louder and louder, not even bothering with words, just shrieking as loudly and shrilly as possible. Nobody came, which fueled her fury and her panic even more. Throwing herself on the floor, she kicked at the door in the same way she used to when her parents locked her in her room when she was having a tantrum when she was little. She kicked and screamed for what felt like hours until finally, exhausted, she just lay on the hard floor and cried herself to sleep.