Welcome to a Nightmare

Chapter 39: Battling Inner Demons

I must escape, Jane Doe thinks to herself as she sits in her cell. She stares at the thick concrete walls surrounding her. While they were supposed to make her feel safe, there is still that feeling in the back of her mind... that this place was more dangerous than the outside world. She also can't shake that rush of energy she'd felt a couple of days ago. It was like it gave her some strength and some hope that she could discover her identity again. She wanted desperately to fight for a way out...

However, the moment she stands up, she loses her nerve as she had been conditioned to do so by her captors. Her knees buckle and she sits back on the bed, her breathing becoming uneven and irregular. She was supposed to fear the world outside her cell; there were people out there who wanted her dead or to take advantage of her...

The world is a very scary place, the thoughts fill her mind. So many ways to lose your skin... the number of ways you can die is infinite....

All those terrible thoughts come rushing back into her mind, even though she doesn't want them to.

There is no one out there who loves you...

She feels the tears burn in her eyes as her entire body trembles erratically with that fear that HIM and Fiona have instilled in her mind. She wants to fight it, but the dread and distress continue to take over her body. She lays down on the creaky bed and turns away from the door, trying to bring her breathing under control. She closes her eyes and tries to recapture that feeling the earthquake had given her. She wanted those images back in her mind, they gave her true comfort and for the first time in a long time relieved the twisted knot in her stomach. Those things had to have been memories of her real-life; that man with the long hair and brown eyes. His soft voice as he spoke to her and the smile he wore as the two of them danced in very fancy clothing. And the baby... the sweet, innocent face that had laid in her arms, no matter how briefly. She felt great love towards this strange child and somehow, she just knew, deep inside that, he was her son... Those two people... they had to be her family... they had to be...

Her shaky hands clench into fists and her teeth bite her lip to the point where it could draw blood. She had to find these people... she didn't know why she'd passed out when she'd confronted Fiona about it several days ago, but she wanted her freedom.

Deciding that what she could not see would not make her lose her nerve, she stands up with her eyes closed. She stamps her barefoot on the concrete floor.

"I want to see Fiona!" she shouts with all the courage she can manage, keeping the faces of those two people in her mind.

At first, there is no response. Maybe HIM could not hear her or he was ignoring her demands. Her stomach did turn at the thought of the brute captor banging on her door again, but as long as those faces stayed in her mind, she'd be fine.

Slowly, she opens her eyes just enough to navigate to the cell door. There was the tiny slot that food was delivered through and some air holes at the top of the heavy, steel-reinforced door, but Jane opens the slot and shouts out at HIM.

"I want to see Fiona!" she screams out into the black hallway.

There is a pause as her unusually strong voice echoes within... wherever this prison was.

"Do you hear me?! I want to see her now?!"

Eventually, heavy boots can be heard coming down the hall. They were all too familiar to Jane Doe, and she swallows hard. She can't be afraid.

"What do you want Freak?" his deep voice asks in great annoyance. Through the slot, Jane/Belle can barely see the large chest and torso of HIM. Her hand quivers slightly as she holds the metal piece separating her from this brute.