Is This Freedom

Chapter One

It was just the five of us in that room. We weren’t tied up we were Just in a type of cage that you would find a bear in. The cage had an awful smell of death, I know this because he killed another victim who had been here longer than us in front of us and said if we don’t watch then we are next. It was me, mom, dad, Ronnie, and Alex. I am the middle child, my sister Ronnie is the oldest and my sister Alex is the youngest. We are all two years apart.

Trapped and exhausted is how it felt to wake up; terrified and cold to go to sleep. Well, get used to it that has been our life for two years. All we remember is watching a movie in Screenz Plaza and waking up in a dark cold building that had rust on every piece of metal in sight. At night you heard the sound of rats lollygagging and crawling, watching and waiting for one of us to give so it can feast. You heard the sound of what seemed like a large man walking in work boots back and forth at a steady pace. We’ve gotten so use to it, it’s as if it puts us to sleep. In the daytime, which we only knew the difference because of a hole in the ceiling the size of a can of pop, we saw a man in an all-black trench coat who was frightening to look at. His fingernails were mold green and his hair was black and he had a bald spot at the center of his head. He was as tall as a front door to a store. And as ugly as the witch in our old childhood book mom would read us to bed. It has been a while since we have taken a shower because he only lets us shower once a month, well at least that’s what the shower tallies say. He feeds us like guests but that’s weird in a kidnap situation. He forces us to listen to his jokes and stories and everyone puts on a fake laugh and smile because if you don’t he will get mad and beat on us or throw thing at us that leave bruises or cuts, anything with a mark. You can tell we are not happy because when we smile our eyes don’t squint and our cheeks don’t align well with the expression.

We don’t have the slightest clue of anyone looking for us. We can’t hear anything outside of the building. They can’t hear us because we have tried multiple times. We almost escaped once because dad knocked out the man when he was giving dad his dinner plate and grabbed the keys. After he released us all he grabbed a weapon and we went off wondering through the building. There were many passage ways to exit the building but they were all dead ends and one door had the word exit on it but it required a key to open it. Dad whispered, “we can’t risk going back for the key because that would be too close of a call to get out”. So he took his weapon and hit the closest window that was right behind me. The window wouldn’t break but it cracked and dad kept trying; that is when a woman came and shot dad with a tranquilizer, then she pointed it at us and yelled “put our hands up”! We thought she was a good lady until she called for the tall man that dad knocked out. After that, we ended up back in the cage and the man said he wouldn’t feed us until his bruise went away. We didn’t see him for weeks, he left us with a bucket to do business and two water bottles to drink from.

Now we plot and create scenarios of bad situations and possibilities. We will be prepared for the next breakout. It has been too long, we have been trapped and tortured for three years. Our next plan is to escape in the dark because we found sources of light that have a shine in the dark that can help us escape. They were left by previous victims. We have visitors, but not our kind, he brings his own torture friends over and they get drunk and play games like beat the animals with us being the animals of course. I think he was nice once before because of the way he feeds us and talks but I have a clue that the lady we seen that one day is boss. I told mom that that lady could be talking him into doing this but staying away from us so she doesn’t get caught when he is caught. But we will find out. I still remember how she looks. She had brownish blonde hair, she was white and she was about the height of a horse, she had a southern accent and she wore boots with a heel and an old sweater that smelt like cancer sticks. She looked as though she was in her late 40s to early 50s. She was no healthy one. She looked like she was ready to pass out any minute.

We are all getting old now and we are missing out on our good years, probably the most important years of our life. We have no idea what month it is but we think it is close to Alex’s birthday since hers was the last birthday of the year in our family. We’ve missed out on holidays and friends but I wonder if they are looking for us. If someone were looking for us who would it be? I thought. When we rarely contact anyone. “Only god knows” is what mom says when I ask those types of questions. But she said she feels like we are getting closer and closer to freedom.

Ronnie caught some type of sickness, we all knew it was because the lack of cleanliness in our cage. We were all worried and sad because if she couldn’t fight the sickness, then death would have been too much to bare.