Travis reached it.
“Sarah!” he cried, banging on the door with his fists. “Sarah, don't do this!”
It was a basement, a normal house basement with a water heater and a washer/dryer...and a set of stairs along the wall, the lowest step the farthest away. I ran for the stairs, swinging around the end of the banister and clattered up toward the door at the top.
The door gave, and I burst into a kitchen. White linoleum, an old white fridge, plain brown cabinets. My heart skipped a beat at the sight...of normalcy. Sunlight poured through the window over the sink. Glorious, amazing sunlight. I wanted to stand there, soaking the blessed yellow light into my pores, and never move again.
To my right, a doorway led into a dining room. To my left, a living room. It all looked so normal, so peaceful, so achingly beautiful in its simplicity. I could never have imagined faded armchairs, floral couches and shag carpet could inspire such a feeling of joy.
But there was one notable thing about all of this that wasn't normal, and that was the bars on the windows. So, no leaving that way.
I walked silently through the house, my eyes constantly sweeping from corner to corner, my breath tight in my throat, jumping at every creak of floorboards or flickering of shadow. I had no idea if the Master was here. He could be hiding around any corner or behind any piece of furniture.
Through the living room was a door. Heart in my throat I ran for this, yanking it open. I stepped out onto the porch, gulping in the fresh, cool air, hope so large in my chest that my ribs hurt.
I raised my eyes past the porch, and past the gravel driveway.
In that split second all vestiges of hope exploded into shards of glass. I staggered, feeling as if every bit of air had been knocked out of my lungs. Clinging to one of the posts that held up the porch roof, I cried. I gasped for breath, held up only by the splintery wood beneath my hands.
Out there, beyond the driveway and a short barb-wire fence, was the reason for my despair. A bare, wasted landscape rolled out before me, rising in the distance to soaring mesas, plateaus upheld by dark, sheer cliffs. In the spaces between here and there stood the pale green of sagebrush and dry grasses, animated by the erratic flutters of rolling tumbleweed.
I'm never going to escape. My home was a place of trees, and green things, and water. I had never even been to a place like this before, except through movies and TV. I had no idea where I was, nothing besides my feet to transport me, and not even any shoes.
My heart fell even further at the noise from behind me. “Shouldn't have done that,'' Master growled, enclosing my arm in a grip of iron and pulling me from the post so quickly that I cried out with the sudden pain of splinters embedding themselves in my palms.
I was dragged, by my arm and my hair, back into the house. Through the living room and the kitchen, down the stairs, through the basement to the door where Travis still pounded and yelled. Master unlocked the door and pushed it open, revealing the rather disheveled young man just inside.
“Fool,” Master snarled at Travis, releasing my hair for a moment to backhand the younger man across the face. Travis reeled back, colliding with the wall.
Master swept past him, hand once again wound painfully through my hair, pulling me toward my cell.
By now the part of my brain in charge of emotion had shut down completely. I saw everything as through the eyes of someone else. I was thrown roughly to the ground.
Master knelt beside me on the ground, shoving his face into mine. He grinned, his foul breath washing over me as he revealed his ragged teeth. “It was a test. You FAILED!” He roared in my face, making me cry out and flinch back from the heat of his breath. He stood up and began to unbuckle his
“Sarah!” he cried, banging on the door with his fists. “Sarah, don't do this!”
It was a basement, a normal house basement with a water heater and a washer/dryer...and a set of stairs along the wall, the lowest step the farthest away. I ran for the stairs, swinging around the end of the banister and clattered up toward the door at the top.
The door gave, and I burst into a kitchen. White linoleum, an old white fridge, plain brown cabinets. My heart skipped a beat at the sight...of normalcy. Sunlight poured through the window over the sink. Glorious, amazing sunlight. I wanted to stand there, soaking the blessed yellow light into my pores, and never move again.
To my right, a doorway led into a dining room. To my left, a living room. It all looked so normal, so peaceful, so achingly beautiful in its simplicity. I could never have imagined faded armchairs, floral couches and shag carpet could inspire such a feeling of joy.
But there was one notable thing about all of this that wasn't normal, and that was the bars on the windows. So, no leaving that way.
I walked silently through the house, my eyes constantly sweeping from corner to corner, my breath tight in my throat, jumping at every creak of floorboards or flickering of shadow. I had no idea if the Master was here. He could be hiding around any corner or behind any piece of furniture.
Through the living room was a door. Heart in my throat I ran for this, yanking it open. I stepped out onto the porch, gulping in the fresh, cool air, hope so large in my chest that my ribs hurt.
I raised my eyes past the porch, and past the gravel driveway.
In that split second all vestiges of hope exploded into shards of glass. I staggered, feeling as if every bit of air had been knocked out of my lungs. Clinging to one of the posts that held up the porch roof, I cried. I gasped for breath, held up only by the splintery wood beneath my hands.
Out there, beyond the driveway and a short barb-wire fence, was the reason for my despair. A bare, wasted landscape rolled out before me, rising in the distance to soaring mesas, plateaus upheld by dark, sheer cliffs. In the spaces between here and there stood the pale green of sagebrush and dry grasses, animated by the erratic flutters of rolling tumbleweed.
I'm never going to escape. My home was a place of trees, and green things, and water. I had never even been to a place like this before, except through movies and TV. I had no idea where I was, nothing besides my feet to transport me, and not even any shoes.
My heart fell even further at the noise from behind me. “Shouldn't have done that,'' Master growled, enclosing my arm in a grip of iron and pulling me from the post so quickly that I cried out with the sudden pain of splinters embedding themselves in my palms.
I was dragged, by my arm and my hair, back into the house. Through the living room and the kitchen, down the stairs, through the basement to the door where Travis still pounded and yelled. Master unlocked the door and pushed it open, revealing the rather disheveled young man just inside.
“Fool,” Master snarled at Travis, releasing my hair for a moment to backhand the younger man across the face. Travis reeled back, colliding with the wall.
Master swept past him, hand once again wound painfully through my hair, pulling me toward my cell.
By now the part of my brain in charge of emotion had shut down completely. I saw everything as through the eyes of someone else. I was thrown roughly to the ground.
Master knelt beside me on the ground, shoving his face into mine. He grinned, his foul breath washing over me as he revealed his ragged teeth. “It was a test. You FAILED!” He roared in my face, making me cry out and flinch back from the heat of his breath. He stood up and began to unbuckle his
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