Chapter Text
Flashlight. Where is it? Your head hurts but you have to open your eyes. You can’t waste any more time in a dire situation such as your own. You never imagined something as horrid as this would happen to you, such a kind person you were. Attempting to rub your eyes, but you find your wrists bound, you sigh. You slowly pry your eyelids from your eyes, if only to see a barren basement then so be it.
To your surprise you are in an exceedingly elegant garden, moist with the late night’s downpour. You begin to regain your senses, ever so annoyingly slowly. Although it’s hard to be annoyed with such breathtaking surroundings.
Sight, the luscious grass esplanade rolls swiftly ‘till the forlorn pale beige brick wall. The paint has somewhat worn away in regions revealing a mucid burgundy shade of slab. In your peripherals, to one side you see a small lane of soil housing five formally dispersed half-sized pines. They’ve been trimmed to a precision cut oval and bear no seeds. Lining the pine row is a white palisade of metal in a classic floral pattern cut. The hedge trees lead up unto the brick wall, but stop a head’s length prior, the fencing outlasts the pines and plants itself onto the exterior of the aforementioned wall. Each tree and the space following amounted to twice the length of an arm, you were five metres away from the only escape you had. To your other side is a wall resembling that of the one in front of you, but longer and cut off about a metre from said wall to make way for a pebbled stone trail. Two cottage style windows are built in along with jail bars, the type you would see in shop windows but curly. If you looked down, there were old style air vents born of cement, they lay in line with the darling panes. Taking a second glance at the lane of trees you find that you are three storeys above ground, you begin to grope a looming pit forming in your gut. Gazing longingly up at the shimmering stars, moonlight caressing your face and the remarkable world around you. You feel drowsy but this calms you, you almost forget your situation.
Touch, the feeling returns to your body gradually. Hands, you squeeze them in on dew slick grass blades behind you, it’s soft to the touch. Body, your white frilled nightgown is damp from the rain fallen greenery you are sat on, it’s the least of your worries. Feet, you outstretch your legs, lay them in front of you and wiggle your toes, feeling the sensations of cold early morning air tightening around you as it blows. Head, throbbing but not as much as it was previously, your face is clammy but it doesn’t bother you that much. You feel a bit lost, emotionally more so than physically. Such an alluring masterpiece of a captivity room, it’s not even a room for that matter.
Sound, the early morning birds are tweeting, they sure do sound content, jovial even. There are a few carts passing by in the distance judging by the noise, too far to yell. It’s almost silent now, you can only hear your breathing, the twinkling of the droplets of dew basking in the moonlight, and the low hum of the wind whirling and whisking up the nearby leaves into it’s chilly train of breeze. Hang on…maybe you’re not trapped anymore? That makes sense, but why would you have been left here? The facade of innocence in this dwelling is so strong.
Smell, jasmines and lavenders predominantly, there aren’t any flowers you can see but there’s too many to name that you can smell, they must be past the pebbled road. The aroma of muggy pasture and glossy leaves paved in dew is stronger than that of the floral meadow beyond. The air is fresh and clean. You take a deep breath, immersing in the life it breathes.
Taste, you can taste the sweet metallic blood in your mouth from earlier on, it’s nice, a sign you still exist. Grounded to this world, safe……or not. Some bruises you’ve acquired on the trip are throbbing, it’s a solid reminder that as long as you are alive, you can be killed.
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You stroll sophisticatedly among tulips, roses, hibiscuses, daffodils, petunias, sunflowers, poppies, bluebells, and countless others. You appreciate their beauty to many, but you feel empty at their sight. It’s not enough, it never will be. You gently reach toward a daisy, you pluck it, bringing it to your nose you give it a whiff. Catching the scent you are brought back to a day much like the present one, five years ago, it’s all the same apart from the two inhabitants of the memory…
It’s early morning, not as early as it is now, the blue light is more prominent in the sunrise, more clouds. Two children are in the meadow, their heads barely atop of the flowers, one taller, the other shorter and slimmer. Their silhouettes playfully chasing each other, prancing through gardenias and dahlias. Eventually they both topple over down a small hill giggling, they look into each other’s eyes, filled with ecstasy and youth. One says something to the other, timidly awaiting an answer, the latter is petrified.
The one spoken to pushes the former child into a patch of dirt, they stand up coldly and dash back through the maze of flowers as the first child scampers to their feet and rushes after them. The remaining child stops, realising their one and only friend is gone. They keel over and weep for all that it’s worth.
It’s the present day again, you wish you could take back what you said all those years ago, but you can’t, you’ve tried. They were the first person you could ever trust, they never betrayed you in all those years, you thought wrong. You should never trust anyone. Everybody is a selfish bastard. You walk along the rocky pebbled path, they are awake.
You tuck your gloved hands inside your miserable black overcoat pockets as you meander into the yard. The hostage glares at you, do they recognise you? Your empty soulless stare bores into them, they turn away from you, just like before. You approach them, dauntingly slow. They start to tremble and ask for forgiveness, you tell them it’s all fake. They tell you they regret what they did, you tell them there’s no need. They call you a monster. You stop. You are not a monster, you know this. But you like it when people are scared of you, you enjoy terrorising innocent people.
Are you a monster?
Yes - Chapter 2
No - Chapter 3