“Slow down, Ashi!” I called out, running after her.
“Catch up!” She giggled, running faster.
“Slow down!” This wasn’t fun anymore.
“You have to catch me!” She sprinted.
“Stop. Now.” I quit running, now I was mad.
“Phoebe?” Ashi stopped about twenty feet in front of me.
Ashi was supposed to listen to me. That’s what daddy had told me. But she wasn’t listening.
“I told you to stop.” I blinked, furious.
As I said that her mouth opened wide with pain. Silently screaming, her hands went to her neck, gasping for air. Her knees buckled, dropping to the forest floor. A horrible noise emitted from her throat. No air was reaching her lungs, this was the noise of them deflating. Quickly her chest started heaving unnaturally.
“A-Ashi?” I stepped closer to her.
She fell to the ground, writhing. Slowly she stopped writhing, her blank skin seeming like snow against the moss covered floor. Her turquoise eyes rolled back into her skull, leaving me alone in this forest.
What? Where... Where am I? A metal box? Why?
Questions flooded my mind, I was surrounded by three walls of metal and one wall of glass. A boy with black hair and bright green eyes was on the other side of the glass.
“Hi,” He said. “Where are we?” “I don’t know,” I shook my head.
“I’m Josh.” If there wouldn’t had been glass he would’ve held out his hand.
“I’m Phoebe.” But that wasn’t an option.
“Why does it say I have a power?” He pointed at a silver dog tag around his neck.
“I don’t know, it says I have one too.” I looked at mine, noting the info about myself.
This was weird and it made no sense. At least, I didn’t think it made sense.
“Well Phoebe, I’ll get us out of here. I promise,” He smiled.
“Okay,” I smiled
“What’d you think they’re gonna do to us?” He asked me.
“I don’t know, maybe test on us? I mean, we have powers, so they’re gonna try something, right?” I guessed.
“Probably,” He shrugged.
“Well, if you’re gonna be here then I don’t care if they test on me,” I smiled
I could hear someone outside of this box.
“This one’s name is Phoebe, 7 years old, number 203,” A high voice said. “On the other side is Josh, 8 years old, number 204.”
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“Probably someone who’s gonna test on us,” He shrugged
“That’s a good point,” I said
“We’ll have to wait and see,” He blinked, thinking of what was going to happen.
Neither of us knew what to do, we had just met each other.
“What do you like?” He asked me
“Well, I think I like the woods,” Pictures of my little sister flashed across my mind.
“You like the woods too?” He smiled.
“I think I do, I don’t really remember much,” I smiled, shrugging. “What do you like?”
“Well, nature and the city,” He got this far away look in his eyes.
“I’ve never been to the city,” I thought about what it would be like.
“You’ve never been to the city?” He looked at me, eyes wide.
“No,” I shook my head.
“It’s amazing! Bright lights everywhere! So many people walking around, carriages, taxicabs, fountains..” He grinned, remembering what the city was like.
“It sounds magical,” I smiled, not fully understanding his fascination with the city.
“It is!” He exclaimed
“I’ll have to...” I stopped myself.
How could I think that I might be able to get out of this? There probably is no chance that I’ll ever see the green outdoors again. Or fresh air. I was stuck here. This thought made me cry, slowly tears ran down my face.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, worried
“What if we never get out of here?” I pulled my knees up to my face, hugging them tightly.
“We’re going to get out of here, I promised you.” He put his hand on the glass, trying to seem comforting.
“But what if they stop you?” I looked up at him, scared.
“I won’t let them” He shook his hand, keeping his hand on the glass
“Okay...” I put my hand so it was mirroring his, just on the opposite side of glass
Josh was sweet, he seemed confident in what he could do, and I believed him. He could do it, and I knew it.
10 Years Later
“I wish I broke mirrors instead of promises, ‘cause all I see is a shattered conscience staring right back at me” – Adam Young (Owl City)
I looked at him. One sheet of glass kept us apart. Luck up in these metal containers, holding us hostage for forever. See, none of us were normal. We all had different powers. His power was stopping blood circulation and just stopping your heart. Mine was mental torture, no matter what I could kill someone. His green eyes looked at me, sad, heavy. Our hands on the same spot of the glass, just different sides.
Our whole lives had been in these boxes, at least, what we could remember. The other person was the only one we’d ever seen.
“How’re you doing?” He asked me.
“Cold,” I whispered, pulling my blanket up around me.
“I’m so sorry,” He said.
“You haven’t done anything wrong, Josh,” I shook my head.
“I haven’t done anything, Phoebe,” He pointed out.
“But you’ve stayed here with me, that’s all I need,” I told him.
“I swear, I’m going to get us out of here,” His fingers curled off the glass
I pulled myself into a ball, trying to retain heat. He seemed depressed, like he couldn’t do it. But I knew he could. His eyes closed, he was tired. Our days were mentally tough.
“Even though I’ll never know what’s up ahead, I’m never letting go.” – Adam Young (Owl City)
Josh fell asleep. My mind was racing, questions kept presenting themselves. Did I really have these powers? I’ve never used them, so how do I know that I have them? Why have I only really ever seen Josh? Not that I have a problem with him, he’s my best friend. I wouldn’t trade him for anything. Not even freedom.
But why? Why am I limited to seeing two or three people? Even if they’re gonna torture me, why can’t I see them? Not like thinking about it will do anything. I sighed and rolled over, I was tired but restless. All I wanted to do was hit someone or something. Have somthing make sense. But no chance of that.
These metal boxes were about three feet tall and five feet wide. Freezing all the time. A rock hard mattress fitted perfectly in the box. A thick blanket that matched a thing pillow were the only other things we had. My heart hurt, maybe it was just the heaviness of this box. Maybe it was Josh feeling so depressed. Whatever it was, it hurt.
Images of my little sister flashed across my mind. Somehow I remembered her, bright red hair, blank skin, turquoise eyes.
“Now those lonely lullabies just dampen my tired eyes, because I can’t forget you” – Adam Young (Owl City)
She was my one memory from growing up. I remembered watching her die, slowly falling to the ground, being tortured by some invisible force. I missed her. Somehow, with that little girl in my mind I fell asleep.
“There’s just too much that time cannot erase” – Evanescence
I woke up to what seemed like it should be hours later. My eyes opened slowly to a grinning Josh.
“What are you so happy about?” I laughed tiredly, rubbing my eyes.
“Reach over,” He smiled.
“What?” I reached my hand out toward the glass.
My hand enclosed around a pen and a blank notebook.
“Josh!” I said, surprised. “How?!”
“It’s a secret,” He smirked.
“This is amazing!” I hugged it.
“I’m glad you like it,” He laughed, smiling.
I smiled, happy. This was insane, how did he get it? There wasn’t a way out of these boxes without someone opening it from the outside. At least, I think that’s the only way out... Well, however he got it was just amazing. I flipped it over and drew him, personally I thought it looked terrible, but I wanted to show him.
“Look,” I smiled and showed him the drawing.
“Well I look handsome,” He laughed.
“You are handsome!” I laughed, knowing it was true.
“Well, thank you,” He smiled.
We sat there for a while, silence, smiling. But the air was heavy, like something was above us.
“Tell me, do you ever wish we’d fall in love?” He asked me.
Even though we had known each other for years, the thought that he would like me had never occurred in my mind.
“All the time,” I said.
He nodded, thinking it all through.
Not like we’d ever be able to fall in love. Glass separated us. A small humming noise started up.
“Frozen inside, without your touch, without your love, darling. Only you are the life among the dead” – Evanescence
Oh great... I thought, it was time for these people to come and test on us or whatever you want to call it.
The glass turned black, Josh and I got quiet. Slowly the metal door facing the glass went down, I hid the notebook and pen under the blanket. Begging for them not to notice. “Come on,” A man in a white lab coat told me.
“Okay...” Slowly I dropped to the floor.
“I promise this won’t take long,” He sighed, putting the wall back up.
“I guess it doesn’t really matter anymore.” I shrugged, still finding this unpleasant.
“I know,” He sighed, taking my arm. “We’re still going to make you sleep through it though, okay?”
“Okay,” I sighed as the familiar pinch of a needle hit my nerves.
The next thing I realized is that I was back in the metal box. Josh looked at me, as if something was wrong.
“What?” I rubbed my eyes, adjusting to the light.
“Just imagining if we got out of this place.” He shrugged and flopped back.
“That’s all we can really imagine,” I shrugged, using the blanket to make a softer cushion for the mattress.
“I know..” He buried his face in his pillow.
For a while we sat in silence. Thinking. Mulling over our options. Not like we had many though.
“Why?” I just asked.
“Why what?” He looked at me.
“Why do we have to be separated by glass?” I looked at the ceiling.
“I don’t know, Phoebe.” He shook his head.
“I hate it!” I kicked the glass, something we had tried so many times.
“Phoebe, we both know that won’t do anything,” He tried to calm me.
“I don’t care!” I cried, pounding on the glass.
“Phoebe, stop.” He sat up and looked at me.
But I couldn’t stop. Not now. Not after so many years of this one room torture. I yanked off the dog tag that had my information on it, I stabbed the glass with it.
Surprisingly, it cracked. Only a little bit, but it cracked.
“Oh my god..” Josh said, pulling off his tag.
“We can break it,” I kept stabbing the glass with mine.
“I think so,” He did the same thing, cracking the glass even more.
Finally there were so many cracks that I just punched it. Glass shattered, it fell in between our mattresses. We looked at each other, shocked. I mauled him, hugging him as tight as I could. It was nice, he was warm. We were both tired and we ended up falling asleep in this embrace.
“I sang my princess fast asleep, ‘cause she was my dream come true. Anne-Marie, believe me, I’ll never forget you. I’ll dissolve when the rain pours in, when the nightmares take me. I will scream with the howling wind, ‘cause it’s a bitter world and I’d rather dream” – Adam Young (Owl City)
After a long night we woke up. Back in our beds, alone. The glass, replaced.
“No...” We both said.
It had happened. We had broken it. We knew that.
“NO!” Josh yelled, pounding on the glass.
I found my dog tag, which was Josh’s. Josh had mine.
“Enough.” I shook my head and looked at the metal wall, any minute now it would go down and I’d get a chance to leave.
“They can’t do this,” Josh cried.
“We’re getting out, today.” I told him. “When these walls go down act normal. But then run. Don’t stop. Just run.”
“Okay,” He agreed.
“Humans cannot reject temptation. When they are
plunged into the depths of despair, likened to hell, they will hold on to
anything that may help them escape from the situation they are in, even if it’s
merely a spider’s thread, no matter what sort of humans they are.” - Ciel Phantomhive
Just perfectly the glass turned black and the walls started this almost daily routine. Any second now I could start running. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 0.
The wall cascaded down.
“Are you ready?” The same man in the same lab coat asked.
“The question is, are you ready?” I asked, jumping to the floor.
“For what?” He blinked, unsure of what I was talking about.
“This.” I kicked him and ran.
“We as humans have the power to do such, but whether we grab on to the thread or not is our choice to make.” – Ciel Phantomhive
No regrets now. No turning back. I ran as fast as I could. There had to be a way out of here. I bolted out of the hallway where the box I had been in was. More white hallways presented themselves but I had to choose one quickly. My instincts had me open a white door, where I saw Josh standing.
“You ready?” I asked, panting, adrenaline rushing.
“Yes.” He ran down the hall to me and took my hand.
From this moment on we were attached. We couldn’t let go, from now on we had to stick together. If we got separated then things would go to hell. We sprinted down one of the hallways, trying to find the way out. As we got farther and farther away from where we started things were changing.
“It’s darkest just before the dawn” – Adam Young (Owl City)
Quickly we realized that there were ‘EXIT’ signs in some places. This helped as we sprinted through the halls. Even if this felt like a maze, and each sign lead to another dead end, we wouldn’t lose hope. Each turn gave us more opportunities to get lost, but new opportunities to get out.
“This way!” Josh saw a door with an exit sign right above it.
“Oh my god,” I panted, running.
Within an instant we hit the door, pushing it open. Frozen air hit us as we looked at the dark blue sky. Finally reaching freedom.
“Death is just life’s next big adventure” – J.K. Rowling
“Wh--What is this?” Josh stuttered.
We weren’t greeted by what we thought we’d be greeted by. Our feet were soaked in green grass, an indigo sky stared at us. Off in the distance fuzzy yellow lights were visible.
“Where do we go?” I swallowed my fear and stood tall.
“Toward those lights I guess...” He squeezed my hand.
“Then let’s go,” I held back tears, not used to the fresh air.
But neither of us moved. We stood still, taking in the vast space. The open fields were nothing like we’d ever seen or dreamed about.
“Josh..” I started, not sure how to ask this.
“Yeah, Phoebe?” He looked at me, waiting for me to finish my sentence.
“Do you remember when we first m-- when you were put in the box next to the one I was in?” I rethought my question halfway through. We never had the choice of meeting each other.
“What about it?” He didn’t get where I was going with this question.
“You told me about the city. How much you loved it.” I repeated the facts, the facts that had been going through my mind since day one.
“Well, yeah, but those lights.. They couldn’t be..” He thought aloud.
“But they might be.” I looked at him.
“It just doesn’t feel the same,” He blinked.
Now I was in no position to judge. I had never been to the city and I had no idea what it was like. Right now I needed to trust his judgement.
“Please take me away from here” - Owl City
“C’mon,” I pulled his hand as I took our first steps into this new world. “We have to keep moving, they’ll find us if we stay here.”
Which is true, if I hadn’t been so soaked up in our little world I would’ve noticed the red lights flashing and the blaring sirens. But Josh stood still, aware of the sirens and lights.
“Phoebe, whatever we face out here in this new place.. I promise I’ll protect you,” He looked at me, completely serious.
“Okay,” I nodded slightly, not used to Josh being this real. “Now c’mon, we really should get out of here.”
“Okay,” He laced his fingers through mine and stepped along with me.
As we walked the sirens buzz faded, but the fuzzy yellow lights stayed at a far distance. The building we had just exited was fading, we knew that without even turning around. We knew if we’d turn around we’d just get a good look at the hell we left. That’s not something we want burned into our retinas forever.
“You do know why they kept us in there, right?” Josh asked as we walked up to a river.
“Yeah,” I looked into the water, wondering what freshwater felt like.
“We were put in there for a reason, so what happens now?” He thought aloud.
“We’ve gotta adjust to this environment,” I shrugged, kneeling next to the river. “And we’ve gotta keep going. No matter what.”
“You think we made the right choice?” He kneeled down next to me.
“Anything’s better than that place.” I shook my head.
“But what if this world’s worse?” He asked.
“Nothing is going to be worse than that.” I slowly put my feet into the cold water.
“But it.. Okay..” He sighed, not going to fight it.
“You don’t have to agree with me, you can have your own opinion. I just don’t think that anything can get worse than that hell hole,” I shrugged, displacing the pebbles that had settled so peacefully in the bottom of the river.
“So what? You're another person, so of course you look different. What do you need to be ashamed for? Besides, I'm free to be with whoever I want. No one has the right to say anything about it.” – Ciel Phantomhive
“Well, I.. I guess we haven’t really been able to have our own opinions so.. I’m just not used to it yet I guess..” He followed me into the water.
“But now we get to run our lives,” I smiled at him.
“You make a point,” He smiled and looked down at the clear water.
“How far do you think we’ve gone?” I bent down closer to the water, looking at the minnows swimming by.
“Not far, at least..” Josh looked behind him. “Woah..”
“What?” I asked as I scooped up one of the smaller minnows, making a bowl with my hands so it could swim around.
“I can’t see it anymore..” He looked around, some sign that we hadn’t walked that far.
“Wait, what?” I stood up, still holding the minnow.
“It’s gone,” He twisted his head around, looking.
“Gone..” I whispered. “We’ve left it now.”
“A dead fish?” He looked at me and the little thing in my hands.
“What do you mea--” I looked down at my hands, none of the water had escaped, but the fish had floated to the top and wasn’t moving.
Instantly I dropped it.
“That means nothing,” Josh shook his head, denying any answer to what just happened.
“The truth never set me free” – Paramore
“Let’s go...” I stepped out of the river.
Josh followed me, trying to think of a logical explanation for what just happened. For a while we just walked in silence, but after awhile we ran into a field with just dirt.
“What’s that?” Josh looked over at the trees that had popped up.
“What do you mean?” I looked at him.
“There’s a house.” He pointed at something.
“Can I help you?” Someone behind us asked.
As I turned around I realized how closely this girl resembled my sister.
“Ashi?” I asked, knowing the answer, but wanting to ask anyway.
“No.” She shook her head. “Karen.”
“Oh.. You just.. My little sister.. You guys look a lot alike,” I stuttered.
“Ah, well, I can’t say that I look unique,” She laughed, a thick country accent presenting itself.
“Do you live there?” Josh asked.
“Yeah, my brother’s family lives there too,” She stated this like everyone knew it. “You’re not from around here.. Are you?”
“No,” I shook my head.
“And you came from that direction,” She pointed the way we had come. “And there’s nothing that way except for...”
Her eyes widened, her mouth hung open.
“What..?” Josh looked at me, unsure.
“You’re escape-ees,” She looked at us like we were some freak animal.
“So?” Josh asked.
“You’re dangerous people,” She shifted slightly, thinking.
“You don’t know what it’s like there,” I looked her in the eyes, hoping she wouldn’t turn us in or something.
“You’re safe here, don’t worry,” She laughed comfortingly.
“Oh thank god..” I whispered.
“C’mon in, they’re probably lookin for you right now..” She ushered us into a two story wooden home.
“Karen, where--” A boy who could’ve been her twin started. “You brought fugitives in?”
“They’re not bad people,” She shrugged.
“They’re fugitives. The police are lookin for them.” He also had a thick accent.
“We can hear you, you know.” I looked at him.
“Never said you couldn’t.” He snapped.
“We’re not dangerous. We just--” I started.
“You are too dangerous. You were put in that place for a reason. You would’ve been put to good use if you had stayed there.” His face started getting red as he yelled.
“You don’t know what it’s like,” My voice cracked as I defended my decision.
“Stop, Phoebe.” Josh put his hand on my shoulder.
“All we need is a little help,” I begged.
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