The Graveyard

Outside, the cell is pitch black.

With chained wrists and no light source except for the moonlight shining through the bars above me, I could have been imprisoned for hours, even days. There is only one thought that bounces around and around my empty mind.

Where am I?

I am sitting on the cold, hard floor, looking down at the solid, grey concrete. I blink dryly. My eyes feel sore, and my throat has a gnawing feeling of hunger and thirst that I can’t ignore. I can’t help feeling that I had done something wrong, sitting here in this empty place, and no one knows except the person who captured me or even put me here.

My dark, messy hair is untied and tousled into knots and my body, covered only with a thin, skimpy nightgown, shivers at the surrounding cold. As the eerie silence whispers its way around me, my hands unexpectedly start to freeze, and I feel the cold seep into my veins, freezing every part of my body in agony.

Around me, stone cellar walls trap me claustrophobically as I breathe sharp breaths in and out of my mouth in fear. I hear the occasional whirring of machines far away and wails of the wind snaking its way around this unknown place as I sit here as bored as ever. I try to get up from the floor to get the agonising chains off but fail to do so, hurting my tail bone in the process. I wince. I know now that’s not a good option.

Suddenly, I hear a thump in front of me, and a rotten apple suddenly rolls from under the cell door. Bad coincidence. I hate apples, especially rotten apples.

But I am starving, even though I have no idea where I have last been and that I have to eat something. I look at the apple in resentful temptation, thinking about resisting it for a second. Then, having no other choice, I use my hand to bite into the apple, gagging at the taste.

When the empty core drops to the ground, time goes on, and insanity creeps into me rapidly. I only have a few hours until I might not be human any more.

Dragging myself up, I groan with the loud creak in my bones. I try to get the chains off, and they break. Ouch. I stagger towards the door, in search of a way out. I pull my arms up, grasping the bars of my cell tightly to regain balance.

My head turns back and forth, but all I see are dark, endless corridors. I shake the bars vigorously, and they break a little. Whoever wants me to stay here has made it way too easy to escape. I pull the heavy metal door with a clenched squeeze, and slowly, I push it ajar, just enough to slide out. From there, I start walking slowly and keep a good eye and ear for any sign of danger.

Suddenly, I hear a groaning sound behind me and I whip around to see something I never want to see ever again. Behind me stands a gruesome zombie, ready to attack me at any moment. I flinch. The torn clothing and the gruesome features repel me from this hideous beat, but I stay put. The pink flesh hanging from its mouth makes me feel it has just been feasting on another human and makes a horrible feeling in my gut.

It’ll eat me any second, I think.

I take shallow breaths in and out as I back up as slowly as I can. But that is the biggest mistake when I hear a second, third, and millions more zombies in front of me.

Oh no.

I panic when I see another cell door just inches from where I am standing. The zombies sense my urgency, and with no other choice, I made a run for it. But as I did so, something hard bashes into me, and I am knocked to the floor, and my vision fades to black.

* * *

When I wake up again, I am sitting on the hard concrete flooring of a cell.

I rack my brain, trying to remember what happened, but my brain is as blank as it can be. Is this the same cell I might’ve been in earlier, or is it a different one? I become aware of my surroundings and I notice that I am in a position where I were possibly thrown against the wall and came hurling to the floor. I take short, raspy breaths, finding it hard to breathe.

Suddenly, I feel a sensation.

My brain suddenly remembers everything. Not quite, though. My eyes close, and I see flashes of memories, scenes, sounds! A scream, a girl’s face, zombies, a prison cell, shouting.

I’m hallucinating, I think. None of this is real!

But it is—I remember.

There’s a sudden noise in front of me, followed by metal scraping against each other, which gives me a shiver up my spine. There’s something in front of me. A silhouette of a person. It is too dark to see. It seems to be coming closer. Closer! Muffled footsteps stiffen me. What’s happening?! It comes forward until it stops right in front of me. It starts to speak, but I can’t hear. My head swarms with dizziness, and my head feels heavy, starting to loll to the side as I rock back and forth like a scared baby. Then I feel a pair of hands grasping me on my shoulders. I gasp. They’re strong, it can be a man.

Nonetheless, I feel my body lurch upwards. The man pulls me up, shaking me vigorously, trying to catch my attention. But I can’t. I can’t bear knowing what is happening right now. I can smell the stale odour from his breath, and I try not to wretch.

Ena, he keeps saying. Over and over again. Ena, Ena, Ena, Ena!

But what is that, though? I want to ask.

Finally, he stops speaking and I feel my head throbbing violently. The only thing I can think of is thrashing about in his arms.

Can I not act like a baby?! I shout inside my head.

My high-pitched scream sends the person to the floor. Now I am free.

As I stagger to the door, I clutch my heart, hurling myself against the metal, the door opening miraculously. Swaying forward into the corridor, I see something suspicious. Weren’t there zombies standing here before? I don’t care at this point, but I need to know where they’d gone; otherwise, I could get attacked again.

Exist sign, exist sign, the phrase repeats again and again in my head, and I feel myself slowly fading into blackness. I blink. I can’t pass out now, and I have to escape. I force my legs one by one to walk, and I manage a few steps. But that is not enough.

Suddenly, there is a scraping sound of metal, and I whip around to see the man again. He must’ve gotten up after I knocked him down.

And now he’s coming straight for me.

I start running. That is all I can do before he can catch up to me. He starts running, too. I run until I cannot run any longer, going around turn after turn, until I’ve lost him, and the only sounds I hear are the whirring of machines otherwise from that empty silence. When I look up, I see a green exit sign pointing left. I sigh in relief and rush forward to be left to be met with a locked door.

Dammit! I curse silently. Now what?

I cannot get through this door if I have no sort of key with me. Unless I can find some other way to escape.

I look up. A window vent. Perfect. But the walls were as smooth as ice, and there is no way I can reach that high to grasp even the bottom of the windowsill.

Desperately, I rush to the nearest cell in search of anything I can use to reach the window, at least grasp the handle. But wait, I can. Possibly. I retrace my steps back to the exit and stare at the window again. I think. I then jump up and just barely grasp the window handle. It slides from my hands.

I try again.

And again, and again.

Just about when I am going to give up my chances of getting out of here, my hand reaches the handle. And I stay there. I have myself downwards and the window opens. I feel the cold, eerie coldness of the air, and I shudder. Brr.

Now what? I ask myself. Oh, right, I forgot. Get out of this wretched place.

I groan as I heave myself up and onto the windowsill and, hesitantly and with difficulty, climb out of the opening that stands right under my body. I look down at the ground.

That is one steep building. I gulp. I can die if I jump. But I have to anyway. I take a deep breath. Here goes nothing!

I close my eyes and jump.