Alice

Tears raced each other down Alice’s thin pale face as she quietly sang to her baby. It was the only tune she could remember enough before she was put in the middle of the four concrete walls. The song trembled from her mouth as the baby boy quietened down and listened to his mother with big brown eyes. Alice placed a dirty blanket between his face and her shaky hand. She didn’t quit singing as she gently pressed down and the baby started to struggle nor did she when the tears ran faster and her voice trembled more.

“My little sunshine-” her breath hitched when the baby stopped struggling, stopped crying. Alice cautiously removed her hand from her baby’s face and abruptly stood. There was no time to mourn on something she selfishly did. Master had drunkenly left the door unlocked and he only left the door unlocked when his ‘friends’ were visiting. This was her one and only time to escape and she couldn’t escape with a crying baby in her arms and she couldn’t leave him behind with The Man. Alive, that is.

When she navigated her way through The Man’s broken down, dirt infested house and found herself outside she didn’t feel the breeze nor did she look up at the sky and admire it. Alice only had one thought on her mind. One thought that needed to be listened to or she would never see the light of day ever again because Master had woken.

Run.

Run. The word echoed through Alice’s mind as she ran through the foreign woods while adrenaline and fear coursed through her veins like a drug.

The trees and leaves around her were blurred out by the tears that formed in her sea green eyes. She was terrified and the screams of her drunken captor calling her from behind was not helping. Neither was the fact that she was running out of adrenaline and just running on fear.

Soon, she knew, she would collapse and her only hope was that, that horrible man would not recapture her.

Alice looked back searching frantically for the man who had tortured her for years.

Where is he? She thought, Oh no! Where is he?! I’m going to die!

Alice pushed herself harder, running as fast as she could until the inevitable happened, she fell.

And she kept falling. Until she hit water with a ferocious sting and plunged under. She kicked her feet and waved her hands as she tried to get to the surface so she could get a breath but a realization popped inside her head, she couldn’t swim. She never learned.

Besides that, she thought, what was the point of trying to save herself. She was tired. Everything hurt. All she wanted to do was sleep and just as she was about to do just that she felt a hand wrap around her torso and lift her up to the surface.

She breathed and coughed out the water she involuntarily swallowed.

Looking up, Alice saw a blurred image of a man and just as she was about to struggle, she heard a gunshot and her body shut down going into a much needed dream filled oblivion.

Alice awoke soundlessly from a dream filled sleep finding herself lying in a vast, comfortable, unfamiliar bed with black and white sheets and blankets. The walls modeled a gray wallpaper, the ceiling, in which she stared at, held a whitish-gray color and the carpeted floor wore white. When she looked down at herself she realized she wasn’t in anything but a man’s shirt and boxers.

As she rose from the bed, the door opened, slowly, making her think the worst so she quickly scrambled off the bed and ran to the nearest corner.

Glancing up from her fetal position, Alice saw a man. He was approximately her age, with long, curly light brown hair. He stood in the doorway and looked at the bed in confusion. The man expected to find a small, blonde headed girl instead he found nothing but a bed. Searching the room with his deep blue eyes he found the girl curled up in the corner on the right side of the bed. Tears ran down her face freely and fear was evident in her wide icy, dull sea green eyes, while a terrified look held itself on her pale face.

The man frowned but quietly and gently introduced himself, “My name is Eden. I won’t harm you nor will anyone else here” Alice glanced around then looked down at her hands. She didn’t believe him. Everyone hurt her.

The man sighed at the silent girl and continued his introduction, “You’re at my home, Myers’ Manor.” Alice whimpered but still continued to look down at her hands. Where is this Myers’ Manor? “If you want, you are welcome to eat with us?” She shook her head furiously. She didn’t want to be around anybody, she wanted to disappear into oblivion. The man crouched down to her level and whispered, “what the hell happened to you?” Then he stood and left without another word.

Alice looked up, bewildered, at the strange man. He hadn’t touched her, but why? She was nothing but a mere object to men who looked like this Eden guy.

Thoughts and questions flooded through the girl’s head as she continued to stare where the man once stood.

Why didn’t he hurt me? Why did he walk away? Why didn’t he get angry? Who is he? Where am I? These questions went through Alice’s head and they terrified her. She didn’t understand why this man didn’t want to harm her.

Alice squeezed her eyes shut and let her tears run free. She screamed loudly and hit her hands and head against the wall repetitively.

Suddenly, there was a strong grip holding her against a muscular chest, large hands gently but firmly gripped hers and held them still as she finished screaming and thrashing around. “Shh just calm down.” a voice whispered in her ear, “You’re OK. You’re safe.”

“NO!” She sobbed “No” she repeated over and over until she fell into a dark dream-filled oblivion, “No.”