Freedom

A dark-haired girl gave me an apologetic glance, murmuring a quiet "good luck" before grabbing one of the keys and disappearing through one of the doors.

I heard a clink and looked down to the hard, stone floor. The key she dropped lay there.

Nobody was there anymore.

Except me.

I looked up again, and the door banged shut, showering dust onto me.

They had all made their decisions quickly, without any hesitation, whereas I was still standing there, after nearly an hour of hesitating.

Blue or red? I looked at them and studied them carefully, trying to ignore the fact that I was alone. I had always been scared of being alone in a bad situation, and here I was. I shook my head. Don't think about it, Hazel. You'll be fine. Don't be stupid. Everyone else went already. I went back to studying the doors. The blue one was a dark oak door with stone bricks encasing it carefully, and a precious sapphire crystal on the top. The door had a solid-gold key next to it. Red was a door of stone, and wood surrounding it. I grimaced and looked back.

The door was still locked firmly behind me.

I tried both on the door. It didn't work.

I looked to the side, and both corridors were shut firmly. I took a deep breath. You can do this, Hazel. I glanced to the top of the door to the left, where an exquisitely carved ruby stood. I felt the key already in my hand and studied it for a moment. Gold.

As far as I could see, there wasn't any difference between the two. I tightened my grip on the key in my hand and felt it. It was warm, from my hand. I set it down and picked up the other key. I squeezed it.

It didn't feel any different.

If only Rachel was here... I inhaled deeply to calm myself. It didn't work. And now I'm trapped in this random place with nowhere to go and I have to make a decision of which door to unlock when I have no idea.

I glanced nervously up at the ceiling, hoping to see the sky. There was only a stone wall there.

I was trapped.

Completely.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and picked up the other key. I turned it into one of the keyholes and shut my eyes firmly. I pulled out the key and the door swung open.

I kept my eyes shut, away from the horrid images that started forming in my eyes. Great. Now I had all my thoughts focused on horrible monsters too. A great griffin took shape, and then a deadly snake.

A horrid, grinding noise started, and I tried to shut it out as best as I could. I hurried inside, still squeezing my eyes shut. I slammed shut the heavy door before opening my eyes.

It was an empty room.

Stone walls surrounding every side. I looked around more carefully this time, hoping to spot one of the people that had been locked up with me.

Nobody was in the room.

Except me.

I grit my teeth and just stopped myself from grinding them together out of frustration. I got up and inspected the whole room carefully before I realized something.

There was a dark corridor heading...

Somewhere else.

I looked around for the last time at the empty room. There didn't seem to be anything there, hidden. I took a step into the dark corridor. The sound echoed all across.

It was eerie, and creepy, but I ventured on one step, and nothing happened. Gaining confidence, I took another few steps before stopping to look back. A hard metallic sound erupted just before I looked back, and when I did, where I had just gone through was shut.

I rushed over and tried on the key in my hand. It didn't work. All the light I could see came from the torches.

I had no choice but to go on.

I took a few more steps, and suddenly, there was a loud BANG and behind me, another one of the metal frames slammed down onto the ground.

By now, I was totally creeped out by it. I ran for my life, hearing the loud BAMs and CRASHs, wondering which one would be my death sentence.

Sweating heavily, I finally crashed into a wooden door after turning a corner.

I looked back to see more metal frames smashing down, and I knew I had to act quickly, before one of them smashed in front of me, blocking my only chance of escape.

I gripped the key in my hand tightly and shoved it into the keyhole. It fit.

I turned the key hopefully, glancing back nervously at the heavy thuds coming from the frames. They were only around ten meters away now.

Another thud.

I pulled out the key. I pushed the door, hoping in vain that it would open before I was smashed to death.

And the door swung open. Gasping in relief, I hurried out just as the final THUD replaced the wooden door with a metal frame. The door swung even wider open.

I bent down to take a look at it and gasped. It was the ruby door. And so it wasn't me. It was that whatever way I went... I would come back out. I looked to one side of the corridor and found it open to the wilderness. So that was what was making the grinding noise when I entered... the doors opening, I thought sheepishly. It was all just a chain reaction. For when I opened that door. Indicating there weren't any people left.

I looked to both sides and then made a mad dash out into the fields. I looked back at the castle I had been captured in for the last time, and started running away. Running away to the fields. But not just to the fields. I wasn't just running away to the fields.

Running away to freedom.