The Locked Door

Author’s Note: I haven’t written in a while so this might be trash annnnnnd yeah. I’m probably gonna turn this into a series, but I’ll try to have each part go with the prompt I write it under as a challenge. I definitely haven’t been active lately, also Ima delete Flicker because that story really isn’t going anywhere so just in case you don’t see this in my bio then here. Hope you enjoy! 

I wake up in a room that has a stinging smell of dirt, blood, rust, and some sort of alcohol. I’m unsure of where I am or why; I just know I’ve been here for a long while. I have zero memory of who I was or what happened before I got here. I just woke up here one day and didn’t know who I was. I’ve been wearing the same thing since I woke up that day; except I don’t think it’s something normal people would wear. It’s a white, blood and dirt-stained gown that goes down to about my knees. My hair’s all messy, and I have an engraving on my arm that says 23, what’s 23?  

I’ve never left this room or at least no memory of it. The door stays closed, locked. Sometimes I’ll just wake up on the ground not knowing why, and not remembering ever feeling tired and wanting to sleep before. Sometimes I hear voices outside, but I can’t always make out what they say. There’s a small space at the top of the back wall of this room, at some points I see light coming through it but other times it’s just dark… I have a few small, dimmed lights on the ceiling. They turn off by themselves around the same time the light from the crack starts to disappear as well. I’m normally tired around that time, but on days I’m not, I stay awake and wait a very long time for the lights to come on again; I’m not sure what it means.

I stand up and feel the cold, hard ground under my feet. I look over to the door, and there I see an orange bottle, holding a few small ovalish things, some white, some blue and red, some orange. Next to it sits a cup of water. It shows up every time I wake up; sometimes from sleep and other times, I don’t even know why I fell asleep. I decide not to take them, and instead, I just drink the water. 

I walk around the room some more. The air seems pretty toxic. The walls look like they used to be white but got old and are covered in dirt and what seems like its blood. So that’s what the blood smell is coming from, but why is it there? I wonder. I look down at myself, realizing I don’t know what I look like. Do people know what they look like? I don’t remember ever seeing my face… I’ve just seen the scars and bruises on my arms and legs. I don’t even know where they came from or why they’re there, they’ve just shown up. 

I start to feel dizzy and decide to sit down. A few moments later, everything goes black. 

I walked through the woods of my backyard or what used to be my backyard. I’ve never walked this far before… I keep walking, deeper into the woods, thinking nothing bad will happen because I’m technically still at my house. I wander out until I’m not even in the woods anymore. It’s like some weird sketchy place, but I feel the urge to explore. I walk around a little bit, and I wonder why I’ve never been here before. I’m about to turn around until I see a guy who wasn’t there before. 

“What’s a girl like you doin’ ‘round ‘ere?” He asked, as soon as he saw me, walking a few feet closer. 

“Just exploring,” I replied. He came even closer. He wreaked alcohol and drugs. I tried to take a subtle step back, but he could tell I was uncomfortable. I noticed a white van parked nearby and he had a bag of candy in his pocket. My heart skipped a beat when I remembered what we were taught in school, not to talk to strangers, and kidnappers will most likely have something to lure young kids in with candy or ice cream. 

He followed my look to the white van and started walking faster towards me. I tried to take off in a sprint back to my house but was stopped by another man, who violently grabbed me after, putting his hand over my mouth.

I was panicking. I didn’t wanna die this way, my life isn’t over yet I’m only 11. I bit the man's hand and pushed him off of me, but that did me no good as the man I first saw grabbed both my arms, his fingernails digging into my skin. He held me still as the other guy forced something into my mouth and then the lights seemed to fade. 

I wake up sweaty, what the hell was that? I’ve never had a dream before, I don’t remember ever having one. But, it seemed so real… is that what dreams are supposed to be like? I want to know what happens next. I look over at the pills, which are still in the same spot they were before I passed out. Wait, pills… That’s what they’re called! Drugs? Could they be drugging me? No wonder I don’t remember anything… they could be taking my memory away. I didn’t take the pills and now I know what things are and I’m remembering. No, I’m going crazy. That can’t be what's happening, my mind is just making things up, probably because I didn’t take the medication I need, I’m probably mentally insane, and this is a mental hospital or something. But where’d my memory go then? 

I start to hear voices outside the door. I’ve never heard talking right outside the door before. It’s always quiet. I stand up and press my ear to the cold, rusty, door to make out what they’re saying. 

“I checked on her a little bit ago. The drugs were still there. But she was sleeping so she might not have woken up yet,” one man said. 

“What if she did wake up but didn’t take the pills! It’s been almost 12 hours, she could’ve passed out from not getting enough food. This has happened before. Other people have figured out what’s going on,” the other guy replied. I recognized his voice… from that dream. 

“I get it. I also think this one’s a little smarter than the ones. When we took her she put up quite a fight. Hopefully, she hasn’t had that memory come back to her, she tends to sleep a lot.” 

“Alright, well, let’s just talk about this more later,” I hear their voices fading along with their footsteps. 

Maybe I was right, but what are they doing to me? Why’d they take me? They don’t seem like serial killers. I lean my back up against the door, but it moves a little. I face the door again, and turn the nob, it opens into a sketchy hallway leading to other weird rooms with locked doors. Just as I thought… a locked door wouldn’t move.