Tender

Groggy, I awaken to darkness.
I am nothing. Where am I?
Confusion and fear fill me as I realize
I cannot move.
I cannot see.
I can only hear the silence.



*click*
Hello, Ashley. I would like to play a game.
Terror fills me as the voice continues,
Your entire life you have sought out attention
from those around you by playing the victim. Now
let's see if you truly earned your role.
To your right is a mirror, and on four places
on the back of your body is a combination.
Break free of the restraints, use the mirror to see
the numbers, and enter the numbers into the combination
lock on the door. If you do not enter the combination within
three minutes, the door will not open, and you will drown.
*static*


Stunned for only a moment, the lights burst on
and I am blinded by the red clock on the wall.
2:59, 2:58, 2:57. The water is at my ankles, seeping
in, it seems, from a vent on the floor.
I now realize that the restraints I must break free from,
are attaching me to a platform by my own tissues.
There is a bar driven through the back of both of my arms,
leaving gaping holes that are dripping blood into the dirty
water. There is another bar latched through my calves.

And somehow, I don't even feel the pain. It's so excruciating
that it's almost numb.

The mirror is a foot out of reach. And the bars don't give.
I have to pull forward to get out. I have to pull forward
to get the code. This is going to hurt.

Gritting my teeth I pull my left arm forward with a jerk,
as I moan in agony. 2:03, 2:02. Screaming obscenities at
the man I know is watching. I rest my left arm on my right arm.
1:56, 1:55. Shit. I grab my right arm and tear it from the bar.

My heart is pounding, pushing all of my life from these four holes.
Doubling over, I spit on the ground, the excess saliva, just a
reaction from the steady flow of tears. The water splashes a my face
and stings the back of my legs where the flesh is stretching away
from itself.

Left leg. I never realized how much extremities bleed until now.
My knee gives out and I plummet to the ground, into the water.
My right leg is now almost completely torn, just another pull,
and fucking hell, fuck. Instinctively my body curls into a little
ball, trying to heal. I crawl over to the mirror, almost stand, and
pull it off the string, slicing a large gouge into my palm.

Lovely, more blood.

It drips across the mirror as I am trying to find these numbers.
There's a 6 on my neck. A 23 on my left shoulder? Is that a 23?
I have to rinse the mirror off in the water. No. 28. Two more
and I'll have the code. 0:57, 0:56. Shit. I need to hurry up.
16. The right side of my ribcage. And where the hell is the last
one? Frantic, water up to my thighs, my movements are jerky from
the loss of muscle control and blood. 4. On my left leg, right
under my ass.

I slop over to the door. 25 seconds. I can do this. 6, 28, what was
the third one? 16, 4. Is it stuck, why won't it open? 4, 16, 28, 6?
Nothing. Again. 0:19, 0:18. Numerical order? 4, 6, 16, 28?

*click*

The door unlocks but pulling against a room full of water is
close to impossible. Little by little, the water escapes from the tiny
crack. Pull. Pull. It's open about 4 inches. 0:13 seconds. It's blinking
on the clock as if I'd won some god damned prize or something.
Pull. I'm squeezing my broken limbs through a six inch gap in
an iron door.

A hall. Ironically it seems like any other "normal" household
hall. As if the next door would open to a child sleeping peacefully
in their bed. I stumble down it, on the wet carpet, my stained white
cotton shirt clinging to my otherwise naked body. The carpet is making
a dreadful squishing noise.

I find the door, walk outside, and find myself in what seems to be a
quiet, quaint, neighborhood. Whether it was the shock of it all, or the
extreme loss of blood, I faint, to find myself in the hospital. People
are telling me I'm lucky to be alive, but they don't know yet.


I'm already dead.