Escape From Hell
Birds sing. Squirrels chase each other ardently and scavenge for acorns. The sun gleams, illuminating everything in its path. The trees, which outline the stone roads glimmer as their leaves glow a gorgeous, bright green, and encase their fragile, baby pink blossoms. Further down the road, the artisans create their daily crafts and furniture, as the aroma of the bakers’ fresh pastries drift out into the open. The vendors gather adjacent the town square, beaming at each customer who eagerly attends their booth. Children gleefully laugh and skip with their friends, practically dancing on their little toes. It’s all so beautiful. Just beautiful.
“GET UP! ON YOUR FEET YOU LAZY, GOOD FOR NOTHING SCUM!”
I woke with a jolt, nearly rolling off my cot in the process. Same dusty covers, same decrepit bed. Same gloomy, dismal hell. I groaned in exhaustion, and heard the sound of Caressa satirizing me. I glanced up to see her gazing down at me from the cot above, her long blonde locks dangling down the side of her face. She coaxed me out of my cot, and we both hurried, as we stumbled over the uneven, splintered boards of the floor with our barefeet,and struggled to find our way under the minimal light, to join the line of girls and boys apprehensively anticipating the locked door to open and present the treacherous Mr. Meremoth as it did every morning. In unison, we all held our breath, as the sound of the numerous locks on the door turning echoed garishly throughout the dull room.
The door burst open and with his greyhounds, Mr. Meremoth entered, his colossal size practically filling up the already diminutive room. We huddled closely together as Mr. Meremoth scrutinized us with his slit shaped eyes.
“Pathetic.”, he sneered, as his dogs snarled at us. Mr. Meremoth looked at us derisively and barked at us to begin our work. We dashed out into the torrid sun, swarming around him like a flock of sheep. Caressa and I sprinted to the petite building behind the mansion Mr. Meremoth called home, and grabbed the tools we had left there the day before. Not a moment passed before we were joined by Leola and Cassidy, two of my only other friends who had grown up with me and Caressa under the spiteful command of Mr. Meremorth. They grabbed their tools as well and accompanied the two of us to the rocky, disparate grounds where we would toil for the next seven hours without a break, hacking away at stones for valuable minerals seldom found inside them.
***
Dusk came, and we all prepared to return,famished and jaded, to the deplorable shed in which Mr. Meremoth would seal us in until the next day. Hastily, I arranged my tools the way they were in the morning, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Discreetly, I neared Mr. Meremoth’s open back door, and saw a paper on the floor fluttering in my direction, as if to beckon me to come over. As I peered closely at the paper, I realized it was a map of Mr. Meremoth’s property. What I had thought were incessant fields, were really just a meager area on this map enclosed by surrounding woods. And to my delight, at the very outskirt of the wooded area was the word Town scrawled in black ink.
So, it was real. The place I had always envisioned really could exist. And it was just within my reach! The barking of Mr. Meremoth’s greyhounds broke the enchantment of my discovery. I hurriedly jammed the map into the pocket of my dress and ran to the shed to join my peers.
As always, the same, dented tin plates were waiting on each of our beds with two slices of bread along with a glass of musty water. Caressa, Cassidy, Leola, and I gathered near my bed and greedily devoured our paltry supper. Then, I remembered the map. Beckoning my friends to huddle closer together, I dropped down to a whisper. “I found a paper in Mr. Meremorth’s house today, and,” Cassidy cut me short.
“You went inside Mr. Meremoth’s house?” Cassidy exclaimed. Leola’s and Caressa’s mouth gaped wide open.

“Just listen. I found a map.” I pulled it out of my pocket and they all gasped at the sight of it. I went on, thrilled I had caught their attention. “Mr. Meremoth’s property is not as big as we thought. It’s bordered by some woods, and, best of all, there’s a town just beyond those woods! Don’t you see? We could escape!”

The three of them gawked at me, aghast.

“No, an escape just isn’t possible. We are locked in here the entire night, and when we are not cooped up inside here, we are out in the fields laboring under Mr. Meremoth’s and his dogs’ supervision. There is no way we will get past them.”, Cassidy explained.

“But I’m telling you there is! I have it all planned out!” I gestured around me. “Half of the boards of this shed are rotten and broken.We can easily break a hole in the back wall in the middle of the night, and from there, all we have to do is follow the map. This is our chance. We could start a new life! We could do this!”

The three of them seemed to ponder this, but were still wholy unconvinced. So that was that. Without any further discussion, we got into our cots, and dissappointed and hurt, I forced myself to sleep.
***
The next day, at twilight, we headed towards the shed. Just a sliver of light was left in the sky. I gazed up, wondering about what could have been. Abruptly, one of Mr. Meremoth’s greyhounds started to tear at my dress with it’s teeth. I screamed as Leola, Caressa, and Cassidy attempted to come to my aid. Mr. Meremorth, deterring them, marched to me, and pulled the heinous hound off me. My friends looked on, cowed, as Mr. Meremorth reached down and grabbed something off me; the map. Mr. Meremorth looked down at me, his face red with rage.
Roaring, he pummeled me and banged my head with his fist. He kicked me to the crowd of kids like a ball, where Cassidy, Caressa, and Leola swiftly bent down to help me as their eyes filled with tears at my marred state. “Degenerate scum. That’ll teach you not to steal from me!” He scooped up the map, shoved us inside, and locked the door.
Cassidy ran to get my cot ready and then helped Caressa and Leola get me onto my cot. My arms and legs were covered in gashes and bruises from Mr. Meremorth’s stringent blows. My head felt as if a boulder had crashed down on it, leaving me implausibly disoriented. I bawled from the pains of my body, as my friends helplessly tried to console me.
***

The next few days passed in nothing but phases of anguish and and harrowing pains. One night, after Mr. Meremorth had locked us in our shed, Cassidy, Caressa, and Leola came to me and revealed their decision to escape and follow through with my plan.

“We can’t though. We don’t have the map, remember?”

“Yes we do. You didn’t actually think I wouldn’t take a good look at that map when you showed it to us, did you? I remember everything.” Leola smiled, resolute.

“So, it’s settled then. By the end of the week, we’ll be out of here.” I looked at them determinedly, and we began to discuss our plan.
***

“I’m ready. I’m ready.” I took a deep breath and silently slid out of my cot. Caressa, Cassidy, and Leola were waiting at the back of the shed as planned. I stooped down beside them in the dark. Together, Caressa and I gingerly lifted the boards we had loosened during the previous nights from the wall, making a hole just big enough for each of us to fit through. Slowly, each of us crawled out.

We crept through Mr. Meremoth’s jagged grounds, struggling to avoid the sharp stones in the dim moonlight. As we neared the end of the grounds, I could just make out a blurred line of trees. In my delight of finally reaching the border, I stumbled upon a rock, and pushed Cassidy to the ground. She shrieked as she scraped her palm on a rock. In the distance, we heard the dreaded sound of Mr. Meremorth’s greyhounds barking.

“Run!” I screamed and the four of us dashed into the woods. We didn’t stop, despite the twigs tearing at our bare soles and cutting at our exposed skin. The woods thickened, and Mr. Meremorth’s thundering voice could be heard loud and clear. Breathlessly, we swerved here and there, trying to keep heading in the same direction.

As the trees began to thin and the boundary of the woods came to be visible, my dress caught on a broken branch. I kneeled down and feverishly tugged on my dress to come free. Before I could holler out to my friends who continued on, not heeding my absence, a firm grip was placed over my mouth and I could feel the steaming breath of the greyhounds creeping on my neck. My eyes brimming with tears, I panicked and flailed around, trying to shout for help. Mr. Meremorth held me tight and admonished me to not make a sound. I breathed rapidly, unable to believe what was happening, and then saw a sharp rock just near my foot. Keeping a firm grip over my mouth, he slowly turned me, and I closed my hand over the rock. Just as he turned me around, I jabbed the rock into his wrist. He jerked his hand away from my mouth, cursing my name. The greyhounds pounced upon me as their master attempted to surmount the pain I had inflicted. With one hound biting at my calf and the other clawing at my torso, I stabbed the latter in between its two front legs, causing it to collpase beside me. Alarmed at the fall of its companion, the other hound released my calf and I kicked it away with my now free leg. Abashed, the hound scurried off.

Mr. Meremorth, his wrist still bleeding excessively, bellowed in outrage and dragged me across the coarse, crinkled leaves by the collar of my dress. I screamed and burst into tears from the pain of my imbrued calf rubbing against the ground and my throbbing torso. He swung me around in a circle like a rag doll and thrust me to the ground with immense force. My leg snapped loudly, and I could vividly see the white bone protruding from my medial calf. I spewed out a pool of blood, while some ebbed out from my body as well, as I struggled to raise myself. Unable to, I laid limp on the ground. Wind blew around me, cloaking me in leaves and twigs, just as I perceived the cold feeling of the rock still in my hand.
No. I couldn’t let it happen. I could not die now. It was too soon. Mr. Meremorth lifted me and grinned at me with a look of absolute lunacy and eyes of imminent death as my fingers gripped the rock. As he prepared to end me with a final throw, I raised the rock above his head and hurled it onto his skull as he had done to me with his fist. Clutching his head he staggered and fell down, dropping me to the ground. I scrambled to my feet, and still clutching the rock, I savagely thrust it into his heart, and continued to do so until his body fell pliant and cold, and his body no longer oozed the venomous blood that was once pumped by his black heart. I let the rock fall from my hand. I gasped, attempting to catch my breath and walk towards the thinning edge of the woods I had been so close to reaching. Unable to go any further, my body’s weight pulled me to the ground. The last thing I remembered was the hazy vision of lights flickering, and the sound of my name echoing in the distance.
***

I don’t know how many hours or days had passed. But, I awoke in a small, plush bed, to the sight of my smiling friends seated near me, with sunshine radiating around them like a soft glow, and to the sound of chirping birds, and I knew. I knew my dream had come true. I was finally free.