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Author's Chapter Notes:

The girl tries to escape.

So why, exactly, is it that whenever I awoke at the break of dawn I was locked within a cage atop the dresser of my best friend? The walls of the cage surrounded me entirely, the grilles just tight enough to prevent escape. To my left was a small bowl of dried oats (yuck) and another bowl of water. On the bed outside of the cage was the sleeping figure of Jade Ngo, her chest rising up and down to the beat of her breath. The room was dim, painfully dim, but just bright enough for me to see my general surroundings. Behind me was the window, shrouded with a blue curtain, preventing the light from entering. So, why was I here then?


No answer, really. The fan above me roared away, spinning quite quickly. After eyeing my surroundings for a while, I heard the sound of a dream catcher drifting gently by the cord of the fan. The television was turned on, playing a documentary, but the volume was nearly muted. I couldn't conceive why I had awoken where I was, so the first thing I did was run to the wall and attempt to worm my way out of it. Unfortunately, it was too tight a squeeze, so there was no real way out through there. The door to the cage, however, was unlocked for me to open.


Running to the exit, I tripped on the wood shavings scattered across the ground. My face was sanded against them, until I finally came to a stop. It took a minute or two for me to come to my senses, but I was too disoriented to stand. My brain was racing with panicked thoughts, as I was completely lost. Practically out of my mind, my senses inhabiting an area outside of my body. Soon enough, I was capable of standing up, albeit with a sore ankle and a killer headache. I began to hobble my way over to the door, limping on my bad leg, with my hands rubbing at my temples.


Why I was here made no sense whatsoever, but I still continued anyway. Eventually I reached the door and I put my two hands out, away from my head, and pulled desperately at it. It didn't budge even a little bit. I glanced over to the hinges and saw that I actually needed to push at it. I guess that I was thinking from the perspective of outside of the cage. I had never been inside of one.


I posted my feet into the floor, and pushed the absolute hardest I could against the cage. There was no movement whatsoever, even as I began to break a sweat and groan. Eventually I gave up, and sat down to think. I didn't understand what had happened, and soon I decided that whatever it was, it had to be a dream. A weird dream, definitely, but a dream nonetheless. My first reaction was, of course, to pinch myself. When that didn't work I pinched harder, eventually producing a deeply purple bruise along my arm. Moaning in discontent, I picked up a wood shaving and stabbed my leg with it, not able to pierce my jeans or the skin, but it hurt like hell anyway. That was when I realized that I now had two bad legs. Stupid.


Instead of standing up, I crawled slowly over to the water bowl, now at the opposite side of the cage. My two legs dragged beneath me, not actually hurting too much for me to stand, but I just felt too exhausted to walk all the way there. Now, I was completely drenched in my own sweat, totally drained from my stint at the door. It took a good couple of minutes to reach the bowl, but when I got there, I took my shirt off and submerged my torso in the water. It was lukewarm, but the feeling of refreshment was there regardless. Before I got out of the bowl, I took a couple gulps. There was a pleasant feeling to drinking so much.


I violently ripped myself away from the water, now a bit upset with my current standings. Water scattered from my being to the floor all around me. I watched the wood chips absorb the water, turning them a deep brown. I didn't know what to do. A part of me was really scared, scared that I was unable to wake myself up, or scared that this could be entirely real. No one's ever been this lost. My two hands fingered at the wooden ground, and eventually I picked up a wood chip and snapped it in two about my leg. I don't know why I kept subjecting myself to this abuse.


My best bet was to probably eat a little bit and get back to sleep. There was no sense in bruising myself black and blue until I fell unconscious. I stood up, partially unstable, and with a hunched back I worked my way over to the oats. Each one was as big as my chest, so all I really needed was to eat one. The enormous disk was sandy in my hands, each grain on it now big enough to rub my hands raw. I took a big bite, but it was so dry that I had to dip it in the water, making the water a bit floury, but the oat went down much easier now. I sat back down, munching away, thinking about what was happening. I was either captured within a strange dream, or my life had been turned upside down. I don't know where I am anymore.


It took a while, but I ate the entire oat. My stomach was bulging, completely stuffed really, but I felt better. I weakly smiled, and looked over to the television. It showed a group of meerkats moving around frantically, some receding into holes on the ground. Every now and then the camera would switch to a night vision of the interior of said holes, showing their movement within them. I figured the documentary was on the behavior of meerkats, and although it interested me, I couldn't make out the dialogue enough to learn anything.


My hands still bore two bright red bars across them, from where I had pushed on the door earlier. I rubbed them together, and eventually licked them clean of the flour from the oat. I laid back onto the floor and closed my eyes, trying to sleep. Nothing came to me. All I could do was think about where I was, why I was here, what was happening. I turned to my side, and my stomach began to convulse. As I sat up, I vomited all across my chest and the floor. The puddle was just the oats and water. Looking at it for a while, I began to gag again, and I vomited again into the puddle. I kept vomiting that way until my stomach felt entirely empty. Acid burned at my throat, and my teeth were sore. I closed my eyes and began to cry.


I picked up my shirt from next to the water bowl, my eyes still watering, and wiped my chest clean. I took off my pants, also soaked with vomit, and I left them both on the ground. I walked over to a corner of the cage and sat down gently. My butt hurt really bad from sitting on the uneven floor for so long, and now my stomach was groaning at me for more food. I looked at the oats, but I shook my head and laid back down again. I really needed to sleep.


With my two eyes closed for so long, I could barely observe the light from the window intensifying, until the darkness was turned into a pale blue against my eyelids. I still tried to sleep, because I felt the painful sting of tiredness in my eyes. I was still crying like a child, snot coming from my nose. Soon my headache had gotten even worse from all of my weeping, and that only made me more frustrated. Where was I, why was I here? I just wanted to go home, I didn't know why I woke up here. The only comforting thing was the sound of Jade's gentle snores. I opened my eyes and sat up, looking over to her. I could see her face, completely blissful in her sleep.


Finally I stood back up, and I again worked my way back to the door. I pushed harder than ever at it, until I heard my wrists pop from the straining and I feel back to the ground, cringing in pain. I moved my hands around on my wrists, working out the cramp I'd developed. I looked up at the door, angrily, and walked over to the side of the cage opposite to it. As fast as I possibly could, I ran at the door, carefully stepping around the wood shavings under me, until I made full contact, suddenly opening the door and sending me flying out, across the floor of the dresser, my entire body screaming in pain.


I laid there for a long time, crying in pain but relieved at my escape. I opened my eyes and watched the spinning of the fan, and the drifting of the dream catcher. It was sad that it couldn't have caught this nightmare.


When I finally managed to sit back up, I smiled to myself again. I could now see Jade in bed, completely unobscured, and I laughed at myself. It felt a lot better to be outside, I could feel the wind of the fan much better now, and although my stomach still growled at me, I felt a lot more energetic. I tried to stand back up on my feet, but my knees buckled under me. Something in my ankle had produced an unimaginable, sharp pain. When I screamed out, I could see Jade's face contort slightly, but it returned to its natural state within a couple of seconds. I swore to myself several times, grinding my teeth together.


I looked at my ankle and saw that it had turned completely yellow and black. It throbbed in pain, and when I reached over to touch it, it immediately recoiled in pain again and screamed, a little more quietly. I tried to stand once more, this time with no pressure on my bad ankle, and I hoisted myself up with the wall of the cage. Finally I could see everything in the room. Strewn across the floor were towels, underwear, and socks. It was kind of gross, but nothing compared to the mess of my own room. I limped around the dresser, still with one hand posted onto the cage, making my way toward a tall stack of clothing that was laid across it.


Making my way there was extremely painful, but when I did I let myself fall into the soft embrace of the shirt. My entire body had been twinged with pain at the joints, my head still ached, and I felt vast amounts of nausea. An all consuming nausea, a feeling beyond just the reaches of my stomach and head but like a full body experience, I felt literally absorbed into a mass of nauseous pain that worked its way deep into my skin, muscle and bones. Eventually I began to dry heave again, only able to leave a layer of saliva atop the place I was laying in the shirt. My eyes began to water.


I can't keep moving around like this just to find myself where I started. I felt like I was moving in molasses, going to opposite directions. My bra and panties were now completely soaked with sweat. I wanted to remove them, at first, but I resisted.


Whatever was going on here didn't feel entirely organic to me. I still felt like I was drifting around in a dream state, encumbered by the weight of my own unconsciousness. When I sat up, there was the strangest feeling of coldness. A chill down my spine. I felt at my forehead, wiping off a thick layer of sweat, and rubbed my hand against the shirt to get it off of me. My ankle was still in grievous pain, but it was feeling a bit better now that I hadn't put any pressure on it.


Now mostly satisfied with my findings, I made my way back to the door of the cage and got back inside. I was incapable of closing the door again, but I was able to make my way over to the pile of clothes I had left near the water bowl. After taking a few more drinks of water, I organized my less vomit-covered pants over the shirt and used it as a pillow for my head. I propped my bad ankle up on the water bowl, and the cold steel was a good feeling against the bruise. I closed my eyes again and finally felt myself falling asleep.


When I had awoken, the sun was completely shining into my face. The curtains had been opened, directing the sunlight into my cage. I quickly sat up, swinging my leg around my body and turning in the direction of the bed. Jade was no longer laying where she had been earlier, instead there was simply a big mess of blankets and sheets and pillows in the shape of a human body. Although her door was closed, I could hear sound outside of the room, and the television's volume was turned up, now showing an early morning cartoon. Again I looked to the dream catcher, and sighed deeply. Why was I here?

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