It is a beautiful, winter day outside. The sun is shining brightly and there are no clouds in the sky; as far at the eye can see. Children woke up this morning in high spirits because it had snowed the previous night; therefore, there is no school scheduled for today. There are children outside having a snowball fight, blissfully unaware of what lies in their neighbor’s basement.

It is She. She has no name; She is known only as She. At the same moment that the children are happily having a snowball fight, She is lying on a slab of concrete drifting in and out of consciousness. She is wishing she was dead, so she can finally be free from the pain that surrounds her life; now more that ever.

She does not remember how long she has been there; she has lost all since of time. At first she tried to keep track on the days during the first week; however, she lost it, because the only way she was able to is through a thin crack in the mortar holding the bricks together, where she can see the sun shining through. In the beginning, the sun shining through the crack was a source of hope; however, the sun soon became a source of mockery. She began to feel that if the sun was able to talk it would mock her by saying, “Look, I’m as free as can be… Wanna be free, like me…? Well, too bad ‘cause you can’t be… hahahaha!”

She feels as if she is going crazy. She used to be able to take comfort in her memories of hew her life used to be; however, she no longer has this comfort because in the process of her mind blocking out all the painful memories that she has been forced to go through, her mind has also blocked out all of her joyful memories as well. Now all She can do is dream. She dreams about getting married and becoming a mother. She promises herself that no matter what happens she will never turn out like her mother. Her single memory, of before she was forced to this wretched place, is of the day she was kicked out of her house. Her mother had stopped loving her long before the day her sixteenth birthday arrived; however, her mother knew that she had to put up with her until then. When her mother had a second child, with a different man than her father, her mother decided that She was worthless.

She stops remembering, when the door to the outside world opens. She looks up slowly wishing that it is someone who will come down the steps, taker her in their arms, and tell her that everything will be okay and that she is safe now. However, this was not the case.

The person who is actually at the door is her abductor. He’s standing at the top of the steps staring at her and then he slowly descends into the basement. He stands at the bottom of the steps and continues to stare at her. As he stares She grows increasingly uncomfortable and scared; however, she tries her best not to show her fears on her face. She does a fairly good job of this and he turns around and heads back up the stairs.

By this time the sun had set outside, in the normal world; therefore the basement was pitch black. So black that She could not see her hand when she held it six inches in front of her face. She leans against the wall and slowly slides to the floor, wondering why she doesn’t just give it all up and kill herself She sits there for a long time and slowly begins to cry silent tears. She wonders if anyone is looking for her, and if anyone had been looking for her; are they still. Eventually, she cries herself to sleep.

She awakens; startled she looks around her, she can see very little; as she begins to sit up, she places her hands on the ground to help push herself up, as she does this she feels something sticky under her left pinky finger. Due to the poor lighting She is unsure of what the sticky substance is. As her eyes adjust to her surroundings, She begins to see an outline forming in the middle of the puddle.

At the same moment that she begins to see the outline in the puddle, the door to the outside world opens and she hides in the shadows. Her abductor threw down a bag of bread and a water bottle; as he does this he says to her, “You are allowed to use it, if you so desire.” She is very confused until she sees what the puddle actually is, and then She becomes scared. The puddle is a pool of cat blood with a calico laying in the middle of it with a knife sticking out of its stomach. She realizes that her abductor wants her to kill herself.

Terrified, she looks around her never-ending tomb of fear; everything looks that same until she looks in the far corner. Hanging in the shadows is a noose, as well as an old wooden chair set directly under the rope. As the days continue, more and more ways for her to kill herself appear. After a week, three more ways were added; there is now a knife, a noose, a pistol with a single bullet inside of it, a full bottle of Tylenol, and a barrel of gasoline with a packet of matches. Her abductor is slowly driving her crazy and She is almost ready to give it all up and follow through with what he wants her to do; almost. However, she is able to stay strong and hold herself together for the next two days.

Yet, during those two days her abductor played a lot of mind games with her; so many, in fact, that she broke down. She is currently sitting at the top of the steps pounding on the door, crying and yelling that she is ready to give up. After almost three hours, she has worn herself completely; as tears are falling down her face she slowly slides down the wall along the side of the stairs and falls asleep. She has a fitful night sleep and when She wakes up the next morning her eyes are puffy from all that occurred during her breakdown the day before. As she looks around, she notices her daily ration of water and bread.

She is extremely thirsty, so she drinks all of her water but she decides to save her bread for later. Unknown to her, these are the last drops of water that she will ever drink. He heard her cries from the day before and decided to ‘help’ her; therefore, he put a lethal dose of rat poison in her water which will slowly kill her from the inside out.

As the day progresses, She begins to feel worse and worse. Her pain begins with a stomach ache, which progresses to cramps, hot flashes, cold sweats, and vomiting. After, nine hours of immense pain and hallucinations, she dies curled up in a ball huddling in the corner.



When the next day come around, her abductor walks down the stairs and sees her limp body laying in the corner. He takes the gasoline and the matches and starts a fire in the furnace; after the fire is up to a good height, he takes her body and sets it in the fire to burn. He then sits down and watches the fire until her body is burnt to ashes and the fire has burned itself out and the ashes are cold.



After this he walks over to the noose, steps on top of the chair, puts his head through the loop, and he kicks the chair out form underneath himself. His weight pulls the noose tight around his neck, breaking it and therefore killing him as his body swings from the ceiling.