If you missed my post last week this is my new venture on the blog. Once a week I will post a writing prompt with my work inspired by it. I would love for you to join me and share your finished pieces.
And off we go…
The door opens letting in a stream of light. It has felt dark for days, weeks, I’m not sure. We have been kept in here for as long as I can remember. I shift, bumping into the guy next to me, he grunts and bumps me back. In the early days, the room felt crowded. Packed in like sardines. I heard them talking sometimes outside of our room. I wasn’t sure what a sardine was, but I’d heard them use the phrase. He could get loud, the guy on the outside, when he had friends over. They would laugh and joke. There used to be more of us. Sometimes the box opens during those times and a few of us get out.
Before the light leaves us, I do a quick inventory of the room, I would say a third of us are gone. I keep working myself slowly down, away from the door. Each time it opens we shift our places, I’m vying for a spot as far from where the light comes in as I can. I’m not sure if any of the others have a strategy or let fate rule their lives. Not everyone believes in fate. I learned that from him and his friends as well. It didn’t seem to matter as much in here. We were here, maybe even born here, and there was only one way out. Or so it appeared. The closer I edge to the back the more I wonder though. Every now and again I catch a glimmer of light back there. It might be entirely possible for another door to exist at the other end of this room.
If I can make it to the back, if I can find another door, and by a miracle get it open, it raises a new set of questions. What happens when I’m out? Where do I go? What do I do? As I said, I don’t remember a time outside of this space. I shift and bump, there is a light coming in through a crack in the corner of the far side of the room. If I can get myself to it, I think I can get it open.
It takes several more days before I find myself in the corner of the room. I am not disappointed. In the corner is a small sliver of light. I push my back against it and keep applying pressure. If the door remains closed for a good amount of time, I might have a chance of getting out. I grunt, pushing with all my might. I feel the wall giving way under my strength. Why had none of the others tried this? One last push and I hear the wall rip, tear, light illuminating myself and the others next to me. A slow rumble of curiosity and panic spread through the others.
“What have you done?” the guy next to me asks.
“I’m trying to get out.”
He seems to like the idea and begins to shove himself into me, the extra weight is what we need, the rest of the wall gives way and we begin to tumble out. The sound of all of us falling and landing on the hard floor sounds like shattering glass. I hit the floor hard, bounce, ping, bounce again, the world around me grows and swirls. We are in the land of giants. The familiar voice of our capture laughs as we tumble in a million directions. I stop bouncing and roll across the floor, stopping against a soft covering. I take in the room, the ceilings are high, the walls white, the floor brown, I can easily see my fellow captures spread across the expanse. Their yellow, green, red, and orange round sides are easy to spy. The boy runs around picking them up.
“Well, that was a waste. I should have never let you buy such a large box.”
“I’ll clean it up, Mom.” He pops a yellow prisoner in his mouth.
“Don’t eat them! That’s gross to eat skittles off the floor.”
He smiles, “Ok, Mom.”
