Midori shook her head. She couldn’t believe she’d never thought of escaping that place. She brought her hands to her heart, which was beating a million per second, and took a deep breath. She felt ready. First, she stood very close to the walls, they were going to be her guide to move around. Only a few steps in and she already encountered her first problem.
She traced with her hands the edges of the object. They seemed to be a pair of crutches. She took them before they could fall to the ground and make unnecessary noise, then tilted her head to the side.
— Maybe these could help me…
She took one of the crutches, careful to not let the other fall. She stayed closer to the wall, mapping the path with the crutch so as not to bump into anything else that might appear.
The lack of noise was also terrifying. It made the place feel desolated. She didn’t hear even a single person. There weren’t any TVs on or any signal that there were other patients in the place. Midori was starting to get nervous. She felt goosebumps running through her whole body. She just gulped down and continued her walk. She tried to drag the crutch on the floor as silently as possible.
She arrived to what she assumed was the end of the corridor, where she felt the wall stopped. What she felt at the end seemed not to be another wall but a stair. She extended her hand with crutch and confirmed that it was a small step, as there wasn’t anything else beyond it. But in that moment, she heard a few nurses climbing up the stairs. Immediately she extracted her hand and clenched her crutch close to her chest. She prayed that there weren’t on their way to where she was. The voices were getting closer and closer, and with every moment, Midori’s heart was closer to beating out its ribcage.
— Did you get to analyze the results of that girl?
— Which one? Midori?
— Yeah, that one.
— I’m actually going to her room right now.
Midori covered her moth with her hand, avoiding any sudden noises from escaping,
— Ah! I remembered that I left something in the basement.
— I’ll be in that boy’s room then, see you later.
— Alright, later.
She then heard how the steps were slowly getting farther away. Midori let out a big relieved breath, she was containing her breath all the while the nurses were there. After a few moments trying to calm down, she started to question why her nurse was talking about her, talking about some results.
— What could she have meant…? Well, it doesn’t matter.
With a shrug, she decided to ignore the whole thing, it didn’t matter, she was going to escape from that place anyway, she didn’t care that they were talking about her. She waited for the perfect moment and started to climb down the stairs carefully. She tried to slowly grace the crutch against the floor to not make any noise. She got all the way down but after arriving she noticed she wasn’t in the first floor yet. Midori clicked her tongue and made her way back to the stairs. It was starting to look strange again how there weren’t any noises in that place, but that wouldn’t stop her, with every step she as closer to her freedom, and that was everything that mattered.
When she arrived to the first floor, she noticed how there were another set of stairs.
— Is there another floor beyond this? —she muttered to herself—.
A phone started to ring right then, something took the call and started to talk. She heard how a chair was pushed back and the person making their way to another room.
— This seems to be the reception.
She took the opportunity to run to the front since the other person wasn’t there anymore. There was nobody else in that room. With her trusted crutch, she traced the way as well as she could while running, until she collided with a door. On the crystal of it, she could feel the warmth of the sun. It was in that moment that she knew she arrived at her goal. She opened up the door with force driven out of excitement and stepped out of there. Panting, she kept walking slowly.
The feeling of the breeze against her hair, making it dance with the wind, the warmth against her skin and the harmony she could hear outside, it was something she could only feel on the oasis in her dreams. Midori started to laugh uncontrollably. She couldn’t control that feeling of freedom. She was completely absorbed by that bubble of happiness. She just stood there, overwhelmed with all that she was feeling.
She threw the crutch she had been using aside, and just when she was about to take one more step, she felt how a hand took her arm with force. Her sense of smell didn’t betray her, she already knew who it was.
— Miss Midori, you need to go back to your room.
Midori bit her lip in frustration. She tried to escape from her grasp but it was impossible. Midori’s body wasn’t in the best condition, so the small force the nurse was putting on her grasp was enough to keep her in place. A knot formed in her throat, she couldn’t believe that with how close she was, she still couldn’t make it. She felt how the whole world came crashing down. The remaining force on her body just banished. All the happiness and joy she felt for being outside disappeared just like that.
The nurse dragged Midori by her arm. Midori was just walking along, feeling numb. She didn’t care anymore. The nurse threw her to the floor and left her on her room. She heard some keys and how a lock was being places. In that moment, she knew that she was being locked up in there. Midori hugged herself with her head down. She wanted to cry so bad but not even that she was allowed to do.
With no strength left, she dragged herself to her bed, and with her hand she desperately looked for the MP3. It was the sole thing that could made her feel something in that moment. When she found it, she started to listen to her favorite bands. Midori fell asleep right there, on the floor.
TO BE CONTINUED.
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