Boxed In

“What the hell?”

Ryan sat up and wiped the blood from his eyes. He tried to stand, but the dizziness forced him back down. By the time his head quit swimming, red covered his eyes again. He tore a piece of his shirttail off and wrapped it around the gash in his skull. From the amount of blood, Ryan thought he was going to need stitches. First things first, Bub, he thought. You have to figure out what’s going on and where you are.

Ryan looked around the room but it offered no clues. It was a small, box-like structure. No door, no windows, no openings in the floor or hatches in the ceiling. The only other thing in the room besides him was an ornate metal box. He crawled toward the box, but when he got there he found there was no way to open it. The box was solid with no lid or catch.

He picked the box up and shook it. He even threw it against the wall, but it did no good. If it held the key to his getting out, Ryan had no idea how to get to it.

His strength zapped from fighting with the box, Ryan rested against the wall. He knew there had to be a way out of the room. Someone had put him in there and they didn’t just walk through walls. If his head would quit hurting, Ryan was sure he could figure it out. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like the pain was going away any time soon. 

After a few minutes, Ryan pushed to his feet. He had to lean on to the wall to stand, but he managed. Concentrating through the pain, he worked his way around the room, testing the walls for hidden passages or openings. There was nothing. Just walls.

“Let me out of here!” he screamed. “Dammit, whoever you are, let me out!” He yelled and pounded his fists against the walls to no avail. The only thing he accomplished was wearing himself out.

Ryan slid down the wall and sat. He had just closed his eyes when a prickle of dread passed through him. Before he could react, the box came hurdling toward him.

***

Ryan sat up and wiped blood from his eyes. He looked around the small room. His eyes rested on the ornate metal box. “What the hell?”

From the Mouths of Babes

This story was written off this photo prompt from Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/pin/484348134895701731/



“I don’t want to go in there.”

Karen sighed and unfastened Jacob’s seatbelt. “It’s just a building, baby, it’s not going to hurt you.”

Jacob didn’t know why his mom couldn’t see it. The building itself was scared, and if the building was scared, then Jacob wasn’t going near it.

 He held on tight when his mom tried to get him out of the seat. His mom pulled and pulled, but Jacob wouldn’t let go. 

“Honey, please,” his mom begged. “You have to go inside and talk with Dr. Kurt.”

“Why can’t we go to his other office?” Jacob asked.

“He moved, honey. This is his first day here. He doesn’t have the other office anymore.”

“He shouldn’t have done that,” Jacob said and peeked at the building again. 

Karen wasn’t sure what to do. She knew Jacob shouldn’t miss his appointment because that always set him back, but she didn’t want to manhandle him out of the car either. Finally, she decided that she would go inside the building and get the doctor to come out and help with Jacob. It wasn’t the greatest solution, but the parking lot seemed secluded, and it was in a good part of town. She hoped Jacob would be fine until she came back out.

When Karen told Jacob she was going in to get the doctor he went crazy. He clawed at her arms trying to keep her from leaving; screaming that he building was scary. “It’s okay, Jacob,” Karen soothed. “I’ll be fine. You’ll see.”

Karen finally managed to free herself from her frantic son. She made sure he locked the door behind her and squared her shoulders. Sometimes, dealing with Jacob’s issues was harder than others. Karen hoped the doctor would be able to help calm him today. 

She looked back one last time and then opened the door. Jacob watched in terror as she was sucked inside. The last thing he saw of his mother was her fingers as she tried to hold on to the side of the building. Her screams reached him inside the car when the door to the building swung shut.

Thirty Word Stories

I entered these three stories in a contest. I didn't win, but they were fun to write and I like them. I thought I'd share them with y'all. Anybody else want to come up with a 30-Word story to share with me?

Beloved

Memories pushed to the surface and gripped Tina’s heart, suffocating her. She fought through the tears, offered one last prayer and laid a single rose on the newly turned soil.

Regret

Alicia’s soulless eyes stared from the mirror. Her past, alive in the room, whispered of mistakes. Alicia grabbed a razor, made the first deep cut and silenced the whispers forever.

Mercy

On the wings of Sorrow, Repentance soared over the fallen. With a mighty swing of his sword, he vanquished Fear, silenced Guilt, and released Anger’s hold, allowing Redemption free reign.

Perceptions

“I used to be tall.”

Colby snickered. Behind his hand, he whispered to his little brother, “I’m sure.”

“Yep, before I became the gnarled little garden gnome you see before you, I was tall.”

The hunched little old lady watched and smiled as the two children ran around her in circles, singing, “Little garden gnome. Little garden gnome,” and laughing.

“I thought you would like that,” she told them once they calmed down. “How ‘bout we make the cookies now?” she asked.

“Yes!”

“Yes, please!”

They two took her hands and dragged her into the kitchen. She loved having her great grandchildren over, but it was taxing, and it was the one time she thought about her diminishing height. When she was alone, she just didn’t use the things on the top shelves, but little ones wanted cookies, and her daughter had put the sugar in the topmost cabinet.

Colby saw her worried expression and quickly offered to get a chair and reach the sugar for her. “Okay,” she agreed, “but you be careful up there.” Colby scooted a chair over and nimbly climbed aboard. He had the sugar down within seconds.

“Back in the day I would have been able to reach that myself. And do you know I used to think five feet was short?”

“You were a whole five feet, Grammy?” the youngest boy asked.

“Yes, Tommy, I surly was,” she replied. 

“WOW!” both boys exclaimed. “You really were tall.”

It Was an Echo of a Dream Within a Dream

The smile on my face was so wide it almost hurt. Joy coursed through my body like a jolt of pure happiness as the whimper reached me. I quickly pushed the covers back and tumbled out of the bed. In my haste, my legs became tangled and I fell to the floor. I fought with the fluffy foe, my irritation mounting, until I freed myself. 

I started to run through the house. The nursery was in sight when I tripped. 

I couldn’t believe my husband had left his shoes in the middle of the hallway. My knee throbbed, but I wasn’t letting that stop me. I pushed to my feet, with aide of the wall, and limped toward the nursery.

When I reached the crib, I stood transfixed. The perfect bundle curled up on her tummy couldn’t possibly be mine. How could such a wonder have come from me? My fingers lightly touched her head when she started screaming.

***

I was crying. Lying in the floor of the nursery, with a teddy bear hugged tightly to my chest. I could hear a faint scream above my anguish. The crib across the room seemed to mock me. Its emptiness filled the room.

I crawled across the floor and pulled myself up with the crib rails. The dried blood on the sheets pierced my eyes. I started screaming.

***

I awoke with screams filling the darkness. I couldn’t be sure if it was one of the women down the hall, forced to endure something no woman should have to endure just to get what she needed to end the pain, or if the screams where from my own mind. It didn’t matter, either way.

I turned over, reached for the teddy bear on the floor beside me, unzipped him and took the needle out. Soon the screams would be gone.