Take My Hand

I stood in a pitch black room. I only had my thoughts for company, or so I thought. I heard a faint tapping, like a foot on the concrete floor. "Who's there?" I called, taking a step backwards.

"Little Ameranda, you've finally come to play," a girl said. She sounded around the same age as me.

"Wh-who are you?" I stammered, heart beating wildly. I took another step back, my heel hitting against the wall behind me. Reaching out my hands sideways, I touched two concrete walls on either side of me. I had effectively cornered myself.

"Now, don't be like that," the girl laughed, considerably closer now, "I just want to talk."

I heard a sound that sounded like... a sword being slid out of its sheath? I really hoped I was hearing wrong. "Where the hell am I!" I yelled, hoping to throw her off guard in the silent room.

"You'll know soon enough, dear Ameranda, it's only a matter of time." At this, she plunged the cool steel into my heart.

While you usually wake up when you die in a dream, I was only transported to another one. This time, I could see, but I was chained to a wall by my wrists. I had an overwhelming feeling of dread. I knew that if I didn't escape, I would go through painful torture that would leave me wishing to die.

I looked down and saw a body completely different from my own. I was more athletic, slightly taller, and-most obvious of all-wearing a dress. It was blood red, with gold designs embroidered around the neckline and waist. The hem was muddy and tattered, like I-or whoever it is I am- put up a fight before being captured. I had cuts on my arms, and what felt like a very bad bruise forming on my cheekbone.

I quickly formulated a plan. combing through my hair, I found a few bobby pins in the damp tangles. Somehow, I knew how to pick the locks around my wrists, and fell to the ground a few seconds later. "Now, to get out of this cell," I muttered under my breath. The room was bare, so it looked like I would have to wait until I got out to find a weapon. The lock on the door was to big for a bobby pin, so that wouldn't work this time.

Now that I was able to comb through my hair more easily, I realized I had quite a few bobby pins, it must have been an intricate hairstyle before it was ruined. Looking through the bars, I saw a ring of gold keys hung on a hook across the narrow hall. You would think by now people would no better than to put the keys that close to the cell. I started linking the bobby pins together, and quickly had a long chain. It was sturdy enough that I didn't think the keys would bend it, so I pushed it out between the bars, it was barely long enough, I but I managed to hook the key ring onto the end and began pulling it back into my cell. I jumped, dropping the bobby pin contraption and the keys when I heard a voice coming from the barred window in my cell. It was the girl.

"Silly Ameranda, there is no escape if you don't learn who you truly are."

"What is that supposed to mean!" I yelled,stupidly, alerting the guards down the hall. They found me reaching for the keys through the bars, centimeters away from my grasping fingers. Apparently they were given orders to kill upon escape attempt, because one pointed his notched bow at my chest and fired.

This time I woke up.