"I'll give you everything I have!" I screamed. "Just please let me go."\n\nA silhouette scattered the light in the corner. Someone approached--a large man, I thought--but I could not see the person's face. \n\n"You have nothing I want."\n\nPerhaps he was right. Perhaps I had no hope. Perhaps this is[[...|Done]]

As a matter of fact, I had truly lost my mind. My grip on reality continued to slip, and the world seemed to tilt--or perhaps I was falling. I staggered towards a crack in the cube-like container of my room and look out into the hallway. \n\nWas this an insane-asylum? Or perhaps it's just[[...|Done]]

"Hello?" I called. "Is anyone out there?"\n\nA strange sound like a hiss grated through the walls. It grew louder and louder, until it rattled my bones and made bumps scrape down my back. My head started to ache, then I reached up and felt blood trickling from my nose. \n\n"Foolish human," the voice seemed to say.\n\nThen before I could scream, my body exploded.

I could not find a logical reason as to why I would fall asleep in my bedroom and awake in a strange place like this one. But I assured myself there must be an explanation. \n\nPerhaps I had been kidnapped? Perhaps my captors wanted to hold me for [[ransom|ransom]]?\n\nNo... surely I wasn't valuable enough. No one would go out of their way to capture me. Why, then? Had I simply gone [[crazy|crazy]]?

I became increasingly convinced of the possibility that somehow, I had been transported to another planet in my sleep, or perhaps an entirely different [[plane of existence|Limbo]].\n\nI looked around the room, finding it to be cube-like in shape with only a few cracks in the walls to let in light and air. However, near the ceiling was a hole large enough for my body to fit through. If gravity was weak enough here, perhaps I could [[jump through the hole|hole]] and escape?\n\nBut if a hostile sentience had brought me here--aliens, perhaps--then my attempts to flee might anger them. Perhaps I should try [[communicating|Aliens]] with them instead.

I awoke in an unfamiliar place, where I did not recognize anything I saw, heard, or smelled. I could not even define the material of the structure around me--only that some sort of structure indeed formed my prison. Nor could I determine whether the light and shadows slicing through the cracks portended day or night. \n\nBut that was not the worst part of my day. The worst part came once I tried to escape. \n\nI began by standing and stretching my limbs. They ached as if I had slept in the same position for weeks without moving. I started to move around the dim gray chamber, then wondered at the fact my body felt lighter than usual. Had gravity shifted? Could I possibly have awoken on a [[different planet|Planet]]? \n\nNo, I assured myself. Surely not. That would be [[impossible|Reality]].\n\n\n\n

... insanity. Or perhaps belated lucidity?\n\nA soft voice echoed from the darkness beyond. \n\n"Hello? Are you feeling any better today? Doesn't look like it. Time to take your meds, sweetie."\n\nI was in an insane asylum, I realized. I had been here all along. \n\nI'm not sure how long I've been here--maybe this was my first morning, or maybe I have been here for years. Sleep and ignorance were my best chance at happiness, and now bitter knowledge poisons reality.\n\nI told you the worst part of my day came when I tried to escape. It was a futile attempt. Why did you try?

When I Tried to Escape

Jenny Gibbons

I crouched down, gathered all the strength in my legs that my weary body could gather, then launched upward.\n\nMy plan succeeded. I flew through the air and into the hole in the roof. \n\nI found myself floating into outer space. My lungs continued to pump but I ceased breathing oxygen. The beauty of space consumed me. And then I was [[ ...|Done]]

Perhaps I had died. Perhaps now I only existed in heaven, hell, or limbo. \n\n"God?" I called out, unable to think of a better option. "God, are you out there?"\n\nBut I got no response, and I understood why. I was alone, in the silence of [[...|Done]]