I’m shivering, Cold, Starving. The ground is hard and wet. It is solid concrete and it is my bed. There is no light that ever reaches me. Even when the door opens, way up there, there is no light. I haven’t seen the sun or even a light bulb in over four months. The white nightshirt I was given on the first day is now a grayish yellow and has three large holes and two little holes. I haven’t showered in two months and my last meal was Monday. It is now Friday. I shower every three months and when I do they just dunk me in the tub up there and send my back down dripping. I get fed once a week. It is pitch black and I’m rocking. Crying, Praying, And Missing. They came for me when I did nothing to them. My mom told me to forgive people no matter what, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t people. To not go crazy I sing. I sing the songs I once love and songs that I make up, but when they get to loud, pain comes. So I whisper them. I have nobody to love and nobody to talk to. So I talk to myself. I pray every minute of every day that someone will come and rescue me, but after month three, I gave up. A single bell vibrated through the basement, it means go to bed. Or else. I close my eyes and cry myself to asleep like every night.
I was fast asleep when the rumbling started. It was very faint but it steadily grew louder. Shouts echoed up stairs from what sounded like twenty people. There was rumbling and screaming and banging and crashing. There were sudden gun shots and more followed. Suddenly light flooded the basement and I saw a large man standing at the top of the old creaky stairs. He walks slowly down them. Gun shots and yells still fill my ears. He stands over me and I look up. He bends down and smiles. He is a police officer. I start sobbing and he picked me up. He carries me up the stairs into the chaos. He covers my head and runs. I hear them yelling at him, trying to take shots at me. Suddenly, even with my eyes shut, light shines from what must be the sun. I open one eye and see dozens of police cars surrounding the house in the awful neighborhood. He sets me on the ground and sits with me. “You’re safe now.”