Caged

“Help…. Me…” 

The voice echoes through the dormitory halls once more. The cold, hollow voice reverberated through the silence of the night. It was always a question of whether it was only Scarlett, who could hear this voice. Every night, the teen would toss and turn in her bed, hoping to get as much sleep as she could get, yet each attempt would always lead to another sleepless night.

This night was no exemption. It seemed as though each night became worse. The voice grew more desperate. And so was Scarlett. She was growing exceedingly curious with the origin of the voice. 

One night, after finally giving in to her thoughts, she snuck out of her dorm room. With silenced steps, she listened intently to the voice.

“Help me... Please… I’m burning,”

Burning? That was new to the words she often heard. The voice led to the end of the hall, yet there was nothing there besides a wall and right next to it, stairs leading to the storage room. Was there a fire in the storage room? With that realization, she hurried upstairs. 

Nothing, nothing greeted her, but silence. 

“Hello? Is anyone up here? ” Scarlett said in hushed tones as she looked around the dark room. Had it not been to the moon that illuminated some parts of the room, everything would have been pitch black, so she was thankful for what little light she could get at least. 

“Help…” The voice was near the stairs, but when she turned to the surrounding area, there was nothing but the same concrete wall that greeted her a floor below.

“I’m in here… Please help me,” Upon further inspection, she was sure that it was just a wall, but when she tried knocking on the wall, it didn’t make the sound a concrete wall should make. That wall sounded hollow. Again, she knocked to make sure. Yes, hollow. 

“I’ll come back for this tomorrow” Scarlett muttered to herself before turning back to the stairs. Just as she was about to make her way down, she heard a knock on the wall she was just examining. First, it was just one. One knock that made her linger. The next thing she knew, it was one knock after the other. They came faster and harder as if the person behind the wall was frantically trying to escape.

“Stop it- Stop it, please!” Scarlett pleaded as she covered her ears, yet nothing seemed to stop the knocks.

“Let me out, I’m burning” It was that voice again. The owner of the voice was burning behind a wall? Would breaking the wall make this voice go away, she thought to herself as she scanned the room frantically to find anything that could break the wall. Anything to stop the voice.

A hammer. That’s it! She spared no time in picking the tool up from the box. As soon as the pleads turned to wails and cries, she knew that if she doesn’t end this now, she will never find peace. Bang. One hit after the next, she frantically banged the hammer against the wall until pieces of the wall started to crumble and fall from its place. It’s working. 

When she finally got through the cement, what greeted her was a rusted gate that seemed to be like those old elevators. 

“This is the thing driving me crazy?” She muttered to herself as she dropped the hammer. “All this for a stupid elevator? What’s with this elevator?” Her tone was that of frustration. It didn’t make sense to her and she thought that it would be better to just leave it be for tomorrow. That was what she thought of doing, but when the elevator lights came to life, and a figure appeared before her, she stood affixed to her spot. 

“Thank you for freeing me… as a reward…” The pale figure, then lifted her head to reveal her burnt face “I’ll let you burn in hell with me!” A maniacal laugh echoed through the room. 

“Burn? What-” Before Scarlett could even make a run for it, a hand dragged her by the collar and she was dragged into the elevator. The gates instantly slammed shut and the elevator fell. That night, everyone in the dorm heard the most chilling scream, they ever heard in their life. 

Okay, this was kind of just a promotion prompt again because I thought it was needed for this piece. Anyways, feel free to check that piece on my juungle account. Thank you for reading!

https://www.juungle.net/share/ff4fd5d8a72652f3cd293ebbae30ade91845bd0fdf231fb8fd2bfb85fb2b6bac