"Escape"

Aspen woke up from her sleep, in a white room that was not familiar to her. She looked around the room, though there wasn’t much to see. The room was barely full, only a brown leather notebook, a golden victorian mirror, a small army green backpack and the plain white bed she woke up on.

She first looked at the notebook. There was only one word written on the lined pages. It read “Escape.” Those words did not make sense to her, she was not stuck in this room, there was a big door that led to who knows where. Did she have to escape from what was waiting behind the door? If so, she did not want to go through the door, where anything can get to her. This room that she woke up in was much more comforting than imagining what was behind the door.

She then looked through the small backpack. All she found were a black marker and a compass. North, East, South and West weren’t on the compass however, there was an arrow that pointed to a single word that read “Escape” just like the notebook.

After looking around she finally came to the mirror. When she looked through the mirror she looked like herself, but she didn’t feel like it was herself. She still had her green eyes, black hair and warm ivory skin. She couldn’t stop staring, maybe if she looked long enough she’d find out what was wrong with her appearance. But, she couldn’t find one. She was still her.

Days passed by and Aspen still did not go out of the room, she feared too much about the outside world that was waiting for her. Words kept appearing in her dreams but when she woke up she could not remember any of the words she saw.

The next time Aspen woke up from her slumber she felt the need to get out of the room, as if being in the room wasn’t safe anymore. It didn’t feel right. She started to begin to question the room, something that she didn’t do before, which worried her. Why didn’t she question being in the room? Why did she feel like she wasn’t stuck in a room so small? How was she still alive even though she wasn’t provided with any food? She decided she needed to get out of the plain room.

First, she grabbed the notebook, put it in the backpack and slid it over her shoulder. She carefully glided towards the door. When she walked through she couldn’t believe what she saw. Outside she found the word vandalized, everything white with black words written on it and a single barn owl standing on a tree. She did not enjoy the borning white world filled with words, but when she turned around the door was not there anymore. Still, it was better than the small room that consumed her.

On one of the white trees with black words a barn owl stood tall. She stared at it because the barn owl was so out of place in the boring white and black world, strange. The barn owl stared back at her, the beady black eyes staring deep into her eyes, like it was reading her mind. Then, the owl started to hoot, hooting turned into screeching and screeching turned into talking.

“If you wish to escape, follow the words. You’ll know which ones to follow.” And with this the barn owl flew away. What? Riddles have never been Aspen’s strong suit but this one just didn’t make sense. How was she supposed to follow the correct words? There were millions - maybe even trillions of words to follow. However, when she spotted the word “reverie” she knew where to go. It was almost like she was in a daze, she looked from word to word. Aisling. Sweven. Somniate. Oneiric. Paramnesia. All words relating to the word dream. She knew where she was now. And she needed to get back to the room.

She knew that when she woke up from this dream she wouldn’t be alone. They would hurt her. They would ask her how she got out of the room. She couldn’t tell them. Valuable secrets needed to be kept safe. She could feel herself drifting. Drifting away from this dream. Whispers clouded her thoughts. Wake up now. Wake up. Wake up. Wake... up? She should wake up. No. Stay asleep. Keep running to find the door to the room. She needed to chase away the whispers. She had to stay asleep.

When she finally reaches the hidden door, her mind goes blank. Until she hears voices.

“Unit 3 has escaped from the room again. What do we do? That is the fifth time this week and she keeps on remembering. There must be something wrong with the system”

“There is nothing wrong with the system, she just needs to be put in the dream more and more times until she can’t remember her name and face.”

The last thing she remembered was one single word.

“Restart.”