Inside

There was only one rule: "Don't Open the Door."

Like a fool, I, of course, ignored the one rule. Hah! I was a teenager and rules like this were just made to be broken!

I stumbled into the bleak fog of a single, narrow room. It was maybe eight feet long and straight; no furniture or windows. There were but two doors; the one I had entered and the one across the room from me.

Suddenly, the door behind me sealed shut as well! Then, a dense fog overtook not only my vision but clouded my mind as well.

A new form took shape from across the room. It crawled at me on all fours.

As the creature drew closer, it finally developed a face; a familiar face.

I squinted through the fog and blackness that afflicted my vision and my mind. The creature's face; it shared the sadness and disappointment of my mother! Before I could yell out in terror that the beast had taken my mother's face, it dissolved into the sneering, contemptible versage of my late father! Then it was the high and mighty airs of my younger sister; truly the star of the family lineage. Then, the beast took on the mocking face of Hannah Long, my first female junior high crush; then David Lox, our shared secret shame and...

I shook my head to clear my senses. My life had represented the disappointment or cruel amusement of anyone around me. It was time for me to be myself.

"You can't hurt me, creature!" I shouted at what could have very well been a hallucination. "I am proud of who I am!"

The creature let out a shriek and shrank back through the open door. My escape was unguarded again! I was free!