The Cure To A Broken Mind

Chapter 20 ~ Diminishing

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        Perhaps I had wasted a moment too long sitting in the window frame. Though, halting my panic to simply enjoy the open breeze for the first time in what seemed like forever didn't seem to be hurting my luck.

        The seconds ticked by for what seemed like hours- time moving so pleasantly slow rather than agonizingly dragging on for centuries as it always seemed to do. It almost felt absurd- completely unreal in its own way- as if, maybe I was dreaming. I pinched myself to check..

        This calm moment of serenity had seemed so impossible- in my gut, I thought, surely he'd catch me, pull me back inside- I found myself waiting, almost, but the moment never came. Both to my shock, and my relief.

        Was this it? Was this finally the freedom I had been asking for?

        I almost didn't feel ready. As if, despite my struggles, it had been far too easy.

        Either way, I took the initiative to push on forward, slowly turning to my side to ease my foot out of the window and into this big, green, open film before me.

        Down, past the window frame- slowly, parallel to the wall- descending further and further ever lento to the greenery beneath.

        Eventually, the vegetation tickled the end of my toes- grass, far since overgrown, calling me down to it gently- stroking hands reaching for the heavens.

        I sighed gently, the feeling similar to lowering yourself into a jacuzzi- however, just as the ends of my toes grazed the forest floor, something seemed off.

        Suddenly, the expectingly soft and vegetated ground beneath me seemed cold and hard- unforgiving under my feet.I leaned over from the window to look, pressed my weight into the foreign ground-

        and from the vegetation, metal teeth snagged up through the overgrown grass and snapped down roughly above my ankle.

        On impulse, I shrieked out in pain, falling from my place in the windowsill to clutch desperately around my leg- accommodating to the pain and trying to come to. It was horribly painful, burning, almost- not only the snap of the metal, but the bone held so tightly between.

        At most, I had been thankful that the hinges had spared me 2 inches between the teeth- though, it had snapped its way right through the rest of my leg, keeping it from severing entirely, but surely it had broken the bone.

        I couldn't calm my screaming- my agonizing yells drowning into warbled sobs.

        He'd set a beartrap.

        He'd set a fucking bear trap and now I'm going to die.

        I bit my tongue and prayed to whatever deity might stand before me to allow me some mercy. At this point, though, it was looking bleak- and I'd long since discontinued my belief in some higher being playing in my favor. 

        I was beyond broken on the forest floor, trembling horribly into the metal fangs that held me in place. The blood was seeping out slow and steady from between the fierce prongs, the deep, crimson liquid oozing from the wound and over the rusted teeth- drooling into an expanding pool beneath me and muddying the dirt of the forest floor. Somehow, it seemed familiar.

        Eventually, I got to a point that I held my tongue and didn't allow a single sound to cross my lips. I merely choked out quiet sobs in an attempt to keep silent- though, somehow I felt that I would make it- blessed with the reassurance the doctor hadn't heard me yell. as long as I could escape the clutches of the bear trap, I might just make it out alive-