Her mind was in tangles. She could barely string together a sentence, but she knew she had to escape this trap that everyone seemed to lay out for her.
Her hair was a mess and her eyes were wild. The alarm screeched as she sprinted through the spotless hallways.
The tiles perplexed her. She cringed in pain as the shouting resumed. She knew she had to leave before the shadows consumed her once again.
The flickering lights, the dancing shadows. Her mind racing as her little feet took her down the hall.She glanced all around her as she rushed down the stairs. The patter of her feet echoed as she reached the exit. Cracking the doors open, she trembled as the winter wind hit her with full force.
She sprinted through the courtyard as the search lights rotated systematically around her. The doors were thrown open as she heard her captors yelling behind her.
The lights were blinding. She finally reached the forest that surrounded the off white building that had held her captive for so many years. She ran as fast as she could, stumbling over rocks and roots.
Until she reached it, the clearing of the woods. It was a meadow which normally would have been calm and serene, but on a stormy night like this, her mind kept her on edge.She was about to leave when the horizon suddenly became sunny. She grinned from ear to ear as three adorable teddy bears waved to her from their small gingerbread house.
“Can i come play with you?” She asked happily “Of course” replied the biggest bear as he walked into the gingerbread house.
“YAY!” She exclaimed as she ran into the house. She realized how hungry she was and took a bite out of the gingerbread wall. “Ouch!” She cried. The wall was as hard as rock. The smells were so tantalizing. Everywhere she looked was something that smelled so sweet. Then, snapping her out of her trance, the medium sized teddy bear said “Why don’t you come over here and try some of this delicious porridge my little cookie. I made it just for you”
It was like a dream, she always knew fairy tales were true. Her mama and papa lied when they said nothing like this existed. She just needed a prince charming. With a dazed ghost of a smile, she nodded timidly.
She was hungry anyways. She had forgotten why, but she felt oddly tired and hungry. She felt like it must have been forever since she had last eaten.
She looked at all the food on the table and did agreed that the porridge did look very tasty. there on the table was three bowls of porridge “can i eat that big bowl of porridge i am very hungry” she asked the medium sized bear. “sure” said the medium sized bear i’ll go get more in case it’s not enough.
She sat down and ate the bowl of porridge, but it was much too hot. In surprise, the bowl of porridge slipped out of her hands and spilled all over her. She felt the porridge dripping off her arms and onto the ground. The pain was almost unbearable. She cried in pain as she placed the bowl back on the table. “Sorry” She said quietly to the bears, embarrassed. “It’s alright, we’ll clean it up” reassured the largest bear. “Why don’t you sit down?”
The smallest bear asked timidly “We have some chairs over there” he continued pointing into what looked like a large room with 3 chairs. She walked towards them nearly blacking out from the excruciating burn she received from the porridge. “Ouch!” she winced after sitting on the largest chair, as it felt as if someone was jabbing her in the back with a large rock.
She winced, rubbing her back with the palm of her hand. She was observing the living room around her. She felt another shock of pain and the gingerbread house flickered for a brief moment. What she saw surprised her, she wasn’t in a gingerbread house, she was in a cave! It was only moments before the image flickered back. She snorted, the gingerbread house was obviously real, she had felt it herself.
The house is real because she remembers the giant cracker table where she ate the very hot porridge, the gumdrop chairs that she sat on, and the twizzler tree trunks.
She did wonder what that cave was, but it didn’t matter that much. She continued to sit down in the rest of the chairs. The next one was warm and furry, but she felt pain as if something had bit her. Her whole body aching, she sat on the last chair. As soon as she sat down, the chair broke and she fell onto the floor. “I’m really sorry” She said, cringing in pain. She looked back at the other chairs and found nothing that could’ve possibly caused the injuries that were making her suffer. A tad confused, she realized she was terribly tired after her escape. “Do you have a bed somewhere?” She asked politely. “Yup! It’s upstairs !” answered the smallest bear, presumably the child. She continued upstairs and found a room with 3 beds, varying in size. She jumped onto the largest on and realized, with another injury, that it was really hard. She got back up, feeling a little dizzy for some reason, she felt light headed,and sat down in the next one, cautious in case this one was as hard as the last. The second bed was soft and fluffy, similar to the second chair, but it suddenly disappeared, as if it had simply walked away. Frustrated, she lay down in the last bed, it was a little hard, but it was comfy, and soon she found herself drifting off to a very deep sleep… Or so she thought…
She was awoken by something brushing against her… Something… Big… She heard someone, know, something breathing near her. She sat up slowly trying not to disturb whatever was in the large room with her… Then she remembered, she was in the gingerbread house, but it didn’t seem right… It seemed darker, and a lot less friendly, and the smell was gone to, it smelled damp and like a sewer… Her head hurt and she felt dizzy but she couldn’t figure out why. She reached up to rub her head but suddenly felt a searing pain in her arm. She screeched, it felt as if she had been mauled by something with huge claws, her mind racing as she looked around and finally realized… The gingerbread house was gone. In it’s place was the cave from before, though it was bigger than before. She looked around until her eyes laid on the most gruesome thing she had ever seen… Standing where the soft teddy bears were were 3 huge bears with eyes so black it looked like it was a void of all things. Except one, its eyes were red as blood, but that wasn’t the scary part… The smallest bear, with the red eyes started walking towards her, it looked as if it were going eat her. She was scared and so she ran only getting a few steps before the darkness consumed her once more... But this time there was a voice ringing in her head, and it said this: “Don’t Go Away... Come Play With Me…”
Those words repeated over and over as she faded into the darkness. She felt as though she should wake up any moment and the nightmares would end, her back in that lovely gingerbread house. “Please wake up! Please wake up!” she thought to herself...
Little did she know she never would… Ever again...
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The Happy Ending Herald
Friday June 13th 1997
BREAKOUT AT THE MENTAL ASYLUM
Last night there was an escape in the Happily Ever After Mental Institute. Thirteen-year old Goldie Lock killed her night guard with a blunt bed rod and escaped from her cell. Despite the security team’s best efforts, Goldie did manage to escape the institute and was then declared missing in the bordering Minnesota woods. Goldie is diagnosed with schizophrenia and is prone to hallucinations. She is deemed highly dangerous and if seen, it is advised to not approach. She was last seen entering the forest with a metal pipe. Goldie is 5’ 6” with waist-length honey blonde hair. She has baby blue eyes and is wearing a hospital gown. Any information regarding the whereabouts of Goldie should be turned over to the police. For any further details, call the crime hotline at www.647-864-8879.com.cheeseballs/faces.html
~Next Day’s Paper~
Yesterday afternoon, fugitive Goldie Lock was discovered dead, lying in a bear’s cave. It is believed she died of blood loss after taking quite a beating from the bears. Why she didn’t run, was probably that she was having a hallucination, and didn’t see the cave as dangerous as it was. The 3 bears that killed her were 2 parents and a cub, the parents killing Goldie to protect their cub. The parents were killed and the cub was found standing over the dead body, with tears streaming down its eyes. The cub was captured and was going to be researched for its odd behaviour, but as it was being taken back to a confined area, It attacked with glowing red eyes and slaughtered two of the people driving the van before being killed. Some people believe this was because of the event taking place on friday the 13th, but this seems unlikely. The mysterious cub’s body was researched, but it seemed perfectly normal. The confused scientists are confused, and our writers are redundant, but the cause of this accident is unknown. We believe that that the bear had some sort of connection to the girl though most have dismissed this as the girl has been in the institute since the age of 2. She was convicted of break and enter as well as vandalism, she was believed to have been hallucinating, a side affect of her untreatable schizophrenia. Goldie is believed to have been in the midst of one of her hallucinations, hence the entry of the bear cavern. Goldie has no living relatives after the infamous Carter scandal, and will be buried in a public cemetery. There will be no funeral service.