"Where's my mommy?" I hear the voice of a child, probably female.

"I'm sorry, I-I-I don't know. Where are you?"

"I'm scared." she says, her voice breaking.

"Where are you? What are you scared of?" I plead, getting a bit scared myself.

"Please! Help m-" She doesn't go on.

I feel a sharp pain in my knees and collapse to the ground. I look around. It's pitch black. There's nothing. I can't stand. "WHERE AM I? SOMEBODY HELP ME!" Nobody comes.

I crawl for hours until I feel a wall. I search for a door, but to no avail. I slump against it and close my eyes. Soon after, I fall asleep.

***

When I wake up, I'm at the entrance to a forest. The sun is rising, but I have nothing to tell me the time. The air is thick, hardly breathable. The forest, filled with oxygen making trees, seems almost too desirable. I look at myself: I'm wearing some dress that looks like it came out of a southern movie. It's purple with tiny designs on it. It has a thick, tan leather belt, and I have matching boots. I feel my hair. It's done in a French braid. I'm sure this is from a memory.

I look around me, panic rising in my core. Where am I? Besides the trees, the only thing around me is an empty field of grass. I take a deep breath and enter the woods.

As soon as I enter, I can breathe better, making my slight headache vanish. I take a deep breath.

The sun feels good against my bare arms. It's beautiful in here. I hear a few kids laughing and smile at the normalcy. I don't become fully aware there are no kids in ear distance.

I walk farther into the forest, feeling a bit like Little Red Riding Hood. I hope I'm not the only one who will ever see or feel this.

The warm air welcomes me deeper into the woods. I wonder of this is how Little Red Riding Hood felt, as she deserted something familiar, for something more... Beautifully unknown.

I walk for what seems like hours, but I never stop and I never tire. I feel like a being made of energy.

After what feels like decades of walking, never waning consciousness, it is almost completely dark out.

A sudden gust of wind hits me- along with a hurdle of leaves. I start running faster, but the sun has now set and I am drenched in unbearable darkness, so I continue dripping over things I cannot see.

Panic starts to arise within me. Where am I? WHERE AM I? Hysteria builds up in my chest, partly from the cold and partly from the fear. My shivering turns into violent shaking.

I feel a warm liquid go over my lip as tears drip down my cheeks. Ryan... Wait, who? Who's Ryan? I touch the area between my nose and my lip, bringing my absolutely numb hand down to look. Blood has formed a pool in my palm.

My vision becomes more and more unclear. There's a sharp pain in my limbs, causing me to collapse to the ground helplessly. I cry out, knowing no one can hear me.

"Whyy-hy-hy? Just leave me alone! I hate you! I hate you! I hate this!" I keep screaming until my voice is raw. Until I am dead inside.

My eyes close for a few moments. Then it's black.

***

I wake up, no longer in the forest. My muscles are sore, but I'll live. I try to stand, but gravity is working painfully hard on me. Well, gravity and a couple chains on my arms, but suspiciously not my wrists. I see two objects in front of me: a knife and a key.

This is a test, I think to myself. Choose carefully and or wisely. Don't even think the answer in your mind.

I sit back and clear my mind. I can pick freedom from this cell and the key. Or I can pick freedom from this life, from these memories, this pain, and take the knife, which I eye more carefully.

"You wanna know what I'm going to pick!?! You want me to make a choice?" I struggle hard against the restraints. "Here it is!" I stop. I choose neither. I just sit there. "You can keep me here until I die! Without me making a choice! If I don't, you killed me. It was your choice."

Lights go on, about twenty yards away. I scrunch my eyes shut at the sudden brightness.

An unfamiliar woman, probably in her early forties or late thirties, walks in. She isn't like the other women. She isn't grinning like she won the lottery. No, she's smirking. She is genuinely smug.

"I must say, Miss, you are smarter than the other patients. I'm impressed. You've shown two of the four signs. Or at least, according to our tests and knowledge of you and your family.

"You still have far to come now for when speaking with your therapist, but that's perfectly fine." She grabs my face in her palm. "Soon you'll see things... Our way. I'll be seeing you soon dear. Until then, Deirdre Oakley, you're on your own."

"You can't do this to me!" I yell. "You want to keep me here! I will never stop fighting this, no matter what you do to me. Even of I have to-"

I'm insane. I remember the blood that stained my body just moments before. I have an unfortunate thrill at the sight. At the very thought.

Then a searing pain reaches my skull, and once again, my body's cold, lifeless on the floor.

I have no idea how much time has passed, but-

I push myself up, sweat beading on my forehead, arms, and feet. I'm hyperventilating, but somehow, I am unbelievably happy...