A/N Finally! Free time to write! I'm having one of those phases where you are perfectly happy and content, yet somehow all you can write is depressing stuff. So I'm starting this story. This is the intro- don't worry, stuff'll be explained in the following chapters.
Intro
Cold. Empty. Bleak. Life was no longer a blank canvas awaiting her masterpiece. It was four walls and her. The door was a one-way mirror. Guess which side she was on. The girl in her reflection stared back at her with dirty clothes and unwashed skin. Her hair was barely distinguishable from something you'd find in a shower drain. The bags under her eyes showed the countless sleepless nights she had endured. But her eyes were the focal point of the picture she saw. Jaded. Dead. Dangerous. Somehow, they betrayed her brokenness most of all.
A pounding sound echoed through the hall outside. The girl's eyes hardened as she watched herself involuntarily step away from the door. Her body was screaming, pleading for mercy, any escape at all from what was to come. But her eyes told a different story. They would put up a fight until her last breath. She was dangerous. Not how she used to be, willing to do anything for her friends…. A humorless smile hinted at her lips. The word "friend" was dead to her. Now she was insane. As the door clicked and slid open, her lips curled into a crazed grin. She forced her legs into motion, lurching towards the door with her last reserves of adrenaline. She would escape this hellhole if it was the last thing she did.
But her body was weak. Her broken mind had lost all sense of reality, but her broken body was feeling it in all its starved, dehydrated, sleep-deprived glory. Her muscles gave out time after time, but she forced them to move. One more time. Just one more time. Over and over again. Her foot landed at the wrong angle and suddenly she was stumbling, crashing to the floor. She couldn't get up. Her body was out of energy. She felt herself being thrown back into her cell. She heard the guards laughing at her pitiful attempt at escape as their footsteps faded away down the hall.
After what felt like forever, she pushed herself up until she was sitting, staring at the innocent glass of water the guards had left in her cell. Her daily drug. The only water she ever got. She needed that water, but she knew the drug in it would cause insomnia. Still, she would die without water. She would also die if she didn't sleep. She couldn't drink it. Regardless of her wishes, her parched tongue and cracked lips took control and gulped down the water. She instantly regretted it.
The buzzing feeling began to pound in her head. All she wanted to do was sleep. Her vision was blurry. She didn't have the energy to stay awake much longer. She was off-balance, even while sitting, but she couldn't sleep. Her vision was getting darker. Intense pain throbbed behind her eyes. But she couldn't sleep. Her hands were shaking from fatigue as she fell backwards, head hitting the floor with a dull thud. She was seeing double. The ceiling was pink and green and yellow. Spots danced in front of her eyes. But still she couldn't sleep.
Hours later, the guards returned. They threw the cup away and chuckled at her desperate stupidity. She heard every word, somehow barely coherent yet still conscious. Tears slipped from her eyes, trailing down her skin and disappearing into her hair. But still, she couldn't sleep.
