I pulled myself across the floor, my fingers digging into the crevice between the half-rotted floorboards, the smell of mildew making me gag yet again. My right arm was completely useless, broken and hanging lifelessly from my shoulder, but my left still had a little life in it.
I could see the pizza just sitting there. The cheese hardened and cold, the teeth marks from the rats nibbling on it in the dark.
I’d finally managed to chase them away when I threw my shoes at them after screaming did nothing to make them leave.
It was almost in my grasp. My mouth was watering for the first time in days. I was hungry enough that even the stale pepperoni pizza sitting in a pile of dust and grime looked like a feast to me.
I reached out as far as I could, my muscles straining, my ankle still caught in the trap. I could touch it, feel the crust with the tips of my fingers. I screamed out in frustration… although it came out as more of a whisper. There was nothing left of me. No more energy, I needed that food.
I pushed with my free leg, feeling the iron from the shackles digging into my already raw ankle. I pushed, pulled, cried out in frustration. I felt something running down my ankle. Blood seeping into the dried wood of the floor.
It made things slick, just a little. I pushed again, feeling the skin peeling, tearing from the edge of the metal cuff around my ankle, but it had some give. I pushed again, ignoring the tearing pain as my skin was pulled from my bones.
Just a little further, just a little bit more…
My fingers wrapped around the crust and I started to cry. Pulling the cold, hard pizza to my lips, I took a bite. Then another.
I felt energy slowly coming back, just a thread of hope was what I had needed. My ankle throbbing, I sat up, bringing that one single piece of pizza with me, gnawing on it like it was a glorious feast.
My mind focused. Honed in on the broken door where the sunlight peeked in through the cracks. The dust motes floating in the stale air. The soft tapping of my blood dripping to the floor as I waited. And ate.
I had the energy to try. One more time. One last effort, one last push to free myself and if I failed... a sob caught in my throat.
No need to go there. I would be free. I had to be. I couldn't take another day of this.
My heart sank as I heard footsteps outside the door. The door crashed in and he stumbled into the doorway, the sunlight creating a halo around him as if he were an angel or an otherworldly being. I shrank into the corner, trying to disappear.
It was too late. Too late for anything.
He laughed, his dry, crusty laugh and my world crumbled around me.
