They Got Me!

I woke up with a huge back ache, and groaned as I sat up in bed. As I looked around, I found that my back was the least of my problems, my "bed" was the ground and I was trapped inside of the holding cell that had been my home when I was being held by the asylum people. I saw in the corner my tally of how many times I had seen sunlight, I remember the number because the sun, if I ever saw it, was the greatest part of my day. In my total time of imprisonment in this cell in the sewer, I only saw the sun 53 times,  It seemed like I would have to start up the count again soon unless I found the hidden button that had helped me escape before. It had been sol ong, it took me five minutes of frustration to locate the button and I was just about to press it when I heard a sound outside the door, I froze as the door slid away and standing there was a man I had definitely seen before.

“Who are you?” I asked. “I’m Alistair Oxley, the town detective, and who might you be?” he said. "My name is Robin, Robin Spartacus Moore,” I replied. “Have you seen a girl named Annalisa with chocolatey hair? I’ve been sent by her friend Xiu Li to find her.” Moore’s expression changed upon hearing his words. “We can’t talk about this with that door open, come inside.” I pressed the button to seal the doorway again so we could talk about the girl I had been helping hide here. The fact that I found myself here and that she was gone meant that she was gone, taken by the guards from the asylum. This man was willing to help, and I had a weird sense that I could trust him. I checked my watch, and noticed that if I had gone to work today that my lunch break was nearly over, I decided that it was better to be late than never go without calling, hopefully the boss would look over my tardiness. I rushed out of the room and made it to work just in time to explain my lateness and get scolded and punished by my boss. I was assigned full-day shifts for the next 7 days, I didn't dare argue because I knew that this was probably near my 13th strike.

The next few days, all I could think about was my recent experience with Alistair and how we might be able to expose the asylum for what it was and get rid of their practices once and for all. The fact that they had reopened the room in the sewer was scary, and that thye had also found me meant that I had to hide; I couldn't go home anymore and visiting popular places would be risky. I had to risk one visit back to the apartment to organize my research so the police would be able to understand my work. While I was there I gathered any valuables, thinking I could go to Alistair and trade them for a room or something. I stored my things in the dumpster out back since the trash guys didn't come until next Tuesday, and I headed to the park in hopes of finding a secluded spot I could hide for the next few days.

In the middle of my shift one day, Alistair came running in asking for me; I ran over and took him outside yelling out to my boss, "This'll only take a minute!" Alistair told me what he had learned by investigating around the room and showed me that it was not just the Center for People with Special Needs that I had to worry about, it was a lot of asylums around the country. I said, "Ok, Ok, so we know what we're up against now; this isn't the best place to talk more about the subject. Meet me at 8 o'clock P.M. on the far side of the lake in the park." He gave me a manila envelope and walked away. I went back to work, but at the end of my shift I told my boss that I would be quitting at the end of the week.