I was running down a dark hallway that stretched endlessly before me. My lungs burned with each desperate breath as I fled from the shadows closing in behind. The orphanage walls seemed to pulse around me like a living thing, hungry and waiting.
"Worthless little brat!" Sister Agnes's voice echoed off the walls. "No one will ever want you!"
I stumbled, my bare feet catching on the rough wooden floor. In that moment of hesitation, cold fingers grabbed my ankle. I screamed as I was dragged backward into darkness.
"You don't deserve happiness," a new voice whispered—Mrs. Henderson from my third foster home. "Bad girls get punished."
I kicked and thrashed, my throat raw from screaming. Suddenly, I was in a small closet, the door slamming shut, plunging me into complete darkness. The walls began closing in. No air. No light. No escape.
"Please," I sobbed, pounding my fists against the door. "Please let me out!"
