20. Allison

"I'm in here,James! Please don't leave," I cried out, desperately calling for him to find me. The room seemed soundproof, making me wonder why anyone would have a room like this in their house. I couldn't believe he was here. When I heard him shouting my name, I thought for sure I was saved.

I glanced at the bed. I had been attempting to dismantle it in order to reach the skylight, hoping to escape—or even just scream so someone would hear me. But instead, I sat down and cried. Enough of feeling sorry for myself.

I was frustrated with myself for not figuring out how to get out of here sooner. Taking a step back, I looked at what I could do to get out of this coffin. That's exactly what it would be if I didn't get out of this room. I pushed the dresser to the other side against the wall and took the mattress off the bed.

To reach the skylight, I needed to stack the bed frame on top of the dresser. As I struggled with the precarious setup, doubts filled my mind. How was I going to break the skylight once I got up there? Can I even break it? I pushed the frame on top of the dresser. How the hell was I going to climb this without killing myself?

After my first attempt ended in a fall, I placed the mattress next to the dresser, hoping that if I fell again, I would fall on the mattress and not the floor. This was a lot harder than it looked in my head. I tried for two hours to get on top of the bed frame so I could reach the skylight. My next fall, I hurt my hip on the corner of the dresser.

I lay on the mattress and allowed myself a ten-minute cry before getting up and trying again. The sun was going down, and since I never found out where the light switch was, I had to stop trying until the morning when I could see something. I've tried to find the switches but with no luck.

As dawn broke, I tried again to reach the skylight. The first try had me falling again, but I saw something above the bathroom door frame. Limping over; my injured hip throbbing, I strained to reach it. I couldn't reach above the frame, and I wanted to scream. I pushed the mattress to the door and pushed the buttons.

The room flooded with light, and the skylight opened halfway. Tears of relief streamed down my cheeks; at least now I could scream, and maybe someone would hear me. But regardless, I had to escape. This is day four. The food he left me required a can opener and he didn't bring me one of those. At least I had some bread to eat.

I climbed the dresser and then started up the bed frame. "Take it easy, Allison," I reminded myself. "You have to balance yourself. You have to stop falling. If you want out of here, you have to do it yourself."