My short story

[robvalue]

One day I came across a secret room. A man is sitting in the dark. He is desperately clinging to a blanket. The door is wide open, but still he sits there.

I turn on the light. The man screws his eyes up really tight. I tell him the door is right in front of him, just open your eyes and you will see. Just look!

He won't look. He won't open his eyes and see. He has been told his eyes will deceive him. He continues to sit in the dark, less than a meter away from freedom.

I sometimes watch from a distance, worried I'll be spotted. Every day people walk into the room to abuse him in all sorts of horrible ways, but they tell the man they love him really. It's been going on so long, he's made himself believe it. He says they have promised him all these wonderful things, as long as he stays in the room. Whenever he asks for his reward, they always tell him to be patient.

I reach out to pull him through the doorway, but he gnashes and snarls, scratches me. I then see he is actually shackled to the floor. I find the key on a nearby hook. It's not even hidden, and it's within his reach.

I offer him the key. He won't take it. He says I'm trying to trick him, that this room is where he belongs, and there is nothing else. I try to reach over and unlock the shackles myself, but he twists and turns and I just can't get to it.

Every day I come back, with a new idea of how I might get him to just open his eyes and see what's right in front of him. Then he can take the key, unlock the shackles and take those few steps into reality.

Every day, when I go to see him, he has turned the light off again. He has put the key back on the hook.