Free Writing

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“Take my camel dear,” said my Aunt Dot as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass. I shook my head and took the camel to the shed with my handcuffs on. My name is Jacob and I am twenty- four years old, and in prison as punishment for what my parents had done. My Aunt Dot had accused them of stealing precious jewels from her. My parents were arrested and they lived the rest of their lives rotting in prison. I do not know if my parents were guilty or not, but I do know that anyone who accuses their own family is a coward. Aunt Dot comes by every day and makes me take her camel. She always looks down at me with a smirk, and calls me “dear” very sarcastically. I always had two heavily armed guards next to me, so I could not punch her in the face like I wanted to. I had twenty more years of prison sentenced, and I could not bear the pain any longer. When I was younger, I was beaten by the inmates, and tossed around like a rag doll. Now I am fit, and the inmates leave me alone. The thing that is interesting about my prison is that they keep all the inmates in one cell. The prison is on the top of a mountain overlooking the whole city of Cairo. Many men have tried to escape, but they could not climb down the mountain. The mountain was so steep, and had many sharp rocks at the bottom. They all just fell to their death. I have always wanted to escape, but I knew I could never make it down the mountain. I had spent years thinking of escape plans, but none of them would work. The owner of the prison, Diabolos, was the most evil man I had ever seen. He was worse than my aunt. Once a year Diabolos would pick a random prisoner and tell him that he could either try to escape or get shot. Sometimes the prisoners would refuse, and Diabolos would shoot them. Usually they would try to escape, and fall to their death. I always flinched whenever I heard the thud of a body hitting the bottom of the mountain. This year Diabolos had his men put wooden pikes, spears, and sharp objects at the bottom of the mountain. I had grown to hate this man even more than my aunt. He would always laugh whenever a man fell, and yell at the other prisoners “I look forward to next year!” I swore to myself that I would have my revenge on Diabolos and my aunt. The only thing that was good about my prison was that I had a close friend with me. His name was Matt and we had helped each other survive. Matt taught me how to fight, and take care of myself. I remember when I first met him, after I was beaten. I had broken my arm and had several broken ribs. Matt healed my arm, and told me that he would teach me how to defend myself. We met every day, and after two years nobody in the prison dared to lay a finger on me. He never told me why he was in prison, and that angered me. One day I remember losing control of my emotions and telling him how I would kill both my aunt and Diabolos. I went into deep description of how I would brutally murder them and avenge my parents and myself. He replied with saying “Jacob, there is more to life than revenge, and hatred will not get you far”. I scoffed and replied, “My Aunt Dot was the reason why my parents died so early, and do you expect me to let that go”? “No, I expect you to endure”. “My parents deserve justice, and I will kill my Aunt” “I will do whatever it takes, even if it means the end of me”. “Jacob, one day you will have your revenge, but it can not consume you now.” “Now you need to focus on escaping, and learning how to live in prison.” Ever since then my respect grew for Matt, and all the time I did not know that he had already planned my escape. Without Matt I would not be alive. Today I woke up and realized that it was the day that Diabolos would allow someone the chance to escape. My heart was pounding, and I was sweating as the vision of my body falling down the mountain overwhelmed me. After five long minutes the megaphones blared with then name Matt. My head started spinning, and I was getting ready to faint. How would I survive without Matt? Matt walked up to me and said, “I will see you again”. He then whispered, “Look in your shoe, that is the key to escape”. He just walked away. Diabolos was laughing as he pointed his gun at Matt and said “death or escape”? Matt replied, “escape”. All the prisoners were taken out to the cliffs edge to watch the scene under close surveillance from the guards. I then looked in my shoe and saw a knife. Matt started climbing down the cliff, and I could not bear to watch. Half an hour passed, and Matt was still alive.  He had made it farther than any man before. The prisoners started to cheer, and then Diabolos screamed “Enough!” and fired his gun at the rocks near Matt. He fell, and fell until I could not see him anymore. A hot flush of anger overtook me, and I fell on my knees. I grabbed the knife out of my shoe, and cut my handcuffs quietly. Luckily I was nowhere close to the guards. I came up behind a guard and knocked him out with the butt of my dagger. I grabbed his gun, and then hurled my knife straight at Diabolos. The knife sank itself into his eye, and one part of my revenge was complete. Diabolos howled in pain, and then chaos ensued. I sniped down as many guards as I could, and all of the prisoners started to overwhelm them. I looked down the mountain for Matt, but all I saw was a long fall. I started running away, and a new surge of hope formed in me.