The tree

 For two consecutive days, our college had been hosting a cultural festival. It was something I had never experienced before in my life, and I was thrilled to take part in it. There was a DJ rave at night, and we were allowed to meander away for those two days, as the curfew of our hostel was pushed to a bit past ten in the evening. 

I called up all of my company, and we danced till dark. After enjoying ourselves to the fullest, at the end of two days, we found ourselves forced to return to the jail of a hostel. The fact that our curfew would be reduced to six again and that my freedom would once again be limited drove me crazy, and so, to extend my time outside, I took up the job of making a collage album of the photos others took of the festival. The album was to be printed from a shop outside, and since it was an official duty, I was exempted from following the curfew.

The shop was a pretty funny one. I saw a lot of trinkets hanging from the ceiling, the whole thing looking a bit too much like a vintage antique shop instead of a photo studio. For some reason, I did not find this weird at the time, but looking back, I am pretty sure it had something to do with what happened later on.

The shopkeeper set me up with the album and said I was good to go. I couldn't help but open up the album then and there, and look at the photos once again. While flipping through the pages, I noticed a sheet with golden star stickers on it, covered with a thin blue film. I couldn't help myself- I felt an intense need to have it. 

I admit that I am not proud of what I did next. The moment the shopkeeper turned his back, I took a penknife kept on a nearby table and cut out a square-shaped part from the sticker page. Then, nimbly, as if nothing had changed, I put it back and smiled at him just in time so that he did not realize that I had stolen the sticker bit.

I trudged on to my hostel. I did not know if it was a feeling, but my hostel was starting to look more like a jail every day. At first, I thought I was imagining it, but then when they moved me to a balcony room with green glass enclosures with three other roomies, I was not quite sure. Then they painted all the walls yellow, took away our beds, saying that some repair was due, and we started to sleep on the floor, shivering so much that I am pretty sure my canines have been crushed into molars. It started to become really fishy when they chained a roomie of mine- she had an elegant name -'Grace', I think it was, and was much more elegant in person, with a striking resemblance to Princess Diana, only with long blonde hair and freckles, covered up by just the right amount of blush. She had an unearthly, green-twinged face, like that of Fae, and she wore no external makeup. 

One other fact that I should probably mention about Grace is that she was a tree.

Now, this was not at all something that piqued my interest at the time. In fact, for some reason I cannot fathom, I perceived it quite normal to be a tree living in a hostel. I did think it was cruel of them to chain up said tree, seeing that she was rooted to the floor and had no means to move. But now that I look back, everything that happened back there was a red flag that I did not even see, despite the fact that it was right under my nose.

My other two roommates were a bit young for college- in sixth and seventh grade, respectively. The older one was a boy, and the younger one was a girl- simply too adorable. All three of them were siblings- the boy, the girl and the tree. I never found it weird that they let a boy stay in the same room as girls in a hostel, but by now, I am pretty sure they did something to me back there to mess with my brain, or that I was on crack.

As I returned to my dorm, I was confronted by the hostel warden, a big lady of whom I was genuinely scared, to know my whereabouts. I calmly told her that I was on an errand to fix up a photograph album. She demanded proof, and I called up my friends from the union, who confirmed it. She insisted that my friends could lie to save my skin and started yelling at me. I had no choice but to show her the cutout sticker piece, and for some reason, she turned quiet and walked away without another word.

Shrugging, I walked to my dorm, to be greeted by the adorable little girl, whom we used to call 'Draeka', though I forgot why we used to call her that. I forgot her real name, too- it seems like I have absolutely little to no memory of what actually happened before that day. All I remember is that her brother's name was Mason, and they were both pretty close.

Draeka hugged me, and we sat to talk, as we do. I started asking about her studies, as if I was hearing it all for the first time. Surprisingly, she replied as if she were meeting me for the first time. I asked her what she was doing now, and she said that she dropped out of sixth grade to pursue a graduation in Mathematics, while her heart was in Physics, like me. Of course, I should have understood that this is not physically possible to do- skipping up about ten years, but my mind somehow went along with it at the moment. 

What happened next was weird, even to my stupid brain. 

She started attacking me.

Her siblings watched, while I froze. I tried to look back from the balcony glass to see if there was someone I could cry out to, but everything was too green due to the moss on the glass. I tried not to harm her much and only kept defending myself instead of attacking her back, but I was starting to slowly lose it. Suddenly, she came at me like a wild animal, roaring, and I was so scared that my adrenaline pumped up a bit too much, and I pushed her. She was thrown against the wall, and I realized that her energy was drained. I looked at Mason and said, "You'd better start controlling her, or our living arrangements are going to start to hurt". I turned back in time to see the tree look at me sadly. Mason helped his younger sister up and looked at me. The latter started to mumble a sorry, which I ignored. She, however, started getting too aggressive with apologies when she noticed that I was ignoring her, so I turned back and shouted.

 

"Everyone only gets one chance, you know. You had one, and you blew it. You had one. I trusted you."

That is when I saw a sword on the ground, the hilt of which was golden- much like Arthur's Excalibur. The similarity was uncanny.

I picked it up and, for some reason, started swinging at Grace's chains. The others watched on while I broke the chains and started cutting at her roots. I could see that it hurt her a bit, but she was glad to be finally free. I looked at her, and she looked at me, the gratitude in her eyes shining like two golden stars in a galaxy far, far away.

All of a sudden, we heard a commotion from outside. We looked at each other and decided wordlessly that it was important to hide the sword. Draeke took the initiative and took the sword from me, running out of the room as fast as possible, probably to hide it in the next. Grace ushered us in, now that she was able to walk, and we all acted like we were asleep. Before Draeke could enter, however, a man came outside our room, smartly dressed, wearing a brown suit and tie. He looked like he was in his mid-50s, a bit like George Clooney, too.

I acted as if I were asleep, but I could feel Mason getting up and moving away from me. He and Grace started talking to the guy. I knew he was a permanent staff member there, with a high position too, and I found it funny that he did not find anything fishy about Grace walking scot-free, considering she was a well-known tree and all. I could only hear snippets of their conversation.

"-found dead. He was the head scientist here, you know. We think it was one of the inmates who did it. Could you bring out everyone in your cell?"

"Oh, it is just Mason, me and another girl here-"

"Your sister?"

"She died years ago, sir."

"Oh, right. I forgot about that."

"This is Mason, and the girl is inside. You can go see if you want. She is chained, apparently a dangerous species. I do not think she would have done it if she were chained."

I started to panic. Obviously, I was not chained. Grace was deliberately painting me as the murderer.

I HAD to escape.

I jumped as hard as I could, climbed up the wall, and for the first time, I noticed that there was no ceiling. I always limited myself to within the cell, but then I realized that I could have always escaped if I had put my mind to it.

As I stood above the wall, dazed by the revelation, I noticed that the walls of all the cells formed a maze. We were living in a maze. I just had to crack it to be free. And I had to be fast.

"She is not here."

"That is funny. I could swear the cute little book was here just a moment ago."

That was when I knew that I had been framed.

I ran.

I ran for miles and miles, on the walls of the maze. I ran for my life, and it all came back to me. We were in a jail after all, and my room had the most dangerous inmates. Grace was the worst, which is why she was turned into a tree and then chained. 

I also realized that I was better off dead.