Silence

A girl in a cage.

Gruesome smell.

Rattling from chains.

Who?

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Samantha or short Sam is on a school trip with her class. They are about to finish middle school and chose this time to do the last trip together. The goal is to have a great time at the beach.

So who is Sam?

Every class has this one girl which doesn't fit in with anyone. Sam is the outsider in class.

She is quiet and polite to the teachers, has always good grades and is never ill.

How can anyone be so perfect like her? Many of her classmates gave her a fitting nickname. Silent.

One person in the class asked her in their first semester, why she was like this.

She didn't even answer. In the whole three years with this class, she never once spoke with another person besides the teacher.

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In the train to Tolosa, she sat alone at the window. She looked outside. Not like the others, she didn't have a phone in her hand. It is really rare to see something like that in this generation.

If you looked really carefully you could see that her eyes weren't focused.

The teacher saw that she sat alone for hours and didn't move.

He wondered if anything was wrong.

He went up to her: "Sam, are you okay?"

Silence…

He shook her.

She didn't even flinch.

He waved his hands before her eyes. They didn't respond.

He freaked out. "Is she dead?"

When the teacher was about to call the attendant and ask if there was a doctor on board, she woke up. Sam saw her teacher and smiled. He was perplexed. Just a moment ago she seemed dead and now she just smiled at him?

Sam knew her teacher would ask many questions. So before he could, she said that she had to go to the toilet. He just nodded and let her go. Sam hurried off to the toilet.

Damn, I knew it would happen.

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"Mom, I don't want to go on the school trip! Say that I am ill."

"No Sam, I won't. You will go on that trip! No discussion!"

"You know that I can't go?"

"Why?"

"Forget it…"

Gosh! Why is my mother so dense? I never went to any school trips before.

Of course, I have my reasons.

Sam ran back in her room. She turned on the computer and read some news. After some time she finally calmed down. Her mother called from downstairs. She probably wants to say that I have to pack my stuff. After all, I tried to persuade her but I still have to go on this trip tomorrow. I just hope that I won't have that dream while someone is near.

Sam opened her drawer and took out all of the things in it. Surprisingly there was a secret space underneath. In that space was a knife. It looks old and rusty. She took that knife out and sat on her bed. After a while her eyes became unfocused and she fell to her side. If someone came into her room now he would definitely think she was dead.

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Sam opened her eyes and all she saw was darkness.

She knew she was in that cage again. The gruesome smell drifted in. She tried to move and again she was chained.

Every time she closes her eyes she has the same dream. She was examined by many doctors but none knew what this is. And every time she tries to understand more about her situation in the dream. She's chained in a cage in pure darkness. There is no other noise except the rattling of the chains when she moves. This time for sure she would find out where she is.

But for her disappointment, she woke up not much later and the whole night was over. She packed her things but chose to leave the knife, she has since childhood, at home.

She found the knife when she was only 4. Sam and her mother went to her grandparents that summer and she went on an adventure to the mountains. Her mother said she disappeared for 2 weeks before she came back with that old knife in her hands. When her mother tried to take the knife away it always seemed that she would lose consciousness so her mother left the knife alone.

Sam went downstairs and saw her mother which already made breakfast and a lunchbox for the trip.

After she ate she hugged her mother and said goodbye. Her class had to leave before 8 so she hurried to school.

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Sam opened the toilet doors and went back to her seat. She already expected her teacher so she wasn't as flustered when he asked her about that "situation". She answered half the truth. That she has this condition since childhood and even the doctors don't know what this is. Her teacher was skeptical but accepted it. Even so, he asked how her mother could let her on a trip if this could happen anytime. Sam just shrugged her shoulders and said she already tried to convince her mother not to go.

The teacher asked a few more things but Sam just told him what she knew. After he was finally satisfied he left for his seat.

Sam knew she would have many problems on this trip, but even more so in her dream… There was someone. She had to know who this person is that was with her in that darkness. She tried to sleep again but to no avail.

She had to wait until the train ride ends.