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The Dark Room - Original Writing

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Tired from walking laps around the apartment, Mallory pushed away toy bricks and novels with his feet and sat down on his pale yellow bed. In his only t-shirt, which was severely torn-up, he looked up with his brown eyes and pulled on a string. The formerly dark room lit up. It was a stinging yellow light. It illuminated his room, a mess of toys and poorly-laminated children’s books, too brightly.

His mother walked into the room. “When can I leave home?” he asked, resisting the urge to shut his eyes.

“As always,” she said, her voice suddenly becoming serious, “you must stay here like I’ve told you to for the past sixteen years.”

Mother was right, Mallory thought. I need to stay here to stay safe. Here, I’ve never been lied to; I could …show more content…

“Mommy! Mommy!” Mallory screamed. “It’s not the Earth rumbling; it’s the big thing with wheels!”

Mother’s face became as rigid as a rock, its contours sharp and expression stern.

“You must have been looking outside, Mr. Mallory Regard,” she said. “Haven’t I told you to not do that? The outside is dangerous. You must be safe. Only I can keep you safe.”

“I want to see things! I don’t want safety!”

“Enough is enough!” Ms.Regard said, before turning around, using her feet to push the toys and books on the floor out of the room, turning off the light, and closing the door with a bang.

Outside the door, he heard the same clanking of metal locks. He was trapped inside.

However, he was not in the dark: a welcoming, cold-coloured light was coming in from the crack in the boarded-up window. Using his fingernail, he scraped off the superglue on the crack one slice at a time. He dug his fingers into the translucent glue, which came off in long, wide scrapings. The hole was open to the outside. A gust of wind came in through the window. to t
One floor below him, he saw the garbage truck right under his window. He turned around, his mouth’s corners upturned mischievously, and carefully tried to pull out a sheet of lined paper hidden below his battered cabinet.

Centimetre by centimetre, inch by inch, the piece of lined paper silently slid out. In silent joy, Mallory shakily and hastily wrote down one thing on the piece of paper: “mom

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