IntShoWriMo 2014: Day 10

Day 10: I, Akam

Today’s Prompt: Write about five things you would do to entertain yourself if you did not see a soul for 7 days.

— Courtesy: CreativeWritingPrompts.Com

Word Count: 1,510

            “You go ahead and survive in there for 7 days and you can walk away a free man. All debts cancelled.”

It was a large building past its glory days. It could have been an apartment or a hostel once. But it had long since served its purpose and its ghost defaced the landscape like an unsightly landmark. All the inlets and outlets had been boarded up not with wood but welded with metal. The main entrance provided the only access into the building. My captors pushed me inside, slammed the doors shut and reinforced it with chains. Even if there really was another way out, I knew death alone awaited him on the other side of the steel doors.

            The men who dropped me off had given me this odd challenge as the only alternative besides immediate death. All I had left was a prayer—which is the direct English interpretation of my name, Akam (/arkham/), anyway.

            “Survive 7 days in there and you walk,” they told me and drove off, heading south of my location. I had spotted one or two security cameras mounted within the perimeter. A single path led to the house and the weeds prowled it. I stepped into the wide corridor of the structure.

            “Piece of cake,” I said. “There’s bound to be a master bedroom in this place with a giant-sized double bed somewhere in here. All I gatto do is find it.”

Find it, I would but I, Akam was about to learn a vital lesson about beds; they weren’t always vacant and especially, not always inviting even in an abandoned house. I walked along the corridors, feeling the walls, working at my first tour of the place—my new residence.

            “Since I’m gonna be hanging around for 7 whole days, I better acquaint myself with the settings. Wouldn’t want to get lost in the dark,” I said. Read More Here: IntShoWriMo 2014

Eneh Akpan,

June 10th, 2014