Hope and Freedom

There’s hope for you, Sloane. Be free. 

Sloane clutched her bag close to her chest,  cold November air blowing the hair out of her face. The bag was full of miscellaneous clothes and objects quickly grabbed from her house. She shivered; she had left home in a hurry, and didn’t want to miss the train. It was miles from her house, and she had to leave at the break of dawn to avoid being caught climbing the wall that surrounded her village. Aaron’s voice constantly echoed through her mind. 

There’s hope for you. 

She was the second to leave her family; the second to leave the village she had lived in all her life. The small village was all she knew. All the people she ever loved lived within those walls. Sloane had all that she needed. But she knew there was more. More outside the village walls. 

More life to live. 

Sloane’s parents didn’t want her to go. 

The outside world is a dangerous place, and we won’t have our daughter dying on the streets of a filthy city when there is life for her here.

Sloane looked down the seemingly endless train tracks. 

This is it, I’m ready. I’m ready to live.

She could hear the sound of the train barrelling down the rails, shoving her composure aside. 

What if the world isn’t what I think it is? What if mom and dad were right? What if there’s no hope in the outside world?

She thought of her brother, Aaron, determined to leave. 

Think about it, Sloane, a new life. A free one. Don’t you want to experience life outside of these walls?

She heard nothing from him for months. He was never brought up in conversation, and if he was, his name was quickly dismissed. Snubbed away. Sloane was positive her parents disowned him. That was, until she received a phone call. She smiled, remembering his excitement over the phone. 

“You’ll never believe it! Trees upon trees, fields of flowers, man-made buildings that go up into the sky! The world is so beautiful. There’s hope for you, Sloane. Be free.”

Before Sloane could get a word in, the phone was snatched by her father, who spoke briefly with Aaron before throwing the phone down, angrily muttering to himself. 

The next phone call she received, her mother got to the phone first. Sloane heard the wailing before she made it to the living room. Aaron was dead; the outside world was to blame. 

Could I die? Was it worth it for him? Will it be worth it for me?

Sloane took a step backward, the weight of her brother’s death settling onto her chest. 

Is it worth it?

 She wondered if it was worth the risk of death, to be free and hope for a better life, or to sit stagnant, safe, mundane. She didn’t know what to do. The train rolled by. 

There’s hope for you, Sloane. Be free.

She felt tears fall from her face. As the train whizzed past her, slowing rapidly, the wind wiped the tears from her eyes, pushing her back. She centered herself, and took a deep breath. The train rolled to a halt, stopping right in front of her.

Hope and freedom, or safety and stagnancy?

Be free. 

With one final deep breath, a hopeful grin crept onto Sloane’s face, and she stepped on.