Insert date

I hear the same footsteps coming over to my cell that I hear every morning at 6:50 in the morning. I hear water running and then a knock. A man comes in with my breakfast, bread and water. I don't know where I am. I don't know who this man is. I don't know how I got here. He comes into my room and says one word: “food”. He has a Russian accent. He walks out of my room. I hear his footsteps walking back down the hollow tunnel where my cell is. I haven’t seen my family in so long. 

I went on a trip for one week, but now I cannot come home. I was on a trip to Russia, because it was my job as a reporter. I saw a paper flier on a wall and took it off, not thinking that it would be a problem. I sat down on a bench nearby and read the flier. But then a man in a police uniform pulled over and said something in Russian. Suddenly the man grabbed me and put me on the ground. I caught myself from falling and quickly got up. He pulled out a gun, so I put my hands in the air. He then handcuffed me and put me in the back of his car and drove me to the metal and concrete prison.

Insert date

Now, I grab the metal fork that they gave me for my dinner and scratch another mark in the wall; five days I have been here. I know how many days I have been here because I add a tally every time I get bread and water. I start to make the tally by scratching into the wall but my fork breaks. The clinking of metal. I have been scratching for hours but not making any progress, since the fork is broken, so I am using the back of the metal fork. After a while I quit and wait for my dinner. 

6:50 am.  My food comes. I know the time because the familiar man that brings me food always has a light blue watch on, and when he opens the latch and sticks his hands through the opening, I make sure that I check the time. He always gives me food at 6:50. Today is some kind of meat, and a fork. Before I eat I first scratch a tally into the concrete wall with my new fork. I smell the ice-cold meat, and it is almost completely raw. I decide not to eat it.

I go to sleep on the hard concrete with only a thin sheet to keep me warm. I wake up again and again during the night from the extreme cold in this place. 

The next morning I am surprised when nobody comes to my door to give me food. I know it is morning because I hear lots of chatter outside of the tunnel. I will add another tally this morning, my sixth here. I hear a door open and wait for someone to come to my cell. A man comes to my cell but not the usual man because he is not wearing a light blue watch and does not have a tray of food. The man opens my cell door and I feel a rush of relief. Am I finally done in this place? 

He takes me down the hall and knocks on the door a few times. The heavy steel door creaks open. He takes me out and turns left. I get taken down another long metal hallway. Maybe this will lead me outside. There is another door down the hall and the people holding me stop in front of it. One of them gets keys and another holds me. He opens the door and throws me in and shuts the door behind me. 

I look around the new room and see other marks on the wall but there is also a word above them. Instead of tracking days, it tracks years. My hope of getting out of this place has disappeared. I don't know what to do now. I miss my family. I miss my bed. I want everything to be back to normal. 

Insert date

I have been here for so long that I have stopped counting. The hair on my face has grown way too long. I have no social interactions other than seeing the man who gives me food. I have not seen the sun in what seems like forever. I am skinny and weak. I want to go home.

I am on the ground trying to go to sleep when the tunnel door opens up. I sit up quickly, because this is not normal. A man walks in and tells me in English “You're free now”. I look at him and don't know what to say, I haven't talked to people in what felt like an eternity. He picks me up and brings me to the end of the hallway.

The man told me his name was Dave and that I was going to see my family again. I ask him how long I had been in there for. “Three years”, he says. I am free again. I can see my family. I can see the sun. I can sleep in my bed. I know where I am. It is over.