For Alyssa, the hospital was a prison. The door leading to her room was a wall of iron bars locking her in the room. The nurse who came in every hour or so was the warden. She was big, mean women with a short stocky build. Whenever Alyssa would try to talk to her, she was quickly refuted with an angry brow and an emotionless “Rest!”. Frowning, Alyssa sat in her bed watching the clock tick second-by-second. She sat up her in seat and got out to look longingly out her window. Two weeks ago, she had been hit by a drunk driver. Thankfully, the injuries weren’t fatal, and the surgery was able to fix her up. But that was a weak ago. Sighing, she sat down wishing her parents were there.

Her parents had visited only once and that was right after the surgery. In the time that constituted her ‘imprisonment’, her contact with the outside world was limited to one or two get-well cards from classmates and one email from her grandmother wishing her good health. It seemed like she was alone in this eternal prison. Breathing on the window pane, she tried to draw a smiley face. To her surprise, the window pane pushed in. The nurse had left it unlocked! Looking one last time back at her prison door, Alyssa climbed out of her room and into the dark and desolate streets.

After walking for a few minutes, Alyssa arrived freezing in the first lighted alley she could find. She had left her room clad only in her white prison gown and now that decision was coming back to bite her. The bitter wind cut sharply across her face throwing her hair into her eyes. Seeing the faint shades of yellow and orange of the alley gave her a small glimmer of warmth in the cold night. Walking into the alley she found a sight far scarier than the empty darkness she saw before. Before she could see nothing, but now she saw flames burning large and angrily barely being controlled by the metal trash cans that held them. With the flames spitting out an angry yellow light, the faces of those tending those flames were shadowed in deep darkness and their bodies transformed into dark silhouettes.

One of those faces approached her as she entered the alley. He was a large man with a messy beard and small beady black eyes that looked at her with malignant intent. “Whatcha you doin’ here missy? This place here belongs to Big Philly over there.” He gestured with a thumb to a ratty small man with a large potbelly. “All people who want refuge here gotta pay respect and tribute to the Big Man.”

Alyssa stood there frightened out of her mind and unsure if she should stay or flee back to her prison. Gulping down her fear, she stayed. Her rationality for her decision consisted of her curiosity of this new world and a vehement hatred of the prison she had come from. Shivering in the darkness, she chattered out, “I’ll do what I have to do to stay.”

Big Philly walked up. His face was made up with an almost permanent sneer and arrogant coldness in his eyes. “It’s simple here girly. We got three separate classes. Me and my boys are the top dogs. We control the resources you git. You want blankets. You work for us. You want food. You work for us. No complaining and maybe you’ll move up to middle class. They get some more freedom but only if you give yourself to us completely,” he explained.

Standing there, still shivering in her hospital gown. She was beginning to have trouble feeling her toes. Her stomach began to rumble from not eating in… How long? She couldn’t remember exactly how long it has been since she had left her prison. The elements took away her energy; the wind seeped the warmth from her body. Thinking to herself, she believed anything couldn’t be worse than her hospital. Then she noticed a small boy about 8 or 9 looking at her with eyes full of fear, almost warning her to run away. He had a ratty strip cloth wrapping around an amputated leg.

Big Philly met her gaze and grinned, “Oh you see little Timmy here. Well Timmy wasn’t behaving very well. He stole some food from me. Apparently his little sister was starving, so he thought it was okay to steal from Big Philly. Well he thought wrong.” Walking over to the small boy, he grabbed the boys and slammed him into the wall. “We thought it’d be easiest to have him repay his debt by working the streets as a beggar. It was taking too long so we had to take some drastic measures. After all, everyone pities a boy without a leg. So girly, this is your life. Do you still want it?”