Jenny loves her husband. He has given her the best life and the most beautiful daughter in their 7 years of marriage. They have a great marriage and are both very active in their community. He is in finance and does very well, which allows her to stay home with Lydia and take care of the house. Jack, Jenny’s husband, rarely misses dinner, Lydia’s soccer games, or any of Jenny’s events. But she can tell something has been off with him lately.

“You can’t be serious,” Jenny said as soon as her husband walked in the door, late for the second time this week. “Dinner is over, and Lydia is in bed. It would have been nice of you to call. Where have you been this time?”

“Babe I’m sorry, my phone died and I had to work late. It’s not that big of a deal,” Jack said as he was coming up behind Jenny to hug her while she was doing the dishes at the sink.

Jenny could immediately smell it. “Why do you smell like a cheap hooker,” she said as she turned to face him. That’s when she noticed the ugly pink smear on the inside of his collar. “You have got to be fucking kidding me, Jack. You were ‘working late’ with your damn secretary.” Jenny knows this because whenever she comes into the office she sees Jack’s secretary, Margo, in that drugstore pink lip color. Margo is at least ten years younger than Jenny and in Jenny’s opinion, nothing special to look at. Jenny has always been in shape and takes care of her appearance and health. She goes to the gym, gets facials, journals for her mental health. She doesn’t understand what men would see in Margo.

“Is something wrong with that?” Jack asks with a little smirk on his face.

“I WILL not do infidelity. If you want to screw immature young women fine. But I will not be around..” Jenny couldn’t even finish her sentence when Jack smacked her across the face. She could feel blood running down her cheek.

“You are my wife. You will not talk to me like this. I am the man. And besides I will do what I please.” Jack said in a smug tone and turned and walked down the hall to the bedroom.

Jenny decided in that moment she was going to leave him behind. She would not tolerate that kind of treatment. For her or Lydia.

She waited for Jack to fall into a deep sleep, she could tell by his loud snoring, and she packed a small back for herself grabbing whatever she could find in the dark. She opened their safe and took all the cash that was in there, which if she remembered right was about twenty grand. She went into Lydia’s room and woke her up as quietly as she could and packed a small bag as well as her backpack.

They slipped silently out the front door, thank god their garage was on the opposite side of the house as the master bedroom, Jenny thought. Her heart was beating so fast and little beads of sweat were dripping down her forehead and the back of her neck. She put Lydia in the back seat with all the bags and got in the drivers seat. “Buckle up, baby! We gotta hurry!”

She opened the garage door and prayed he would not be standing behind the car. She made sure all the windows were up and the doors were locked.

The door was finally open and there was no sign of Jack. She slowly backed out of the driveway and left the garage door open. She wasn’t going to risk making anymore noise than she had to.

She drove down the street in no particular direction, with no certain destination in mind. She will figure it all out as she goes.

Teddy has been trapped for two weeks, well at least he thinks it’s been two weeks. It is stuffy, small and smells of cigarette smoke and stale beer. He has no memory of getting to this point. There is only one way in and out of this room and he’s only seen the opening a few times. In order to get out he will either have to jump high, which he won’t be able to do due to his height and weight. Or he will have to catch a ride on the metal machine that is lowered randomly into the sea of captives and let’s people go randomly. The only hard part about that machine is that it is very in consistent and sometimes it is days before we see it again.

He is not the only prisoner and has made friends with the ones around him. One calls himself “Dog,” who has the worst breath and really needs a hair cut. He can barely see out from underneath it. Also, what kind of name is Dog anyway? Stupidest name Teddy has ever heard. One said her name was Ele, and she is a bigger lady, or big boned if you will, but Teddy can’t judge because he knows he has a big ol squishy belly. Ele has beautiful, soft, gray hair and has aged well otherwise.

There has to about 20 other prisoners kept here, Teddy thinks. He can’t see every person kept in this hellhole but he can hear them. They all have stories about where they came from or where they hope to end up. Some have talked about wanting to be someone’s prized possession, or the love of someone’s life. Nobody has asked him who he wants to be with or where he hopes to end up. But he does wonder how long they have been held here as well. Two weeks? Longer? He doesn’t know how much longer he can take this. He is very claustrophobic here.

Every night there is loud music, almost like a party going on outside of this room. Maybe that is why nobody can hear them yelling for help?

Teddy and his small friend group has started to accept their fate of being here forever, when out of nowhere they see the metal machine coming towards them. He is filled with excitement, fear and hope. Finally he thinks, “it’s my turn” he whispers. It comes down right next to him and Ele bumps him out of the way and jumps on before he even knew what hit him.

Teddy was crushed. He couldn’t believe that happened to him; that he had come that close to leaving this prison. He had officially given up on trying to leave. When he looked up and saw his savior coming down again. Twice in this short of a time? This time it was coming right for him. He was so close he could feel the warm bed he was going to lay in tonight, the cuddles and hugs he would get from the girl of his dreams. He hopped on the machine so fast and never looked back.

2 years later

Ele the elephant and Teddy the bear made it out of the claw machine and happily comfort a little girl named, Holly. She of course gave them both new names, and his new name was Barry, and Ele’s new name was Mrs. Tyke. They didn’t care though. They slept on a comfy bed every night, went on so many adventures, and even went to school!