BOD group member Genesis Blue won our most recent writing prompt contest and we’ve posted her story below for your enjoyment!

To view the photo and original prompt, visit this post. 

“Yeah, this place looks safe…” With the way he said it, I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not, but it was definitely not safe. I turned around, surveying the walls. The place was built in colonial style, like many of the houses we’d seen here in Guatemala, all the rooms opening into a central courtyard. This building, though, housed the prisoners that had been collected over the past two weeks.

“Let’s find Grant and get out of here.” I moved toward the first door. We’d taken out the guards, but there would be more coming, I was certain.

“Wait up, we don’t know who’s in these cells,” Jake trotted to catch up. “We could be letting some really nasty felons out.”

“An enemy of the government is no enemy of mine,” I said, lifting the heavy latch and throwing the first door open.

Light streamed through the door, highlighting the huddled women against the back wall. A quick glance told me that Grant wasn’t here and I moved on, leaving them to trickle out the open door like frail leaves in a breeze.

The next room held men, none of them familiar. I heard shouts in the distance. The slain guards had been discovered. “Hurry!” I called to Jake and we ran to the next room. More women. It wasn’t until the fifth door that we finally found him.

“Mama!” His voice rang through the large room, packed with children. Grant hurled himself into my arms, burrowing his face in my neck. “I knew you’d find me, Mama.”

“Hey, kiddo,” Jake ruffled our son’s blond hair. “Hon, we have to get moving. There’s an army headed this way.”

I looked at the small, dirty faces staring at me from the dimness. “We can’t leave them.”