Day 433: 5 Minute Freewrite: Thursday - Prompt: roadblocks - entry by @blueeyes8960

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This is an entry in @mariannewest's Daily 5 Minute Freewrite contest. Here's the link so you can join in on the fun.

link to the contest

As you can see from the post title, today's prompt is "roadblocks". If you've never tried one of these, please give it a shot. It's a great way to stretch your imagination and practice your writing skills.

Narrow Escape

Tana struggled against the terror in her mind. The bedsheets tangled around her as she thrashed, while in her nightmare they took on the substance of coarse hemp bindings chafing against her ankles. The sweat drenched pillow beneath her head became rough burlap sacks bunched in the dusty corner of the stall. Instead of the pleasantly warm heat blowing gently from the vent beside the bed, she felt the crackling flames throwing their fiery inferno coming ever closer.

No matter that some small buried part of her psyche knew she was safey tucked away in her old childhood bedroom, the rest of her body replayed the same horrific scene that had nearly taken her life, and her sanity, just two weeks ago. Her heart was pounding a rapid staccato and her eyes rolled wildly behind their tightly closed lids. Her hands felt bloodless and numb as they had that night with rope coiled tightly around them and attached to the ring in the stall. Her head was pounding and she could feel the warm blood trickling from her ear where he had cuffed her upside the head when she hadn't obeyed fast enough.

The final loop of the nightmare was playing now. She had already screamed her vocal cords raw and the acrid smoke filling the barn was making her lungs burn with each breath. Now coughing was wracking her slender body and panic inspired adrenalin surged unchecked through her system. Hope was a fading memory and her crazed mind began throwing up roadblocks to protect her dwindling sanity. One by one her sensory inputs shut down until she lost consciousness and relaxed into a stupor.

The sirens shrieked louder and louder as they approached the burning barn next to the abandoned farm house. Red and blue lights pulsated atop the deputy's patrol car as the firetrucks followed him up the overgrown lane. Rescue arrived with only moments to spare. Firefighters in oxygen masks braved the engulfed structure to find Tana comatose and bound to the stall. Within seconds they had her freed and out the door as the roof caved in behind them.

Back in her bed, the nightmare was receding as the mental roadblocks that had protected her mind were rolling back, allowing her to come awake and make the realization once more that she had survived.