Little Inklings 2025

RUN By Matias Puleo-Newman ’29 Rust builds up, nothing, opportunity calls me, nature yearning for me to run. Run out of this padded room, run out of this prison. I walk to the door, the wall between me and freedom. The handle pulls me in and swings the door open for me. Identical rusted rooms repeating again and again. Cries and moaning fly past my ears like a breeze rushing through my face. The urge to run comes back again with a new target. A door with bloody crooked letters over it. Monsters appear left and right as the hurdle is jumped, stairs are all that can be seen for miles, but the same command rings throughout my head: RUN, RUN, RUN. So I obey and keep running. Their claws reach out for me, attempting to trapme, each carrying some kind of blade. The endless stairs end as the last stretch is reached. One last target, goal, objective calls forme like amother yearning for its child, like plants growing towards the sun, I must get there… I run past, between the monsters and reach the last wall between me and freedom. As I look back, themonsters turn to images of blue andwhite, eachwith tentacles coming out in five directions, almost of a golden color. They look familiar as I suddenly feel a sharp, needle-like pain. My eyes close, and I am back in my cell. The command to run and be free is gone, but the cries never leave. 94