Locked in the Dark, Freed From Her
My mother is a powerhouse, but she somehow ends up with me, a coward with claustrophobia.
"What claustrophobia? You're just being dramatic!"
In order to help me "desensitize," she builds a pitch-black, soundproof room in the house.
In elementary school, I scream and cry in terror the first time she locks me inside, and she punishes me by not letting me eat for three days.
In middle school, I try harder to hold it together and only let out a few quiet whimpers, but she makes me kneel in the snow for a full day and night.
I tough it out all the way through senior year, telling myself that getting into college and leaving home will fix everything.
But on the day of my acceptance party, sh