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August 21, 2025 9 mins
#horrorstories #reddithorrorstories #ScaryStories #creepypasta #horrortales #freedomhorror #trappedteen #emotionalabuse #egyptstory #realhorrors  This haunting true-life-inspired horror-drama follows a 14-year-old teen trapped in a cycle of family control, cultural oppression, and isolation in Egypt. With dreams of escape and a yearning for freedom, the teen endures psychological torment and emotional manipulation at the hands of those meant to protect him. But when hope flickers through cracks in the cage, he begins planning his way out—knowing the cost may be everything. A harrowing story of survival, fear, and the desperate fight for dignity and identity.  horrorstories, reddithorrorstories, scarystories, horrorstory, creepypasta, horrortales, trappedteen, culturaloppression, survivalhorror, realhorrors, emotionaltrauma, freedomfight, familyabuse, psychologicalhorror, dignity, teenescape, darkreality, egyptlife, horrorinreallife, identitystruggle

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there. I'm a sixteen year old guy born in
November two thousand seven. I'm Muslim and from Egypt, a
country I personally see as a struggling third world place
in the Middle East. It's not easy to grow up here,
and honestly, I feel like I've been drowning in frustration, pressure,
and exhaustion since I was a kid. When I was

(00:20):
around twelve or thirteen, my biggest dream wasn't anything crazy
or unrealistic. I didn't dream of flying to the moon
or becoming some global superstar. I just wanted a good
Android phone and a PC that could run Minecraft and
among Us smoothly. That was it. That was the dream
for me. Those two things felt like freedom, fun and

(00:43):
happiness all wrapped up into one. The problem was I
had no idea how to even start making that dream
come true. I didn't know how to find a job,
how to save money, or how to convince anyone to
give me a chance. That changed in January twenty twenty
twenty two. I found a job that paid six Egyptian

(01:03):
pounds per hour. It wasn't much, but I was so
desperate to work and save for that PC that I
took it without hesitation. I was only fourteen at the time,
and I didn't even know I had rights as a child.
I was working full time hours, being treated like a
disposable adult worker. The job was exhausting. Every day I'd

(01:25):
come home feeling like I was about to collapse. My
body ached, and mentally I was spiraling. No one cared
that I was a kid. At work, I was insulted,
yelled at, and sometimes even hit. There was no one
to protect me, and I didn't even know I was
supposed to be protected. During that same time, I was

(01:46):
supposed to be in eighth grade, but things at school
went downhill fast. I failed four subjects in the first
semester of the twenty twenty one to twenty twenty two
school year. Instead of support, my parents completely broke me down.
They destroyed my mental health. They made me feel like
I was worthless, like I was the biggest failure alive.

(02:08):
Then came July third, twenty twenty two. My boss handed
me an envelope with eleven thousand Egyptian pounds in it.
It was someone else's salary money I was supposed to deliver,
but I was completely drained that day, so tired, I
couldn't think straight, and I lost it. I lost all
the money. Imagine being fourteen years old, working nine hours

(02:32):
a day in a toxic job and then losing that
much money. My boss flipped, my family flipped even harder.
Did they comfort me, No, they told me to pay
it back myself. No one cared that I was just
a kid. I had to pay for that mistake alone.

(02:52):
In Egypt, the education system is a complete mess. If
you want to get into a good secondary school, the
kind that can actually get you into university, you need
to score at least two hundred and forty out of
two hundred and eighty in the ninth grade. That's almost
impossible if you're working full time just to survive. Private
secondary schools accept students with a lower score anything above

(03:15):
one hundred and forty, but they cost a lot of money.
Then there are technical secondary schools. They also accept scores
above one hundred and forty and are cheaper, but they
only qualify you for a limited number of colleges. Still,
they're not a bad option. In the twenty twenty two
to twenty twenty three school year, I was in ninth grade,

(03:36):
while still working to pay off the money I lost
I could only afford five private lessons a week, which
is barely anything here, since school itself doesn't even run
in full during ninth and twelfth grade. Education here relies
heavily on expensive private tutoring. I had no choice but
to juggle at all. By May twenty twenty three, I

(03:57):
had finally paid off the entire eleven thousand. I was relieved,
but I was also broken. My score in grade nine
only one hundred and seventy eight point five. I wasn't
good enough to get into a regular secondary school. I
had two choices, repeat ninth grade or go to a
technical school. Both options would have been okay with me,

(04:21):
but my parents shot them down. They were too scared
of what people would say if I repeated the year.
They are obsessed with appearances and reputation. To them, what
the neighbors think is more important than my future. They
forced me to go to a private high school, but
told me I had to pay the fees myself. I
cried so hard when that happened, and I still cry

(04:44):
when I think about it. The day I lost that
envelope haunts me. I don't know why I'm so sensitive,
why I cry over everything, But maybe it's just because
I've had to carry so much at such a young age.
I hate this country. I hate the life I've had here.
I hate the culture, the society, the jobs, the whole system.

(05:07):
It doesn't feel like home. I swear to God, this
is not my homeland. I don't feel like I belong
in this house or this country. I just want to
leave and find a real home, a place where I
can breathe and feel safe and have a future. But
my parents won't let me go. They told me I
can't leave Egypt until I finish university and do my

(05:29):
military service, which would be around twenty thirty one or
twenty thirty two. That's another seven to eight years. I
can barely survive the next ten minutes here, let alone
eight more years. Since late last year, I've been reading
and learning everything I can about immigration. I've studied visa processes,
immigration laws in Europe, Canada, and the US, and how

(05:53):
to get tourists and student visas. I follow pages and
blogs about moving abroad, especially to Canada, America and Australia.
One day, I was joking with my family and said
that maybe we should all apply for immigration programs to
Canada or the US. They immediately shot it down. My
parents said they love Egypt and would never leave. They

(06:16):
act like this place as paradise. My older sister is
nineteen and finishing high school this year, so I told
her she could apply for the US Diversity visa lottery.
But she's so brainwashed by my parents that she laughed
at the idea and told me to do it myself.
When my mom overheard, she screamed, do you think we'll
allow him to emigrate? She told me nothing will happen

(06:39):
unless they approve of it. They won't let me leave
before I finish a university degree and serve in the military.
Their control over my life feels like a prison sentence.
One major obstacle is that if I want to leave
Egypt before I turn eighteen, I need a travel permit
as a miner. Google says I have to bring one
of my parents to get the permit, but I heard

(07:01):
from an immigration expert that I could get the permit
with just photocopies of my parents ID cards, these act
as their approval. If that doesn't work, I'll cross the
border illegally if I have to, I'll go to Libya
or Jordan. Once I'm at the airport. In those countries,
no one will ask me for a miner's travel permit.

(07:22):
That's how desperate I am. Just this week, i quit
my job. I'm done with that place. It was toxic
in killing my soul. My parents were furious, but I
don't care. I'm going to find a better job, something
that actually pays enough to help me save up for
a visa, any visa to anywhere in Europe or the

(07:45):
United States. I don't just want to move to a
better place. I want to move to a place where
I can actually live. I want a life, not just survival.
I want to study properly. I want to feel safe,
I want to feel human. But right now I have
no idea what to do. I feel completely lost. Maybe

(08:09):
one day I'll look back and be proud that I
made it out. Maybe I'll be living in a quiet
little apartment in Canada, or walking through a park in Germany,
or studying in a university in the States. Maybe I'll
have friends who respect me, a job that doesn't crush me,
and a passport that means something. Maybe I'll finally be free.

(08:29):
But right now, I'm just a sixteen year old kid
trapped in a system that never cared about me. All
I have is my will to leave. That's my dream now,
Not a phone, not a PC, not minecraft, just the
chance to start over somewhere new. I want to leave,
I need to leave. I just hope someone out there

(08:53):
hears my story. Maybe it will mean something, maybe it
will help someone else who's stuck in the same situationuation,
or maybe just maybe it will remind me that I
am not alone. Not completely the end, but not really,
just the end of the beginning.
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