I can see the world around me moving… Cars driving, people walking, growing even as if slow motion was fast forward… I see my loved ones before me. But I look down…why am I bound in chains? Who would put these on me? Glass. If only I could touch these glass walls in front of me. If only I could reach out, I could break down this glass. Could I? Wait; there’s a wall behind me with a door. It isn’t made of glass, just weathered stone. Why would that be..? Does anyone else see? My loved ones are right there but they might as well be miles away… Who has done this to me?
Suddenly I’m filled with rage, and as the words foam like battery acid in the back of my throat, I swallow them. Right then the wall grows exponentially in all directions. As I look up in terror the shadow of it blackens the sky. I turn to my loved ones just as they fade into darkness. I run for them (SMACK) a hard packing sound echoes as my face hits more stone. Stone? The glass was gone now. No more windows to view the world, just cold stone. A slow chill scratches up my spine and across my chest. Just as it reaches my chin, those words I had swallowed surge to the roof of my mouth. “NO!” In a scarlet fury I look down at the chains on my wrists to rip them out of the towering wall… Only to find the chains were never set in stone. They lie on the ground chained to nothing…
I hear someone through the door walking. Immediately, I rush to the wall and sit as if I had never moved from it my entire life. How many others are in this hell hole? I have to save them. I have to escape. The door… It just occurred to me I hadn’t ever looked at this door before. It looks to be solid iron with a tiny slit for someone to look in at me. A sick feeling churns my stomach. As I inch toward the door, it seemed an eternity had gone by. I look up to the slit and peer out to a small damp hallway. There were no other doors. I can only see a dim light at the end of the hall. The light is so minuscule it could only be maybe one small candle. Footsteps echo down the hall, I scurry back. The feeling of searing needles goes around my throat as I sit motionless. The footsteps seem to stop and then grow softer as if the guard had turned around. I let out a very slow, very quiet sigh of relief and inch for the door once more.
I peer out again, leaning into the eye slit as much as I can. My body is pressed to it as I strain my eyes down the hall again. The door screeches for the longest millisecond of my life, and then swings completely open. Stunned, I stand in the doorway frozen. I crouch down and press against the hallway wall. I could hear faint music. The light even seems to grow a fraction brighter. Slowly I press down the hall… growing closer to my captors. I feel the fury slowly pulsing through my veins, welling up at the base of my esophagus like coals in a fire. A doorway shrouded by a curtain is all that separates us. I can see a silhouette through the thin sheet. This will be easy. I creep forward, coming so close now I can hear him breathing. I carefully match the pattern of his breath so he can’t hear mine. The fire in my chest explodes and all at once I leap up, throw back the sheet with wrath burning in my eyes, only to freeze. Cold, dead in my tracks I stop face to face with… a mirror. Only my image is scared… not bloodthirsty or infuriated, but terrified…
We are our own captors
