Locked
The soft rumble of screams and footsteps echo through the halls out side my prison door. It has been six years in this very real nightmare, I am not sure where I am, but that I am trapped and lost, and all my freedoms have been taken. The only freedom I can see, and that was still very unreal, was the small window six feet from the floor, the rays of dust that fell through the empty space in my sell were magnified by the small pillar of warm sunshine. I wish I could peek through and take in the fresh air, but it was only a small window, and I was not tall enough to look through it.

On a scorching day, my walls seem to sweat with the humidity. I feel as though I was in an oven. Suddenly the light from the small window got smaller! But I could see it was a bird! The only living thing I had seen other than the hands of the men that brought my food and emptied my bucket each day. Not only was it a bird, it was a dove! The beautiful dove flapped its soft, white feathers, taking in the warmth of the sun. I so wished I was that bird, so I could fly away and become free.

Maybe once or twice a week the dove would come and remind me of my envy towards it. I thought many long hours about how I could become that bird. I often gave up. I gave up on trying on finding a way out and understanding why I was trapped… All seemed hopeless, until one day the bird stopped coming and all hope was lost. I became very ill. I no longer could eat my portions and was fading away. Many nights I would dream about not waking up. But in another of my dreams I was sitting with my dove and he wanted me to leave with him. We journeyed off and faded away. When awoke I was in heaven. I was finally free.