"The Cage"

Once upon a time, my life was a storybook.

I woke up on the cold metal ground; distinctly not where I had fallen asleep the night before. Where had I gone to rest, I no longer remember. It was so long ago. Maybe it had been in a bedroom, maybe on a couch – anywhere would have been better than the grimy bars and steel slab boxing me in, a chain creaking as the cage swayed. I was hanging in blackness; it’s been dark for so long that I never know whether it's day or night.

I assumed it was a dream, at the time. I don't know how long it took for me to realize that it was reality. Thick, monotonous reality.

I didn't eat. I didn't sleep. All my body functions had been – have been – shut down, and I was trapped. Stuck inside my shell – my body. Trapped within The Cage.

Sometimes I would scream. Just…scream, for however long it took for my throat to crack and bleed.

Sometimes I would force the cage to swing, hearing the creaking of that chain keeping me suspended, hoping it would snap. If the links wore through and broke, I would plummet. Hopefully hit the ground that I wasn’t certain was even there. Or else, maybe I would fall for eternity and god, at least that would be something new.
It won’t let me wither, or die. It has me here. It won’t let me go. I’m just trapped like an insect in amber – I can't even tell if I’m alive anymore.

The Cage has me forever.

Somebody please.

I don't even care if you save me.

Just come for me.

It will be something to watch. Something to distract me. Something to happen.

Something to break up eternity.