The Glass Cage

A tiny person has been imprisoned ever since they can remember, never questioning it. Until they are given a reason to fight for their freedom.

I am small. I’ve always been small. My tiny limbs barely reach the height of a blade of grass and my finely spun strands of hair are scarcely visible when I pull them from behind my minuscule ear. I look up at the glossy blue sky that is semi covered by the green foliage that holds my form. The sky seems to be small like me. However, the small circumference I see is so pretty  and entrancing that I am satisfied by the piece I’m given. There might be more of the sky to  see, a vastly reaching landscape of blue that never ends, and that frightens me. Something so large, something so immense is unfathomable in my mind.  If I ever tried to see all of the sky in its imposing stature it would crush me with its sheer magnitude and power. Power like that was never meant for me, I’m too weak and fragile, it is better that I never try to obtain even a fraction of the sky greater than the one I already have, anything else might kill me. I reach up toward the only part of the sky I allow myself to own, but I am blocked by the glass that covers the top of the cell I’m kept in. I sigh in disappointment as I retract my hand and wrap my arms around my knees, gazing longingly at the warped image of my sky. The cage only seems to appear when I try to stretch my legs or reach out my arms beyond its boundaries, any other time it disappears entirely fooling me with a supposed promise of freedom. Unfortunately any time I touch it I become disillusioned with its promise and I am reminded that I’m trapped. Yet as soon as the bars seem to disappear, I forget they are there just as easily.

I blink slowly as I see a strong gust of wind brush across the grass and I cover my ears from the deafening roar that fills my cage. I feel the ground shake as I look back up toward the sky when both the wind and the quakes get more powerful with each passing second, they seem to be getting nearer. Soon I can’t hear or feel anything other than the roaring wind and the convulsions that seem to be cracking the earth. In a single moment I don't feel the vibrations or hear the gusts of wind. But I do see something, something both glorious and horrifying to behold. My eyes bulge and mouth gapes open and I am so paralyzed in awe that I can’t move or scream. A foot, a giant, colossal, gargantuan foot looms above my head. Its bottom is covered in blood, mud and a multitude of plant life, a stark contrast to my ivory appendage. Slowly,  the foot lowers itself and it looks as though it's about to crush me! With each passing second the foot gets closer.  I bang on the sides of the cage, screaming and crying, hoping that whatever is connected to the foot can hear my voice.

“Please!” I scream out in desperation “Please, I’m down here, you’re going to step on me! I’m trapped I can’t get out of the way, PLEASE!” In horror I remember the blood I saw on the bottom of the foot.

I scream even louder, setting my lungs on fire, “STOP, STOP I DON’T WANT TO DIE!” I don’t want to be another spot of blood on that foot! I don't want to die trapped in a cage, I still haven’t seen more of the sky! I don’t care if its size does kill me! Anything but this!

Then, in a single second, the foot lands on the ground in front of my cage and the ground shakes with a great screaming wind coming with it. The foot is suddenly back up above me and I notice that the foot has squashed the grass that it had stepped on, I shiver knowing that could have been me. I squint my eyes due to the bright light that now shines where the shadows caused by the grass once were. The light burns my eyes and I shut them closed to try and stop the pain; but I need to open them, I need to see what is causing such a bright source of light. I hesitantly peel open my eyes and they adjust to the light and I see the most beautiful sight I will ever see in my life. The sky, the whole, boundless, incredibly infinite sky, is laid out before me. The blue of the never-ending landscape shocks me to my core as I have known nothing but the dull fraction that I was allotted. I now realize that I should have never been just satisfied with what I was given, that minute snippet is an insult to the glory that I behold now. The sky doesn’t crush me like I thought it would, it seems to be calling to me, telling me to come join it in its size and magnitude. I press up against the ceiling, bending my knees underneath me and I can see cracks left behind by the giant quake. Gingerly, I tap on one of the cracks and I watch in amazement as the glass fractures further under my finger, I never realized how fragile it was.

I push my body up and my shoulders hit the glass, I hear more of the glass fracture, but none of it breaks. Why won’t it break? I use all the strength I have in my arms and legs, fighting against the barriers that hold me in. I let out a scream of rage as I throw both my fists toward the ceiling, more fracturing but there’s no shattering. I shoot my fists at the ceiling over and over again and I still can’t get it to break! I can’t stay here anymore, I’ve seen the entire sky, I can’t be satisfied with just looking from the confinements of walls. I have to explore all the vast reaches of it, to see everything I possibly can like the beings attached to those giant feet. I don’t want to be small anymore I want to be big like them so I can breath the sky in its purest form, touch the clouds and feel their softness between my fingers. I hit at the glass more and more until all of a sudden, I hear something snap. I pull both of my hands away and I see a trickle of blood run down one of them from a piece of glass that had cut my hand. A piece of glass. My eyes widen and in one swift motion I punch at the spot where the glass came from. More and more glass cuts through my skin but I barely feel the stings. I watch in pure joy as the hole grows bigger and bigger with each hit. I bring my other fist up and reel them both back and put all of my strength, will and dreams into this final punch. I close my eyes, take a deep breath and I let out one last soul searing yell as I punch the ceiling. In an instance I feel a thousand tiny pin pricks in my hands and for the first time in my life, I feel the light’s warmth on my body.

        I bring both my hands to the opposite sides of the cage as I lift myself out of it and stand to my full height. I look around at the now clear landscape, no longer warped by the glass I was once trapped behind or blocked by the tall grass. I take one slim leg from inside the cage, minding the sharp glass that surrounds where I stand. Steadily I lower my foot onto the squashed, soft looking grass, wanting to finally feel something other than the slick texture of glass. My foot finally presses down to the ground and I am elated to find that it is a soft as it looks. A smile stretches at my  lips and I put my other foot down next to my other one, one hand is taken off, I am almost fully detached from the box. But my other hand doesn’t want to let go of the cage, my home for so long, I’ve known nothing other than the safety and security of its constricting hold. Maybe I should go back, I don’t know anything about the outside, or the creatures that inhabit it. I might not be able to survive another attack from one of the giant creatures, the cage kept me relatively safe from it, I can’t defend myself. I can’t survive without the cage protecting me.

But then glance down at my glass and blood covered hand and I recall the power I felt when I finally broke through the glass. The cage didn’t do that for me, I did it, I punched and fought until I shattered the glass above my head and broke free from the bonds that had held me prisoner for so long. The cage can’t help me anymore and I don’t want its protection. I have my own strength now, I can use that to find my way through the world and fend against the monsters of the world. I carefully pry my hand off the side of the cage and I finally take it off with an unceremonious lift of my arm. I turn my back on the cage and I never look back at it again.

Tentatively I bring my foot forward and begin to walk the flattened plain of grass leading to a place with even taller grass that seems to be green at the top and brown at the bottom with a path leading down the middle. I guess I know where I’m going, now all there is to do is to follow it. I walk briskly down the path laid in front of me as I begin to pull all the tiny glass shards one by one, and I begin to notice a change in my body. With each glass shard I pull out, each step I take, I begin to grow. By the time I am halfway done pulling out the shards my stature has grown to where I can no longer see the same extensive details of the grass I once had. However, I am only half the height of the brown part of the taller grass I see. Finally I am down to the last shard and as I tug it out, I reach the same height as the sky I had once thought would crush me. The green and brown trees now look as miniature as the regular grass as I walk through the already made path with little pricks poking at my feet.

I look down over the land and then turn my gaze back up to the clear blue sky my head now touches. When I look back up I am face to face with a white fluffy cloud and I try to grab at it, hoping it is as soft as I always dreamed it to be. But it seems to evaporate under my touch as my hand becomes dewy from the touch. I smile softly and wave the cloud away from my face to help unveil the sun in all its beautiful radiance . The soft sunlight touches my skin and it warms me straight down to my soul as I am given the will to push my now lumbering body forward. Having only been such a small size for all of my life I am rather awkward at moving my now lengthy limbs. My stride hastens as I reach a full sprint and begin to create my own path through the tall grass in front of me. Finally I am no longer controlled by anything but my own will. I am free, I am strong, I am giant.

Author's Note

anything you want to mention!