Prison

Follow up to Balance within the Forest

That’s all the freedom we can hope for—the freedom to choose our prison. - L. M. Montgomery

The woman is scarred, beaten and in so many ways--broken. This is all clear to the eyes that watch her, although how she has achieved the peace and the balance that drew them to her remains beyond them.

 

She has nightmares. Oh the nightmares.

 

She twists, turns and screams, yelling out names and cries for help that are only sometimes intelligible even to those who know a hundred languages or more. Blood runs down her skin as she claws at her face and arms as if to rid herself of something--chains? Another's hands? The screams are bloodcurdling, the flowers fold into themselves and the animals hide their young, it rings throughout the forest like the last cry of innocence or a marauder's last triumphant cry for their cause.

 

They see, especially in her times of peace as she gently touches a flower or rests in a tree the scars on her body. Nature has never really embraced modern human devises, so the origins of some of these remain unknown, but as sure as anything they know not all of these are caused by outside forces. Most are however.

 

She does not leave.

 

The woman makes this forest her home, and while she does not seem lonely, restless, or depressed, the forest knows the need of being with other's like you. Knows the comfort a warm embrace could bring or just another's voice, they have seen this before, time and time again. Because of all this they know, this isn't truly her home, though she may see it this way. This is her prison. It keeps her safe from whomever she was running from, although they know, and she knows this--she is not safe from herself.

 

 

However, perhaps, finally, the human race is beginning to realize that they can never escape their scars, their memories, their own thoughts, and themselves. Perhaps the other inhabitants of the forest are wrong, maybe this is her sanctuary, her well-deserved paradise from those who can never be like her. Then again they wonder, as they watch her feed a sparrow, how much of a difference is there between a sanctuary from those who pursue you (even if you have made peace with yourself) and a prison?

 

Reviews

[Nighteyes]

The imagery in this piece is very good. You capture a very distinct feel of the forest that is unique to that section of it, making it clear that the woman feels very safe, very secure there.

I'm not very good at doing short short stories. Normally, I would comment on the amount of Telling done, but that is the nature of a story of this length, I guess. So I'm at a loss of what to say. ^_^