Caged

It’s so cold, its always so cold.
Thrown in here against my will, nothing but the clothes on my back and my empty heart. There were others, of course there were others. The men had left, leaving us alone in our shackles and shame. No one spoke, some I thought, were probably mute. I looked around and saw myself. Each one frozen to the bone, alone, empty, only memories to fill the void.
Others looked up and out, looking for some sort of salvation in this darkness, but after my careful inspection of the cage, I realized, sadly, that this was it. This was all what was worth living for. Memories and mold growing along the cracks in the floor. No one dare give us any food, no one dare speak.
I see the others, their clothes worn from time. Some are nothing but fraying shards of what once were beautiful gowns. I knew, for I saw my own tattered clothes, remembering my joy. It was only a fleeting memory though, it evaporated, into the thin air. Leaving me here, helpless, hopeless. The bottomless pit beneath us taught us not to move, for the twitch of a hand or foot would send us rocking.
Back and forth, we would rock. Back and forth until we were lulled softly to sleep. It didn’t last long, usually the clatter of the chains would awaken us, and we would begin to shiver again. It was always so cold here, there were no windows, there were no doors. But wait…that made no sense.
If there were no doors then that meant I was always here, born hear among the muck and mold, born among the lost and the lonely. My mind reeled at the very thought, though the tears were caught in a lump at the bottom of my throat. My heart ached for home, if it was anywhere but here. And if it was here, then I wished I was anywhere warm, safe.
Another girl began to moan.
It had started as nothing but a whimper, almost all of us whimper one point or another. But then it turned to a moan. It wasn’t a moan of loss, no it was a moan of pain. This woman, this child was in pain. We sat and listened, not even looked up from our dingy toenails, if one had any.
The moans turned to screams. Then we knew she was dying. We heard about it, from the guards that came to mock us or eye us. They told stories of women who died here, from the cold, from hunger, no one really knew. But that didn’t matter, it just meant that someone else was dead. Everyone died eventually, everyone always died eventually. The girl began to rock back and forth, trying to rid herself of the pain. We rocked with her.
Back and forth…back and forth.
I faded away for a while. Somewhere in the realm of sleep. I didn’t dream, and I didn’t move, but I did sleep. For a while. Just for a little while. The men came to mock us again, and didn’t remove the dying girl from our cage. Instead they watched, they listened, as the girl died alone. Like we all would, eventually.
We all die eventually.
Finally the cries died away, and the emptiness returned. The men left, their show was over and there was no reason in staying. Minutes, seconds, days, months passed. No one made a move to throw her out, to touch her, the corpse lying on the bottom of the cage. Some began to whisper, from what I could make out they were prayers, but if there was a god, then they would have rescued us, they would have saved us.
Another memory; I remembered believing in a God once, I had one that I visited from time to time. But the memory faded into the din, the din of silence.
After a while the girl began to stink. She was rotting, they whispered, this corpse girl was rotting on the floor. It would attract mice, and the mice weren’t picky with what they ate. So some of the girls, some of the women moved their stiff, cold bodies and crawled over to where the empty body was.
Back and forth….back and forth, we swayed.
It took them what seemed like an eternity but they got her to the edge, then, dumped her out of the side. All was quiet, there was no thud, no splash, no nothing. Just emptiness, eternal emptiness. The women and girls retreated back to their corners, and resumed their positions, silently hoping for rescue. But there was no hope, there was never any hope.
I fell to my side and felt a sharp pain in my heart. The floor was cold, always so cold. I shivered, over and over again. It was so cold. It was oh so cold. I watched the others look at me, but I made no sound, not even a whimper. No, I was silent, I was silent as the emptiness came to swallow me.
Everyone dies eventually.