Breathe in the Stars

Her breath was like shards of glass bouncing in her throat, stabbing her with every step she took. She didn’t know how long she had been running, but she couldn't stop, even as her legs wobbled and throbbed through each footfall, and the frigid wind pierced through her thin layers and stung at her skin.

It didn’t matter. The pain didn’t hold a candle to what she would go through if she went back to those biting steel cuffs and the dark dampness of the prison.

Her parents were halfway across the world, where she’d sent them right before the guards had come knocking on her door. It had been difficult, convincing them to climb onto the plane and leave her and her brother alone... but not together. At least not in the ways that mattered. He had turned his back on her the night she’d come home soaked in someone else’s blood, despite her cries, despite what she had gone through. The roaming hands. The purpling bruises. The kisses thrust on her to silence her desperate protests.

He'd scorned her for taking up the knife against her captor, and from then on, she was absolutely, gloriously alone. To be honest, she reveled in it, celebrated it--as long as it didn't get her killed.

There wasn’t much distance between her and the city gate. She threw every bit of energy she had into her legs, willing them to move faster. She didn't dare look back, but she could almost imagine hands snatching out to grab her clothes, her hair, her wrists. Faster. She had to run, swifter than the wind.

A few more exhausting minutes of that sickening fear, and she was at the gates. They were locked during the nighttime, as expected, so she took a flying leap and began scaling them, feeling the bars dew-slick under her hands. Her feet slipped and slid along the smooth iron, but she managed to hoist herself over the gnarled spikes and drop the twenty feet down onto the pavement, tucking and rolling to absorb the impact.

The guards were attempting to scale the gate, firing at her through the bars, but to her immense satisfaction, they were unable to do so. She veered off into the nearby forest and was quickly lost amidst the thick-trunked, leaf-bare oak trees that surrounded the city. It was difficult not to whoop, to laugh, to do anything that would alert people to her presence. She could feel the freedom wrapping her around her like a long-lost but familiar blanket. Freedom. When had she last felt so euphoric?

She slowed to a walk, feeling the ache in her muscles finally catching up to her. Her ragged breaths evened out as she strolled along the frozen path, watching her exhales cloud the air around her like frosted smoke. The forest around her had been disrupted the slightest bit by her fleeing, but it was now settling back into serenity. Here, she could forget about her past. Among the trees, she was nothing but an animal, uncaged and unburdened in the wild. Almost like a wolf, she mused. Alone, but not lonely. Indifferent, but not immoral. In a way, they were more civilized than humans.

Closing her eyes, she let the memory surface one last time. Studied it. Then let it go.

She looked into the skies above her and breathed in the stars, howled at the moon. Yes, she was free. She could never--would never--be caged again.