Window Panes

The window cried wither as she stood feeling warmth on the inside and cold on the other side of the pain. She could just barely see her reflection but the parts she could make out were the parts she could no longer recognize.

Her eyes, once filled with joy, were now tired, filled with cold reality. Her lips that once encouraged were tainted deep red with lies and schemes. The rose warmth that filled her cheeks had been replaced with the pale color of sadness and regret.

She couldn’t remember a time where the window rejoiced in her triumphs. A time where is danced with the sun to reflect a smiling face, soft eyes and happy cheeks. She couldn’t see it now. The past months of using the window as a means of escape had erased any sign of freedom from the dungeon she now found herself a slave in. The window kept her trapped now, tightly wrapped up in its arms locking her inside the panes.  Its reflection forced her to see the person it saw, the true being she had become, thanks to the world outside it.

The panes it held in its symmetrical four-by-four neatly laid out grid locked her deeply inside the places she grasped to escape from. In o ne box she could see the lies, in another were the broken promises, another the boy who said one thing but did something else, another reflected the loneliness, another the schemes and one after another the panes continued their nightly ritual of making her face the broken world she couldn’t escape from.

The world that ate her hopes, dreams and happiness.

Every pane a reflection of something she hated. Something she loathed.

Every pane spitting out the hurtful secrets she locked up inside.

Every pane oozing out to make her see what this life was all about.

Every pane, but one.

There in the middle was the one pane that left itself vulnerable. The one pane that reflected nothing at all. The one pane her eyes stared at waiting to see what ugly monster would rear its head and attack her.

Click. Click.

She started to hear the noise.

Click. Click.

She looked behind her, for the noise had never happened in the other nights she stood her standing at the window. The room around her was dark and she was alone but…

Click. Click.

It kept crying out to her. She turned back forward. Her eyes set upon the middle pane.

Click. Click.

Her eyes narrowed in. She took a step forward.

Click. Click.

Her heart beat faster as she saw a small rock hit the middle pane with the last click.

Click. Click.

There she saw them. Two small rocks. Her eyes filled with excitement as two more hit this time faster than the two before.

Click. Click.

Her lips jumped upright as she eyes the two little stones. Where could they be coming from?

Click. Click.

Her cheeks flushed with color as her heart raced to try and keep up with her mind.

Click.

Another one hit the middle pane for the last time.

She looked at the window waiting for the arrival of another stone to make the noise that captured her attention. But as her eyes scanned the window for another rock, they narrowed in on something else. A Change overcame each pane and there in the window she saw her pain released and her face was filled with joy once more.

“Finally I found you again,” She whispered letting the words float out in front of her as her fingers searched for the latch to undo the window. With a push she forced the window open.

“I finally found you again,” She let out with a laugh. 

“No I found you! Let me in?” A voice called out to her from below.

A smile widened on her face.

Everything changed as she let the voice below in, never to let Him leave again.