The girl sat in a clearing quietly, the trees standing around her like prison guards. Each time she tried to step into the woods, to move toward a greater clearing, to see what was beyond her little cell, she was thwarted by snarling thorn bushes and whipped back by the tall weeds that could only grow in the soil that would bear no other living creature. She knew there was something far greater beyond her protected little Hell, but she had little knowledge of how to outsmart her captors, little skill on becoming invisible. She longed for the warmth of the sun that was so filtered out by the time it reached her that the warmth had been sucked out and left only as a cold tendril, a ghost of what was far away and shrouded by the foreboding limbs of the trees above. Even the birds were afraid to speak to her, to call her name for fear of demise at the hands of the wicked. She was so very much alone, longing only for the caress of another, the small safety of a hug, the shallow peace of companionship. How had she found herself abandoned by the world beyond? What had she done to deserve the hatred that locked her in and sealed her off from humanity?
Sometimes, she thought she could hear the distant noise of life. She imagined the hum of a cart pulled by a mule, full of the delicious fruits and vegetables a farmer had poured his life into growing, protecting, cherishing for the day he could share them with others. She thought the song of laughter faintly reached her ears, of children's gaiety as they finished a day of exploration into the great unknown. She was touched by the cooing of new parents over a squealing infant, excited and mesmerized by the tantalizing newness that this small plot offered. How far away these all seemed, cut-off and muted by the great darkness that locked her away from their beauty. She faintly remembered the days where she fought off the pain of the whippings, the tearing at her skin to try to reach these longings. Now, she was resigned. She no longer fought the barriers, but gave into the protection she feigned to enjoy. She, too, began to fade away, much like another life she had before her captivation by darkness.
