Caged
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Maddison Coles, Grade 7
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Short Story
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2015
The first thing I am aware of is a cage, a great big glass cage. I feel trapped and alone. I bang on the glass praying and hoping it would break. As I realise my efforts are futile I unfurl my wings and wrap them around myself. It is the only comfort I have in this hell that I seem to be in.
I look around, I appear to be in a museum surrounded by horrifying stuffed creatures I never knew existed. An unwelcome thought enters my mind, “Will I end up like them?” No! I can't think like that, not right now. But it's no use the thoughts haunt me. I bury myself in my wings and begin to cry.
I cry for what feels like hours when suddenly the large wooden doors at the end of the room open and people flood in. I suddenly realise why I’m here. People crowd around my cage and look at me like I'm other worldly. Of course I'm not from another world, I am just like them! I have a family, friends, a life. No let me rephrase that I used to have a life until these close-minded scientists found me and locked me up like I was a beautiful and dangerous creature that could only be looked at through a glass cage. These wings I have, which I cherish, are the only thing that makes me different from them, so why must I be looked at as though I were an alien? I pull my wings back and they disappear behind my back. I won't let them see my wings, because they are greedy people who are envious and jealous of me.
Nestled back in my cage I notice something out of the corner of my eye. I sit up and see a young boy about my age. He is staring at me with a beautiful curiosity, not the usual look of a mixture of fear and questioning that everyone else has on their faces, this is a strange curiosity that I don't think I will ever understand, I look away, ashamed. When I dare to look back at the boy he is gone, an ignorant woman stands in his place reaching across, tapping on the glass.
Strangely I don't see the boy for the rest of the day. Night falls and the museum finally closes. Free from the stares I unfurl my wings. A feeling of bliss floods my body. Suddenly I see something. It's the boy, standing there looking as though he needs to say something, to do something to make things right. As I gaze back I notice he has light brown hair and astonishing green eyes. I stare into them and they stare back at me. Into my soul. Slowly he walks towards the cage and puts his hand on the glass. I put my hand there and feel complete. We stay like that, the boy and I, for what feels like forever.