Birdcage

BLAISE

It’s cold.

I blink, eyelids heavy. The right underside of my neck aches with a dull pain, as if I’d slept on it wrong last night. There are blurs of gold, lines streaking vertically across my vision. I blink again, eyes creasing together. The lines slowly come into focus.

At first, I’d thought that I was dreaming.

But the lines slowly focus into reality. And soon, I’m blinking wildly. I’m in the corner of a massive room where the windows are thrown open on the other side. Cold air pours through, with sharp bursts of wind. The room is empty, spare a bed that’s made to perfection in the center.

Freedom.

I run for it. But when I stand up, my head slams into something. The entire world shakes. And I instantly tip over, a wave of nausea roiling down my clogged chest as I fall down on my bottom. My outstretched hands hit against the golden bars that I hadn’t thought that actually existed.

It’s a cage.

Not just a cage. A massive birdcage hanging from the ceiling.

And