My naked body suspended in a glass chamber.
The water is rising. Blue knuckles beat on prison walls. Futility. I see a strange man point his finger. A smile so crooked and ugly. I hunger for violence. For I could shatter his porcelain veneers. Mercy is an allowance for the weak. His face would be an empty page on which I would write three stanzas of vengeance and penance with the tip of my Damascus steel blade. Fantasy is sobered by the icy bite of water swallowing my abdomen. I don't have much time left. The more I struggle, the larger his eyes become. Bastard. If I close my eyes maybe I'll wake up somewhere else. Somewhere far, far away. I stand in defiance. I will no longer give him the satisfaction of my anger. As the water dances along my nipples, I can see my mother faint in the periphery. She is wearing her favorite floral sundress. Black stilettos and the necklace I gave her for her birthday last year. Her skin shimmers in the darkness of my caged eyelids. A single tear runs down her cheek. She mouths the word "goodbye". Water floods into my lungs. They burn like I swallowed cyanide. I am relieved that my eyes are already wet. I hear her voice again, echoing that same word. "goodbye". I love you too, mother.

Sawyer S.