A sea of stars. Skyscrapers that seemed so tiny compared to the vast amount of stars that confronted them. Soft looking leaves that blew lazily in a breeze from nowhere. The moon, always full, shined down on a small cubicle of life. It was almost like looking through a fish tank full of the universe. A young woman lazily ran her hand across the glass pane that separated her from the universe outside her window. She has long ago lost interest in the scenery. It has not changed in the many years that she has been confined to this small corner of the world.

She stopped as she reached the corner of her confinement that she had seen so many times. When she was younger, she would often spend days hunting this corner and the others in the room for any means of escape. Even now, she could still see the slight scratch marks that had been made on the glass like substance due to her desperate attempt to flee her cell of tranquility. But as she grew older, she came to accept her fate.

"Besides…" she whispered to the air, "in here I am truly 'free'".

She turned from the wall to look at the barren area that had become her life over the past years. It was a small place surrounded on all sides by glass walls that seemed to give distorted visions of the universe. Other than the girl herself, nothing was in the room. Her empty blue eyes seemed to radiate an unnatural light and her long pink hair fell around her and brushed the ground as she once again looked around the room for…something.

She silently stopped her surveying apparently unable to find what she was looking for and let her hand drop from the wall. She felt her hand unwillingly move toward the headphones that rested over her ears. They were the only reminder she had of her time before she began to live her life in this cubicle of the world. She knew that there are memories attached to them, but she has buried anything that may lead her to thinking of the past outside of her safe haven. It's much less painful that way.

She felt her fingers brush up against an engraving in the headphones. Her fingers lingered there and began to trace out the letters.

"L-U-K-A…" she said aloud as her fingers brushed each letter, "my name…"

Ping! Luka turned and looked as she heard a sound that was all too familiar. Just as expected, the room that was once barren now contained a modest amount of food for her dinner. She shuffled over to the food and looked at what she had been offered for dinner. She gave a small smile as she looked down at the tuna filet and rice that had been prepared for her. Over the years, whoever was serving her food had learned her likes and dislikes.

As she silently ate her dinner, Luka felt her mind begin to drift to her current state of living. For as long as she cared to remember, she had lived in this small room. She was never in need of anything, for it seemed that whenever she was tired or hungry or needed new clothes, the room provided for her. It was truly mysterious and at one point Luka had been determined to unravel its mysteries, but the novelty of the room had passed and she now just accepted it as part of her life.

Luka tugged at the black and white dress she was wearing now and looked down at herself. She was no longer the child she once was. She couldn't say exactly how many years had passed since she first came to the room, but it must have been quite some time ago. When she had first arrived in the room she had been only 6 years old.

I must be at least 20, Luka silently estimated to herself.

Luka set her bowl back down upon the floor and walked over to look at the unchanging scenery yet again. She felt her eyes drifting over to the city of skyscrapers that hung inexplicably in the sky. Her eyes settled on the only visible billboard she could see in the city. She read what was printed there as she had done many times in the past.

FREEDOM

"Freedom…" Luka repeated back to the sign.

The word had a strange taste in her mouth. It felt both familiar and completely foreign to say the word. She had often wonder what exactly "freedom" was and how one was able to obtain it. When she had first come to the room, the word freedom had meant nothing to her. She wasn't too sure that it meant something to her now.

"This is paradise Luka. This is freedom"

The phrase flashed through Luka's head and then left just as quickly as it had come. For a split second, Luka's face contorted into a puzzled from, yet she instantly returned to her emotionless stare.

"That phrase was something from a long time ago…" she said aloud with a slight shake in her voice, "someone who I loved and trusted told me that…"

Luka looked around at the empty room illuminated by artificial pink light and the display of the galaxy that had become her life over the many years spent in solitude. Nothing in this little world had changed in the past 14 years. Yet, this was it…wasn't it?

"This…is my freedom?"