Just A Girl

Beautiful, courageous, contented...

Hair of ember, spilling curls of fire sweeping over porcelain shoulders. Eyes like melted gold, staring directly into a matching pair on the opposite side of the glass prison. A curved silhouette hiding beneath a blanket of cotton with large, baggy sleeves. Long, dark eyelashes kissing the tops of her cheekbones softer than the noises escaping from her lips, pinker than the colour of her cold-nipped cheeks. Satin soft skin wrapping a chest that was heaving gently as she watched it move rythmatically to the sound of her thumping heart. Snowy limbs quivered as she tried to steady her breathing.

Are all the things she is not...

Bitter tears rolled down her frost-bitten cheeks, curving over her lips and enabling her to taste those salty droplets on her tongue. Pink lips began to shake as she watched herself fall to her knees. Yet, still no sound escaped from the confines of her throat.

Expectations, duties, vows; how many times does she have to change herself before they are appeased?...

A face damp with tears became cold as an icy draft blew over it, more drops falling, creating a vicious cycle. A hesitant hand reached out, unable to touch a matching one due to a reflective barrier; a barrier so easily broken, she was afraid to lay a finger on it.

She's just a girl...

Wanting so badly to reach the other girl, to comfort her - it hurt. She let her hand lie flat on the glass, the surface fogging slightly due to the heat of her sweaty palm.

She's just a girl!...

As her fingers trembled against the barrier, her nails tapped against the glass, making for a soft but anxious sound as it echoed quietly throughout the room.

She's just a girl! Only a child! Old enough to understand what she must do, but still too young to know how or why...

Tears streamed over her cheeks, falling onto the cloth that covered her and saturating the fabric.

She's just a girl. She knows not of freedom or of hope...

Her silent sobs became vocal as her other hand joined the first on the glass, desperately trying to reach the girl on the other side.

Only of what everyone else expects of her...

Her small hands tightened into fists as they began to thump the glass. That girl needed comfort, needed reassurance; needed a friend.

She's just a girl. With not a friend in the world...

Partially muffled sobs and cries ripped the silence into shreds as she hit and clawed at the barrier; the barrier that kept her from the girl.

She is alone...

Her fingers began to get sore, trails of blood beginning to coat the reflective surface as her attack on the glass continued.

No one there...

Pleas and desperate protests were released into open air; not that the girl could hear her.

Alone, completely alone...

Oblivious that the glass had began to crack, she continued to scratch at the barrier; only aware that the girl on the other side was trying to get to her as well.

She's just a girl...

Hands once again became fists, heartily hitting against the glass, over and over again, getting harder each time whilst slipping and sliding across the blood-coated surface.

She's just a girl!...

She began screaming, shouting for the girl, fists colliding with the glass again.

She's just a girl! Too young, too vulnerable, too weak; she's just a girl!...

Loud vibrations could be heard as cracks fractured the once perfect image of the girl. Her eyes widened as she hit the glass harder, believing that with every split in the barrier, she would get her closer to the girl.

She's just a girl, dammit!

Shards of glass began to fall, coating the floor and skimming over her arms as she carried on thumping at that barrier, unaware that wood had started to show from where the glass had fallen.

She's just a girl! So alone, so very, very alone...

The girl was disappearing before her eyes, vanishing along with the pieces of glass. She screamed again, panicked 'don't go, don't go's resounding through the thick, humid air.

She doesn't want to be alone anymore...

With every sliver of glass broken was another piece of the girl, gone. A pink tinted ear, a blood-shot eye or two, a pair of quivering lips; everything. Until there was nothing left.

She didn't think she was alone anymore...

The rest of the glass burst, exploding from the wood it once rested soundly in, and showering the girl in a beautiful, glimmering rain.

When in truth, she was more alone than she ever was before...

Tears were partly replaced with blood, oozing out from dozens of newly acquired cuts, pouring over her milky flesh and staining her clothes scarlet.

She's just a girl...

Her cries, shouts and pleas were silenced, leaving an odd air to the room once again.

She's just a girl. Too old to be a child, but too young to be an adult...

Tears still flowing at a lesser rate, mixing with the crimson liquid to make a most toxic combination.

And so, so alone...

Tearing her gaze from where the mirror had previously been, she noticed her body was numb.

So alone...

She had lost the girl, and with her; lost herself.

She's just a girl...