Subject: 22nd Dec Prompt from Madam'zelleG: Christmas in jail
Characters from and reference to "The Illustrious Client" ACD
Christmas in Jail
Kitty Winter, watching snowflakes fall upon the prison yard;
Fate, she mused, was seldom kind; life was often cruel and hard.
Food was meagre, blankets sparse, guards quite heartless, inhumane.
Fellow inmates, low in spirits; used to trudging lives of pain.
~0~
Though she deemed her sentence harsh, no regrets for lawless deed.
Von Gruner's features burned and scarred, the only way she might succeed
In saving innocents from harm; lured from youthful joy and light,
Into dark, corrupted places; constant shade, eternal night.
~0~
Cold seeped through her threadbare garments; limbs felt frozen, far too thin;
Bread and gruel could not sustain good health without, her soul within.
She shivered, stamped her feet, kept moving, three more months to see this through;
One long year endured already; three more months, then start anew.
~0~
View restricted; prison walls, with glimpse above of leaden sky;
Distant noise of city life, as unsuspecting folk passed by.
Church bells rang; to Kitty's ears, this might have been a world away;
She strained to catch the slightest sound; her only hint of Christmas Day...
~0~