Page 1

The Prisoner

She is a small thing, a broken thing, lying discarded on the icy ground.

She is a heart bleeding, a soul splintering, a light extinguished.

The Prisoner once thought she knew suffering. She believed herself well-acquainted with agony’s merciless blades.

Oh, how foolish she was. That was never agony. It was only ever pain .

Pain is standing helpless in a palace, a river of red lapping at her boots, their bodies scattered and shattered.

Agony is a little girl falling.

Agony is red ribbons streaming from her hair.

Agony is an older sister screaming.

Eight years old. Eight years old with gap teeth and sparkling eyes.

Eight years old and gone.

In the cell, the Prisoner sobs herself sick. She does not know that she cries. It is like breathing to her now. She does not exist without it. She cannot exist without it.

Today is Shin Lina’s nineteenth birthday, and trapped within her own mind, she waits desperately for the end.