Glass

She took another peek at me before jotting down a few notes. Lovely red spectacles framed her hazel eyes, which narrowed for a moment as she strained to observe something. Clutching her clipboard firmly, she took down a string of numbers and smiled.

"We're all good here for today!" Her cheerful voice rang clear in the sterile room. "I guess we could call it a day?"

I closed my eyes as the lights around started to dim. Then, I heard distant voices filter through the glass.

"So, any plans tonight?"

"Hey, wanna go out for a drink?"

"I just got a loan for a new car! It's waiting downstairs, wanna check it out?"

"Hey, I heard there's this new seafood joint in town... wanna try?"

She rebuffed each question with a giggle and a gentle "no". I really envy them. At least they have their chance.

I struggled to feel my hands, trapped behind the clutches of steel manacles. My limbs felt faint, odd tubes going in and out at different points. One of them, leading straight down my throat, glistened a pale yellow. Inside it flowed that nectar which had been sustaining me in this harrowing prison for months.

Soon, the only lights left were those on my platform. The dull LEDs bounced off the glass cylinder that walled me from the outside. I could vaguely see my reflection against the curved crystal -- mangled, broken, an object up for study and display.

Suddenly, I saw a hand prop itself up against the glass, and I saw her face reflecting the soft white light. She wore a look of concern. It wasn't very useful, but it was what I needed to last through this night.

"Someday..." I thought to myself before the numbing pain of anesthetics coursed through my veins. I felt my claws relax just as soon as the sentence finished. "Someday I will break through that glass... and I will have her, too..."