u/Interesting-Proof236

I am suddenly jolted awake with three ropes tying me down as a sea of faceless spectators watch me, I try to tug on the ropes, they restrain me. Pulling me in every direction away from my soul. I tug hard at the rope on my right arm, Freedom fighters step forward showing me the centuries of black pride and struggle behind me. I tug hard at the rope on my left arm, A parade of pride shines on me showing me the decades of struggle for me to love who I wish. The third rope is around my neck. I bow my head, At the suffragettes and all women who came before me allowing me to exist in a man’s world. Each rope tugs me harshly in every direction, And the closer I inch toward a group, the louder the jeers and heckles of the faceless crowd and the other groups pierce my already bleeding ear. I sit helplessly, body worn from the struggle, screaming, begging everyone to stop the pulling. “No more!” I yell, ripping the ropes from my body. I stand up after untying my ropes and I realise I am all alone. No faceless crowd, no Freedom fighters, no Suffragettes no Queers, nothing. Is this the price of being all mixed up? A blinding light strikes my eyes and as it dims I see myself in a shattered mirror, Each broken shard showing different parts of me, The me who allowed herself to be ripped apart. I roll my shoulders back and start to run towards the exit door. I open it, and what I am greeted with makes me drop to my knees and scream and cry and shudder. A never ending hallway with a door in the far distance, close enough for me to read but too far away to reach. As I aged and withered, everyone always asked me what that door had said, And as I breathed my last breath in a world so unlike me, I whisper,

“Freedom.”