Bound by fate.

That's how I saw it, anyway. 

Not being able to be free, doomed to endure this fate for all eternity.

Fate. What is fate? 

It's the evil that awaits a soul when they come to the end of their time.

At least, that's what he told me.

Perhaps fate isn't as bad as it seems?

Though here, I hold my fate in my hands.

I don't know what it was, but it was pretty. It made sounds, small, sweet sounds that together sounded nice and...I think the word is peaceful.

It was a small box, only the size of my hand. It was straight, some sort of shape that I didn't know. When I opened it, the sounds came out. Inside, a little girl that had on a pink dress spun around on her toes.

He had bought this to me. I don't know why, and I don't know what it is, but he insisted that I open it as often as I can. I had always trusted him, Eric, his name is.

Eric promised me, that one day he would tell me why I'm here. What my purpose is in this place. I looked around my white walled solitary existance. White. White everywhere. Even what I was wearing was a white dress.

My skin was darker than Eric's, it looked like orange, but paler. In all honesty, it even looked like the girl in the music box. He told me her name is Ella.

Ella. When I said that name, my ears would feel warm.

I don't know why, but Ella sounded familiar. It was pretty too. I looked at the little box again. That was another thing in here that was not white. It was red, and it had very shiny little dots on it.

He called them something, what was it? It started with...with a 'J' and it sounded funny.

Due? Was it due? No...there was another pretty letter in it.

Jewel! That was it! A jewel! The little box had jewel's on it, and they sparked in the yellow light that came through a square in my wall. 

The box was red, my skin was light orange...and my...hair? Was that the word? It's black. It's not colourful, but it's black, like Eric's.

Then, there is the other thing.There are red lines on my pale orange skin. I asked Eric why they were there, and he'd just smile and pat them, telling me it didn't matter, and that I was fine now.

Sometimes, they hurt. Sometimes, I wonder why they are there so much, that I poke them excessively, and then they hurt, so I stopped doing that a while ago.

I looked down at the music box, and opened it. The pretty sounds came, and I smiled. Ella popped up, and she began to twirl. 

Slowly, my eyes closed with the sounds, so sweet, so gentle, so pretty.

Immediately, as I closed my eyes, the door opened, and my eyes fell open, and I met my only guest with a smile, closing the music box gently.

"Eric," I whispered. 

He sat in the only seat beside my bed, also white. "You've been listening to Ella again?" He asked, smiling gently and taking my hand in his. I nodded happily.

"Yes, often as possible, like you said!" I said eagerly.

I don't know why, but I have always felt the need to impress Eric. To hang on his every word and adhere to his commands, not that he made many, but he was my only connection to what went on outside this room.

I don't know how long I've been in here. I remember waking up in this bed, not knowing aything. Two people, Eric, and a large woman name Judy who tends to me came in to greet me.

Whenever I ask Eric certain questions about the outside world, how I got here, and how long I've been here, all he says is "Listen to the fate box and watch Ella dance."

I do. Like I tell him everytime he comes.

"Does...does this mean...you'll tell me now?" I asked him. He looked upset, and I instantly regreted asking. I looked down at the music box, and reached for it to open the lid.

He grasped my wrist first. 

It hurt the red lines, but I said nothing.

"Yes," was all he said. I smiled gently, as he leaned back in his seat.

I suddenly felt scared of what he might tell me. I kept it together though. I need to know this. It might reveal my fate perhaps.

"Your name is Ella," he began. I frowned instantly. Ella's name is Ella, not mine!

"You're eighteen years old, as am I. You've been here for two years."

Two...two! Two years?

I said nothing, but my mouth was open in shock. 

"You, you loved to dance, Ella," he smiled, and I twitched when he called me Ella. That wasn't my name, that was Ella's. "You were beautiful, up on stage. A princess, a ballerina. You would twirl, and leap. It was the highlight of everything for you."

I looked at my body. This...this lifeless, weak thing could do that?

"We-Well what happened?" I whispered, fearful for the words that would follow. 

Eric's expression turned grey, and I felt my eyes fill with tears. "You got sick, after an accident on stage that caused you to hit your head really badly. You were in a hospital for a week, and it really caused a rift in your family.."

Family! I had a family!

"A brother, older than you, and a sister, younger than you. Then your parents."

Where was this leading to? 

"When you got out of Hospital, you were really sick still. Not quite the same as before. You stopped dancing completely and became really depressed. I got you this music box, which plays the song you used to dance to."

I opened the box briefly. Song? That must be what it's called.

"That's why I wanted you to listen to it everyday Ella. I wanted to see if you could remember. You wrote the song when you learned piano, you even wrote lyrics to it. Most of all, you called it fate. I don't know why, but you always loved to talk about fate. When something ever happened to you, you'd just smile and say, 'I call that fate' and continue on with your life."

This was too much.

I was harshly confused by the sudden information.

I felt like he was reading me another one of his stories, like it wasn't my life, it wasn't my past or tale to tell.

 I shook my head furiously, "No, no that's not right," I insisted. Eric said nothing but smiled sadly.

"But then..." My eyes shot up at him. "You started hurting youself. Without dance, with your family falling apart, you became so depressed that, you tried to end it all."

Eric's black eyes filled with tears, whereas mine spilled everywhere.

"You ended up here, in the asylum. You got a Lobotomy. That's why you can't remember. The Lobotomy reversed eventually. Your brain healed. It's rare but it happens, and that's why you're awake now."

My eyes stared down. I couldn't look at Eric, but he looked at me. Slowly, I twisted myself so that my legs hung off the bed.

"Why did you finally tell me?" I whispered. His footsteps approached, and he came in front of me.

"Because now, I can take you home."

My eyes brightened at the idea. Judy came in with a chair that had wheels on it. Eric motioned me to sit in it, and with his help I did.

 I reached out, grabbing Ella and her box. I clutched it tight to my chest, not ever wanting this piece of my memory to leave me, ever. I had already lost so much of it.

"Home?" I questioned, as he began pushing me towards the door.

 "Home," he confirmed, smiling at me. I turned in my chair a bit, to stare at my solitary existence, savouring what memories I had of wasting away.

Eric leaned down and kissed my cheek softly, before he finally pushed me through the door Judy opened, into the hallway I had dreamed of escaping by.

"I'm sorry you were in there for so long," Eric apologized, his voice echoing in the empty, but clean hallway. I shrugged and smiled up at him.

"It's okay," I smiled, and it was.

~

I often think about those years in that small room. The fear the overtook me of not knowing why I was there. It's been ten years since I escaped.

The wind danced with its new found partner, my hair. I smiled softly over the beach that met our houses edge with warm arms.

My eyes drifted down to the small, sleeping bundle tucked into a blue blanket in my arms. Cody, my second beautiful son. Beside my right leg stood Mitch, holding Eric, his Father's arm.

I was happy. I got the life I wanted.

Though inside, up the stairs, down the hall and to your left, was my office. A dance studio where I teach. It is in fact, called Dancing Fate Studio.

In the draw in the corner, sits a small, red music box, and it in is a girl, who isn't rapped in that box, but free in that box.

What trapped her, set her free.

I call that fate.