Her hair moved slightly in the autumn breeze. The willow trees around us whooshed and the sky above us glistened with a thousand stars. The soft grassy ground welcomed our bodies. Her eyes met mine for a split second and then disappeared. Disappeared like the willows, the stars and the sky above me. Even the midnight breeze froze and vanished. Slowly, slowly, my eyes adjusted to the darkness in the room. For a room I thought this was, I wasn't entirely sure though. The ground felt stony to my hands. I stood up from my lying position and found a wall to lean on. The wall felt damp and uneven. Were there corners? What shape is the room? These questions enveloped my mind and there was nothing that I could do to satisfy them. The room suddenly moved and I was thrust forward with it. I fell face first on the floor. Wood. How did I end up falling on wood? My eyes adjusted to the darkness, I managed to see shapes which I couldn't before. I observed that there was a chair and a desk in the middle of the room. The walls weren't stone but wood. The cracks in the walls were made by bugs. Termites.

"He's awake!"

I hear shouts from outside my room. What is happening? The door burst open as a big man walked in. The light from outside blinded me for a moment but I had just enough time to see the grin on his face. Two more silhouettes came in and the room was dark again. The room never stopped moving. Forward and backwards, forward and backwards.

"Alright boys, let's see what we've got."

A gruff voice announced. Two pairs of hands lifted me up. Somehow seeing me. They lifted me off the ground which I was sitting on and a hand landed on my chest. A gasp escaped someone and one pair of hands dropped me.

"What is it?"

The gruff voice speaks out again.

"Breasts sir, that's no man."

The other pair of hands let go of me and the party walked out. The silence deafened me but then a sound broke through. A whooshing sound somewhere beyond the wooden walls resonated through the room. The room moved at the same time as the whooshing. The mermaids sung their songs. Her sweet voice of hope filled my ears. The green hills and poppy fields came back to me and once again, I was running through the tall sun flowers, spreading my fingers to feel every petal and every leaf. She was running next to me, racing through the sea of yellow. The warm sun guided us and the wind races us both. My dress, full of dirt and yellow petals, gets caught in something. She doesn't see, she races the wind. I struggle to free myself from the trap, tugging and pulling only tangles it more. I look up, the yellow sea is now empty and she is nowhere to be seen. Without a sound, quite as a mouse, darkness surrounds me. The room rocks me back and forth and only the salty air wakes me. A window has been left open in my cell and the sea breeze is making its way through. I wake my aching body and take a look out the round window. The sea is calm, only the ship's moving disturbs it. Some salt water splashes on my face. The sun comes out and the scenery doesn't look as lonely anymore, with the light now illuminating the fish which were hidden from my eyes. Fish of all shapes and sizes swim past me, no one knowing I am here watching them, no one knowing that they have made me smile.

oox.#