The walls were blue; a cold color.

It detained me,

behind them,

a box,

a cold womb.

The water they gave me,

the blurry faces with low voices,

was cold and my insides,

the only warmth,

chattered.

Then men with blurry faces and hairy legs lean into my face every time they bring me bread.

If I'm lucky,

a piece of cheese,

some day-old chicken nuggets,

a half-rotten apple or banana.

I can see their faces from my good eye,

the one that still sees

though blurry.

The other eye,

beaten one too many times.

They laugh at me,

my humiliation,

my slightly swollen stomach,

the child of the hairier one,

though I'm not sure.

I tell them of the baby,

the dangers I know will happen as they grab me up by the wrists and take me to a white cot.

It is my hell.

I would rather burn to death than endure the pushing and shoving,

the slimy spit on my face.

The humiliation of the heat in my body.

Several spasms of shock hit me.

The floor was gray.

It held me down as I came to.

It was heavier than gravity.

My womb,

a stone,

a clump of iron.

Blood on my legs,

my dark brown rag dress torn,

legs weak.

My body was warm,

hot,

cold,

freezing.

I rolled over to see the gray blur of a ceiling with the white milky blur of the one lightbulb in my cell.

Why am I here,

I wondered.

I can remember happy times in a pink flowery blur.

My half-blind eye blinked.

A sound hit me like an explosion.

Keys clanked frantically,

two figures loomed over me.

I saw a hairy face.

Panic clawed at my heart and I scrambled backward,

pain throbbed in my torso.

The unhairy figure bent down.

Offered a hand.

A small white hand.

"We are the police. You're in safe hands now, Carol," she said,

authority and kindness in her voice.

The sky was blue.

Weight lifted my shoulders.

Invisible chains unlocked.

Snow covered the ground.

Red and blue lights howled me to the safe warm insides of the ambulance.

My shaking body relaxed in the hands of medical emergency staff.

I turn my head to see my kidnappers hauled away.

I finally cry.

Relief filling my heart.

The young heart of only seventeen.