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Contestant Name: Sarah D. Fawad

Topic: Prisoner

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Footsteps.
Slow, heavy, like the last of the snow falling on to the roof.
Someone was trying to announce their arrival.
Her heart thudded loudly in her chest. She dare not look up yet.
She was scared.
Maybe the footsteps would retreat.
Or change direction.
How long had it been?
How many summer skies had turned into orange hues.
How many times had she been deceived already?
No.
Noone is here to see you.
They let her down gently but she felt it like a cannon ball whirling fast in her direction, hitting her hard, leaving her gasping for air.
The footsteps continued her way.
Wait. She heard something else.
Rather she felt it.
Heaviness in the footsteps.
It felt like guilt.
She pressed a hand on one ear to listen properly.
Her heart was in her mouth now.
The footsteps stopped.
Silence.
Tick tock.
The clock comforted her with its sounds. It knew how nervous she was.
She licked her lips, they trembled.
She gripped the sides of her chair so tight her veins bulged out like little streams of water.
The footsteps continued into the room.
Someone was here to visit the lost prisoner.
A prisoner trapped in the tangled abyss of longing and waiting.
The crowd was here to witness the last wisps of air escaping, the end of an era.
A son had come to see his dying mother, at the old age home,
for the first and last time in ten years.

Total words: 247

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This is a short story entry by PLB member Sarah D. Fawad.

Send in your entries to tpwmedia@gmail.com

For more details about this contest, visit: http://plb.thepakistaniwoman.com/contest