Tillie Feather – Caged

Tillie wakes to find herself shackled and locked inside a cage. She panics. She can’t remember how she got here from the party. She struggles in the shackles, then sees a key and desperately tries to get it but it is out of her reach. Looking around herself she sees a stick of some sort and wonders if she might reach the key with that. But what is that on the table? Some sort of key? Tillie uses the cane to pull the key on the table close enough for her to reach with her arm. Once in her hand, she sees it unlocks the shackles she is wearing. Maybe if she releases herself from them she will be able to reach the key to the padlocked cage. She quickly undoes the locks to the heavy shackles, still panicking in case her captor returns. Once she is out of them she stretches her leg through the front bars of the cage and manages to use her toes to pull the key towards herself. Then the key is in the padlock and she’s turning it but it won’t open. It isn’t the right key! She’s angry. Frustrated. Scared. She sits back, accepting her fate, and begins to contemplate how the shackles had felt. They were so heavy and cold but, weirdly, kind of hot as well. She picks them up and plays with them before deciding to put them back on. She begins to feel excited as she plays with the heavy restraints and the bars of her cage. She wonders whether the man who put her here is tall, strong, and handsome.