What does it matter

"But what does it matter" she whispered staring out at the world.

***

The wind was calm and the sun gentle on that seemingly ordinary Monday afternoon. The warm-hued rays of the sun smiled down at Sophie through the barred windows. Shining through the darkness of the cell, the light reached out touching the edge of Sophie's hand and wrapping itself around her like a warmth she could carry.

She stood, steadily observing the prisons courtyard, vision obstructed by the perfectly uniformed steel cage.

She wondered how many like her looked through its silver. How many hands held onto the bars, hoping to escape.

She wasn't escaping though. She was confessing.

Sophie reached her hands out to touch the bars only to feel something cling to her hands. Pieces of silver grabbed on to her palms, the other flecks falling to the floor. She watched, particularly focused, as one piece slowly drifted down, swaying like a feather in the wind.

The steel cages looked strong and pristine but were deteriorating, empty on the inside, and where many could not see, breaking apart on the outside.

***

A few hours earlier Sophie had been in another dark interrogation room of the Gestapo officers, having been tried for high treason against the state.

She smiled.

Treason: to betray one's nation. Ironic isn't it, that the truth she served was seen as treason and the treason they served was seen as truth.

She was made aware of someone coming towards her cell from the movement outside of her cell but she didn't turn her head towards the sound.

The jostling sound of clanging keys was the only noise the could be heard.

After what had been more than efficenies time and much fumbling with the keys, the bars opened and squeeking boots walked it, each step echoing around the walls of the cell.

Someone cleared their voice and hissed out,

"You have forfeitted your honour as citizens forever. It has been done"

She smiled as the sun continued to warmly gaze down at her.

"Did you not hear, it has been done" the voice spat out.

There was a pause in the air and Sophie gently breathed out,

"But what does it matter"

There was quite in the cell as Sophie elegantly moved from her spot, catching the first glimpse of the person in front of her.

She looked at his uniform: perfectly pressed, sharp edges and pristine. She wondered how much like the bars this uniform, this person was - strong and pristine on the outside but deterioting, just like their empty morals, on the inside.

***

As she walked outside the prison cell to another she mused, who would of thought that life would lead her here one day.

Life is interesting, it takes you to places you never thought you would go, testing the choices you make each step of the way, an impartial observer. An impartial observer that congratulates you when you do what is right even if the result of your action does not necessarily align with the happy ideal of victory.

So as Sophie walked towards her beggining, she prayed. Not to be freed, she was already free but for others to be free.

On her way she caught a glimpse of the slaughterhouse outside of the prison.

She saw the butcher reaching out towards a calf, holding it still.

She moved closer the room.

The butcher put the calf in place.

They opened the door and put Sophie in position.

The butcher raised the blade asked the calf of it's last words.

They prepared theirs and asked Sophie of hers.

Sophie looked around her, saw the peeling steel windows and the empty walls and spoke,

"Such a fine sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred into action? "

There was quite for a moment and then the butcher struck the blade.

The executioner pulled the guillotine.

Done.

Somewhere, birds flew up in the air.

That is how quickly one enters and leaves the world but what counts is what one fights for.

She lived the moment she came to die.

Yet, what does it matter if thousands are awakened and stirred into action.