As the jailor unhooked my handcuffs and I walked through the metal gates, the bright light flickered in my eyes, so bright that it caused my eyes to blink profusely. I tried to keep them open but it seemed impossible to do so. For a minute, everything seemed blank but then I realized there was nothing so mysterious about the bright light. In my 5 years at prison, I had gotten used to its dim light to such extent that the brightness outside struck me like a surprise.

Five years earlier, I recall standing on a similar street waiting for Ella. We had been together for four years and were in the process of completing our medical together. But the most flashbacks I was getting were of mine at the airport where all of a sudden the airport security tells me to step aside and takes me to the interrogation room. There they ask me questions regarding those little packets, which contained what looked like white powder to me, they had found in my bag. I keep insisting that they did not belong to me, and I have never seen them before and have no idea how they got there, but they were not to listen, instead they hand me over to the higher authorities, namely the police, who without any further questions put me in a dark room. The only thing the policemen tell me is that I’d be allowed to make a single phone call the following day; otherwise I’ll be allowed to speak only once we’re in the court room. The next day, I’m allowed that one phone call entitled to me, my family had passed away four years from then, in an accident that only I survived, my parents had left me with barely enough wealth to finish college, but right now I was trapped, and wealth didn’t matter. I was trapped and I did not know who to call for help. The only person I remembered at this time was Ella, I tried to ring her a few times but she wouldn’t pick up. I gave up all hopes. On the day of the hearing, I tried to tell the judge that I was innocent; I remember screaming on top of my lungs, but to no avail. The judge named me guilty and sentenced me to five years in prison. The only thing going through my mind then was that I was being convicted for a crime I didn’t commit, and there was simply nothing I could do about it.

The first two years in prison were lonesome and slow, I spent most of the time wondering who could have trapped me. Then one day, it struck me, although I refused to believe my own thoughts the first few days, but all the pieces seemed to fall in place. My destroyer was no other than..my best friend, Ella. Her boyfriend had been involved in supplying drugs for a long time. It was Ella who had persuaded me on taking this trip and further, it was her who had insisted on packing my bags and did it. The rest of my sentence I spent crying and thinking how I could have been so vulnerable.

Today, I was free, open to take my revenge. But I realized I did not want to do so. I chose to go far away to a quiet place where I could start a new life. I got a small job in an orphanage, that is where I met Mark, he literally taught me to live again, believe again. One thing I learnt from my life experience is that people can make you or break you, there’s not really a person you can completely trust.