Bitesize fiction. Outside

I saw her today. She didn't recognise me, but I knew at once it was her. How could I ever forget her? We've spent so much time together, her presence is almost second-nature. I used to expect her to be there.
She didn't recognise me though. And if she did, there was nothing in her eyes to tell me she had. She looked through me, as if I weren't there. As if I were a stranger. I suppose I deserve that.
She used to sit by the window, looking out, lost in thought. She would lose track of time so much so, that she forgot that normal people aren't supposed to dream. Not like that anyway.
I looked at her looking out the window. She was too lost in thought to see me. I looked at her and knew exactly what she was thinking of. She was dreaming of a different world, one she wanted to fly to. A world I could never follow her into.
She shouldn't have dreamt of it. She shouldn't have wished it. And yet she did. Without ever saying a word of it. Yet her eyes spoke instead. Not to me, but to the world outside the window.
The window kept us safe. The outside was dangerous. Dreaming was dangerous. But she just didn't care.
One day, as she was staring outside as usual, she suddenly got up. She opened the window and jumped up on the ledge. I leaped after her, but she just turned at me and frowned. And in that look I could see all her anguish, all her sense of betrayal. So I had to let her go.
And she flew. She flew away to her world, outside of the window.
I still see her from time to time. Will she ever forgive me... for keeping her locked up?