It was the strangest thing to be locked inside a prison of one's own making, and to not realize it until it was too late. The builder worked alone, constructing one room after another. It started out well. There were a few mistakes, but everyone makes mistakes.
The strangeness happened when the builder started getting confused. He noticed his own confusion, but the walls were going up as normal and so he figured he was fine. However, the builder could see only the wall in front of him, one at a time. Those who came around from time to time noticed that the walls were assuming the shape of smaller and smaller rooms, each with fewer windows and doors than the one before.
At last the builder stopped. He looked to all sides and realized he could build no more walls. He had bricked himself into a room with no exit. His only luck was that he realized this before placing the last brick. This gave him an opening through which he could call for help.
People did come around, but they didn't have much sympathy for the builder.
"We saw you build this prison around yourself." they said. "Isn't this what you wanted?"
"I can only see one wall at a time." said the builder. "I couldn't see the entire structure at once. I didn't realize..."
"We need you out here. We can help you, but only if you choose to help yourself. You have to want to come out."
"I do. I wouldn't have called for you if I didn't. But I can't get out."
"This is your prison of your own construction. If you wanted to leave, you would leave. If you wanted to be out here with the rest of us, you would not have built this monstrosity to begin with. Who knows, maybe deep down you wanted to isolate yourself from everyone else."
The builder could understand what they were thinking. Just as he could only see a little bit of what he was building at any one time, they only saw him going about his work when they visited.
All they saw was him trapping himself in his room and now he was asking for their help? Was he simply unwilling to accept responsibility? Or was he up to something more sinsister, a trap of some kind intended to lure them into his world, where he had control and he could manipulate people to serve his purpose? The builder decided it was best to remind them of what kind of person he was.
"Haven't all of you been stuck in your own prisons?" he said. "Haven't I pulled you out of the water or the car crash? Haven't I cared for you when you were sick?"
"Those weren't traps." they said. "Those were accidents. That is the difference. You made this thing."
"But... you're a swimmer and you're a racer. You also chose to do something that lead to your tragedies. I'm a builder. That is what I do, but that doesn't make me anymore immune to mistakes as any of you."
"Our accidents came from a single mistake. You spent years constructing this."
"I didn't understand what was happening until it was done."
"Perhaps you should have choosen some other profession if you are such a poor builder."
"I would have, had I known this was going to happen."
The others only shook their heads and walked away. He couldn't exactly blame them. The builder searched for a weak spot in his construction. He found one and pulled some bricks away, revealing another room. He climbed into that room and started on another wall. The builder went on and on like this for years, wandering about in his own labrynth and hoping he could escape just as he'd become imprisoned, one brick at a time.
