SWNOVELS Chapter 9: The Prisoner
The hard, cold ground was my mattress when I stirred out of my forced slumber. I had laid on stone. I did not know how long I had “slept” for, had it been hours, days, minutes? As I slowly got up, I realized my wrists no longer had the rope ligaments. Raw red marks took the place of the line. The location of my being had been in a cave-like a prison. A large oddly shaped gap had been a skylight. Pale light penetrated moonlight into my cell. My prison room consisted of two walls of iron bars and two walls of stone.
“Hey there.” A whispered echoed against the stone walls.
To my left, in the other cell was a boy. Not much younger than myself. He was filthy. Bags were underneath his eyes. However, his filth almost concealed them. His clothes were tethered, showing parts of his shredded skin.
" Hi," I said in a weak tone.
" My name is Kaden. What do people call you?”
“Andrew.”
" You have some blood running down your nose. No, don’t tell him that!” As he laughed.
When I brought down my hand away from my nose, fresh blood was on it.
" I am not surprised about that; he was wiping some away earlier," I said.
" What village did they take you from?”
“They didn’t take me from a village. They took me from an estate owned by a man called Jim Hensworth.”
" What family do you came from?”
“I do not know. One day I woke up on somebody’s front porch. Getting drenched in the rain. I blacked out, and when I came back into existence, I was on a soft mattress. With a house maid and a man tending to me. Not too soon after that, did the man tell me that his name was Jim Hensworth. And he was the owner of the estate. I have been living there since.”
" What happened before that?”
" I cannot seem to remember.”
“Huh, that is a story to come across. I can’t say that about myself.” And he laughed once more in the same crazy manner.
" How did you get here?”
" Dylan kidnapped us on a moonless night. No, it was the day. You’re an idiotic wrench!”, as he yelled to himself. He continued, “To him, it was an easy grab. Because you made it an easy grab! When I was in his custody for a while, he told me that he burned my village. We were the sole survivors. He saved us, and now we owed him a life debt. We didn’t take well to his news. We rebelled, even had the courage to try and flee. At a point, after he retrieved us back in his custody, we resisted his great powers. You fool, this is why we are in here! We have been here since then.” He had a madness in his expression.
“Who is we?” I questioned.
“Us, me and him. Can’t you see him? It was his idea to speak with you. You didn’t hear him. He was yelling at you. Then I tried, you heard me perfectly well. No, he wasn’t rude. Were you rude? “
“No, I wasn’t.” There was no one else in his cell. Just this poor boy.
“I told you!” He assured to himself.
" You got those from him?” As I pointed to his raw shredded skin. Plus, I wanted to change the subject. And it worked.
" Indeed, I did, let us just say they are from a disagreement that we had with Dylan. For our punishment, Dylan and his minions were practicing their new incantations on us.”
“They all have the same ability of this Dylan?”
" No, Dylan is the most powerful of them all.” He said with an impression of egoism.
“Who is this Dylan?”
" He is the offspring of a monster and a demon. He is evil and cruel. How many words can you describe for a monster? He is a man with many motives.” He then said in a voice that wasn’t his, “He is great and powerful don’t resist him!”
" I see.”
" Do not tell anybody of this, but we overheard him say that he is trying to raise an army.” He whispered.
" For what?” I whispered back.
" A war that has been brewing, for many years now.” Once again, he laughed, and then continued, “He has been looking for this person for a while. He says this war will end on him.”
" Do you know what he will do to him?”
Laughing he said,” Kill him.”
" Why?”
" If you do not follow him, and adhere to his lessons of evil and pure darkness, he will destroy you. ” He mentioned with a grin. You could tell his madness came out from his exile. He continued, “You know there was another kid just like you. In that same cell, as are in now.”
“Is that so?” I quivered.
“Yup.”
“What happened to him?”
“Now, that is a question to ponder. Guards took him out one day; then I heard a long, shrieking scream coming from the entrance outside.”
" Did they kill him?”
“I can’t be certain. All I know is that not too soon after that. A guard had carried a huge bag which slung across his back. He was traveling down into the corridors beneath us. Once you go down there, you never come back.” As he deliriously laughed.
" Why have they left you in here?”
" The longer we are in solitude; the better chance we’ll join him.”, he emphasized the ‘we’ in his sentence. He then continued, “But till then, I have to hope the madness won’t creep upon me from this solitude.” I think it was a little too late for that. There was a pause in his conversation, then he continued,” Has Dylan said how long you would be in here for?”
" I think he will come back for me soon. It is only a matter of time. I do not believe that I can handle another round.” I said with desperation.
" Take it from me; it is never the same twice.”
" Thanks for those inspirational words," I said sarcastically.
“Your welcome.” And he talked with himself, mumbling and mumbling. Looking at me occasionally.
I couldn’t take any more of this conversation. The more I spoke to him, I received more dread and anxiety by the second. For that matter, I ended our little exchange of words. Look what Dylan has made him out to be. What will the outcome be with me, whenever that soon occurs. It was now the waiting game. I could not help but look at my necklace that Master Jim had given me. I told him that I would not have taken it off, and I’m glad I did not. It reminded me of home. Yes, home. The mansion that I have been living at. I missed it more now than ever. The safety that it comforted me. And the fatherly affection that Master Jim had to me. I missed Ms. Doris tending to me even if I didn’t want her around. I can picture the three of us in the drawing room having a joyful time. Laughing and enjoying each other. A tear formed in my eye, and I placed the charm back beneath my clothes right above the bare skin of my chest. The cold chain took me for surprise, but I soon got use to the temperature. I still had a part of home right by my heart.
About a half an hour passed until Dylan took me out of my cell. When he came, three of his minions accompanied him. Now Dylan was near at hand to my jail cell. When he was upon it, he peered through the bars and smiled.
He said, ” You look much better, Andrew. I have some questions to ask of you. Maybe, this time, you can answer them accurately?” I said nothing out of my fear that increased inside me. He continued, ” Cat got your tongue on this beautiful evening? It is a beautiful night indeed. Such a shame you will not enjoy it. Open his cell, securely bind him, and place the bag over his head.” While Dylan said this last sentence, he brought his attention to his accomplice that stood closest to him. At the end of his dialoguing, he casually tossed a bag to his right-hand man. Two men followed his orders. I concluded the third was a guard of the prisoners. The first man tied a rope onto my raw wrists. As he secured the rope tighter, I yelped from the burning sensation that it produced. The other follower put the musty bag over my head. They roughly guided me blindly out of the cell.
" What are you going to do with him? Don’t leave us!” Yelled Kaden.
" Be quiet! This does not concern you. Do not worry; I haven’t forgotten about you. You’re next.” Dylan emphasized. You can just imagine him smirking from his enjoyment that was about to come.