'A famous philosopher once said:
"The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live – moreover, the only one."
But if I'd known that death wasn't actually the end, I'd have killed myself much sooner'
Kai sighed at the missed opportunity, sulking for a moment before paying attention to his surroundings once more.
He was trapped in a hardened stone cell, with only a line of iron bars embedded in the floor before him breaking the stone's grip. From what he could tell, the only way in and out of this confined space was the metallic frame that was blocked with a solid slab of steel with a circular hole made in the center, a sort of keyhole most likely.
Once first arriving in this place, the first thing he thought to do was examine his body, which felt like the natural choice given all the agony he went through when making a simple motion.
Spending some time looking down at himself in the corner of his cell, he soon realized his body was not in good shape judging by his protruding ribcage, alongside multiple bruises running along his chest, signs of clear abuse. Touching his face, he felt the outline of his cheekbones poking dangerously through his skin.
After a few moments of deliberating, his gaze going unfocused as his thoughts grew crowded, he finally exhaled.
'The most likely situation to have happened was that I'd been beaten so hard, I'd suffered some kind of head trauma causing me to forget my memories of being here.'
He bit his fingernail, however, doubting his own conclusion despite it being the most probable, He was quite sure of himself when he pulled the trigger on the pistol, remembering every moment of that crystal clear.
'I mean, how does one forget how they killed themselves.'
He sighed as his body shook from standing up too long as he collapsed to the floor like a pile of bones, letting out a bitter laugh.
'Maybe I'm just mad… No scratch that, I'm not mad, I'm suicidal, there's a difference.' Kai huffed to himself.
Maybe he wasn't mad yet, but he was most certainly going to be so if he wasn't given any answers soon.
The sudden clang snapped Kai out of his thoughts as a tray slid through a narrow slit in the metallic door that was shut a second later. Kai observed the man who walked passed through the iron bars, too unsure of his situation to try and say anything.
His throat ran dry the second he took in the enormous features of the man. He was quite literally built like a movie villain, with muscles growing in his muscles, his arms alone were practically the size of Kai's entire body! He seemed as insurmountable as a mountain.
His facial features were covered by an unusual mask, it was purely featureless, and covered the entirety of his face leaving no room for speculation on his ethnicity or any other information.
However, despite the fear of being snapped like a twig in half by such a mammoth, what drew his attention the most was what hung along his waist, strapped tight into his person.
It was a sword?
'Is he into some kind of role playing?'
Kai stuck himself to the corner like a rat till the man was out of eyeshot before Kai tread cautiously forward, studying the steel door as he realized there were a small pair of hinges on the bottom, which were most likely a small opening in the door, only accessible from the other side.
Kai fiddled with the hinges, hoping he might be able to push it open, alas, it did not budge, not that Kai really expected it to.
Turning his attention away from the door, he studied the tray that was shoved through.
His face twitched, staring at the slop that had been served. a crusty, half-molded lump of bread and a rusted metal mug filled with a kind of murky liquid.
'Was this supposed to be my meal?'
He may not have always eaten the healthiest foods in his life, but he was for sure not one to have stooped this low.
Kai gripped the iron bars, using them to hoist himself up as he strained his body to catch a glimpse of what may be outside of his room. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw it, another row of iron bars, identical to his, except they were stretching down a long corridor.
He dragged his shackles away, opting to rest in the corner when a loud gurgle erupted from his body, his face contorted as he looked towards the tray on the floor, clutching his bony abdomen.
Reluctantly, he began to devour the mush, shoving it down his throat before he was given the misfortune of tasting it. His face cringed the more he swallowed, till he stuffed the rest of the bread into his mouth, grabbing the mug and washing it down with the water.
The meal offered little reprieve as his stomach still growled with hunger. Yet, Kai's face shifted back into neutral as his gaze grew unfocused once more, as he dove into his thoughts. His questions only grew the more time he spent here.
'It's easy to narrow down who the man in the mask was, this place is some kind of prison and there are others here, and he's likely a guard here, probably not the only one'
The thought of there being many others more like that man, was shuddering to say the least. As for the sword tied to his waist…
'I guess, they didn't have the funding for guns?'
Kai exhaled slowly, the weight of unanswered questions pressing heavier with each passing moment. Frustration gnawed at him, sharp and unyielding.
****
Hours of doing absolutely nothing might be enough to drive the average person mad, but Kai was far from normal, which is why it was far worse for him. Despite the pain radiating through his entire body, he didn't mind it much, the intense desire for entertainment of any source trumping the ache of his abused body.
'Maybe, I should consider choking-'
His eyes widened as a sudden commotion entered his earshot. Starved for some kind of distraction, he rushed to the bars, gripping them tightly as he struggled to direct his gaze towards the source of the noise. And he wasn't the only one. It seemed all of the prisoners here- at the very least, most of them- Had come to the door, trying hard to witness whatever was going on.
Kai was more shocked than he'd be willing to admit, that he hadn't seen the amount of prisoners around him, all of them gripping the bars of their prisons as they watched.
'Maybe this is hell, after all…though, I suppose that would hardly change anything anyway.'
It wasn't only the amount of prisoners locked in here with him that Kai found interesting, it was the diversity. Granted Kai's visibility in this strained environment was not ideal, but even so, he was able to make out the differences between those in his line of sight. Some were elders, their wrinkled faces drained of life, others were younger, like freshly baked adults that had just passed their teens, and a few more clearly matured.
Yet, the variations did not stop at age but extended into ethnicity with those of Asian descent and others of a caucasian lineage]
Shaking his head from needless thoughts, Kai zoomed in on the commotion, eager for answers, or at least more questions to distract him from his boredom.
The guard, likely the one I'd seen earlier, was standing alongside a second guard, one in similar attire, except in contrast to the former, he, while similarly muscular, seemed stretched out much more vertically, giving him a leaner physique.
'Like a giraffe and a gorilla, side by side,' Kai mused.
They both however still adorned the same featureless mask to cover their features, and yet again, prompting a frown to form on Kai's face, a similar sword strapped alongside their waist.
The gorilla pulled out a set of keys, before inserting them into the fortified door of one of the cells along the right side of the corridor.
Kai winced slightly, as the door screeched across the floor, before both custodians went inside, falling outside of my range. For a moment, a stillness descended, Kai waited a minute longer, waiting with anticipation, yet nothing occurred. Kai, feeling slightly disappointed, moved turn till a sudden shriek echoed across the hall.
His attention, spurred by the scream, watched diligently as the two men forcefully restrained the woman as she struggled to break free, as they dragged her by the shackles across the pavement. Her screams roared through her throat as she pleaded for help.
Getting annoyed with her wails, one of the guards, the tall one, took out a cloth from his pocket as he forced open her jaw, ignoring her cries of pain from the force, and stuffed it in there to block her voice as they dragged her away. At this point, the other captured turned away, unwilling to watch this.
Kai observed intently as they took her away, looming closer and closer till they passed by my own cell, and his eyes met hers. The fear and anguish drowned them as they pleaded for salvation, tears flooding through them.
He stared at them with his neutral expression, not breaking his gaze from them for a moment till they left his range of vision entirely. A loud skittering of machinery could be heard in the distance till even that died out and the hall descended into silence again.
Frozen in his position, staring keenly at the spot where the woman had been dragged through in front of his cell, Kai clutched his temple.
'Well… At least that was something.'
Feeling his boredom somewhat satiated, he sat down quietly letting his gaze grow unfocused once more.