NAOIt was hot here no matter the time of day, the air was heavy and carried with it the smell of sulfur, iron and human filth. Bare bulbs suspended by wire illuminated the room perpetually, eliminating the concept of day and night. I do not remember when they took me, it might have only been a few days or perhaps it was a few weeks. I would like to think that I had caught on to the passage of the days, marked with a bowl of meat. The meat was often stringy and unseasoned but I was always too hungry to care when it arrived. I would like to say that I miss my mum but I can barely remember her, she was often too concerned with herself and her new nightly 'friend' or the bottles of wine she poorly concealed. I was pretty sure she was dead, I heard rumors that she was murdered and that was why she never returned. It would have served her right sadly, not because I was mad at her poor choices but because even at the tender age of ten I knew better than to trust strangers.
That was the problem of course, I made the mistake of trusting a stranger. I fell for the whole, "I have a bunch of candy in the back of this carriage. Just climb inside and see. Oh! And a puppy also!" Needless to say there was no puppy and there was no candy, it was dark in there but once I entered arms reached out for me and pinned me to the carpeted floor of the carriage. A hand cupped over my mouth I was not able to scream not that any would come all the same. I was among the untouchables in Sora, not those who are considered revolting by nature but rather by their present status. Few realize how intimately these are tied, I was born into poverty to a drunkard woman who provided for me only the most meager of base needs and I never knew my father. In time I would likely emulate my mother not knowing any different, making me also a drunkard and a future whore. The assault I suffered would not be reported or even noticed. My mother was missing so when they absconded with me there was nobody to mourn me, nobody to report the incident.
I woke some time later, perhaps a few hours but it might have been nearly a day in this tiny cage. It was corroded and it smelled like piss. Next to me on my left and my right were cages just like mine with children like me. "Hello?" I would call to my left and to my right. "Would someone be so kind as to tell me where we are?" I would scoot around in my cage, my hands grasping the bars as I pressed my face against the cool metal. It felt good in comparison to the stuffy heat that filled the air. I was given no reply, only stern expressions and the rebuke of a few that came only as a single sound "SHHH!" I would try again to no avail, the few who made a sound did not even seem willing to bother to scold me any longer as the curled up on their sides facing away from me. I would reach out of my cage and attempt to reach one of the cages adjacent but my prepubescent arms were not long enough. I was able to reach the back wall against which my cage rested. The walls were white-washed stone gone drab, now yellowed with age and peeling. It looked as if someone had manually peeled away some of the paint in rough, uneven lives.
There was a man who also came in every once in awhile, if I were to guess every three days because it happened after every third meal. He was a tall, skinny man who wore tight black pants and a loose-fitting tank. His skin was pale but he had a lot of tattoos. I found the tattoos to be rather scary because I could swear that every time I blinked the inky markings would shift. Every time he came he would stop in front of a cage and he would unlock the door. The child inside would be taken, some would cry, some would scream, some would try to keep to the back of their cage and would claw at the wall as they were pulled out. I guess I now know why the paint had peeled away like it did on the back of my cage. He would simply grab the kid by the back of their neck or by their hair and drag them out with a single outstretched hand. He would usually say something I could not understand, it sounded like gibberish to me and then the kid would just fall limp in his arms but we all knew that the kid was dead. I had seen enough death in my ten years to know what it looked like and I was rather confident that the others knew as well. This was likely what they meant by 'keeping quiet,' they did not want me to draw any attention to myself or any of them for that matter. Within hours of our fellow prisoner's departure, the vacant space was filled again by another sleeping youth. The one who took them and the one who brought them were different, the people who dropped the kids off were hollow but the one who picked them up seemed to be full of... something.
It would eventually be my turn. I knew it was coming, I saw the heels of the boots the tattooed man wore stop in front of my cage thrice. The last three times he came in fact and each time he would pause but then carry on and I would silently sigh with relief. I was not living much or even living well but I was alive and I was afraid to die. Sadly, today was my day. He would stop in front of my cage and then he would bend over, making eye contact with me. I would never forget those eyes, red like some of the shinobis from Sunagakure with a strange, oddly shaped pupil and the whites of his eyes were pitch black. I was not going to cower in the back of my cage, it was a useless endeavor but I was not going to allow futility to overtake me either. I did not want to die. I was going to run. I was sure that my legs remembered how.
"You," he smiled this thin sardonic expression as he recovered a ring of keys from his pocket. You will do quite nicely," he pointed a painted fingernail in the direction of the terrified youth. The key was lunged inside of the lock and the tumblers rolled as the bar clicked back. I barged into the door with my shoulder the best I could which ended up no better than a messy tumble but the door was OPEN. I scrambled to my feet but my legs were too weak to stand and I feel over. He grabbed me by my hair and pulled me back.
"No!" I screamed as my hands flailed about me and attempted to swat him away. He easily overpowered me without any effort.
"You still have some fight in you. Good." He announced, the pitch of his voice elevated with his assessment. In a single controlled motion he smashed me into the concrete floor. I could feel my shoulder pop and give way, I could feel the painful crack of my wrist as I tried to ineffectively brace myself against this fall. Writhing and sobbing, his shadow loomed over me. He made no apologies, only the mention of being 'late.' Apparently even monsters were punctual. I tried to crawl away, blood trailed behind me that came from who knows where but I would never get through the door. "Oh the will to live, it is a beautiful thing. Almost as awesome as untapped potential but not nearly as delicious." I would then feel pain, something cut into me from behind leaving the stale, dank world I knew in a burst of bright lights before everything went black.
30 min in and out. S Rank. Not intended to be an RP Thread but if it is, this would be an EVENT Thread.