The Beast and The Brain.

The breeze is what first awakened me, I turned over, but that was it. I was awake, the monotonous sound of dripping water in a far off corner ground into my mind. I opened my eyes. The stone walls and ceiling offered little comfort, I wanted to go to back to sleep, I wanted to dream, to get escape. I sat up, the thin straw mattress shifted underneath me and the chains on the walls creaked in protest against the bolts that held them there. I swung my feet over the side of my bed and looked out the slit of a window. It was far too small for anyone to fit through, though it didn’t matter, I was too far up to climb down the smooth walls of the tower anyway.

I was a prisoner. The shackle around my ankle and the fact that I was inside of a guarded cell could tell anyone that much. I stood up and walked to the window and peered out, the sky was clear blue, and the breeze was cool. It was always cool this high up. The small circular cell offered little entertainment; I had a small wooden chair with a small table with a single candle. One book lay on the surface for me to entertain myself with. One book a month, even that was a luxury.

The food was no better, all the nutrients a person needed to survive was mixed together in a pasty white slop and was served twice a day. I took my eyes off the desk and they wandered to the heavy steel door, then I turned and looked out the window once more. I would die in this place. I was sure of it. I wasn’t here because my family was rich, though they were, I wasn’t because they wanted money, though I’m sure they wouldn’t turn it down, it was because I was….something else. Something…different.

On this island, I was more than just different, I was dangerous, and they treated me like a rabiddog. I had left the cell twice, even then i was in chains and blindfolded. I had been here for two years. Two years of my life had been spent wasting away in this living hellhole but the fact was I would probably spend the rest of my life here.

I rested my head against the cool stone and looked down to the courtyard bellow. This prison was on an island away from the mainland. The island itself was a few miles long; the prison was just a small part of it. Other villages and ports were scattered along the coast, if only I could find a way to escape to one of them.

The courtyards around the prison were large, stables, kitchens, servants’ buildings, an armory; they were all separate buildings. The walls around the prison itself towered twenty feet high and twelve feet thick, there was only one main gate into the place and it remained closed. Watchtowers were stationed every forty feet, and guards patrolled the top of the walls, all were armored and armed with knives, a crossbow, and a sharp sword. Not only that, but they knew how to use them. But none of that mattered, if I could just get outside these walls, get the chains off, they wouldn’t stand a chance, I would clear the walls and gate with a simple stroke.

The bolt on the steel door slid out of place behind me, I turned. An armored captain and his guard stepped into the room and stopped to examine me. The men behind their captain held their crossbows ready, the bolts pointed at me menacingly. The captain looked bored, “On your stomach. Hands out in front of you. No tricks or they shoot.” I dropped down to my knees, rested on my stomach, and put my hands out in front of me. Three separate guards came forward with their chains and shackles on their shoulders.

They grabbed my hands pulled them roughly behind my back shackled them together. They then pulled my arms up in such a way that my hands were between my shoulder blades, they then grabbed a fistful of my hair and wrapped chains around my entire torso. To finish it off, they placed a blindfold over my head and then lifted me to my feet. There was no reason for their roughness; I wasn’t fighting at the moment. I never got a chance to, but they enjoyed the cruel treatment of the prisoners, it gave them something to do.

I walked blindly between two men that guided me, if they chose it they could lead me off a cliff and I wouldn’t have had a clue. I stumbled down the steps blindly and nearly fell forward but one of the men grabbed my shoulder. I grunted as a man hit me in the stomach, “Pick up your feet.”

This was the third time I had been taken from my cell without an explanation. I had heard rumors of experiments being done to some prisoners. I was considered too dangerous to be let out of my cage, even to be experimented on. Others were not so lucky; I had seen them carry bodies from the prison, never to be seen or heard of again. They were the lucky ones. I shuddered under the blindfold. We walked up the stairs; the men nearly carried me up them. We climbed for what seemed like hours, and then finally we stopped. I heard a bolt slide out of place and I was pushed forward. I hit the ground, leaving me breathless as they worked at taking off the chains.

“Move and you die.” The captain said again, the chains came off, as well as the shackles around my wrists, then the blindfold was removed, and I could see. I was in a new cell, almost identical to the one I had just been in. The door closed with a loud, thud behind me and I lifted myself from the floor and rubbed the knot from my shoulder. It was painful the way they bound my hands against my back, but I supposed that was the point. I went to the window to see my new view. The shackle around my ankle connected to a chain, which, in turn, was connected to a metal ring that was embedded in the stone in the center of the floor. So even if they left my door wide open, I still wouldn’t be able to leave; the chain only reached around the length of my room.

The view was different; I was now looking over the stables and pastures below. At least this would entertain me more than the armory and kitchen. I noticed my window was a little wider, but not that it mattered. It was still very small; I wouldn’t be able to fit through it, and I still wouldn’t be able to climb down.

I watched the horses graze and race with each other until the sun went down, and then they were called inside to their warm stalls where grain would be waiting for them. I sighed and looked out to the forest beyond. The sunset sent streaks of red, orange, and yellow across the sky, and for a moment I imagined myself away from this place. The small steel shudder at the bottom of the steel door slid open and my bowl of wonderful white slop with a spoon was set on the floor. I bent down, picked it up, then sat at the small table. I almost found myself wishing I had horse grain instead.

When I finished I put the bowl back in front of the sliding door, someone would come by later to pick it up. I laid down on the mattress. This was my life; this was what I had done for the last two years since I had been taken. Nothing exciting happened, I didn’t do anything, I was simply…living.

The darkness slowly crept into the room to claim the last of the light and the breeze picked up, luckily, it was blowing away from my window, not at it. I pulled the thin rough blanket up around me and let out a sigh. This was my life now; this was the life of Asher Coal. I closed my eyes, what a sad life.