Every Day: Part II

He went to his desk and sat down. He stared at the marble swirls of the desk and drifted away mentally. He was tired from the eternity without sleep, but he would not sleep. He could not sleep. After some time of sitting in the dark, staring at the dark, he opened the top desk drawer and pulled out a candle. He lit with the hot, blue flame that lit all of the candles. It gave almost no light, seeming to almost draw in light rather than emit it. He stared into a flame. His eyelids were heavy and he felt his head beginning to slowly sink. He stood abruptly. He needed to get his blood flowing. He needed to wake himself up.

It happened at about the same time every routine when he would make his way through the mines, walking slowly, his hands folded neatly behind his back, inspecting, so to speak, the work of his laborers. Some of the newer laborers would stop and stare, turning back only to find that someone had greedily stolen their picking spot.

He was partially through the mine when a loud clanging sound rang repeatedly through the various halls and chambers that made up his prison fortress. He spun on his heel and walked quickly back to the main hall. A hole had opened in the ceiling and a black stone staircase had been lowered down. A figure was wandering down it—as they often did—looking back up the stairs, thinking there was no way this could be the correct staircase. He walked up to the figure. It was a woman. She was remarkably beautiful, and upon seeing him, she seemed to turn on a sort of charm.

She leaned in close to him and whispered in his ear, “So what now?”

It seemed like a rather strange way to introduce oneself, especially if the goal was to “get to know someone better.” She let out a gasp of delight as he grabbed her wrist. He walked her quickly down the prisoner’s hallway, her excited giggling fading quickly as she realized what was happening. She screamed as they passed the skeleton figure who clawed after him as they walked by, and by the time they had reached her cell, he was almost literally dragging her across the floor. She cried and screamed and she struggled to get away. He pushed her into the last open cell (there was always a last open cell) and locked the door with the skeleton key. She reached out to him, getting hold of his suit coat and pulled him close.

“Don’t worry. You’ll be released soon enough,” he said softly.

Her grip loosened and he was gone.