THE LAST KEEPER

The warden had not been lying when he said there was nothing that could survive in the prison of no return. Just like its name, it only had one way in. It was built under the normal prison, or perhaps it had been there before the real prison, and the prison had been built on top of it. Sir black had been allowed a few hours to wait for his garments to dry after he cleaned them, so he could wear them. It was not as if clothes were lying around in the prison waiting for him to wear them.

Sir black had always prided himself on having his experimenting labs under the earth, but he had not been prepared for how deep the Vanka Prison went. They had been going lower and lower, sometimes in circular motion for a few minutes, and the warden had no sign of stopping.

”Not to be impatient, but where do you keep the damned prisoners. all the way down in hell?” he asked as the place got darker and darker and more stuffy as if it had never touched the sun in centuries. The rocks that surrounded the place had moss growing on them.

”Yes,” the warden answered without explaining further. His two companions were accompanying them too, and they were each carrying two flaming torches just like their leader in the front. sir black had said it as a joke, but he was starting to believe that the place was hell on earth. The man he was looking for was imprisoned ten years ago, and not even he could have survived in such a place for a year.

They kept going lower for a few minutes again, and the lower they went, the air started getting thinner and thinner. It was getting harder and harder to breathe and beyond a certain point, sir black was having trouble breathing. How could a person possibly breathe so far under the earth? King Vanka was truly ruthless. A sane person would stay away from criminal activities if this were the verdict.

”You don’t seem as passionate as before about seeing your brother,” the head warden said, putting emphasis on the word brother, and sir black had never been one to regret his decisions, but he had to fight everything in him not to run around and run back to Tagayia screaming.

”How can I leave without seeing my dear brother. I’m sure he has missed me,” sir black forced a steady tone. He, after all, treasured his life, and it was only natural that he was scared to lose it. He, however, was not about to show any sign of weakness.

After several minutes of the walk, he was panting for air. The other men seemed just fine, and he was about to swallow his pride and beg to be taken out when the bath opened into a big circular place. If it were not for the flaming touch, then he could have gone tumbling into the hollow space below.

”Be careful, it’s a long fall from up here. You and your brother might meet in hell,” the head warden said sarcastically. Why was he mad that sir black had killed his friend? It was a fair fight to either kill or be killed. so petty.

The warden flickered his light to the other side, and there was something like a ladder going down. They went down one after the other, and midway through the ladder, they broke into a corridor between the ricks before they finally found the prison. First it was the smell that hit him. the smell of rotting. The smell of human flesh rotting. The prison was circular, but the inside looked like shelves where one could only sit and never stand.

”What do they eat down here?” sir black said, wondering who brought food all the way from up there.

”Well they have a lot of meat to eat down here,” the second warden said, chuckling, and sir black was beginning to think the entire Lanka and their king were mad. It was a land of monsters, and when he and his master finally cleansed Tagayia of monsters, and his general became the ruler, he would extend his kindness to wipe out the north. I mean, enjoying killing people was better than what he was witnessing.

Sir black had used metaphors enough to know that the meat they were talking about was not a delicacy.

”Don’t tell me they eat each other,” sir black said, even himself repulsed at the idea of having to eat another human to survive, that could make his father’s actions seem like a soak in a lake on a sunny day.

”Why would you even think of such horror?” The head warden faked surprise. ”We are not monsters,” he said, but the look on his face was too familiar. Perhaps being the guardian of such a place had driven him mad.

”You know the white rats love such an environment and...” the third warden started, and sir black’s face felt blood drain from his face. He had never had such a troubling set of sentences and events since he had to sew his dead mother’s flesh together with the carcass of a donkey. raw rats? Were they making the prisoners eat raw rats to survive? What about the waters? His question was, however, answered in the next moment.

”The back of the cells is open, and they open to the freshest of underground water. They get to just stretch a hand after they eat meat to their fill.” The second warden said. If he had any doubts before, then everyone in Lanka was mad. Now, he was sure beyond a reasonable doubt that he had stepped into a mad state, and he hoped for Tagayia’s sake they did not start a war with the savages. Tagayia could win, yes, but the mayhem that could ensue could bring the world to its knees.

They made him look normal, or perhaps he fit in.

”Only eighteen prisoners are left down here. Others finished their sentences. Which one is your brother?” the head warden laughed, and sir black could just shake his head before he snapped a flaming torch from the second warden. He walked from cell to cell, looking through the cage, but all he could see behind the bars were not human anymore, but just monsters. It was strange how the body could turn out when forced to extremes. long hair, long nails, white skin, and eyes with pupils so dilated he could not see the white.

The measures the king of Lanka took were too cruel, and there was no way a man could serve ten years. He could not tell who from whom, so he just spoke the Korun tongue or Wenji. The man he was looking for spoke more than twenty languages from four states, and he just whispered then hoping someone could reply. He was in the last cell at the end of the other side when the thing behind the cages finally stared at him. yes a thing because that was no longer a human.

”Hey, are you the genius of many arts?” He repeated the question he had been repeating to all the others, and the man turned to look at him as if he had been blinded or lost half his sanity. His hand stretched to the light, or before he started banging his head against the cages and snarling like an animal. The only word he could speak was.

”Soulless!” He repeated the word a few hundred times, ignoring whatever sir black said, and Sir Black was about to leave when the man said one word in Wenji.

”Ink keeper,” he said as if he had been holding onto the world for the whole decade, and it was the only thing his tongue and brain still remembered. He then moved to the back of the cell and threw himself to the back going into the water.

”Hey, crazy, I think your brother just threw himself in the warm pool,” the head warden said, and sir black had always tried not to feel angry, but something about how the wardens spoke pissed him off to no end. He had long stopped feeling angry or phased by the monsters the world brought forth each day, but sitting in such a place for ten years, drinking where defecating, staying in the dark all the while, and dying like an animal was not a death anyone deserved. Even when he killed his father, he had done it quickly, yet this monster here tortured a man for a decade for loving secret arts.

Sir black stared at the now-empty cubicle behind the cage for a long while before he stood up. The man who had just died was a man he had looked up to, and to think his last moments were so inhumane. He finally stood up and just let the lamb fall through the rails separating the circular cages and the deep hole in front of them. The torch fell for a few seconds before it hit water.

”Hey, you might be mourning, but that touch was important,” the head waiter said.

”He was a man I looked up to,” Sir black said silently.

”Yeah whatever the wish you asked from the king has expired. Time to leave. The head warden said, turning around.

”I didn’t know he could get emotional,” the second warden said, and the three men chuckled, starting to leave. They did not even care to see if he was following. Well, it’s not like he was going to choose to remain behind willingly.

sir black followed after the three men and through the small stone-carved corridor and up the ladder before they emerged at the top.

”Wait for me,” Sir Black said, hurrying up. ”Help me up, my up,” he said in a level, calm voice. The head warden was walking at the back, and he just snickered in irritation, but turned around to help the guy.

Sir black wrapped his hand around the head warden’s arm and pulled himself up. He however, did not climb all the way up and instead used his hand yank. The others had already walked ahead into the spiraling stairs pathway between the rocks.

”What are you doing?” the warden asked, his eyes widening with horror. The ledge he was standing on was flat, and there was nowhere to hold himself on.

”Giving you a taste of hell.” sir black smiled before he yanked hard, and the man went tumbling into the darkness and fell in a small splash.

No one was going to get out of there alive. sir black thought as he stepped behind the two unsuspecting wardens with his daggers drawn. There were just too many monsters, and he could only be the only monster to live. One of them was already enough.