The Maggot in the Apple — Part III

Chapter 4: Helpless

The rugged floor I sit on is stone cold. I look around the dark cell I’m in with a shiver. The four walls and the ceiling seem to be closing in on me, making it hard for me to breath. Cracked with moisture, they host a huge mass of algae, that paints the concrete in the form of a zebra’s stripes. The air enclosed by the room feels damp, as it soaks the wetness off the walls. I take a deep breath of the still air, and smell a tinge of iron in it. I sigh, as I look towards the source of the odour. The boy is on the ground in a half-dried puddle of his own blood. He is illuminated by the dim light coming from the corridor, which in contrast to the darkness of the cell, is like starlight in a new moon sky. I scorn at him, I never wanted to look at his face ever again. But I can’t help but notice that his nose has completely changed its configuration, which I determined as the origin of all the blood he was lying in ever since he got chucked in here by a burly man about half an hour ago.

Suddenly he groans, like a zombie coming back to life, breaking the silence that lasted for so very long. He lay writhing on the floor for a good five minutes. I continue to stay in my place as he then looks around through his squinted eyes, and finally lays them upon me. I see them open wide in guilt as he notices my presence. I give him no reaction whatsoever. The cell door abruptly opens, and the same burly man that threw him in this room grabs him by the throat and drags him away. The victim beats at the vice like grip ferociously, but it doesn’t seem to have much of an effect. It takes only about two seconds for them to reach the corridor outside, but the boy’s face is already blue with the lack of oxygen. I catch his startled eyes upon me, within which I could sense his helplessness, just before the man’s long stride carries both of them out of view. I continue to stare at the place he disappeared for some time, as another man locks the door shut with a screeching creak. The shadow of the door’s steel bars return to their place on the floor. He deserves what’s going to happen to him next. He should probably suffer more for what he did then, for what he did to me.

I stretch my legs out and lean my back against the wall wholly, the back of my head resting on the wall after a weak thud. I stare up at the ceiling, and find a video of a scene playing on it from my mind’s projector, the scene of betrayal, every frame exactly the same as how it happened then. As it plays on, I see that boy’s back turned to me, getting smaller and smaller, his tattered rugs fluttering behind him in the wind as he runs away through the alley in the moonlight. I see myself stretch my hand out after him from the ground, opening my mouth to call to him, but my voice doesn’t seem to work. The contents of the garbage can I had tripped over lay sprawled on the ground right by me. With my ankle and knee paralysing me with pain, something triggers me to turn my head around slowly, shaking it in despair. A man behind me bends over me… I shut my eyes tightly, the scar on my temple throbbing slightly from doing so, in an attempt to stop my memory right there. The scene dissolves itself into the depths of my brain. I open my eyes again to see the ceiling a blank, rotten beige. He had left me helpless on the ground that time, and he didn’t even turn back once. I wince at the pain developing in my heart, the pain from remembering the only friend I knew in this hell-hole ditching me in it. In momentary anger, I hurl my fist towards the wall, and hit it square with my knuckles. But the pain I feel is nothing compared to what my body has endured ever since I was brought to this place. Coming to my senses again, I inspect my fist. There aren’t any bruises anywhere, except for a small cut between the index and middle fingers. Looks like I don’t even have the strength to hurt myself. I then look down at my right ankle. It is still slightly swollen from twisting it over the unprecedented garbage bag, and the knee of the same leg that I fell on smarts sharply.

I then notice a sound gradually becoming louder and louder from the corridor. It’s the pit-pat of footsteps, along with the constant scratching of someone being dragged on the floor. I finally see the source of the noise. It’s the man who had previously dragged my cellmate away, and the cellmate himself, blindfolded. The man throws the boy onto the same spot he was chucked to before. Slowly then, he turns menacingly towards me. As he takes a step towards me, the boy’s hand shoots out and grabs the man’s ankle. The blindfold he had worn is now in grasped in his other hand, and his bloodshot eyes are open wide in terror. It looks like he is trying to prevent the man from reaching me. But the brute casually kicks the hand away, making the boy only able to extend his hand out after him. Then I see it. I look at the palm of the outstretched hand, and gasp in horror and repulsion, knowing only now what fate awaits me. I shrink to the wall as the man lumbers towards me. He reaches out to grab my hair and proceeds to drag me out through the doorway.

Chapter 5: Blind

Darkness. Pitch blackness. Not a single ray of light could enter my eyes through the blindfold over them. I shake my head a little in discomfort, feeling the fabric tied a bit too tightly over it. I try to move from my place, but it seems I’m bound tightly to a chair by my arms and legs with what feels like jute rope. The chair feels wooden. It creaks softly with every little movement, and it’s unpolished surface pricks the skin on my back through the thin shirt I’m wearing. I find my breathing to be irregular. My throat hurts severely every time my windpipe expands and contracts while breathing. That burly man had done a number on my throat, when he dragged me by the neck all the way from my cell to this place. My limbs burn from being hauled across the uneven terrain. But this is amplified by the intense heat I feel somewhere off to my left. From the same direction comes a high pitch whine of something electrical. I figure it must be an incandescent bulb aimed directly at me. But other than that, there is not a single noise in the room I’m seated in. I couldn’t take in much of the surroundings as I was dragged in here, choking to death. By the time I realised it, I was thrown onto this chair, bound to it and blindfolded. The air in the room is fervid and unsettling. My nose is still pulsating with pain, which in fact became much worse after I was used to sweep the corridors.

I feel a drop of sweat roll down my chin and drip onto my lap. After what must’ve been an eternity, the environment finally breaks what’s left of my inner calm. My mind delves into anxiety. I become restless and start to tug at the bonds, but stop immediately to the pain arising from straining my neck. I feel like crying. I never asked to come here to this nightmare. Why did it have to be Evelynn and I who got into this awful plight? Why us? Then I think of all the other children toiling away in their cells, and the answer to my incessant questions appears before me. No reason. By chance, we were abducted by sick minded criminals who happened to stumble upon us, all alone by a lake on a rainy day. They brought us here just to fulfill their revolting cravings with our unnerving distress. I let my body slack, giving up hope on escape. I feel the bottom of the linen over my eyes moisten with my tears, waiting for what was coming next.

After sometime, I hear the creaking of a door a bit off to my right. The sound of footsteps reverberate through the room, followed by the thump of the door closing. I hear the scuffle of a jacket, and then the sound of cloth hitting the floor. It’s all quiet after that. Suddenly the footsteps start again. I hear them coming closer and closer, to just behind where I was sitting. I tense up, anticipating a hit to my head, but the footsteps continue on, fading away to my left. I let a sigh of momentary relief. The footsteps stop abruptly, and I hear the sound of a switch being flicked. With that, the intense heat that was burning me up vanished, and I embraced the cold willingly along with the deafening silence. But then I hear another switch flicking, and a few seconds later, a buzz of static from what may be a tube light fills the room. While the static of the struggling lamp goes on, the footsteps seem to move to a point in front of me, but a bit away. Here I hear the opening of a drawer. But along with the racket of wood against wood, I hear another demoralising sound, that of steel ringing. I hear the drawer shut and then the clanging of steel approaching me along with the footsteps. I shake in horror, as the only steel that one carries around here hurt very, very much. The person seems to be carrying the steel in a tray, and I feel him set it on my lap. Almost simultaneously, I twitch to the feel of a hand clutching my face. It covers my mouth and nails dig deep into my cheeks. The smell of filth and blood coming off of it nauseates me. I feel it turn my head around my neck, each twist sending waves of pain to my neck and nose. Then the hand loosens its grip, and is taken off me completely. I start to gasp in disquiet, but it only becomes worse when I hear the resonance of metal coming off my lap, as whoever was in front of me took an object out of the tray. Then I feel something cold and sharp right under my chin. I stop my gasping and my body goes rigid in fear. Under my eyelids, my eyes are moving rapidly, astonished by the sudden turn of events. Please don’t kill me, please! After what seems like forever, the object is taken off my throat, and the choking sensation ceases. But I’m still in unease as I hear the guy in front of me chuck whatever he has in his hand back into the tray with a crash. What is he going to do next? I’m rewarded with the sound of something else being taken out of the tray…

I wake up to a searing pain coming from my left palm, and find myself being dragged on the floor by my shirt. The last thing I remember is something piercing my hand over and over, and I concur that I must’ve blacked out from the pain it caused. My hand hurts unbearably, and it almost makes me forget about my throat and nose. The blindfold is still on me. Suddenly I find myself soaring through the air, and I land hard on my back. With this, the blindfold comes loose, and with the return of my vision, I gather my bearings. The light is dim, but I make out I’m back in my cell. I turn around, and find Evelynn shrinking to a wall, as a man advances slowly to her. A jarring thought races through my head, They’re going to do exactly what they did to me on her. I look up at the man’s back, and I see something shine in the light in his back pocket. It’s a knife. I shoot my hand out trying to grab the knife, but I only manage to knock it out. Not able to get a hold of the knife, I grab the man’s ankles. But he casually kicks my hand away, grabs Evelynn by her short cut hair, and rushes out of the cell, locking the door behind him. As I wonder what Evelynn is going through, I lay my eyes on the knife on the floor. It was the knife that I had previously removed from the man’s pocket. He hadn’t noticed. Quickly I cover the knife within the folds of my rags, and look towards the cell door to check if anyone was watching. Being in the clear, I manage to inspect my hand, but I wish I didn’t. As I look at it, my heart is filled with anguish as I read what’s carved into my hand… Slave.

Chapter 6: Betrayal

He was all alone when he entered our cell. He stood by the open door for a good while, with the same expression on his crooked face that he had on days he would leave us more miserable than usual. His gaze shifted back and forth between the corners opposite the door, which Evelynn and I had occupied. He scratched the bald spot on the center of his head, thinking about who he was going to toy with that day. I looked over to Evelynn on my left. She was quaking in fear, and her grey eyes were looking around for solace. I couldn’t blame her, it was my turn the previous day. But I couldn’t provide her the comfort she sought either. The last time I had resisted… I shook my head trying to get the memory off my head. My back was still stinging from that time. It was pointless. There was no escaping the pain. The man seemed to have come to a decision, and his crooked face contorted into an evil sneer. As he moved slowly towards Evelynn, only one thing was going on in my head, an image of that sneer. That sneer… He was ready to pleasure himself with our misery, to force us into hard work that tore our limbs apart. It had triggered me. For how much longer were we going to succumb to their wishes? My body tensed up with anger. Without thinking I launched myself at him, all the way from my corner of the room. Suddenly hearing the commotion I made, he turned around. But he must have regretted it immediately. The crown of my head made solid contact with his mouth. He doubled back in anguish and I wasted no time in getting Evelynn to her feet and bolting out the open door.

I’d never run so hard in my whole life, and I’d never run while towing someone along with me either. The cell doors whizzed past me as I ran through the murky corridor, each person behind them alert with surprise. I turned my head around to grasp the situation I was in. Right behind me was Evelynn. My hand was clutched on to hers, and I was trying my best to keep her in the same pace as mine. I looked past her, down the corridor at our cell. The massive rusted gate was wide open, and from behind it, that man appeared, covering his mouth and bending over. Crimson blood was dripping steadily through his fingers. It must have hurt a lot. I looked back at Evelynn’s worried face. It held an expression of reluctance and uncertainty. But I had no time to console her. We were running for our lives. Enough was enough. We were going to climb out of that pit of depression right then and there, and escape for good. I turned back to the path in front of me. At first, dragging Evelynn was hard, it was like she was trying to resist me, not sure of what I was making her do. But as she warmed up to the idea of escaping, the rhythm of her feet started to match that of mine, and I could release my grasp on her arm.

Light, dark, light, dark… The series of ceiling lights overhead illuminated the corridors poorly, creating yellow and black spots on the floor. We ran so fast that my head spun from the alternating bright and black. It wouldn’t have been long before that man would have alerted everyone else in the area, we needed to be quick. The whole place was a maze of corridors. But I knew all the routes like the parts of my body. The torture in each room I was taken to had singed itself on every part of my physique, in the form of scars and burns. Those were things and places I could never forget. There was only one place I had never been in, and that was exactly where we needed to head to… We burst out through the exit and the smell of fresh air tingled my nose. The whole area was unguarded. They never must have anticipated anyone breaking out. It was dark outside, the only light was shining from the generous crescent moon. I hadn’t seen the moon in forever. We looked back at our building of captivity, an old, abandoned prison, just as a flash of lightning ripped through the air. It was moderately tall, but expanded forth into a vast area. The texture of the soil under my bare feet felt alien, and so did the pellets of water that started to fall from the sky along with the crackle of thunder. But we couldn’t stop there, we weren’t safe yet. We pushed ourselves further away from the prison to the sound of rushing footsteps. We ran and ran and ran, and made our way mindlessly to an alley way. We were tired, breathless, and the path in front of us seemed to narrow down to a point. But we pressed on and on until…

Time slowed down. The sound of metal crashing to the floor echoed through my ears multiple times. I stopped to turn around, sensing each droplet of water tickle my skin with cold. I found Evelynn falling to floor, and a garbage can flying through the air. Both the can and Evelynn landed hard on the alley, and the sound of the fall reverberated through. Water puddled on the floor rose up slowly in a thin film, splashing against the can and her body. Her face slowly changed into a wince. I then looked at her ankle. I could see it swell up with every second passing by, like a croaking frog’s throat. I took a step forward to help, but something down the path caught my eye. The glint of steel, followed by a muscled arm appeared out of the darkness, stopping me in my tracks. I looked back down at Evelynn. Her eyes were wide open, screaming for help. But I couldn’t make another step. My mind became clouded. I couldn’t think clearly, but the one thing I knew was that if I tried helping her, the advancing blade would be at my throat in a flash. The flow of time sped up to normal again. I saw her mouth open slightly just as I turned around and ran, without looking back even once. I thought the sound of chasing footsteps would have stopped, but they only seemed to get louder and louder. A garbage can along the way caught my eye, and I quickly hid behind it. Concealed from foreign vision, but thoroughly unsettled, I began to understand what I had done. I felt my throat choke with a sob. She would never forgive me for leaving her behind. I wasn’t even sure if I’d ever see her again. As the rain receded, I felt my heart sink into an abyss of heavy regret. I’m sorry Evelynn… I’m sorry…

This article was written for Festember: The Renaissance by Tejas Harirajan Radhakrishnan.