Where is Will Hicks?

Day 1

They drag you from the cart and into a small stone building. You are quickly hauled down some stairs and into a basement where they throw you into a small stone cell. There are no comforts, not even some straw on the floor, although there is a drain for waste. The door swings closed with a very final sound and you immediately run over and pound on it but there is no response and it does not move beneath your blows.

Day 2

The door proved sturdy and there was no way you could reach the bar holding it closed. The cell is carved into solid rock. If they don’t return you are going to die of starvation and thirst down here.

Day 3

They have returned, the door swinging open to reveal two figures, who grab you and pin you to the floor. They chain your hands and feet together then beat you. Asking the same question over and over, “Where’s Will Hicks” they ask, “Where is he?”.

You spit out blood and glare defiantly at them, “I’ve no idea who you are talking about!” you say but they do not listen. After a time which is a blur of pain and abuse they finally leave. The cell is empty apart from a bowl of water and a few scraps of food that you are forced to eat off the filthy stone floor.

Day 5

The thirst is clawing at the back of your throat, the hunger a dull ache draining all the strength from your limbs. They are coming again, you can hear them. The door swings open, a blaze of light after the darkness, rough hands shake you.

“Where is Will Hicks?” they ask. “Where is Will?”

They are shaking you, then you are lying on the floor. You aren’t sure how you got there for a moment then feel you face stinging and realize they hit you. Then they hit you again and again. Suddenly the abuse ends, they’ve left again.

You reach out with shaking hands and find a small pitcher of water but it barely quenches your thirst and the hunger pounds away at you.

Day 7

It’s hard to tell the time in this underground cell but you can see the cycle of days and nights from the sliver of light that filters down from outside. Your hands and feet are chained, sores weeping where the metal is chafing. The door swings open with a crash and the light floods in.

He’s there again, the angry one. He kicks you and then strikes you, over and over. “Where is Will?” he asks. If you answer he will kill you, there is nothing you can do.

“Please”, you say, “please, I don’t know where he is. I don’t know anything.”

He doesn’t believe you, blows land over and over until someone drags him away, you lie there coughing blood. They’ve left a hunk of bread and some water but it does nothing to dull the hunger and you need to soak the bread before you can eat it. Your mouth hurts too much to chew and your throat is too dry to swallow.

Day 8

The hallucinations have started, you hear strange apparitions stalking you through the darkness of the cell. Hunger and thirst ravage your body and you think the angry one might have broken a rib on his last visit. The door opens again and you flinch back from the light but it’s not the angry one, it’s the other.

He kneels down beside you and holds out a bowl of soup, “listen he says, Dad won’t wait much longer, you need to tell us or he’s going to kill you. Tell us where Will is.”

You grab the bowl like a starving animal, gazing at it as though it is the centre of your world. You look up at the one with kind eyes and shake your head, “I don’t know who Will Hicks is” you say, the words a mantra you’ve repeated to yourself over and over. “Please, I don’t know anything.”

He leaves and you drink the soup, but it doesn’t satisfy your hunger.

Day 9

They have to pull the angry one off you, your wrist is broken where you tried to shield your face but it did no good. One eye has swollen shut and you need to open your mouth to breathe. The chains and starvation have made you so helpless. All you could do was beg and plead, repeatedly say that you know nothing.

As they leave you hear them arguing. The kind one and the angry one, maybe the kind one is starting to believe you.

Day 10

The kind one visits again, talking to you. He tries to straighten your wrist and ties a splint around it. He asks you questions about things that mean nothing. Where you are from? What do you do? It all blurs into one in this land of darkness and pain but you manage to say a few things about the village where you grew up, about being a child and watching pegasi soar over the grey cliffs of home.

Before he leaves he asks again where Will Hicks is and when you tell him you do not know you think he believes you.

Day 11

They are arguing again, you can hear them outside the cell. The kind one does not believe anyone could keep a secret through so much suffering. The angry one doesn’t care. There’s no food today but also no beating and the kind one does drop a skin full of water through the bars.

Day 12

The angry one comes in again, alone this time. He takes a hammer and breaks your fingers, asking after each one where Will is. You choke and sob and beg and plead but it does not save your hand and you cannot tell him what he wants to know.

Day 13

The door swings open and the kind one hurries in, “quick” he says, “Dad’s coming to kill you, I’ve got to get you out of here”.

He unfastens the chains but you’re too weak to walk so he has to carry you. The sun strikes you like a blazing fire, stabbing at your eyes. You shield face from it as best you can and point to a path into the forest. “That way”, you say. He looks at you and then shrugs, setting off down the path carrying your emaciated body easily in his arms.

Day 14

“What’s your name?” you ask your saviour. “Joe”, he replies, lying on the moss by the tree “Joe Hicks. Will was my brother”.

Your hunger is sated at long last, you can feel new life flooding into your limbs. Standing up you reach out with your healed hand and easily move him, lifting up a heavy boulder to reveal the shallow grave beneath.

“You were kind to me”, you say, “so I lay you with your brother.”

As your savior's last gasp rattles in his throat you gaze down at the two brothers lying beside each other. Their life force had been so strong, so vital, Joe had finally satisfied the hunger for a moment.

You easily scale a tree and look out over the forest. The smoke from the village rises in the distance and you consider it carefully. Should you go back and find the angry one? Bring him to rest beside his sons? No you decide, it’s too risky.

It’s time to move on, there are other villages and you are always hungry. You are always so hungry. You were careless this time, but you’ve learned your lesson, yes you have. Ghouls need to be cunning, so very cunning, but the hunger must be sated.