Forgotten Monsters

Chapter 9- The Soldier

Matthew leaned against the tunnel wall idly as he waited for Gillian to finish fiddling with the buckle on his belt. The shorter man descended the last of the steps that led down into the labyrinth that was Matthew's hell. Gillian thumped Matthew in the back as he passed and grunted a greeting. He ignored the slight kitchen servant who had been unlucky enough to be designated prisoner duty. The young boy pushed the cart behind Matthew and Gillian, The only sound from him was the persistent creaking of the cart's wheels. 

Matthew became dimly aware that Gillian was telling him a story about the girl he had been with the night before. Matthew tried to disguise his disgust, but some of his discomfort must have been evident on his face because Gillian stopped chronicling the explicit details of his evening to cuff Matthew over the head. "You'll understand when you're older." 

Truthfully Gillian was only a year older than Matthew, but from the frequent belittling comments one would have thought Matthew was still a child. His partner was banging on a prisoner's cell door, jeering down at whoever was unlucky enough to have drawn attention. Gillian had seemed like a arrogant, if harmless, bully when Matthew had first met him three years before, but he'd soon realized that Gillian was one of the few men who had chosen to be on prison duty for the joy of it. He liked the hopeless vacancy in the prisoners' faces. When they found prisoners who had died in the night he would gleefully try to imagine what it was that had finally killed them. It was enough for Matthew to learn to hate him. 

But Matthew couldn't let Gillian know the truth— that Gillian and all the other soldiers were the enemy. 

No one wanted prison duty. Down in the labyrinth the oppressive darkness was enough to drive a man mad, and that was before the stench of death and the omnipresent moans. Most soldiers endured their occasional shift. Gillian had chosen it because he thrived on other people's pain. Matthew had been on prison duty since he had joined the guard three years ago. The secret he could never tell anyone was this: three years ago his twin sister had been kidnapped by the Queen's soldiers and Matthew had promised her he would find her. 

He had been so young, for the first months he had anticipated finding her every day, each new tunnel brought a fluttering of hope in his chest. But now that hope was dead in his chest. He stayed because he couldn't bear to leave. 

Gillian was shouting through the food slot at one of his favorite victims. An old man, his bones protruding sharply from his angular frame. Matthew forced himself to be numb. He closed himself off. He wouldn't care. 

“Hurry up; I want to be done before lunch,” he said evenly. Gillian raised his greasy head and shot Matthew an evil look, but he moved on.

Throwing the man his food, they moved along the corridors, reaching a new stretch of tunnel. Matthew had memorized a good portion of the labyrinth. He had collected scraps of maps from other soldiers, studying them at night. So he knew that he had never walked this stretch before. It was quieter, the faces that peered through the bars of their doors weren't vacant like some of the older sections of the maze. 

Gillian was smashing the pommel of his sword into the doors as he passed them. Every time the metal cracked viciously Matthew resisted the urge to hit Gillian with his sword. He was moments from snapping when Gillian smashed his sword against another door and was met with a ball of spit. The spit slid down his partner's face slowly, and for once the rash man seemed at a loss for words. Matthew coughed frantically to hide his laughter. He looked into the cell to try and see who had been brave enough to antagonize Gillian and saw the dim outline of a young face, dark, down-turned eyes and a sharp smile. He held a bowl out to her, waiting to see if she would take it. She cocked her head at him and Matthew was reminded of a bird. Not a sparrow for her though, a raven, intelligent and sly. She came closer and took the bowl from him. He felt undone by her gaze, he couldn't explain it. Stepping back he winked at her, pleased to see her equally unsettled by him. 

Gillian was taking his humiliation out on the next prisoner, her wrist caught in one of his meaty hands. "Hand me a torch," he ordered Matthew. The girl cried out from his harsh grip and raised her head, her light hair slipping back from her face. 

Matthew felt the earth move beneath his feet. He felt three years rush past him in all of their hopeless agony. Here she was, a ghostly figure of her past self, emaciated and brittle, but still his sister. Gillian glanced back at him and Matthew realized that several seconds had elapsed. 

"Why," he asked, "So I can smell like burning skin for another week?" He felt his hands shaking so he shoved them deep in his pockets. He didn't know what he would do if Gillian tried to hurt his sister— he would probably kill him and lose any chance of getting her out of this prison. "We're almost done." he continued, and he meant it, he was so close to never having to come back to this hell again. He thought about Gillian's earlier ravings. "And that girl is waiting for you up above." The moment stretched between them, and Matthew was almost certain all was lost. But then Gillian relaxed, releasing his hold of Matthew's sister. 

"Fine," Gillian said in a way that meant Matthew would pay for this, that he wouldn't forget this indiscretion. He dug a stout finger into Matthew's shoulder and kept talking, but Matthew had lost all capacity to hear. His sister was staring at him as though she didn't believe he was really there. He heard the raven girl from the other cell exhale sharply so he painfully dragged his eyes from his sister. Gillian looked triumphant, and Matthew could only imagine he'd said some empty threat full of horrible words. It didn't matter, nothing did anymore, only that after all these years he had found her. 

 After all these years he had something to lose.

Meet Matthew, remember him, he's important. Anywho, sorry this chapter was so short. The next one will be longer because it's *dramatic pause* The Escape! Yeah, and Cain is still being controlled. Vote if you like it and tell me what you think.