Chronicles Of Two Powers

Chapter 49 - Welcome to New York

Two months and a week had passed; he counted the days despite his blurry vision. The walls seemed to stretch endlessly, filled with cutouts. Guilt nags at him for not doing more, yet he grasps the truth: communication failed because they don't speak his language. Bruises marked his wrists and feet, rendering him numb from the days spent standing in the cramped cell. All he sensed was the barren, desolate emptiness of his quarters.

A searing light slashes through the stifling blackness, revealing the contours of his cramped prison. His heart thumps in his chest like the ominous drumbeats of approaching doom, racing in the bright illumination. "They're coming," he whispers desperately, his voice lingering in the little room like a haunting whisper.

His breaths escape in irregular spurts, a fearful rhythm heightening the tension in the room. The pulse in his veins quickens, synchronised with the imminent arrival, echoing the ominous march of impending peril. A visceral dread, icy and palpable, spirals through him, casting a chilling awareness of the menacing figure drawing nearer.

Each second stretches into a torturous eternity, and amidst it, he discerns a distant but unmistakable chorus of reverberating noises. The heavy metal footsteps resound through the atmosphere, heralding the approach of an unstoppable force. The shadows in his cell seem animated, responding with sinister vigour.

The weight of expectation suffocates him, and the jail walls seem to constrict around him. The impending encounter looms large, clouding his clarity of thought. Each metallic clang of reverberating noise becomes a foreboding warning of an unknown threat drawing nearer.

In this crucible of tension, time warps, and an electric charge crackles through the air. His senses heightened, attuned to the menacing symphony unfolding beyond his walls. Fear becomes his sole companion as he confronts the encroaching darkness, the anticipated confrontation spiralling into an unyielding descent into the abyss.

Ahead, two men clad in mediaeval armour materialised, one brandishing a set of cell keys. Swiftly, he unlocked the cell amidst rusty, echoing noises that prompted some prisoners to scream while others broke into tears. Weak and hungry, he turned to face them, but their response was a smug glance before they deftly pulled a sack over his head and swiftly dragged him out of the cell.

"No, please, I beg, no more!!”

They hauled the man from his cell, but he could barely move, only being dragged along. They headed towards a flight of stairs leading to the upper quarters, neither of the men responding to his pleas. The only sounds echoing were the clanks from their swords and the thuds of their boots.

His sight, confined to shadows by the stifling sack, rendered him dependent on the sounds surrounding him. Suddenly, a faint light pierced the darkness, emanating from large windows on the left. Amidst whispers and conversation, he discerned a path from subtle shifts in ambient noise—one that didn't lead to the torture cell.

Men in foreboding armoured leggings materialised as he stumbled forward, lost in a disoriented haze. Against the expanse of the plush red carpet, their weight bore down, hindering movement until an abrupt halt marked an ominous pause. Once distinct, their voices melded into an indecipherable mess within this puzzling suspension.

The soldiers dragged their victims across the carpet, and a colossal gate swung open, revealing a foreboding void ahead. Struggling to comprehend his surroundings, he glimpsed figures flanking him on both sides, amidst the soldiers' chatter and the resounding clank of their boots in the eerie stillness. When the soldiers halted, the captive was unceremoniously dumped, the bag roughly ripped from his head.

In the disorienting aftermath, all he could see was a blinding flash of light. As his eyes adjusted to the surroundings, he struggled to make sense of the bizarre scene before him. Three figures stood tall, surrounded by lavish thrones adorned with gold trimmings, wearing flowing robes and shimmering garments. Soldiers and a few nobles filled the carpeted space, leaving him bewildered and unsettled.