‘There are three levels to this prison. Each level comes with seven divided areas.’ Valex explained as he rolled a large map out onto the table and pointed in the middle ‘You and I are here, in the middle level.’ Suna’s eyes flicked to the place his finger is pointed. ‘The level we are on is for guards, cooks and workers.’ He pointed to were each are, ‘In this prison we have over seventeen thousand guards, fourteen hundred workers and seven cooks.’
‘Seven?’ Suna repeated shocked ‘Only seven?’
‘Yes. The leader is picky about his food and he thinks that the more cooks there is the higher the chance of him getting poisoned. However not all the cooks are his; four of them are for the guards and two for the workers. He has only one that cooks for him.’
‘Beside us here and here are more guards, however these guards are beginners and are still being trained. They are the ones we call upon when we are desperate; most of them are only young, in their late teens at most. We call them first years, weird I know but that is what they are.’ Valex took a deep breath and continued,
‘We have five different types of guards. The first years that are still being trained. The second years are the group above them, most of them are in there mid twenties and they keep an eye on the workers, make sure none of them are trying to escape, that kind deal. They often are the ones in control of bossing around and training the first years. They are the ones we share this part of the prison with. The others are in the far end of the hall here,’ he pointed to a large hexagon shaped room with three exits
‘These hallways lead to different parts of the prison. The first to the wash room, the second to the kitchen, that hallway comes all the way down to where we are, we are suppose to all feed together in the dining hall connected, which; by the way, is that big hexagon. But because I am a specialist solider I dine with the clan leader in a small room just off to the side, very few are given the honour to enter.’
‘Wait, what do you mean you’re a ‘specialist solider’?’ Suna rolled the words off her tongue slowly, extending them long.
‘Exactly that,’ Valex could feel Suna’s eyes on him and sighed, ‘I am a specialist solider because when they first started training men, they fought to the death. Ones that weren’t worthy didn’t make it through. I was in the first group of men to ever been trained here and one of the very few that are still living under his command.’ He faced Suna and went on,
‘When this whole thing first started, I was given a choice, die; like all my men around me, or fight his men. I was weak, young and afraid of dying so I chose, what I thought at the time, to be the easiest way out and promised to fight his men; in return I was shoved in what was barely classed as a room and beaten into unconsciousness. The system he runs here is ruthless. If you are not good enough then you will not live, it’s as simple as that,’ Valex grinned slightly at the blank expression Suna was giving him, ‘However it is also very raw, he is extremely inexperienced. Our ‘Leader’ runs purely on the lust of power and that will be his downfall, this I know.’
Suna nodded as she processed the information Valex had just given her.
‘Because of this need for power, he will continue to attack, he will continue to destroy and he will continue to attempt to rule this realm.’ His voice was thick with hate, ‘This is how I know we can destroy him. We can destroy him from the inside out. With you by my side, we can finally be free of this place, finally return home!’ Suna heard him barely whisper, ‘or to what’s left of it.’
Just as Suna opened her mouth to queston him on what he meant a loud thumping knock slapped the door. Someone was here. Valex’s eyes grew close to the size of the moon and he pointed to the bed instructing Suna to get back into it.
‘Who is it?’ Valex gracefully glided over to the door quickly once Suna was back in bed pretending to be asleep.
‘D-delivery,’ a small voice stammered
‘What! At this time?’ Valex spoke in an abrupt voice and pulled open the door hard, Suna could tell he opened the door hard because it barley scrapped on the floorboards.
Suna sneaked a peak at the delivery boy and could see he was clearly nervous; he was shaking and looked no older than eight. The boy must have felt Suna staring at him and he glanced over just as she re-closed her eyes.
Valex saw that the boy was looking at Suna and huffed a warning grunt at him.
‘Tell the boss that I don’t appreciate getting summons this late in the evening.’ The boys attention snapped back to Valex and he squared his shoulder in what looked like an attempt, to not be afraid.
‘Yes sir,’ The young boys feet shuffled a little and Suna could tell he was looking at her again, ‘Uh, Sir?’
Valex snorted in response as he cracked the wax on the back of the newly received envelope.
‘Is that her?’ The boy nodded toward Suna ‘You know. The one they are all talking about downstairs? Is she the wiccan finder?’
Valex grabbed the boys arm and pulled him into the room, he then checked the hallway to make sure nobody heard and slammed the door.
‘Boy, are you trying to get yourself killed?’ Valex screeched as he pushed the youngling against the wall. The boy let out a small whimper that made Suna’s eyes shoot open.
‘Valex, be kind to him, he is just a child!’ Suna roared from her now sat up right position in the bed. She instantly thought of her young students.
The boys eyes slammed into Suna and he paled. Suna’s eyes searched his and her stomach notted, butterflies appearing.
‘No...’ Suna thought to herself ‘surely not... it couldn’t be...’
‘Sh- she speaks,’ the boy whispered
‘Look away from her,’ Valex pulled the boy away and re slammed him into the wall, ‘how do you know of her? Nobody but the almighty knows about her!’
The boys eyes jumped back to Valex but all he did was open his mouth and closed it again, he was clearly too scared for words. It was obvious to Suna that Valex hadn’t had much time dealing with children and it angered her to know that this is how he dealt with them.
‘Boy! I demand you to speak,’ Valex released an arm from the boy then pulled a chain Suna never noticed, out from under his shirt and showed the child, ‘As the Leaders only specialist solider, you will obey me.’
‘He was yelling,’ he started ‘at some girl about how amazing she was, how,’ his eyes landed on Suna again ‘she,’ eyes scanned up and down her exposed body ‘could sense the wiccans,’ he smiled slyly, ‘clearly they were wrong.’
Valex’s eyes narrowed thinner then cats eyes at the boy and suddenly it hit him. A pain so sharp it penetrated his defences, pushing him to the ground away from the boy. Valex lunged at the boy again, but the boy simply held out his hand and Valex doubled over, dry reaching, gagging, splattering blood.
Suna knew this boy was trouble, she sensed it the second he stood into the room. However she didn’t have it in her to harm a boy who was barely out of infancy. Mainly because she knew it wasn’t him. His eyes where black but his soul wasn’t, this she was certain.
‘Suna, Suna, Suna,’ the boy sung ‘What has become of you?’ He curled his hand into a fist and Valex grunted in agony. ‘So weak,’
‘It couldn’t be...’ Suna re-said to herself.
‘Dexter?’
The small child clapped his hands together, ‘Bravo,’ He smugly grinned then wiggled his fingers to make Valex groan.
‘Let Valex go, Dexter!’
‘AH!’ The boy seemed pleased ‘So this is the Valex that roams your dreams?’
Suna narrowed her at the boy, both embarrassed and annoyed then flicked her eyes over to Valex who opened his slightly.
‘I was expecting someone,’ He raises his hand and Valex lifted into the air, ‘Oh! I don’t know, more, bad.’ A squeaky chuckle came from the boy as he made Valex slam into the wall then allowed him to fall to the ground.
Suna went to move toward the boy but was stuck in her position on the bed. This was not good.
‘What do you want Dexter?’
‘Can’t an old friend just possess the body of a child and come see his favourite girl?’ Another squeaky laugh escaped the boys lips.
‘No, you cannot!’ Suna barked back, she felt as though she was about to spit acid, she could not believe he had spoke about her dreams out loud. Or possessed a child. Or was playing with her guardian like a toy.
‘Aw, have I upset you darlin’? Valex moved from his spot on the ground and the room filled with thick mist. ‘Didn’t I tell you not to move?’ The boy looked around ‘What is this? Some kind of smoke bomb? Please, that won’t change a thing.’
‘It’s not a smoke bomb,’ Valex croaked
That’s when it filled the boys lungs. His knees gave out making him fall backward; he fell to the floor and started flopping around like a fish out of water.
‘What, have you, done?’
‘Summoning spell.’ beautifully devious smile crossed Valex's face, it made him look younger.
‘What? Noo...'
Suna watched on, she had heard about the summoning spells but had never seen one in action before. It started working instantly, you could see the whiteness of the soul trying to stay in the body, moving down to the lower parts of the boy to stay inside, but the spell was too powerful and it was dragged out of the young boys mouth like some kind of dirty vomit. Once completely out it charged at Suna.
‘Suna cover your mouth!’
She did so. The soul stopped centimetres from her face, if looks could kill, Suna would be dead right now, for the look the soul was giving her was one of pure hate. Valex grabbed out a container ‘bring it this way.’ He instructed but as he pulled the lid off the jar a high pitch scream erupted in the room from the soul. It was being sucked toward the jar, it was close to entering when a dark laugh radiated through Suna's body.
‘Just kidding,’ The soul hissed then in a flash it whooshed its way out of our reach and under the door, ‘I’ll be back for you, Suna.’
There was an eerie silence that made Suna feel uneasy. It made her ears ring and her blood go cold, she can’t believe he had found her. She couldn’t believe he was still alive. What has happened since her absence at the base, surely they hadn’t grown that desperate. She prayed so anyways.
Thought I would update a little chapter here for you guys, I hope you like it! <3