H̶e̶l̶l̶ Hail King || ONC 2021(Longlister)

XXXV. On the run

Edward woke up in complete darkness.

Wait! I don't remember sleeping. The last I remember I was with Jupiter, doing the journey back from Rangbad. We were a day away from the city and the night fell, so we put up our tents in the forest. Then we went to sleep. A noise startled me awake and...

Edward's heart leaped in his chest and his blood ran cold when he realized what happened. He had been abducted. His fear proved to be true when he tried moving. He found himself sitting in a chair with his hands tied behind the chair's back. His wrists had gone almost numb. He was on the verge of panicking when a sudden light penetrated the room. After sitting in the dark for God knows how long, getting exposed to light had him close his eyes shut. Slowly, he unshut them. The source of light that filtered the room was a door. He knew there was a door — obviously — but he did not know where. A man had entered the room.

"Why am I here?" Edward dared to ask.

The man maintained silence. Edward kept repeating the question to no avail while the man untied his hands. He attempted to take a swing on him, failing miserably as his body was weak due to a lack of nutrition and fluids. His hands fell limply beside him. The man left him a plate of food before exiting and shutting the door behind him.

Every day different men came into the hostage room like they owned the world, he yelled at them, shouted questions at them, but they did not budge. Aside from feeding time, his ropes were also undone to allow him to go outdoors in nature and do his business. He wanted to cry because of helplessness. He was allowed outside but his body refused to cooperate. Whichever man cane to undo his ties would be the one always to carry him by supporting his weight. The purpose of them doing all this and going to such lengths to feed and clean him went beyond his understanding. One thing was clear though, the person or people who had carried out his abduction were rich and did not have an intention of harming him. Their plan was something else, something bigger. He wished he owned a sharp mind like Renard or Jupiter.

Jupiter. Oh Lord, I miss her. Her mere thought gave him hope. For days, he kept imagining her face and keeping that hope alive. The more the hope grew the more determined he became. Now, he willed to escape. He wanted to meet Jupiter.

Without resources, fleeing was nearly impossible. Time was one entity he had in abundance. He decided to take advantage and began to plan. He kept running his mind for ideas. If there was even a slim chance of escaping from this hell hole, he was prepared to take it.

After a lot of pondering, he formed a plan. The door to the room he was kept in opened four times a day. Thrice for doing his business and once for food; they were only feeding to keep him alive for whatever reason. These were the only times his hands were untied. The first step would be to store food somewhere safely. If they found out, they might harm him physically albeit them not touching a hair on his head since the day he was captured. The second step would be to find an object to cut the rope. The last step was the hardest to carry out. It was to trick them to leave the door open so that he can run.

To get his hands on a sharp object, he used the lantern in the room they lit sometimes in the night for him. He faked running one time when freed of the binds and ran into the lantern,  breaking it into pieces. Stepping on one of the shards, he let it pierce his sole only to take it out later.

For the tricking part, he chose the most stupid man among all his captors. The night of his escape, he teased and taunted the man. Undoubtedly, he got easily manipulated and fell into his trap.

"I bet you fear me, don't you?"

The man grunted.

"I am the great King Edward of Pigeoda, your fear is plausible. You would never give me a fair chance in your terrified state." Edward pretended to be full of himself which was not easy considering the fact that once upon a time, he had an ego larger than the river in Pigeoda and it took efforts to let go of his toxic behavior. "I dare you to leave the door open at night." He laughed meekly but evilly.

The dumb man, as per the plan, left the door open.