Rusted treasure

Den Of Pain

Chapter Five

Den of Pain

            “Reeve! Reeve!” I called out in agony. 

            He lay there, in his cage, about ten feet in front of me, motionless. I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing. But no, I saw him move. His eyes flung open, and he immediately jumped up, swinging his arms around wildly, as if ready for a fight. But one of the men carrying the cage stumbled and Reeve fell hard onto the floor again. He didn’t try to get up again, he just looked around, confused. So I called out again,

            “Reeve! Reeve!” He looked over at me with wide eyes.

            “Hope! I hear you! Where are we?!” He shouted back.

            “We’re in some sort of giant cave! These people are taking us to their king to see if we’re friend or foe! They call themselves the Lost Boys!” I bellowed out as loud as I could, but he didn’t hear me. Everything was getting more and more frantic. Screaming people, shouts.  Everyone, hundreds of them, were all shouting the same cheer. But that wasn’t the only strange thing, it was their age.  They were all male, and all under the age of twenty-five, with only a few exceptions.  They were all young.  All just lost boys.  But then I saw something so horrid, so dreadful, that the rest of it just blurred away. It was another boy, but that wasn’t the horrific part, it was what he was on.

            He was on a monster, it was huge. It had paws bigger than a man’s head, and teeth that were the length of half a man’s arm. It was huge, with a giant black mane and eyes of a killer. I couldn’t help myself, I fainted.

            I woke up on a plush chair, there was red carpet on the ground. But it didn’t belong; everywhere else was dirt, cement, and rock. I looked out.  We were in a balcony over a huge pit.  Everywhere, people were shouting and screaming, calling out.  At first it was frantic, undefined, and indiscernible. But slowly a loud cry took over the men, a cry of blood, a cry of war. A cry, for the wolf.

            “Magnus Cain! Bring us blood! Magnus Cain! Turn him to mud!” They kept shouting it over and over, faster and faster, louder and louder. Down in the pit there was a giant cage at the edge of the foot-ball field sized pit. And the thing inside it was shaking, roaring, wanting to break free.  A man walked up behind me,

            “Ah, you’re awake. Welcome! Today you are my honored guest! You get to watch my dog tear your friend over there apart.” He said pointing towards a man in the pit. It was Reeve.  He usually had a rifle on him, but they had taken that away, and given him a sword.

            “A sword? What’s that supposed to do for him?!” I cried, exasperated. The man looked at me and smiled. He was a young man, no more than eighteen. He wore a golden crown, and had the beginnings of a beard growing in. He was young, but he walked like a king with many years beneath his belt.

            “The sword is for show.  He’ll take a few good swipes at my dog, and then get eaten. It’s a lot easier that way. And the sword makes your friend think that there’s a slight chance that he can survive. When you and I both know, there’s not a single hope in heaven or hell that he’ll make it through. So sit back and relax, enjoy the show! It’s the last time you’ll see your friend, and please do try not to cry, we just got this red rug installed and I rather like it, your tears would stain it. Anyways, enjoy the show!” I was about to spit in his face, but then he got up and moved to the edge of the balcony where everyone could see him. His appearance brought with it an uproar of cheering. He held his hands up and it slowly died down.

            “My good people! I have gathered you here to watch that poor little man in the pit die. Yes, he will die, he will be ripped to shreds! He will be torn to pieces!” With every graphic description of how Reeve was going to die, the crowd roared in response. “He will be obliterated!” The crowd shouted a little quieter at this one--they obviously didn’t know what it meant. “And of course that means he’ll die terribly.  If he does manages to defeat Magnus Cain, then I’ll let him live.” explained Ace. “But, enough of me talking! Let’s watch him fight!” The crowd erupted! “Release Magnus Cain!” He said those final word like an announcer in a ring, and following suit, the wolf burst out of his cage with such ferocity that I was afraid that the stalactites hanging from the cavernous ceiling would fall down and destroy everything. But they stayed solid. I moved closer and closer to the edge of the balcony, watching, horridly fascinated by the scene unraveling before my eyes. I wondered what Reeve was thinking.

            “You know, he’s a lot bigger than I last remembered.” I mumbled to myself as the monstrous dog rushed towards me amongst howling applause. I held my sword up to defend myself, then threw it to the ground.  That piece of metal would do me no good. It galloped towards me, and even above the deafening, ground shaking roar of the crowd I could hear it’s breathing, hears it’s behemoth paws smashing the ground into a pulp. There was only one thing I could do to even hope I would survive.  I reached down and pulled a gun out of my left boot. They had taken away all my obvious weapons, but they hadn’t checked my boots. It was a simple six shot pistol, but it would do the trick. I held out the gun straight in front of me, as steady as I could, which wasn’t very, due to the earth shattering, ground shaking monster running towards me. I slowly squeezed down the trigger—I saw something fly towards me in my peripheral vision. It was a spear! It wasn’t going for me though, it was going for my hand. I tried to pull my hand away, but I was too slow and it smashed into my wrist and the gun went off and flew out of my grasp.

            BAM!  A wild bullet flew into the sky. It hit a giant, shaking stalactite on the ceiling. The crowd roared its disapproval and screamed and chanted louder than ever. The wolf kept charging at me and would overtake me in a matter of seconds.

            So rather than cower in a corner waiting for my demise, I picked up the sword and ran towards the beast, screaming all the way.

            “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” I hurdled towards the monstrosity and once I was so close to its gaping maw I could smell it’s fetid breath, I fell onto my back and held the sword straight up in the air like a toothpick in a sandwich. The beast saw it and tried in vain to stop--but it was too late. It slid the last few meters towards me and had the entire underside of its belly ripped open. It passed over me and I jumped up again. Magnus Cain the wolf howled out in agony and whipped back around to face me, snarling and breathing heavily, but no guts or blood spilled out of the thing. Instead, wires and electrical components spilled out, sparks flying. Magnus Cain, the dread wolf, was a robot! It growled in pain and pawed the ground, waiting for me to make a move.

            Well, I thought, this is interesting.