Soul: Book 1 (DISCONTINUED)

The Prison

(A/N: The Tyler in this chapter is Munchingbrotato.)

There was a dull throbbing in Seto's head as he slowly regained consciousness. He tried to move, but he couldn't. His body felt too heavy. The sorcerer could hear sounds, but they were muffled like the time Sky had pranked him by sticking cotton balls in his ears when he had been sleeping.

There was a loud zapping sound, a yelp of pain, and the rattling of a chain against the stone ground. "Wake up, mutt." a girl's voice said harshly, ignoring the person's soft cries. "Stop blubbering like a baby or I'll shock you again." The whimpering stopped. "Good boy." the girl said with an exaggeratedly high voice that dripped with false praise. "Today's your lucky day. You want to know why?"

"Wh-Why, Warden Arana?" a boy said fearfully.

"You haven't tried to escape recently, so you finally get to have a cellmate again." Arana said, throwing Seto roughly on the cold cobblestone floor, making him wince. "Don't try to talk to him just yet. He's still unconscious. Let's hope he doesn't die when Dad experiments on him, although if I had to choose between staying with you for the rest of my life or immediate death, I'd choose the latter."

"Arana, could you just leave him alone?" someone else asked with annoyance.

"Ugh, fine, Ryan." Arana shut the iron door with a loud, hollow clang. "See you later, mutt." Her diamond boots made clacking sounds as she left, her cruel laughter slowly fading away.

It was completely silent for a few moments before Seto heard a metal chain scrape against the floor. Someone picked him up and laid Seto's body down on a woolen bed. The person breathed spastically and sniffled, and something wet dripped onto Seto's face. Seto wanted to comfort the sobbing boy, but he still couldn't move at all.

"Tyler?" a voice that came from an adjacent room asked.

"Y-Yeah, Preston?"

"Don't listen to that bitch, okay? You're better than the way she treats you."

"Okay." Tyler said quietly, but he sounded unsure.

Another voice asked, "Who's the newcomer?"

Tyler turned Seto's head so he was facing upwards. "I don't know, Bashur."

"Can you wake him-" Ten deafening chimes of a clock rang out, cutting Bashur off.

Tyler sighed. "I hate the sound barriers..." he mumbled to himself. "Now I can't talk or listen to the people from the other cells." He paused. "At least I've got you now, so I won't be lonely anymore." Tyler shook Seto's shoulder. "Why can't you wake up now?"

"Ugh..." Seto mumbled as he struggled to move his body.

"Oh hey, you really are waking up!" Tyler said excitedly.

Seto slowly opened his eyes to find someone's face mere inches away from his. "GYAH!" Seto cried out in shock as he pushed the person away.

"Sorry!" the person said, grinning sheepishly.

"Don't scare me like that!" Seto exclaimed.

"I'm just reallyreallyreally excited that I have a new cellmate! I'm Tyler Christie. What's your name?" Tyler said all of this in one breath, reminding Seto of an extremely hyperactive puppy.

It took Seto a few moments to comprehend what Tyler had said. "Oh, I'm Seto." he replied, sitting up.

"You're a sorcerer, aren't you?"

Seto blinked in surprise. "How did you know that?"

"You smell like Dr. McNulty. He's a sorcerer too." Tyler inhaled deeply and crinkled his nose. "Why do you kind of smell like a bacca?"