War Child--Rogue One

XVII

My cell has one window, facing the hall.  I thought I might get sick from the rotating prison, but after a bit I get used to it.

There's one light in my cell, in the ceiling, and it flickers every once in a while, threatening to go out. There's a cot on the wall opposite the door and a small toilet and sink in the corner by the door. Food is slid through the window two times a day.

It isn't bad. It's nourishing, at least.

But I don't see anyone else.  I hear demented screaming down the hall, at least once every hour, I think.  I don't have any way to tell or pass the time.

I sit and count the bolts in the walls, or pace around and touch each one.  I need to keep my strength up.  Even if they are going to put me to death, I might as well be strong enough to walk to wherever they're going to kill me.

I shake my head to clear it. I need to keep my spirits up as much as I can, given the circumstances.

I hum and sing quietly, old folk tunes about the Jedi.  One is a song about a lone Jedi who defeated a Sith and her apprentice.

Mother used to call it "Histeri's Victory" and she'd sing it anytime she felt the most anger towards the Empire.

It's a long ballad, eight verses, but I can only remember the first two.

Histeri, Jedi of Jedha, swore
That upon her laser sword
The last Sith would be destroyed in war.
She strode into the castle's core
And called to herself the evil Sith.
To her he came, apprentice with.
The mighty man was named Periyith,
But first sent the apprentice
To battle 'gainst the great Histeri.
With two strokes he there lie,
The first of many left to die.
But never did the Sith shy.

Periyith drove forth with much power,
And pushed her to the tower
From which she hung but ne'er cower'd.
She met the Sith's hard glower,
Defiance in every piece.
And in her quest for peace
She found strength for the least.
Histeri fought the beast.
The battle waged long 'til night,
When their swords gave the only light
Which the strangers overhead might
See, a clue to their immense plight.

I don't recall anything else, but it's all about rebellions and fighting the darkness.

After a few days, I begin to mark the wall with an eating utensil at the first meal I eat after a sleep.  After one hundred fifty-one of them, I realize that it must be very close to my birthday, assuming it's not already past.  Whatever way, I'll spend my sixteenth birthday here.

On Jedha, sixteenth birthdays were a huge affair.

I recall one that I attended, one of Mother's friends had turned sixteen and there was a huge party with lights and the most food I'd seen in one place.

The lucky Birthday person would receive gifts to help them in whatever career they wished to pursue.

The only gifts I'll get are food, but that's nothing special anyways.

If I beg for more, they may restrict it, so no special sixteenth birthday for me.

I start to sing about Histeri again, trying to push back the despair. 

"Histeri, Jedi of Jedha, swore/ That upon her laser sword/The last Sith would be destroyed in war."

A stormtrooper paced by and pauses by my door.  I finish the first verse and begin the second.

"Periyith drove forth with much power,/And pushed her to the tower/From which she hung but ne'er cower'd./She met the Sith's hard glower,/Defiance in every piece."

He hits his hand against the window.  "Quiet in there."

I lower my voice to a whisper, where there's no longer a tune, but continue to say the words.  He apparently can't hear me through his helmet, so he moves along.

After a few repetitions of those same two verses, I go lay down on my cot and go to sleep.

I'm awoken long before I'm completely rested by the clanging of a cell door and someone yelling.  I stand too quickly and rock on my feet for a minute before my vision clears and I can walk over to the door.

The stormtroopers take the prisoner my direction and I strain to see if it's someone I know.  One of the stormtroopers walking in front hits his hand right by my nose.  "Get back."

I step back a bit, and catch a glimpse of the prisoner.  It's...Aden?

I think.  He looks like him, but his hair is long and sticks out at all angles and he has a beard and cuts all over his face.

"Aden!"

He looks around wildly, with animal eyes.  Before he can see that it was me, a stormtrooper grabs the little latch by my window and slams the cover closed.

I blink at the door and go back to my bed, but I can't sleep.

What are the odds that, after three years or so, he would be here, alive, although probably not for long, in the same prison I am?  Very slim.  Very slim indeed.

I wonder where they're taking him.  Are they going to try him now, do whatever crime they arrested him for?  Or was his sentence three years and he'll be let go?  Or does the letting go mean they'll execute him?

Here in this cell I have no idea what is going on anymore with the Empire.  I won't even know if they're overthrown if I'm in here.

I need to get out.