Wolf and Vengeance

1) Cronos

See, to live is to suffer and to survive, well, that's to find meaning into suffering.

Slippin' DMX

Some people believe that everyone is equal. Others believe that everyone but themselves and their kin are the scum of the earth. And to many, they don't really care. But to the small prisoner with long curly hair and glowing green eyes... if someone were to ask her what she thought about equality, she wouldn't be able to answer them. Not just because she was mute but also because she never had time to wonder about skin color or speech impediments. Instead she wondered about the next time she was going to eat, if the voice in her head meant that she was insane... if she was going to live another day.

Sometimes she wondered about lesser things, such as the time, the day, or her favorite, how many years she had been down here. Soon though, she was forced back into the tear-jerking reality that had her head pounding and heart aching. Sometimes she found herself wishing for tomorrow not to come.

But it always did and she was forced to fight and live by the rules of the Asylum.

If any of their rules were broken, leeway was never an option. You would be severely punished until your will was broken and you learned to comply. Many soon found that they knew the rules by heart.

But some of them were smart. They listened, stored food in safe places and kept their mouth shut. However, that didn't mean that they didn't have their will. It was quite the contrary. They remained strong on the inside for those that couldn't be. Everyone in the Asylum was family no matter how dysfunctional.

The Asylum was a feeding ground for anger, pain, distrust and sin. Once you're in, you never get out. Or at least that's what the prisoners had been told. She had no plans on staying there for the rest of her life, even if it seems to be that way.

She didn't know how many years that she had been down there. Time passed slowly and the doctors would not let any of the prisoners have contract with the outside world. But she knew one thing for sure if it was the only truth that she knew. She had been down in the dark for a very long time. She lost had track of how many different doctors that she went though and some of the prisoners aged and she was forced to watch, envious of their freedom from the chain attached to the world.

Never once did she think that she would find happiness in the darkness, in the damp underground prison, but she did. For the first time in a long time, she started to feel a spark of emotion. Her bolt cutters to her chain to her prison had arrived. But she feared that the chain was too thick to cut through anymore.

﴾Caged﴿

"You know the drill. Get your filthy asses out of your cells and get ready. Things haven't changed!"

She peeled open a single eye and watched as the guard banged against the cell, his beer belly jiggling. He was right about two things. They were indeed filthy. She honestly had no idea that last time she had bathed. The other was that things hadn't changed. It was exactly as it was since the day she arrived, thirteen summers old.

The other twelve people that she shared a cell with began getting ready for the day. She too dragged her weight out of the cell and walked to the fighting grounds to get ready to fight. Of cause, this was no ordinary fight. These morning fights determined how the rest of your day would go. If you won against your opponent, then you would be able to eat for the rest of the day. Those that lost did not get to eat and got twenty lashes. She would know. The lines may have faded but they have not gone away.

They still had to do hard labor, but those that got food would have the energy to do it for the rest of the day. If you couldn't finish, you would be beaten and still expected to continue.