Scarlet Crypt

Decision-making

Elias went down like a stringed puppet removed from the strings that gave it life. Scarlet blood seeped into the ground after his body met the ground with a thud. I froze, my muscles didn’t seem to work properly, and I glanced at my peripheral vision and saw that the others did the same. They were outnumbered, but in terms of weapons, we were goners. Their weapons looked like they could kill a house. As I looked back at Elias’ lifeless body below me, I saw a giant hole in his lower abdomen. It still seemed to be growing, like the acid was eating away his flesh. I stood a small space away from the guard. I stared at him unendingly.

            “Put your hands up,” he ordered, ”Don’t move a single muscle, or else I’d have to do that to all of you next.” There was an edge to his voice, like he was unsure of what he was doing, yet highly trained to do it.  

            We slowly did what he told us to, hesitating at first and looked each other in the eye.

            “Do it!” He barked. Our hands went up flying palms up, right beside our heads. My heartbeat was pulsing very rapidly, anticipating every single movement my eyesight can see. While he held the gun towards us, he started getting another thing from his pocket and he clicked at it. Several seconds later, we heard shouts from behind him. We’re caught. No escape unless we wanted to get punchered to the guts. So we stayed that way, too scared to do anything but wait for the enemy to come take us…

I was ushered into a room with bars at the palace dungeon. The others were brought to a different jail place, and I was separated from all of them. Probably because I was the traitor. The President’s son.  I’ve never been in this part of the palace before, since no one would ever want to go here because, well, just look at the place. Strong mildew scent wafted through the air. The dampness of the place made it seem like an underground swamp in the making.  There were only a few lights in here, so the place was only semi-lit. The cell room I was in was somehow better than the one I was in when I got captured by the rebels. A plain bed was at the side and a window was at the upper corner of the room. I sat at the bedside and did the only thing I could do. Wait.

I was not aware that I fell asleep until I woke up to the morning light brought about by the only window in the room. A mild headache aroused me as i began the whole day’s wait of judicial trial. As I lied there, I moved my head a little to the side and saw beyond the bars that there were three guards near the exit door. I spent the whole morning just staring at the ceiling. Nothing else to do, obviously. Time went on like that, ultimate idleness slowly killing my strained mind. I needed to do something, anything. And so I thought about the very reason I’m here. I thought about my father.

My father was the kind of man who believed in the rules appointed by the past world around him. He would never have thought about the ultimate reality of what the world needs, only about what he thought what the world needed. Or at least I thought so.

I sneaked inside his room, looking at the door every moment I think I heard footsteps outside. It was a cool summer’s morning, and I haven’t seen him around, so I decided to go inside. I was curious, like every child is when he’s eight-years-old. I was not allowed inside this room, for a reason in which I do not know. I ran towards his desk and scanned the objects in it. Pens, papers with signs and grids and locations that I did not care about, some devices, a map, and a globe. I went near the globe and spun it around its frame. I saw the four major islands of the world. But there, I noticed the small islands spanning the sides of it.

            “The world is a large place, my boy, and I am willing to trust you with it once you’re old enough.” I jumped at the voice of Father. He was staring at me, standing amidst his quarters, the place I’m banned to go in.