Caged

Chapter 1

     We all know what it feels like to be stuck, to be caged. Something holding us back. Maybe it's the impenetrable barriers our minds built around themselves or maybe all we need is a little push in the right direction. After some time our eyes go dull and our hearts turn cold. I, myself have two choices, stay or go. If I stay I'm here forever and if I go, well if I go I'll most likely die. In this case, dying is the better choice.

     That's how it is for me at least, I wish it was as simple as leaving my life behind me to become somebody new. Not even that is possible for me, nothing is. I tried to run and I tried to leave. He didn't lie when he said that if I were to try and run or disobey his orders the consequences would be endless.

I've been beaten, mutilated with scars to show, starved, worked half to death and I haven't seen the light of day, for well, I can't even remember. I've been missing since I was nine, it's been ten painful years since that day. I put up a fight for a few months, however I soon bit the bullet for that one. Since then I've been facing the darkness he's left me in each and every waking hour of my life. He tore me apart until the fight inside me was extinguished and my mind was in ruins. He made sure of it. Just like pinching the flame of a candle with nothing but the intent to smother any oxygen feeding it life.

     "Speak of the devil and he will appear." The creaking of the old storm shelter door doesn't even catch my attention anymore. I knew what he was going to do before he even descended those stairs joining me in the darkness that resides down here.

"It's time to get to work." I could hear the click of the single basement light that hung above me. Then the electrical hum. It hurt, my eyes have yet to adjust to any light at all. My back is towards him and I stare at the oh so familiar gray, concrete wall in front of me. He doesn't like when I do that. I rest my back against the metal rods confining me in this horrid place. If he's having a good day he'll let me do my business in the bathroom a few feet away, if not, I'll have to hold it. He's always kept me somewhat clean, so he can show me off to his acquaintances. I absolutely despised when he brought people over.

He ran the butt of his pistol against my cage, funny how I call it my cage now. The clanking echoed throughout the bare room.

     "Get up, now." I flip him the bird and continue staring at the blank wall.

     "Go to hell, sick bastard." I realize too late what impact my words would have as I felt the muzzle of his pistol painfully pushed against the back of my head.

     "I said, get up." I sigh and get on my feet, the cage has a decent height, but lying down to sleep was the issue. I turn towards him and stare him in his good eye as the pistol was now rested on my forehead.

     "Let's just get this over with. You know I'm too valuable to kill." I assure him with anger in my voice, I lean into the muzzle of the pistol.

     "Are you going to let me out, or are you just going to stand there like a lost puppy?" I heard him click his tongue on the roof of his mouth before he slammed the butt of the pistol against my right cheekbone. I've gotten used to excruciating pain, I wasn't really fazed by it, if anything it was one of his weaker blows. His arm extends into my cage and he dumps an outfit onto the cold stone flooring. He then turns around disappearing up the stairs.

     "Be ready in a few minutes." His aged face burns in the back of my mind as I change into my black outfit. I'm not allowed to wear shoes due to my last escape attempt. If I try to run, I'd have to run for days on end, resulting in cuts on my feet and leading to infections. Not like that's bad enough, but that's how he tracks me. I didn't get very far last time I tried to get away and that attempt included wearing shoes. He always finds me, I don't know how but he does. I was deep in my own thoughts so I didn't  realize the presence the second body cramping the cage until it was too late. He had me by the hair, slamming me down on the ice-cold floor.

     "Next time you run your mouth like that, good luck surviving on nothing but water. Ungrateful pig." Nothing truly scared me anymore. I'd rather him kill me instead of keeping me locked up like some ferocious animal. I stared into his lifeless gray eye, matching the color of his shoulder-length greasy hair. His left eye completely pale and all signs of life had washed away long ago. Most of the time it's covered with an eye patch, so nobody stares. Stubble sprinkled his chin and a long, red, protruding scar stretching from his forehead to his lower lip. God I wish I was the one who did that to him. He was fully clothed in camo, with a twelve gauge shotgun slung over his left shoulder, paired with a pistol strapped to his right thigh. The same pistol he hit me with a few moments ago.

     "I don't have all day, get going." His annoyingly deep, raspy voice rang in my ears. The smell of cigarettes apparent on his breath. Good, I hope it sends him to his grave, but I also hope I'll be the one to condemn his ass to hell. I had no other choice but to do what he wanted of me, which was to follow him.

~I'm just going to cut to the chase, this is pretty short. But it's just the beginning, I hope you enjoyed it.~