Unsung

Part I

     The brewing storm rattles the thick prison walls as Tonem's mental state wastes away with the rest of him. He has spent countless hours listening, bogged down by the tales of his cell mates. His last meal is a blur; the overpowering taste of bile lingers on his tongue as his stomach lurches, his hunger as ravenous as ever. He tries to recall the last time he was given a break from captivity, given proper exercise and his lungs a needed rest from the stagnated air, but those memories too seem fragmented.

     He tucks his legs closer as he sits crisscrossed in his corner of the cell. A smuggled sticky note under his tattered waistband leaves him sick with paranoia. He longs for a release, his itching fingers are eager to write something, anything, but he steadies himself. Not yet. His writing is what landed him in such sorry straits after all. Young, talented, and not to forget free, a mere shadow of himself.

     Time itself was proving to be both a cruel constraint and a generous tool and with its use he had collected more information about his cell mates in the past few days than in the countless weeks prior. Each day shedding new light on the ever-changing life outside prison walls; a unique assortment of tales converging to a point of inevitable capture and transport to the island of Endlosung. It was a hard reality to accept for most, but one that Tonem refused to. He could see the others submitting to a broken system; surrendering their will to fight, but he was different. Burning steadily within him was an inextinguishable ember of hope of a return to the free world, or at least the remains of it. Since day one of his arrival, Tonem had resolved to not allow his story to end on anyone's terms but his, he had sealed it with a promise.

     He unfurls his body with unsettling discontent. The raging tempest roaring outside does very little to relieve the encroaching feeling of defeat. The taunting storm proceeds as he revisits the day when everything changed, the day he was taken away.

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