Elements

Behind Bars

For the past six years, I've woken up to the same three things: the smell of oatmeal, a guard ringing the breakfast bell in my ear, and my cell neighbour waving good morning to me. You know, normal kid things.

I roll over to look at the clock on the wall.

"What the hell Bert, it's only 7:00 A.M."

I say in disgust.

"You know how it is Raider, every third weekend of the month this place is open to the public. Now, you have till the count of five if you want your damm breakfast. I made sure I mixed in some extra ExoChyos in your oatmeal today. "

I get up and yank my tray out of his hands; while looking at him straight in the eye.

Being as snarky as I am, I say.

"What, are you afraid I'm going to kill somebody?"

The guard then opens my cell door and pulls out a pair of cuffs. He slaps one cuff on my wrist, and then drags me over to a hook on the cell wall. He slaps the other cuff to the hook. The chain is made so short; that all I can do is sit there.

"THIS IS WHERE YOUR ATTITUDE GETS YOU!"

He yells in my face.

He's just lucky that the ExoChyos is in my system. As it dulls the powers of any assassin. At times, it can make me even weaker than the average 12-year-old.

I can see my cell neighbour watching everything through the barred window that connects our cells. As the guard is walking down the hallway he pops closer to the window.

"Good morning."

He says.

I roll my eyes, and glare over at him.

"Shut up Noah. You're worse than damn Flanders sometimes."

He stops, rolls his eyes and snickers. He then turns a little, crosses his arms and says.

"At least I'm not cuffed up to a wall... How the hell do they get away with this?"

"They don't care about us. We're only still alive so they can make money. I mean they make a boatload off of each public day! Now, piss off before I get pissed off!"
I say as I chow down my oatmeal.

I've been locked up in this cell since I was six years old. One night, I was sleeping freely in my own bedroom. The next day, I'm stuck in an old jail cell and both my parents are dead.

This place has always been cold-hearted. I mean I'm only 12, 157.8 cm, and 43 kilos... but the guards have no problem throwing me around in here. Even after working out I can't defend myself. That's because of the ExoChyos though. They give me such a high dosage because I am believed to be an elite assassin. The first time they gave it to me, they had to knock me out using it in a gas form. After that they just kept slipping into my food every meal.... well when I get one.

I get very sassy, and disrespectful with the guards at times. When things get to that point, they take me up to the second floor. Up there, both hands are cuffed to a wall. You're stuck up there for as long as they want you to be. One time they forgot me up there. I was there nine, or ten hours I think. The ExoChyos wore off, so I was able to snap the chains off of the wall. When they saw me on the cameras all hell broke loose. Five guards tried to hold me down... none of them made it out without severe injuries. It took the others 10 gas bombs just to get the fire out of my eyes, and another 15 to put me to sleep. I could have killed those guards, but I didn't. I didn't want too for some reason.