8 A House of Pigs

Oink! Oink!

Wu Niu let the pig lick the blood off of his face, while simultaneously spitting out as much of the blood and muck coating the interior of his mouth.

-How disgusting.

Once licked clean, the pig lost interest in Wu Niu and waddled away.

"I thought we were friends, piggy."

Lifting his head off the ground, Wu Niu opened his eyes to observe his surroundings.

The shed was nearly pitch-dark, and Wu Niu struggled to see even three feet ahead of himself. It was undoubtedly at least partly due to his blurry vision, but then again, his eyes also hadn't yet fully adjusted to the darkness either.

Wu Niu had sustained injuries to both of his eyes. They rapidly dilated in and out, never focusing on wherever he was looking at the moment. Other than his eyes, his face was also damaged, nay ruined. It was going to be heavily scarred at least until his next body tempering breakthrough—assuming he ever lives long enough to have another one.

Wu Niu felt his hands uncomfortably and tightly secured behind his back. In between his fingertips, were clumps of squishy muck and straw strands.

The whole situation Wu Niu found himself in felt so surreal. Yet it was very much happening, and he could very much be dying soon if he sat around and waited for it. The thought of his impending fiery death sent adrenaline surging throughout his body.

-I need to escape soon, or I'll be burnt at the stake.

-But then why do I feel so…?

Wu Niu's lips curved into the slightest of smiles. Having noticed it, he began to question his psyche. For all these years that he had been alive, he hadn't even realized until just this very moment.

-Shouldn't I be afraid?

At the moment of this realization, a new and weird emotion swirled within Wu Niu. It was an odd sensation similar to fear, but not quite the same. It wasn't the first time he had felt a feeling like this, but he couldn't quite put a finger on when it was that he had last felt it.

Wu Niu had an intense sensation of adrenaline coursing through his veins, and a strong compulsion to act upon various nervous tics. As far as he knew, these were telltale signs of fear, at least in some capacity. However, whatever fear he was feeling was mundane in comparison to what he thought he should be feeling.

-Does this mean I am a demon?

Carefully reflecting on his memories, Wu Niu was almost certain he hadn't ever felt the feeling of fear. At least not in the way it was often described.

Wu Niu learned many things from his biology studies—including the mechanisms of emotion. Fear was a feeling described as having a debilitating effect on one's mind and body. It's said to cause a neurotic paranoia and quivering indecisive body movements.

-This must be the scariest situation I've ever been in… So then why do I feel so—

Trying desperately to recall the other times in his life that he felt this feeling, the memories suddenly came rolling back to Wu Niu.

—excited?

This wasn't the feeling of terror at all. It was more like what one feels while gambling large amounts of money over an intense game of Go.

Wu Niu desperately didn't want to die, but he wasn't afraid of that prospect. It was then he became aware of how jacked his perspective on life was. It was never about surviving; all he wanted was to win.

An insane smile spread across Wu Niu's face at the thought of how slim his prospects seemed.

-Am I a masochist?

"Focus!"

Steeling his mind of all disrupting thoughts, Wu Niu focused on the task at hand. He was going to escape from this cruel fate, even if it meant we would die soon after. He was committed to winning simply for the sake of winning.

Wu Niu sat forward and surveyed his immediate surroundings.

A drove of pigs laid closely packed together in the darkest corner of the room—their tight-knit formation left very little surface-area to walk. Where the pigs weren't resting, the floor was visibly covered in straw and feces. Some of which was now clinging to his back in putrid-smelling clumps.

-There has to be a way out of here.

Along the backwall of the shed, there were two light sources.

The first light source was a tiny opening at the top of the shed, specifically designed to provide light into the shed's interior. Beneath the tiny opening were vertically placed water-warped boards that comprised the backwall. One of the boards was warped further inward than the boards.

The area in between the notably warped board left room enough for Wu Niu to stick his fingers through, or maybe even a hand if he was lucky—or so he thought. He couldn't actually be too sure of how much open space there was because his blurry vision was causing him to see doubles.

-If I can get these bindings off, I might be able to rip that board out of the wall.

Slowly pulling himself to his feet, Wu Niu shook off as much as he could of the muck clinging to his back.

-Alright, let's find something sharp.

Nimbly stepping in betwixt the drove of relaxing pigs, Wu Niu desperately searched in the dark for anything sharp enough to cut through the ropes binding his hands.

Backing against the sidewall, Wu Niu frantically combed the wall for anything sharp. Finding nothing in that particular spot, he slid along the wall to another spot, mistakenly running a hand along the edge of something sharp.

"Ouch."

Blood seeped out from Wu Niu's newly cut palm down to his fingertips.

"Hmm…?"

Wu Niu tapped the surface of the unseen object, which in turn resonated with a distinctive sound.

-Is it Clay?